One thing that intrigued me no end was the shape of pre-WWII Germany. Those two big arms sticking out toward the east. It just wasn't the way the real Germany was supposed to look, I thought. It was just plain weird. Even stranger to me were old maps of California, in which the immutable (or so I thought it should be) straight-line border with Nevada was gone, and in its place an irregular meander that followed the trail of mountain peaks. It was as if I was looking into another world.