Reader Deborah provides today’s tale of stupidity:

Once when I was on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya from Paris, France, I got up to stretch my legs and ended up in conversation with someone I knew from university. We glanced up to see our flight’s location on the television screen map, and my classmate, well in his 30s, said, “look, we’re passing over Ecuador.” I asked if he meant “the equator,” and he became a little standoffish and quickly returned to his seat. Perhaps I should preface this story by saying that we both attended an “international” university with multiple friends from the country of Ecuador.

Yikes. The equator, of course, does run through Ecuador, but that’s no excuse (particularly as a flight from Paris to Nairobi wouldn’t cross South America!). The equator also passes through:

• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Gabon
• the Republic of the Congo, not to be confused with…
• the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Uganda
• Kenya
• Somalia
• the Maldives (although itmisses every island, passing between Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll and Gnaviyani Atoll)
• Indonesia
• Kiribati (again, it misses every island, passing between Aranuka and Nonouti Atolls in the Gilbert Islands)
• Colombia
• Brazil

Despite its name, Equatorial Guinea is not crossed by the equator.