Pregnant pause
January 2005
Monthly Archive
January 31, 2005
January 31, 2005
Rays
January 31, 2005
The year is 1904 . One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the US statistics for 1904: The average life expectancy in the US was 47 years. Only 14% of the homes in the US had a bathtub. Only 8%of the homes had a telephone. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.00 There were only 8,000 cars in the US, and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. The average wage in the US was 22 cents an hour. The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year.A veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year. A mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year. More than 95 percent of all births in the US took place at home. Ninety % of all US physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as “substandard.” Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason. The five leading causes of death in the US were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30! Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented. There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Two of 10 US adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 % of all Americans had graduated high school.Marijuana, heroin, andmorphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.” (Shocking!) Eighteen percent of households in the US had at least one full-time servant or domestic. There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire US And I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years, it staggers the mind.
January 28, 2005
“EXHALE, STAGE LEFT
At 61, Longtime Marijuana Lobby Leader Keith Stroup Is Finally Leaving the
Joint
Keith Stroup’s mouth is dry. His brain is foggy. America’s most famous
marijuana lobbyist admits that a powerful drug has messed up his mind.
The drug isn’t marijuana, although he smokes that nearly every night. It’s
Tylenol cold medicine. He took some this morning, he says, and it made him
feel goofy, spacey, stoned. ‘I hate taking it,’ he says. ‘But my nose was
running and I kept sneezing and I thought, ‘I gotta take something.’ ‘
Wearing a bright white shirt and dark blue suit, Stroup is sitting at his
impeccably neat desk in the tidy K Street offices of NORML, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He founded NORML back in
1970 and now, 34 years later, he’s retiring at 61 as the pot lobby’s
executive director.
‘When I turned 60, I looked in the mirror and I saw this gray-haired old
man and I said, ‘I think we need younger leadership,’ ‘ he explains. ‘It
has to do with more energy, fresh perspectives, new ideas. It’s not like
I’m ready for the old folks’ home. I just think we need somebody younger
running the organization.’
That somebody is Allen St. Pierre, 39, who has served as NORML’s
second-in-command for the past decade. St. Pierre took over yesterday,
while Stroup, who recently got married for the third time, headed off to
his Falls Church home to become a consultant and lecturer.
But now, Stroup, stoned on cold medicine and nostalgia, starts showing off
the strange souvenirs of his strange lobbying career.
He pulls a black-and-white photo off the wall. It shows him in jeans and a
jacket addressing a crowd of hippies in front of the White House in the ’70s.
‘We used to have a July 4 smoke-in every year in Lafayette Park,’ he says.
‘I like this just as a period piece. Look at those
