When it comes to mindless journalistic blunders, there are brain cramps and then there are lobotomies. Example of a brain cramp: the time in the late-1990s when, as a newspaper reporter, I referred to a high school student as “Dustin Hoffman.” He shared a first name with the famous actor, but not the last name, […]
Tag Archives: numeracy
Last week marked the debut of a website for a longtime, favored client (myself): Go Figure: Making Numbers Count, which also doubles as my Facebook page for Go Figure. I have been specializing in numeracy (mathematical literacy) for nearly two decades–going back to my time as a syndicated columnist (“By the Numbers”) with Copley News Service in the […]
Have you heard the story about the guy who went straight to the top, without any setbacks along the way? He enjoyed one triumph after another, each conquered mountain taller than the previous peak. Of course you didn’t hear that story. It’s obviously phony. Life is rarely so neatly navigated, so.tidy. Neither are numbers, and […]
A few times over the years, I’ve pitched airline magazines with story ideas. Alas, none of those overtures have, um, gotten off the ground. But I recently had the good fortune of being quoted in GO Magazine, AirTran Airways’ inflight magazine. Some of my observations about numbers, and their interplay with we humans, formed the […]