Category: Statistics

Statistics Saturday: Apollo Astronauts who are also former producers of The $1.98 Beauty Show


As requested by Garrison!

  • Gordon Cooper [ Apollo 10 backup; producer, 1979-80 season ]
  • Bill Anders [ Apollo 8 prime crew; associate producer, 2012 mini-webisodes revival (three episodes out of the four produced) ]
  • Chuck Barris [ snuck aboard Apollo 15 as part of the stamp cover scandal; executive producer, full 1978-80 run of original show ]

Reference: Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, Tom Shachtman.

Statistics Saturday: Some British Spellings


  • colour
  • glamour
  • sacked
  • popcourn
  • web brouseur
  • fourty
  • gaolatin
  • newspapre
  • forego
  • Naency
  • flavour
  • manikin
  • Aengland

Reference: We Freeze to Please: A History of NASA’s Icing Research Tunnel and the Quest for Safety, William M Leary.

Statistics Saturday: Visible Comets Of My Lifetime


  1. Hale-Bopp
  2. Hyakutake
  3. That comet in the opening credits of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where if you freeze at just the right second the comet particles make up Spock’s face
  4. …
  5. Fine, NEOWISE, then
  6. …
  7. …
  8. …
  9. …
  10. …
  11. …
  12. …
  13. …
  14. Kohoutek
  15. …
  16. …
  17. …
  18. …
  19. …
  20. …
  21. …
  22. …
  23. …
  24. …
  25. …
  26. …
  27. …
  28. …
  29. …
  30. …
  31. …
  32. …
  33. …
  34. …
  35. …
  36. …
  37. …
  38. …
  39. …
  40. …
  41. …
  42. …
  43. …
  44. …
  45. …
  46. …
  47. …
  48. …
  49. …
  50. Halley

Not listed: West, because everyone was so embarrassed by Kohoutek we just pretended we didn’t see it even when we did.

Reference: A History of Modern France, Volume 1: 1715 – 1799, Alfred Cobban.

Statistics Saturday: Apollo Astronauts who are also former members of The Association


  • (To date none, although I’ll bet Apollo 13’s Jim Lovell has hummed “Cherish” at least once in the shower within the last 45 days.)

Reference: Telephone: The First Hundred Years, John Brooks.

(Has this got it out of my system yet? Oh, wouldn’t we all like to think it has? )

Statistics Saturday: My Eyes, In Photographs


My Eyes, in Photographs: Pie chart nearly wholly divided between 'drooped closed like I accidentally took all the melatonin' and 'bugged out like I'm playing a Klingon on Next Generation'; a tiny slice is 'looking like any kind of normal person's'.
Not pictured: that thing where I tilt my head because somewhere I got the idea that looks natural or candid or not extremely weird?

Reference: Planets and Perception: Telescopic Views and Interpretations, 1609 – 1909, William Sheehan.

Statistics Saturday: Astronomers’ Names for Modern Discoveries


About half: 2019RGGCr+118350(15-f)_iij B; almost all the rest: Lesser Great Space Blob; a tiny sliver: The Weft of Deepest Time.
Not depicted: names drawn from the cosmology of the people native to the land the astronomers built their telescope on.

Reference: The Story Of Brick: The Permanence, Beauty, and Economy of the Face Brick House, American Face Brick Association.

Statistics Saturday: King Kong, Perception vs Reality


King Kong perception: Tiny sliver: boring stuff in 30s nasal voices. Good-size wedge: Fay Wray tied to that giant wall. Enormous wedge: King Kong fighting airplanes atop the Empire State Building. Good-size wedge: Twas Beauty killed the Beast. King Kong Reality: one-third of the pie, 'OK the *characters* are racist but the *move* presents the Islands acting sensibly with respect and even sympathy for their needs and ... oh yeah, the Ship's Cook. Oof.' Nearly all the rest: 'King Kong fighting dinosaurs! Lots and lots of freaking dinosaurs!' Tiny wedge: 'Empire State Building, airplanes, Twas Beauty, Etc.'
Not pictured: that guy who falls in love with Fay Wray’s character and I guess she loves him back because even as you stare at him you focus on all the people with personalities around him.

