At the risk you thinking less of me, I think you've missed the point entirely about "counting countries." I mean, clearly this guy did it for the achievement (a

At the risk you thinking less of me, I think you've missed the point entirely about "counting countries." I mean, clearly this guy did it for the achievement (and hell, that's tough to do--kudos to him), but I think saying how many countries you've been to is entirely acceptable and gentlemanly--it's communicating about your general experiences. It's a way to communicate how much of the world you've seen--it's a starting point for a conversation. I've never seen it come up in context of, "I've been to 73 countries!" and then that ended the conversation. Even here, the fact that he's finishing up this remarkable achievement is used as a launching point to discuss some of the neat aspects of his journey. This place is getting more curmudgeonly every day.