stolen stats and flippant commentary

now that i'm home again, i suddenly have all this time to catch up on my reading. (if you're wondering about the irony in that statement, well, so am i...) so here a few interesting facts from the Harper's Index from April 2006--and, of course, my two cents thereto:

Number of tunnels that have been discovered under the U.S.-Mexico border since 2001: 34
Number under the U.S.-Canada border: 1
(now really, people, do you think the Canadians are trying to sneak into the U.S., or are the Americans trying to get out!?!?)

Percentage of Canadians who say that immigrants are a "good influence" on their nation: 77
Percentage of Americans and Germans, respectively, who say this: 49, 35

can we talk about that?!?!?! i guess we don't really need to. the numbers speak for themselves...

oh, and a word about the swiss and art fair. so the running theme during my brief stay in the country flowing with alpine milk and chocolate was how rude people are there. obviously, this is not true of everyone, and is really more typically true of cities than of countries, which is probably what was going on, but whatever. one of the places this was recurringly evidenced was on the buses. or perhaps more specifically, getting ONTO the buses. we were repeatedly shoved aside or smacked with large (and small!) bags, shoved some more, harassed by bus drivers, etc. and simone kept saying that this would never happen in ann arbor, citing the art fair shuttle buses as an example, because supposedly the people just line up, like literally and very britishly queue up, forming a single file line, waiting to get on the shuttle buses. to be honest, i was a bit skeptical. i mean, i KNOW art fair. and it was a little hard for me to believe that the same middle-aged, not so naturally blonde women with knock-off chanel sunglasses and their cute little visors, who nearly kill each other trying to pick up their venti extra whip mocha frappuccinos light, wouldn't shove a little getting onto a bus. BUT as i was wandering around the art fair yesterday afternoon--since, thanks to my work schedule, that was the only chance i'd get to look around--what did i see, but two perfectly patient, completely shove-free lines of people filing into the shuttle buses. i actually did a double-take. then just stood there for a minute staring blatantly, unable to believe what i was seeing. gaping at this--i still maintain, unusual--act of selflessness on the part of this particular portion of the some 500,000 people from across the nation, who are reported to show up at this ann arbor event. the fun part is going to be trying to hold onto that mental picture all afternoon, while i'm slaving away at the blenders... wish me luck!! (really, i haven't lived in ann arbor long enough to be this jaded about art fair... or have i??) =)

p.s. try googling "art on a stick"... but you didn't hear that here.