Reference: Something New Under the Sun: satellites and the beginning of the Space Age, Helen Gavaghan. Bonus fun fact according to Gavaghan: for a while in the mid-50s rocket designers talked about something that could launch to earth orbit as an “LP rocket”.

Statistics Saturday: Days Of The Week The CBS Sunday Night Movie Has Been On


Day of Week Has Hosted the CBS Sunday Night movie?
Sunday Yes (1986-2006, 2020)
Monday No
Tuesday Yes (1972-74, 1986-2000)
Wednesday Yes (1977-81, 1986-2000)
Thursday Yes (1965-75)
Friday Yes (1966-77)
Saturday Yes (1981-86)

Not listed: the CBS Late Movie (1972-89) as it aired outside prime time and I didn’t want to list it.

Reference: Fantasia Mathematica, Clifton Fadiman, Editor.

Statistics Saturday: The Doors You Have


Pie chart of doors; about half of them are cabinet doors. A quarter each are car doors and, you know, DOOR doors. Smaller slices are refrigerator doors, oven doors, and the garage door. One slice is that weird door for the storage space that's too much effort to use. A tiny slice is door prizes.
Not listed: the door of that onetime post-office-box that you got and use as a coin bank because you haven’t even thought of that one since we stopped using cash back the 16th of March.

Garage doors listed by area, not necessarily count.

Reference: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Lutz D Schmadel.

Statistics Saturday: The Boxes You Have


Pie chart showing the boxes you have. About 25% of them: too small. Another 25%: too big. About 40% are somehow both too big and too small. The small wedge of the remainder is partly chewed up by something.
Not pictured: having the box but not even the slightest piece of packing tape to close it up; and having this weird three-foot-long triangular box that’s the right size and shape for mailing a kite in, just in case you need to mail a kite somewhere.

Reference: Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard Hinckley Allen.

Statistics Saturday: The Phonetic Alphabet (Simplified)


Letter Phonetic Alphabet (Simplified) Representation
A Aaaay
B Baaay
C Saaay
D Daaay
E Eaaay
F Faaay
G Gaaay
H Haaay
I Iaaay
J Jaaay
K Kaaay
L Laaay
M Maaay
N Naaay
O Oaaay
P Paaay
Q Quaay [ pronounced “keey” ]
R Raaay
S Saaay
T Taaay
U Uaaay
V Vaaay
W UUaay
X Xaaay
Y Yaaay
Z Zaaay [ “zeday” outside the United States ]

Reference: Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett, Simon Louvish.

Statistics Saturday: The Phonetic Alphabet


Letter Phonetic Alphabet Representation
A Able
B Baker
C Chewie
D Doorbell
E Exsanguinate
F Fluorocarbon
G Golf
H Habardasher
I India Golf
J Jiminiy [ as in Jumpin’, and pronounced with the Scandinavian accent of a minor Rankin/Bass stop-motion animation character; following it with “by gum” or “golly gee” is allowed but deprecated since 2006 ]
K Kabibble
L Lawn India Golf
M Metropolitan
N Netropolitan
O Orange
P Pekoe
Q Quincy Wagstaff
R Ratiocinate
S Siesta
T Turtle
U Umbridge
V Humbridge
W Wumbridge
X X-TREME!!!
Y Why Not?
Z Zeddmore

Reference: The Unknown Dominion: Canada and her People, Bruce Hutchison.

