Friday / Weekend Open Lines


Friday, May 6th. This is National Nurses Day, the start of National Nurses Week. It’s an occasion established to honor the outstanding efforts of nurses in helping to keep Americans healthy. The observance ends next Thursday, the birthday in 1820 of Florence Nightingale, who established the world’s first nursing school in England in the 19th century. In the U.S., there were some 12,000 registered nurses by 1900. Today, that figure is some 2.75 million, with median annual earnings of nearly $67,000. As their numbers have grown, so have nurses’ responsibilities, keeping up with increasingly complex medical technology. They not only work in the nation’s 5,400 hospitals but also are on duty in more than 82,000 nursing homes and residential care facilities across the country. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Saturday, May 7th. National Pet Week ends today, and Be Kind to Animals Week winds up tomorrow. While pets are a source of companionship, many dogs provide protection and act as eyes for the blind. Less is expected of cats, who deign to keep humans around as household staff. Dogs are found in nearly 45 percent of U.S. homes, cats in about one-third. Those favoring cats usually have more of them, thus there are 86 million household cats versus 78 million dogs. Among other companion animals, we have over 8 million birds, 3.2 million rabbits, and 1.1 million lizards. Animal food manufacturing is a nearly $60 billion a year business in the U.S. for some 1,675 establishments. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.

Sunday, May 8th. Today is Mother’s Day — one of the nation’s most revered national observances, with meaning beyond flowers, cards, and brunches. The idea started in 1908 with Anna Jarvis of West Virginia to honor her deceased mother — who had hoped that there would come a day to commemorate all mothers. By 1911, every state observed Mother’s Day, and in 1914, Congress made it a national event. It’s estimated there are upwards of 43 million mothers across the U.S. between ages 15 and 50. In recent years, annual births total around 3.9 million babies. The national mean age of women giving birth for the first time is 26 years. In 1970, the average age of first-time mothers was just under 21½ years. Profile America is beginning its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.