Friday / Weekend Open Lines


Friday, September 18th. Early this month in 1914, the last known remaining member of a bird species some thought to have been the most abundant on Earth passed away. The death of the 29-year-old female passenger pigeon named Martha marked the extinction of the species that once covered North America with enormous flocks. Deforestation and extensive hunting reduced the flocks greatly by the second half of the 19th century, and the decline could not be reversed. Martha died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo, and her preserved remains were displayed for many years at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. We are now more devoted to conserving and preserving. In the U.S., there are over 600 zoos and botanical gardens, and over 5,000 museums. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>

Saturday, September 19th. One of our favorite foods is being celebrated — it’s National Chicken Month, nicely complementing September’s Mushroom Month and Rice Month. The versatility of chicken — served in numerous ways ranging from Southern fried style to sandwiches to salads — drives a demand that has reached over 40 million pounds a year in the U.S. alone. This is more than double the broiler production in 1990. Americans eat about 90 pounds of chicken per capita annually, almost 43 percent of the combined consumption of red meat, pork and poultry. Georgia is the top producer — followed by Arkansas and Alabama. The result is certainly not chicken feed but a $61 billion a year industry. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.

Sunday, September 20th. We pretty much take for granted that the municipal water that comes out of the faucets in our homes is safe to drink. But getting to that point was a major advance for civilization and health. The nation’s first water filtration system began operating on this date in 1893 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The system was a nearly three-acre sand filter, which trapped typhoid fever-causing bacteria from water piped from the polluted Merrimack River. In the four years after the filter was in operation, the town’s death rate from typhoid fever had fallen almost 78 percent from what it was in the four years preceding filtration. For those taking no chances, bottled water manufacturing is a $7.3 billion a year business in the U.S. today. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.