Statistics are the magic beans of pop science. Tell someone that heavy drinkers live longer than teetotallers, and she'll say, "How is that possible? What about cirrhosis of the liver?" Tell her there are statistics proving it, and she'll say, "Wow, I never would have guessed that!" That particular stat is making the rounds of the news talk shows right now, and I'd imagine so are a lot of beers.

I know just enough about guns to be dangerous, and since it is practically illegal for an ordinary person to keep a firearm in Baltimore, it will probably stay that way for a while. But when Robert Farago sold The Truth About Cars, where I used to contribute, and started up The Truth About Guns, I took the opportunity to read and write some articles.

I apologize in advance for another post about Light Rail. This evening I left work a little after five PM,  and walked to the station as usual. I stood up when the Belvedere towers appeared between the trees, as usual. But for some reason, instead of holding the vertical bar with my left hand, and facing the door, I held the sloped bar with my right hand and turned towards the center aisle of the rail car. I never do that, but I did tonight, and therefore I could see the young woman lurching towards me.

One of Bill Cosby's early standup routines was called A Nut in Every Car. Cosby painted an amusing picture of subway passengers being uproariously entertained as they were assaulted by zealots, drunks and young toughs. My mother told of riding the subway with an extravert friend. Some fellow tried to cop a feel, so her friend grabbed his arm, held it up and shouted, "Anyone here lose a hand?" We lived in the suburbs, and along with the movies, these formed my impressions of riding the subway.

You've probably heard that Hawaiian James J Lee apparently hated Discovery Channel's programming so much that he took hostages at their offices in Silver Spring MD.

I don't know what to make of Japan - a former regional empire, rebuilt as an economic dynamo or an aging country that is rapidly being overtaken by their former whipping boy, China. They rapidly embrace and adapt to Western culture but also seek to maintain their racial purity. They raped Nanking, kept comfort women in Korea, and bombed Pearl Harbor, but after being defeated in WWII and losing two cities to the atomic bomb, purport to have rejected armed conflict.