Apartment rents in several big, and expensive, US cities have plummeted over the past year. New York (-17%), San Francisco (-23.4%), Boston (-15.9%), and Seattle (-12.2%)
Source: Apartment List via GlobeSt.com
High speed internet access is not available to everyone in the United States. Here are the states with the highest and lowest rates of connectivity (Source – Rotary Magazine):
Most Connected
1. New Jersey
2. New York
3. Maryland
4. Rhode Island
5. Florida
Least Connected
46. Vermont
47. Nebraska
48. New Mexico
49. Montana
50. Alaska
11% of US households were food insecure before COVID-19 outbreak; by late April, within 1 month of the start of lockdowns, the rate had doubled to 22.7% – Source: November, 2020 issue of Rotary Magazine
State Senators in North Carolina receive a salary of $13,951 a year.
Source: Ballotpedia
Today I learned that the team currently known as the Boston Red Sox was originally known at the Boston Americans. From the 1901-1907 seasons they were the Americans and from 1908 to today they have been the Red Sox. Oh, and some dude named Cy Young was their best player for most of those years. You may have heard of him.
Source: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/index.shtml
Ever wonder where the name “bonfire” comes from? Me either, but it ends up it is interesting.
Bonfires are typically associated with celebrations, backyard burnings, and toasting marshmallows, and although these are all good things, the bon in bonfire isn’t related to the French for “good.” Instead, bonfire actually stems from the Middle English bonefire, literally referring to a fire of bones.
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-secret-history-of-bonfire
Want to put your money to work, literally? Try this:
A dollar bill is 6.14 inches long so if you need to measure something and don’t have a ruler or measuring tape handy, just keep in mind that the dollar bill in your wallet/purse/pocket is about 6 inches long so you can use it as a rough measuring tool in a pinch.
Adding a new category to this ancient blog: One New Thing. It’s based on the “you learn something new every day” theory, which I’ve found to be true and I thought to myself, “Self, you should start writing this crap down.” Here’s today’s one new thing (1NT):
You don’t have to be a judge, or even a lawyer, to be a Supreme Court Justice. From the Supreme Court’s FAQ page:
The Constitution does not specify qualifications for Justices such as age, education, profession, or native-born citizenship. A Justice does not have to be a lawyer or a law school graduate, but all Justices have been trained in the law. Many of the 18th and 19th century Justices studied law under a mentor because there were few law schools in the country.
Five random facts for Friday:
The longest human tooth ever extracted (as of 2019) was 1.46 inches (3.72 centimeters) long. – Guinness Book of World Records via The Mirror
“Belva Lockwood lobbied Congress on three separate occasions to change the U.S. Supreme Court admissions rules to allow a woman to argue before the court. Her efforts succeeded. Lockwood was sworn in as the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar on March 3, 1879. Late in 1880, she became the first woman lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.” Wikipedia
The fastest time to eat 60 Krispy Kreme doughnuts: 9 minutes, 17.28 seconds. It happened in Hartford, CT on December 28, 2012 and you can see video if you click the link. – RecordSetter
Canada’s population in 2019: 37.4 million. California’s population in 2019: 37.25 million. Tokyo, Japan’s population in 2019: 37.4 million – Population Pyramid and US Census and WorldAtlas
President Lincoln is in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. He lost only one match of the 300 he participated in. – Insider
Five random facts for Friday, published on Saturday this time:
The first United States Open Tennis Championships (U.S. Open) was played in 1881. From 1881-1974 the playing surface was grass; from 1975-1977 it was clay; since 1978 it has been hard-court. – Britannica
President Trump was born on June 14, 1946. Just about five months earlier, on January 10, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time in London. And about six months after he was born, on December 12, the UN accepted six Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr., heir to the Standard Oil fortune and one of the largest real estate holders in New York who was known for his philanthropic work that was successfully done without breaking the law. On This Day
On August 28, 1830 the first American built locomotive, “Tom Thumb” raced a horse-drawn carriage from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills. Due to mechanical problems the horse won. – On This Day
Besides the Bible and Mao’s Little Red Book, the best selling book of all time is Don Quixote, followed by A Tale of Two Cities and then The Lord of the Rings. – WorldAtlas
The world’s longest road bridge is the 34-mile long Bang Na expressway in Thailand. It’s a six-lane elevated highway that only crosses a little water – the Bang Pakong River, and required 1,800,000 cubic meters of concrete to construct. – LiveScience
Befuddled 