Running Numbers

A scholarly look at the digits that matter.

by Nick Norlen

2,341 Number of deer-related crashes, including nine fatalities, reported by PennDOT in Pennsylvania in 2005, according to AAA's Mid-Atlantic press release, "Deer Looking for Love Pose Deadly Risks to Motorists." AAA reminds you to be wary of the increase in deer activity brought on by mating season, which started this month and runs through December. Sorry, heroin, you're not the only killer in Bucks County.

194-1 Tally of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives vote approving the Lobbyist Disclosure bill, passed despite a clerical error late Oct. 23. The bill was "corrected" and unanimously approved during a special Senate session Friday. Running Numbers salutes you, lone and diligent dissenter, Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166, who in June issued a press release regarding the old version of the bill passed this summer: "It's not real reform. It's political cover, and that's what the public should see it as." Oh, admit it, Vitali, you're just trying to hide all those kickbacks you've been getting from anti-corruption special interest groups.

100 Number of books to be read by groups of students in the 100 Book Challenge program, founded by Philadelphia's Jane Hileman, keynote speaker for the Fifth Annual Social Venture Institute Conference Nov. 3-4 at Penn's Wharton School. The event is intended to "build a more socially, environmentally and financially sustainable economy in the Greater Philadelphia region" by bringing together "social entrepreneurs" like Hileman, whose American Reading Company has held literacy programs for more than 250,000 students. "Social entrepreneurs?" That sounds like PC code for hobos. Is this a hobo conference? It is now!

$72 Monthly savings, "under current prices and typical winter usage," that natural gas customers could see this season, compared with last winter, as projected by PECO in its "Winter Outlook 2006-07." According to the "energy saving tips" in PECO's online gas brochure, customers should "set thermostats at 68 degrees and reduce temperature settings when no one is home, or during overnight hours." Apparently my dad authors PECO brochures now. So... cold....

50 Number of something celebrated by "Jerry" Oct. 25, as indicated by the Cira Centre's vertically moving display of "Happy 50 Jerry." Jerry who?! Fifty what?! This lack of specificity will not stand! Sorry, Cira, but when it comes to my source for natty gas and skyscraper-based light grid information scrolls, PECO delivers.