Statistics Saturday: Morse Code … codes


Letter Morse Code … code
A dot dash
B dot dash dot dot
C dash dot dash dot
D dash … dot … dot?
E dot
F dot dash dash?
G dash dash … dash?
H dot dot
I no, this is dot dot
J dash dash dash something
K dash dot dash
L dot dash dot dot
M dash dash
N dot dot
O dash dash dash
P dot dash dot dot
Q dash dash dot dash
R dash dot dash
S dot dot dot
T dash
U [ is not represented ]
V dash dash dash doooooot
W dot dash dash(?)
X dot dash dot dot
Y dot dash dot dot
Z [ user’s choice]
zero [ transmit nothing ]
one dot
two dot dot
three dot dot dot
four dot dot dot dot
five dot dot dot dot dot
six dot dot dot dot dot dot
seven dot dot dot dot dot dot dot
eight dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot
nine dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot
period dot!
question mark dot?
exclamation point dash!
apostrophe d’ash
quote ironic dot
colon dot dot [ transmitted sideways ]
semicolon why are you doing this, seriously, just stop

Reference: The Birth of Neurosis: Myth, Malady, and the Victorians, George Frederick Drinka.

Statistics Saturday: ‘Yes’ Cover Bands, Ranked


  1. Yeah
  2. Yup
  3. Uh-huh
  4. You Bet
  5. OK
  6. Yep
  7. Yea
  8. Aye
  9. Sure
  10. Nuh-uh
  11. Out From The Lens
  12. Maybe

Not listed: Sailors of Topographic Oceans, as they’re focusing more on Rick Wakeman’s solo work these days.

Reference: Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms, Carlo Cercignani.

Statistics Saturday: What’s Wrong With My Plant


Pie chart: What's Wrong With My Plant? Nearly half of the pie: 'You watered it'. Nearly the other half of the pie: 'You didn't water it'. The remaining thin sliver: 'Oh, who knows? Let's just say aphids?'
Not pictured: Oh, maybe it needs something from that ominously-colored bottle of plant nutrient where you’re supposed to mix one and three-quarters grains of fluid per gill of water and then pour six and one-half drops per ten ounces of topsoil in the pot? Anyway good luck.

Reference: The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan.

Statistics Saturday: Where More Comic Strips Are Set


Since it turns out people like geography! Who knew?

Comic Strip Setting
The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee Anytown, USA
One Big Happy Anytown, USA
Buckles Anytown, USA
FoxTrot Anytown, USA
Red and Rover Anytown, USA
Between Friends Anytown, Canada [1]
Heathcliff Anytown, USA
Shoe Anytown, Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia
Graffiti Anytown, USA
Rose is Rose Anytown, USA
Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog Anytown, USA
Ginger Meggs Anytown, Australia

[1] “Anytown, Canada” means “Suburban Toronto”.

Reference: Yerkes Observatory, 1892-1950: The Birth, Near Death, and Resurrection of a Scientific Research Institution, Donald E Osterbrock.

Statistics Saturday: Where Comic Strips Are Set


Note: comic strip locations even when tied to the real world are often fictionalized to some extent, allowing for, for example, wintertime snows even if this would be unlikely to happen every year, or as severely as is shown. Or they are synthesized from pieces of more than one location. Don’t @ me. Fun activity: spot the error!

Comic Strip Setting
Pogo Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia
The Family Circus Scottsdale, Arizona
Get Fuzzy Boston
Frazz Lansing metropolitan area, Michigan
Wallace the Brave Rhode Island
Peanuts Sebastopol/Needles, California
Funky Winkerbean Akron/Strongsville, Ohio
Andy Capp Hartlepool, England, UK
Monty Middlesex County, New Jersey
The Fusco Brothers Newark, New Jersey
Non Sequitur Maine
Sherman’s Lagoon Near the Palau Archipelago, Federated States of Micronesia
Blondie Joplin, Missouri
JumpStart Philadelphia
Breaking Cat News New England
Fred Basset London

Reference: Yerkes Observatory, 1892-1950: The Birth, Near Death, and Resurrection of a Scientific Research Institution, Donald E Osterbrock.

Statistics Saturday: Pink Panther Cartoons Debuting During Apollo Missions


  1. In The Pink Of The Night (18 May 1969, during Apollo 10)
  2. Yeah, that’s it. Weird, right? I mean, there weren’t that many Apollo missions really, but they sprawled like twelve days each, and they were all concentrated in this four-year span. There’s some near misses, like, Pink Sphinx came out the day after Apollo 7 landed, and Pinkcome Tax came out the day before Apollo 8 launched, but there’s no other cartoons that overlapped Apollo missions. Not even the unmanned missions. It just doesn’t add up.

