Chats, cats, wrinkles and roads
Yes, it’s Chat Day and …
Well, eventually we have to halt the conversation about felines — except that I have a question, and some readers apparently share this puzzle.
Why are cats determined to drink from kitchen or bathroom faucets instead of those nice bowls sitting next to their food?
What’s the deal with that?
Sammie the World’s Greatest Cat now just sits on the counter next to the bathroom sink and waits for me to turn it on. She’ll hover there for hours.
She’s serious about the whole thing, too, and sometimes will try to crowd me out when I’m trying to wash my face.
Sammie and I are far from alone. Dean Marcus sent in a picture to prove his cat Josie is taking this faucet thing all the way.
As you can see, Josie simply lies in the sink (that’s Tommy standing guard) until Dean surrenders.
If anyone knows how to cure cats of this faucet obsession, I’m ready to hear it.
Dean too, most likely.
ITEM: I’m not sure exactly how Hailey J. Farley feels about folks in the Panhandle, but it’s not a routine opinion.
Farley shipped in an email right after our cartoon character poll ended and said this …
“I see that the poll has already ended, and you may be typing out the winner right this very second — or maybe no one decided to vote. Nevertheless, I think the most representational and favorite cartoon character of North Idaho is Elmer Fudd.
“He is the clear winner, as he shares many of the same hobbies and characteristics of most North Idaho residents.”
Umm …
Do you know many people with the hobbies (whatever they are) and characteristics of Elmer Fudd?
I’m guessing Farley was tossing out an insult, but who can say for sure?
ITEM: The Pew Research Center has released some new statistics spotlighting all of America’s 3,142 counties.
So how about us, then?
According to the study, Kootenai County — compared to 2000 — is considerably more populous, noticeably older and slightly more diverse.
The Pew numbers, taken from the U.S. Census Bureau, pegged our 2016 population at 147,716, as opposed to 108,684 in 2000.
The number of non-Whites in the county rose from 6 percent to 9 percent in that same time frame, and our share of residents 65 and older jumped to 17 percent from 12 percent.
Pew considers Kootenai a suburban county — the other designations are urban and rural — and we’re obviously a little different than the rest of the country, since the nationwide average for non-Whites in suburban counties is 24 percent.
However, we’re pretty much right with the crowd on aging, as the average suburban county hosts 16 percent of people 65 and older.
The key statistic buried in there is growth, which obviously hasn’t slowed down.
We see routine letters to The Press complaining about roadworks and other construction designed to aid traffic flow.
Generally, people blame city, county and state planners for their delays, but hey, road improvements are what you get when an area is growing as fast as this one.
Now …
That’s not a conclusion from the Pew Research Center.
Press Editor Mike Patrick figured it out with the help of IBM’s latest supercomputer — and a lick of common sense.
The rest of us never mention that we knew it, too.
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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week. Steve’s sports column runs on Tuesday.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com.
Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA