Dorkulate With Steve

Here are some statistics for the Year 1909, 100 years ago:

The average life expectancy was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the  Eiffel Tower.

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION.

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The five leading causes of death: pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease, stroke.

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of  Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.A. 

95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909.

There’s a new report out from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the economic impact of the Recovery Act. I’ll get to the findings in a second, but somebody over at the Wall St. Journal’s editorial page has a whole lot of explaining to do.

Here what CBO found:

Between its inception in February of this year and the end of September, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has:

• Saved or Created up to 1.6 Million Jobs (midpoint estimate: 1.1 million)
• Added up to 3.2% to the Growth of Real GDP (midpoint estimate: 2.2%)
• Reduced the Unemployment Rate by as Much as 0.9 Percentage Points (midpoint estimate: 0.6 ppt)

So, how does this square with lines like these from Journal editorials?

“No matter how hard or imaginatively the administration spins, the reality is that the stimulus has been the economic bust that critics predicted it would be.” –November 19, 2009

“…the largest obstacle to turning this recovery into a durable expansion is now the very ‘stimulus’ programs that were sold as a way to ensure recovery.” –October 30, 2009

“We aren’t getting much bang for our $787 billion stimulus bucks.” –November 25, 2009

“It’s hard to imagine a more complete repudiation of Keynesian stimulus than the evidence of the last year’s job market.” –November 7, 2009

“[The Recovery Act has not] made even the smallest dent in employment.” –November 7, 2009

“The White House says the stimulus created as many as one million new jobs, but this is single-entry economic bookkeeping.” –November 7, 2009

Read on…

ladimcbeth:

chriscantwell:

I had this discussion two nights ago with Elizabeth, trying to figure out what people are called when they hail from certain cities. Some are obvious:

New Yorkers

Los Angelenos

Chicagoans

Some seem naturally easy to figure out:

Portlanders

San Franciscans

Austinians

Dallasites

But then it gets pretty tricky:

Albany = …Albanians?

Des Moines = Des Moinesers? Is the S pronounced in this variation?

Atlanta = Atlanteans?

Seattle could be Seattlers, or Seattleans, or Seattelites, which sounds like Satellites.

And then there’s near-impossible:

Oklahoma City = ??????

This goes for any city with “City” in its name. Is it BLANK City-Dwellers?

Is there a comprehensive and definitive list I can find somewhere?

People from Atlanta call themselves “Atlantans”. No e.

A better question might be, after the top three you mentioned, does anyplace else matter anyway?