Reference: The History Today Companion to British History, Editors Juliet Gardiner, Neil Wenborn.

Statistics Saturday: Bowery Boys movie titles reused by more successful projects


  • High Society (1955)
  • Live Wires (1948)
  • Leaving Las Vegas (1956)
  • Ghost Busters (1951)
  • Hot Shots (1956)
  • Romancing the Stone (1956)
  • Rise of the Skywalkers (1948)
  • Family Feud (1952)
  • Schoolboys in Disgrace (1949)
  • Broadcast News (1947)
  • Master Minds (1949)
  • In Living Color (1946)
  • The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (1958)

Not listed:

  • Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde (1946) as it was more successful than the other movie with that title
  • Ghosts On The Loose (1943) as this was released as an East Side Kids rather than a Bowery Boys title
  • No Holds Barred (1952) as it is in a statistical tie with the Hulk Hogan film of the same name

Reference: The Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics, Lucas NH Bunt, Phillip S Jones, Jack D Bedient.

Statistics Saturday: The 20 best Bigfoot episodes of 1970s TV Shows


  • 20. CHiPs
  • 19. Superfriends
  • 18. Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
  • 17. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
  • 16. Challenge of the Superfriends
  • 15. Mork and Mindy
  • 14. The Brady Bunch Hour
  • 13. 20/20
  • 12. The All-New Super Friends Hour
  • 11. Logan’s Run
  • 10. The $1.98 Beauty Show
  • 9. Battlestar Galactica
  • 8. The Man From Atlantis
  • 7. WKRP in Cincinnati
  • 6. Columbo
  • 5. The Ropers
  • 4. Supertrain
  • 3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • 2. In Search Of …
  • 1. The Six Million Dollar Man/The Bionic Woman

Reference: Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920 – 1941, Michael E Parrish.

I know what you’re thinking and no, there was no Mark Trail TV show in the 70s, somehow.

Statistics Saturday: 16 Real People Whose Names Became Those Of Corporations


  • John Pierpont Morgan
  • Richard Sears
  • Ulysses S Steel
  • Commodore Billy Nabisco
  • Arthur Kraft
  • Rick “The Swarm” Disney
  • Daniel Striped Xerox
  • Wyr Beatrice
  • Ray McDonald’s
  • Whirlpool Louis Upton
  • Michael Valvoline Smith
  • William H Microsoft
  • Sebastian Kmart Sperling Buick
  • James David Tricon Global Restaurants
  • Uniroyal Roy
  • Marjory Sealed Air

Reference: The March of Folly, Barbara W Tuchman.

Statistics Saturday: Top 58 Minutes Of The Skipped Daylight Saving Time Hour


  1. 2:57 am
  2. 2:32 am
  3. 2:58 am
  4. 2:19 am
  5. 2:36 am
  6. 2:18 am
  7. 2:55 am
  8. 2:46 am
  9. 2:39 am
  10. 2:33 am
  11. 2:01 am
  12. 2:41 am
  13. 2:00 am
  14. 2:22 am
  15. 2:49 am
  16. 2:04 am
  17. 2:59 am
  18. 2:20 am
  19. 2:24 am
  20. 2:17 am
  21. 2:34 am
  22. 2:14 am
  23. 2:45 am
  24. 2:52 am
  25. 2:43 am
  26. 2:48 am
  27. 2:21 am
  28. 2:38 am
  29. 2:08 am
  30. 2:06 am
  31. 2:25 am
  32. 2:50 am
  33. 2:51 am
  34. 2:30 am
  35. 2:40 am
  36. 2:53 am
  37. 2:28 am
  38. 2:27 am
  39. 2:15 am
  40. 2:09 am
  41. 2:03 am
  42. 2:54 am
  43. 2:11 am
  44. 2:37 am
  45. 2:31 am
  46. 2:05 am
  47. 2:56 am
  48. 2:23 am
  49. 2:02 am
  50. 2:16 am
  51. 2:07 am
  52. 2:35 am
  53. 2:10 am
  54. 2:29 am
  55. 2:42 am
  56. 2:13 am
  57. 2:12 am
  58. 2:26 am

Reference: The Odyssey File, Arthur C Clarke and Peter Hyams.

