AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS!

How to Count America...

Greetings, Patriots...
     So, what is an average American, anyway?  Years ago, I
worked with a woman from Israel who told about her arrival in
America by ship.  She said that when she saw a tall blond Coast
Guard officer in his white uniform, then she knew she was in
America because he "looked like an American."  I wonder where she
would have thought she was if that officer had been Italian-
American.  Or, perhaps, Chinese-American.
     It is harder than ever to find a definite image of what an
American 'should' look like.  Harrison Ford, Al Pacino and James
Earl Jones are all unmistakably American, and also, as completely
different in appearance as it is possible to be.  It's just as
difficult to settle on what is an American name.  Is John or
Laura more American than Julio or Ingrid?  Or, Mustafa, Hong or
Fumiko, for that matter?
     This is the time of year when politicians talk about
returning to "traditional American values" as if they understand
what that means.  When Thomas Jefferson and the framers of the
Constitution wrote about "all men are created equal," everyone at
the time understood that it meant only "white males who own
property."  The idea that we DON'T read the words that way is
about the only traditional value that is really American; that it
is possible for a political system to be flexible enough to adapt
to change without falling apart into warring factions.  In many
frustrating ways, America isn't always what it should be, with
stumbling blocks like bureaucracy, prejudice and stupidity.  But
the American experiment in democracy has been successful enough
that people around the world have used it as a model for how a
government can be run.
     Thanks and greeting this week to our friends and
contributors from all over the world, especially:  Jerry Taff,
Citizen Larua Hong Li, Caterina Sukup, Kerry Miller, Howard
Lesniak, Kiyomi Kanazawa, Nnamdi Elleh, Tomoko Naito, Beth
Butler, Fumiko Umino, Sylvia Libin He, Brian Siegl, Yasmin and
Meredith Leischer and Larry Sakar.  Happy 4th of July all,
wherever you are, and never accept the average as all that can
ever be.
     Have a Great Week,


--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME?
---------------------------
     The hot political news this week is the success of Texas
Governor George W. Bush (the Ex-president's son) and his amazing
money machine.  Bush the Younger has pulled in so much money in
contributions that he is considering doing without Federal
matching funds, which would mean that his campaign would have few 
restrictions in it's money raising efforts.  This at the same
time that former Vice-President Dan Quayle's election committee
announced that anyone contributing $210 or more would get a free
T-shirt.
     But the rather thin-skinned Governor was upset this week
that a parody of his campaign web site is getting more web
traffic than his real site.  Zack Exley of Somerville,
Massachusetts said that his humorous "Bush campaign" website 
(www.gwbush.com) got over 6.5 million hits in May.  The official,
but boring, www.georgewbush.com site got only 30,000 hits in the
same period.
     "We're aware of the site, and this guy is just a garbage
man," Bush complained at a press conference.  "There ought to be
limits to freedom," he said.  (AP)
          [ "There ought to be a limit to freedom." 
          Now THERE'S a campaign slogan... ]


--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

ONE MORE EXPERT OPINION...
-----------------------
     "I cannot conceive of anything more ridiculous, more
     absurd, & more affrontive to sober judgment than the
     cry that we are profiting by the acquisition of New
     Mexico and California. I hold that they are not worth a
     dollar." 
                            - U. S. Senator Daniel Webster, 1848 

--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

SO, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "AVERAGE?"
---------------------------------

   - Thirty-six percent of adult Americans have had cold pizza
     for breakfast within the past month.  Another 29% start off
     the day with soft drinks while eight percent begin the day
     with cookies.  Only 11 percent of families eat breakfast
     together daily.


   - The average American ate 22 pounds of salty snacks in 1994,
     up from 17.5 pounds in 1988.


   - 9% of women and 8% of men have had cosmetic surgery.


   - The two-thirds of Americans who eat cold cereal daily will
     eat about 11.9 pounds of breakfast cereal per year.


   - Three percent of the 100 million ties sold in the US each
     year are bow ties.  [ A statistical measure of the "nerd
     factor" ]


   - America's favorite vegetable?  It's broccoli according to a
     recent survey with corn a close second.  Least favorite was
     Brussels sprouts.


   - Only 37% of Americans claim to know how to use all the
     features on their VCR.  [ These are the ones that wear bow
     ties. ]


   - Americans spend five BILLION dollars a year on gifts for
     their pets.  Aside from dogs and cats, some 40% of birds and
     48% of hamsters are on gift lists.


   - Over 55,000 Americans are injured each year by jewelry.


   - The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year.


   - One quarter of Americans have appeared on television.


   - 86% of American Women shave their legs regularly.  
     [ Especially those that appear on television. ]


   - American men do 29% of laundry each week, but only 7% of
     women trust their husbands to do it correctly.


