Mercator projection

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Does anyone else feel the same absurdly intense frustration as I do when they see maps in Mercator projection?
As much as I try, I can't find any rational justification for its overwhelmingly widespread use.
There are some awesome equal-area map projections out there.
I'm tired of having to teach people that Greenland is NOT the size of Africa...

Actually I like the Mercator. It's the equal area map that bothers me.

OK you have my full attention Sedentarian! What do you like about the Mercator projection? And is it the shape distortion of equal area maps that bothers you? If you can help me accept the Mercator for its own merits then I will be very grateful!
My opinion is that, since you can never preserve the shape of countries on a map, you may as well achieve some level of accuracy. And an equal area map does that for me.

The Mercator Project is my axe to grind as well.

However the projection called "the Equal Area Projection" that was touted some years back does have aesthetic problems. Thats the projection in which all of the continents of the Northern Hemisphere look like enlongated wet laundry hanging to dry from the Arctic Circle.

But there are other projections which are fairly accurate in area representation that look better.

Dont know the name of the projection but there is one that has good area representation: Greenland looks equal in size to Mexico, and only a tiny fraction of the size of South America (reality) instead of Greenland being equal in size to all of South America ( as it appears in the Mercator projection). But the continents look nice. In fact there is an added bonus: the continents kinda look like theyre in motion- like they are all pieces of shrapnel exploding off of Africa- which is what they are- all former pieces of Pangea.

Doctors Without Borders sent something in the mail that included a little world map in that projection. The following year they sent another fundraising thing that also had a world map- but in the dumb old mercator projection. It pissed me off! They had it right the first time.

I picked evil - it was useful for navigation in the old days, the entire reason for it being created (it was not created to cause oppression but for its accuracy in sailing and use with a sextant & compass) but using it as a teaching tool anymore is just wrong and lazy.

The peters is really the best map to use if you are going to use a flat map (and a flat map is far cheaper to print than a globe - plus you can't carry one in your pocket)