Statistics Saturday: The History Of One Leap Year Represented As One Year


January

1. 12:00:01 am: 12:00:01 am, 1st of January.
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31. 9:58:03 pm: 12:00:01 am, 1st of February.

February

Continue reading “Statistics Saturday: The History Of One Leap Year Represented As One Year”

Statistics Saturday: Fifteen Questions ‘Cleveland’ Is A Incorrect Answer To


  • What is the capital of Ohio?
  • What was, historically, the capital of the Ohio Territory?
  • What is the largest city to border a Great Lake?
  • Where’s the Cedar Point amusement park?
  • How are you today?
  • Did you know psoriasis can get into your ear? How does that make sense?
  • Are the Kinks getting back together?
  • What makes our new Terms of Service so all-fired different from the old Terms of Service that it was worth sending you a new Terms of Service to pretend to read?
  • Is there going to be weather tomorrow?
  • What’s the seat of Hamilton County, Ohio?
  • Back in the early 20th century when there were “traction companies” running trolley cars all along city and even suburban streets it’s … like … they were transmitting electric power for cars along overhead lines, right? It’s not like they were running gigantic ropes and pulleys dragging things through town? Because that couldn’t possibly work, but “traction” seems like a weird name for “streetcar electric power”, right?
  • Where was Case Western Reserve University originally located?
  • Which United States Vice-President swore his oath of office in Cuba?
  • What’s the name of your Chicago cover band?
  • Yes, but did you like the movie?

Reference: Science From Your Airplane Window, Elizabeth A Wood. “Cleveland” was the name of your friend from college that you never really lost touch with but never talk to either’s Chicago cover band.

Statistics Saturday: Gibberish Post-It Notes You Will Never Throw Away


  • “120.5 SOFDA #”
  • “Thurs 10 [35]” or possibly :10 or :55 or :28.
  • “Onion – Pimafix – sour cream – hardware cloth”
  • “Shoe as year for sock”
  • “Barketorium/Barketeria -> is singular cafeterium?”
  • “Iping Village Feb 9”
  • “Argon Zark meets Coronet Blue”
  • “coax tackle book”

Reference: The Rocket Men: Vostok and Voskhod, the First Soviet Manned Spaceflights, Rex Hall and David J Shayler.

Statistics Saturday: Some Posts That Deserved More Than One View Last Year


I mean, not to inflate my sense of self-worth any but seriously, any of these deserved at least three page views in a year.

Reference: London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd.

Statistics Saturday: How I Feel About January


Mostly: 'This is too warm for January'. A sliver: 'This is about right for January.' A small chunk: 'This is too cold for January'. An appreciable hunk: 'I miss January in Singapore.'
See, all through January in Singapore it would be 92 degrees Fahrenheit and muggy, with a rainstorm at about 1:30, and often as not the whole place would shut down for half a week for the Chinese New Year, and you could stay home watching Johnny English on the local broadcast stations, in case you wanted to.

Reference: Does Anything Eat Wasps? And 101 Other Questions, Mick O’Hare.

Statistics Saturday: Number Of Times I’ve Seen Builders Tea Since I Bought That One Box In 2015


This refers to a box of Builders Tea that I got in March of 2015.

Total

0.

In Detail

Year Sightings of Builders Tea
2015 (March-Dec) 0
2016 0
2017 0
2018 0
2019 0

Not included: 2020 figures owing to incompleteness of the year.

Reference: The Panic Broadcast: The Whole Story of Orson Welles’ Legendary Radio Show Invasion From Mars, Howard Koch.