20 years ago I asked the waiter in a restaurant about green peppercorns. It was the first time I had ever seen them. Before answering, he delicately asked if I had ever heard of Madagasgar (the place most of them come from). He assured me it was a common question and that most who asked had never heard of Madagascar or Zanzibar. We suck at geography. And history and math and civics, etc.