Really crappy merchandise. The California-based Real Goods mail-order catalog now offers “Biodegradable PooPets,” allegedly germ-free “cow manure figurines…hand-molded by Amish craftspeople” to decorate the garden and gradually release “nature’s finest fertilizer” into its soil. Your choice of Sluggo Snail ($14), Stool Toad ($12), or Dung Bunny ($12).
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Economic development, Daley style. “Riverboat gambling did not create the jobs that were promised and had very little effect on reducing unemployment” in 11 of 12 suburban and downstate counties where monthly employment data before and after riverboats were studied, reports U. of I. economist Earl L. Grinois. The reason is hardly mysterious: most gamblers are local. “Riverboat casinos shift jobs as opposed to creating jobs. For example, the number of independent restaurants drops when a casino opens up. Car sales have been known to go down with the onset of gambling.” His preliminary evidence suggests that Chicago would lose between two and three jobs for every gambling job gained.
“Catholics were considerably more likely to report adherence to the stereotypes [of African Americans] than Protestants, who held more to stereotypes than Jews,” according to surveys of Chicago-area whites in 1991 and 1992, reports Northwestern’s Robert Entman in One City (Winter). “Those claiming no religion were–perhaps ironically–least likely to endorse stereotypes….The more television that respondents reported watching, the more they endorsed stereotyping….The use of print media was also associated with lower anti-black feeling.” For what it’s worth, white WLS TV watchers were most likely to stereotype.