   - 40% of American women have hurled footwear at a man.  I
     couldn't find a valid number on how many men had thrown it
     back.


   - 85% of U.S. residents will eat Spam this year.


   - Over one-fifth of Americans don't make our bed daily.  5% of
     us never make the bed.


   - The average bra size in America today is 36C, but experts
     say that 85% of American women wear the wrong bra size.


   - Half of American movie goers admit they regularly sneak food
     into theaters to avoid the high price of snack foods.


   - 13% of Americans have spent a night in jail.


   - Almost 60% of the American work force has called in sick
     when they weren't.


   - 35% of Americans give to charity at least once a month.


   - The most popular candy bar in the US is Snickers.


   - 69% eat the cake before the frosting.


   - 70% of us drink orange juice daily.


   - You want fries with that?  22% of all American restaurant
     meals include French fries.


   - 22% of us skip lunch daily, but only 9% of us skip
     breakfast.


   - On an average day, Americans eat a total of 18 acres (72,846
     square meters) of pizza.


   - 45% of Americans use mouthwash every day.


   - The typical American showers at 101 degrees F. (38 C)


   - Nearly 1/3 of US women color their hair.


   - 39% of us peek in our host's bathroom cabinet and 17% have
     been caught by their hosts.  [ We may be just trying to see
     if they color their hair. ]


   - Over one-half of American women will not leave the house
     without makeup on.


   - One-fifth of us have played in a band at least once in our
     life and 40% of us have had music lessons.


   - 90% of Americans depend on an alarm clock to wake up.


   - The average American sends 38 Christmas cards every year.


   - It's not like the movies: only 1 in 5 men proposed marriage
     on his knees.  6% propose over the phone.  [ Who says
     Americans aren't romantic? ]


--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

ONE CRAZY PLACE...
---------------
     Is living in America making you crazy?  One recent study
suggests that it might be bad for your mental health.  
     The study looked at the lives of recent Mexican immigrants
and Mexican-Americans.   Researchers found that the incidence of
mental problems rises the longer the immigrants stay in the U.S.
     "Mexicans come to this country with some kind of natural
protection against mental disorder, and that breaks down very
quickly in American society," said William Vega, the professor of
public health at the University of California-Berkeley who
conducted the study.
     The numbers seem to indicate that U.S.-born Mexican-
Americans have about the same rate of mental disorders as non-
Hispanics.  But recent immigrants and Mexican nationals had about
half that rate of problems, which Vega believes might reflect the
traditional family support structure in Mexican society. 
(Reuters)


--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

A SUMMARY OF THE WORLD
----------------------
     If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of
just 100 people, it would look like this:

   - There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western
     Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans.

   - 51 would be female; 49 would be male 

   - 30 would be white.

   - Half of the total wealth would be in the hands of just 6
     people.  All 6 would be U.S. citizens.

   - 80 would live in substandard housing. 

   - 1 would be near death and 1 would be newborn.

   - 70 would be unable to read.

   - One-third would be Christian. 

   - 50 would suffer from malnutrition. 

   - Only 1 would have a college education.

   - No one would own a computer

     When you consider the world from this compressed
perspective, the need for both tolerance and understanding
becomes even more apparent.


--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - PART 2?
--------------------------------
     Just over two hundred and twenty years ago, Americans fought
a long war for independence against Great Britain.  We have been
pretty successful in that time at making a go of things, which
must have attracted the attention of the original owners.  At the
same time our economy is flying along, Great Britain is still in
the financial doldrums.  Not all Britons are that happy about
joining the European Union, either.  Considering what has
happened with the new Euro currency in the past six months, they
might not be wrong in being a little skeptical.
     Which might be the inspiration for several recent articles
in British newspapers proposing that Britain join the U.S.
instead of the European Union.  One of the articles gave twenty
reasons why Britain would be better off as part of the U.S.
     The Sun tabloid even claimed that former British Prime
Minister Harold Wilson held secret talks with U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson in the 1960's about Britain becoming America's
fifty-first state.  Sir Trevor Lloyd-Hughes, one of Wilson's
former press secretaries, said recently that the talks took place
in 1967-68.  Another of Wilson's aides says he never heard any
mention of the idea, but it still received widespread coverage in
England.
     Among the reasons given for joining the U.S. were lower
unemployment, higher pay rates, falling crime rates, and local
phone calls are often free.
     Viagra is more readily available in the States, and
everything from petrol (gasoline) to designer clothes are
cheaper, the Sun continued.
     Also, the Sun said, "you can understand Hollywood films.
Well, most of them. You need a degree in deep navel contemplation
to understand an arty European movie."  (Reuters)
          [ OK, if they want in, I'm all for it.  But
          they'll have to pay for the privilege:  No
          Representation Without Taxation. ]

--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--