09 December 2010

By the Numbers

The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That’s great. There were over 600,000 hunters.

Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world – more men under arms than Iran; more than France and Germany combined – deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay.

But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan’s 700,000 hunters have now returned home.

Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia, and it is literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.
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COMPARE & CONTRAST: The other Toronto bluesfest
“It appears to be a self-inflicted wound that entered his middle thigh and exited his knee,” Staff Sgt. Ron Boyce said. “It’s kind of odd, that downward pattern.”

Police said the man ditched his gun and isn’t cooperating with the investigation. He refuses to admit he shot himself. But Boyce is confident they have their man and that the two men who shot him don’t actually exist.

“It’s two phantom people,” Boyce said. “We’re not looking for anyone.”