Dear Answer Girl,
I am not satisfied with either the Democratic or Republican parties’ viewpoints. What can you tell me about the various third-party views?
-Unsure in 2004Absolutely nothing. You see, discussing such sensitive and un-patriotic matters as these would subject me to immediate red-flagging under the Patriot Act, Section 236, Part ZZ, Lines 4, 5 and 16 that read as follows: “Any so-called citizen expressing political views deviating from the majority-mandated norm is subject to immediate red-flagging, thus losing all rights and privileges due to real citizens, including the right to free speech, the right to vote and the right to regularly exceed the FDA suggested serving size on all packaged food products.”
See, I would really like to tell you … but I just can’t. I’m sure you understand.
But let me warn you that you have probably been pink-flagged for writing this question. Keep a close eye on your phone line, your Internet connection, and any small portable items that you carry on a daily basis, as they may be wired at a moment of complete oblivion – most likely while you are sleeping or watching TV.

Dear Answer Girl,
How do you find a boat’s speed in knots?
-Naut I., Cal.

It’s quite simple, really. A knot equals one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is a measure of distance in water.
This is different than a statute mile, which is a land mile; if you were going to go “run a mile,” you are referring to a statute mile.
If you are going to “swim a mile,” you are probably still referring to a land mile because most people don’t say “mile” when they mean “nautical mile.” But if you say you are going to “swim a nautical mile,” then you mean that you are going to swim the equivalent of roughly 1.15 statute miles (one nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles, roughly). You would almost never say “swim a nautical mile,” though, because nautical miles are really only used by people in boats or similar watercraft, and even then, when you are close to the shoreline, it is proper to say “mile” as opposed to “nautical mile.”
So, I guess you can say nautical mile if you want to, whenever you want to, but if you want to speak proper boat lingo, then you shouldn’t say it at all unless you are offshore a little ways. Even then, you should probably never say it in reference to swimming unless you want to be tossed in to give it a try.
Oh, back to the question, a nautical mile is the same as 1/60 of a degree OR one minute of latitude.
That actually doesn’t answer the question, but it’s interesting anyway. So here, the real answer: to find a boat’s speed in knots, look at the boat’s speedometer.

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