Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311280009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Today I see math in a new light. It is very handy when analyzing modern life and for casting about in utter desperation for column topics.
Watch me fill this space with some death-defying math:
In the 14 sweet months since Virginia started selling its colorful license tags for $10, sales have far exceeded the Department of Motor Vehicles' wildest expectations.
From July 1992, when sales started, through Sept. 10 of this year, 787,110 of the tags were sold. Of those, 57 percent are the cardinal-and-dogwood variety; 43 percent are the mountain-and-sea type.
If only Mr. License Plate were here, so we could thank him . . .
Rick Boucher, the Democrat who represents Southwest Virginia in Congress, voted against NAFTA when it came before the House of Representatives on Nov. 17. He was convinced, he said in an interview early this month, that the agreement would result in a net loss of jobs for his district.
A few days after the vote, the monthly copy of The Virginia Dairyman hit the newsstands.
From the newsletter's account of a discussion with Boucher at the Virginia/Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine: " . . . Boucher pointed out in private discussion that he was against the 75-cent-per-pack tobacco tax being proposed by the president's health plan, and he felt the North American Free Trade Agreement will be in the best interest of Virginia's livestock and crop producers."
Boucher believed NAFTA would benefit farmers - and those in his district were, collectively, a $223 million industry in 1987, from the most recent figures available - but he voted against it.
Alas, the numbers appear stacked against the evergreen star in the Peters Creek Road cloverleaf at Interstate 581.
Since National Reforestation Service, a private company, first planted the pine trees in 1991 to be visible from the air, the 400-foot-diameter star-shaped area has devoured them. Four times they've been planted - 3,000 trees in all - and they just keep dying.
The latest estimate on survival: Only about 25 percent, according to Chris Thomsen of the Virginia Department of Forestry. He checks on them from time to time, and the prognosis grows ever bleaker.
Lousy, compacted soil has been blamed. Air pollution. Now Thomsen is fingering a new suspect. There, hard by the highway, rabbits have nibbled the infant trees to oblivion.
There's always been something solid and upstanding about Botetourt County, something that harks back to a better time, that I could never put my finger on. Was it the apples? The truck stops? Eagle Rock?
A surf through the census numbers provided my answer: In 1990, Botetourt was the only jurisdiction in this valley with more men than women - 78 more, out of 24,992 people. Something sensible about the place.
by CNB