Where Was That Again?

Until reading Ben McGrath's profile of Scott Boras in the October 29 New Yorker, I had always thought of Saul Steinberg's cartoon map of the world as merely whimsical. Apparently, though, New Yorkers really do have distorted views of the geography of the rest of the world. How else to account for McGrath's descriptions of Stockton, CA, 83 miles away from San Francisco, with Oakland and Mount Diablo between them, as "just outside of San Francisco," and of Boras's headquarters as being "just off the Pacific Coast Highway, in the shadow of John Wayne Airport?" John Wayne airport must cast a long shadow, being no nearer than three miles from the PCH. It's ironic that these descriptions appear in an article that emphasizes Boras's tendency to stretch the truth.