It’s the highest in Louisiana and the lowest in Idaho. The numbers change from year to year (I’m looking at 2011), but high is usually high and low is usually low. Idaho and Louisiana did not move between 2010 and 2011.
After Louisiana is Maryland, Rhode Island, Nevada, Arizona, DC, New York, Connecticut, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, Alaska, Missouri, Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, New Mexico, West Virginia, Montana, Illinois, Kansas, Alabama, Michigan, Washington, South Carolina, Nebraska, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Hawaii, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Vermont, Maine, and lastly but not leastly (okay, actually leastly in this case) Idaho.
Looks kind of like crime rate, or some variation on that theme.
Divorce rates? Although I’d expect Virginia to be higher up on the list.
Huh…It looks like the story of ordinary people who are victims of mysterious incidents or accidents.
Meningitis.
Something to do with industrial plumbing, perhaps?
Idaho has the smallest number of people who drown in the Mississippi River while Louisiana has the highest?
Wouldn’t fewer Hawaiians than Idahoans drown in the Mississippi?
“Drowning deaths” is not a bad guess.
You would think that would be the case, but for some unkown reason, during the summer the area arond Baton Rouge is filled to the brim with drunk Hawaiins sailing hokule’as up and down the Mississippi.
Crap! There goes my theory.
These are some good guesses. None right, yet.
Percentage of state budgets spent on prisons.
All goofing aside, I live in and love Louisiana, but if we are number one in something you probably wouldn’t be proud of it. Potentials: percentage of HIV positive people per capita,illiteracy rate, number of people living in poverty all come to mind. Maybe the number of people that believe that Governor Jindal really did expel that demon while performing an excorism while at Brown.
That’s a damn lie. It was not the future Governor who performed the exorcism on his fellow Brown student. He helped, by praying for a little while in the face of demonic distraction and despite his previous conviction that prayer in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mother were, in fact, idolatry. But the actual exorcism was performed by the
victim’sexorcisee’s sister, and two friends named Alice and Louise.Nitpicking lawyers. I guess he is only guilty of accessory during the fact.
Tuesday Hint: Well over half of Americans are directly impacted by this (in a more immediate sense than “at some point in there life.”), including I would expect most Leaguers and League commenters.
Is it a rate or an absolute number?
Neither, strictly speaking. More on the side of rate than absolute number. It’s not per-capita, but it’s definitely not an absolute number.
gee, thanks.
It’ll be clarified in the next hint.
Weather related fatalities.
Cancer rates or cancer death rates
Eligible voter registration rates.
“High is usually high and low is usually low” seems like an important clue but I’d still like to see an answer to Mr. Hanley’s question, “Is it a rate or an absolute number?”
The mild regional clustering may also be significant, but of what I have no idea. Wait! Maybe… no, never mind.
Wednesday Hint: It’s measured in dollars. Not total dollars, and not dollars per-capita. It’s dollars per something else. Examples of the type would be dollars spent on medications per Medicare beneficiary, or dollars spent for each flu shot. (The answer actually does not directly involve health care.)
Per capita expenditures on likker.
Er, for people of age.
Hot sauce! It’s about hot sauce!
Auto insurance premiums?
That would be it.
Randy Harris returns for yet another win! When are you going to send that guy a LoOG t-shirt or something?
He already has the right to dictate my avatar thanks to his b-ball victory. Which prize, mercifully, he’s chosen to abstain from collecting.
Thanks for the reminder!
I am not at all surprised to see Rhode Island #3 on the list. Holy crap was that a scary place to drive.
I am a little surprised to see Maryland at #2; it didn’t strike me as any worse than Virginia. Rhode Island felt more dangerous.
Any idea why Louisiana tops out (“wins” seems like the wrong word) the list?
No clue, but Maryland wasn’t even close.
What’s so scary about Rhode Island?
Everyone tailgates because otherwise they’d be in Connecticut.
I have difficulty wrapping my head around the notion that Rhode Island is a state, to be perfectly honest. Connecticut, too, though to a lesser extent. History is history, though, and may the heavens bless statehood.
I spent a year in Louisiana when my ship was docked at a shipyard getting refitted. Most of that time my speedometer cable was busted and despite never bothering to get it fixed or having any idea how fast I was actually driving, I never once got pulled over for speeding.
Might be relevant.
BTW, that might have been nice for the resale value of that car had it not been an early model Hyundai that totally crapped itself mechanically literally two weeks after I made the final payment and it was out of warranty. Piece. Of. S***.