Actually the question I was asked was how cold does Maine get in the winter. But I didn’t want to answer that.
The story was I was chief mate and was taking a break in the lounge flipping through a magazine and having a cup of coffee. The third mate who had just joined that day came in and asked me where I was from. A little too forward for a freshly joined 3/M maybe. But I told him I was from Maine. His next question was how cold does it get there in the winter?
OK, so now I sense a trap, looking for a pissing contest? So rather than going for coldest ever I deflect with the 20F “typical winter day”. Sure enough he comes back with he lives in Russia. But he’s from California so he doesn’t know his winter temps in Fahrenheit ! Goofy.
He did turn out to be a real PIA. We had no end of problems with him.