OUT THERE

A lighter look at the news

Originally published November 18, 2001

If we at OutThere ever decide that writing this column just isn't fun enough anymore, we know which job we want: We want to be the guy/gal who assembles the fun facts on each holiday for the Census Bureau. Each time a holiday is just around the corner, we can count on a helpful e-mail from those government-sponsored statistics freaks.

So with Thanksgiving just a few days away, let us share the Census Bureau's insight into Where Those Mounds of Food Come From.

Just to make it more fun, we'll give you the number first, and you can guess what we're talking about.

- 270 million: The estimated number of turkeys raised in the United States during 2001. That's no change from 2000. In 2000, the turkeys produced weighed 7 billion pounds and were valued at $2.8 billion.

- 558 million pounds: The forecast weight of the cranberry production in the United States in 2001, down 1 percent from 2000 and 12 percent from 1999. (Frankly, we at OutThere know we aren't gulping down our 1.9 pound allotment.)

- 14 pounds: Amount of turkey consumed by the typical American in 1999. Per capita turkey consumption was virtually the same as in 1990, but 74 percent higher than in 1980, when apparently we hadn't yet learned about cholesterol.

Rant of the week

Richard Harris, the 71-year-old actor who plays Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' has been going after Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise for walling themselves off from the public. Harris continued venting last week, telling EW.com, ''I love pubs. I love hanging around with ordinary people. I really hate the elitism that has suddenly crept into our business. I think it's so stupid. Ten bodyguards, their own private chef, their own hairdressers, their own dietitians. It's a joke. I'm sorry. And then they have opinions, which is even worse.''

It wasn't that way when Harris started out in films 40 years ago, he says. Not even with the likes of Marlon Brando. ''Marlon? Marlon didn't have an entourage. He had an attitude, but he didn't have an entourage.''

Beulah who?

The Olympian recently ran an obituary that referred to the deceased as "going to Beulahville." Which prompted another reader to ask: What the heck does that mean?

Well, since we at OutThere try to be educational occasionally, we offer this:

In "Pilgrim's Progress," it refers to the Land of Beulah as a country of peace near the end of life's journey. So we're figuring that's the reference.

And considering some of the other destination options for the end of life, we'd take the Land of Beulah anytime.

Send mail to Out There, P.O. Box 1219, Olympia, WA 98507; phone calls to 360-357-0721; or e-mail to features@theolympian.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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