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The BP Gulf oil spill is now anywhere from 19 million to 39 million gallons.

But that large of a number is hard for the human mind to grasp. The help, The Associated Press gives us this metaphor:

“In the worst case scenario, if 39 million gallons has spilled, the oil would fill enough jugs to stretch from the Louisiana marshes to Prince William Sound in Alaska. That’s where the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.”

OK, so that’s not really helpful at all. Now the *distance* is too large to imagine.

Also unhelpful was an earlier AP story, which said:

“Under the highest Gulf spill estimate, nearly 39 million gallons may have leaked, enough to fill 30 school gymnasiums.”

Honestly, are all school gymnasiums the same size?

So I searched for the capacities of several northeast Indiana bodies of water and discovered that my own sense of volume estimation is way, way off.

First was Lake James in Pokagon State Park. If you count all three basins that comprise the lake, Lake James contains 10.8 billion gallons of water. That’s billion, with a “b.”

Next, I thought maybe the Hurshtown Reservoir would be more help. But i was wrong again. That reservoir contains 1.8 billion gallons of water.

I need a lot less water. So I called Natalie Eggemann, the public information officer of the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department. She called around the department and discovered that Reservoir Pond contains 5.5 million gallons of water.

So the Gulf oil spill is at least four or maybe up to seven Reservoir Ponds.

Is that surprisingly small to you? Or maybe surprisingly large?

Above photo from August 1950 at Reservoir Park in Fort Wayne from News-Sentinel archives

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You can now reserve your spot at the May 23 presentation and book signing at Mitchell Books! Do one of the following:

• Stop in at Mitchell Books in Covington Plaza on Jefferson Boulevard and tell any staff person you’d like to reserve a spot.
• Call Mitchell Books at (260) 423-BOOK (2665) and talk to an actual human being — they can’t accept voice mail requests.

Seating is limited to 60 people, so contact Mitchell soon if you want to make sure you get in.

But do not fear: If demand is especially high, Mitchell said we can do a second book signing later in the summer.Possibly related posts:

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I’m excited to announce that I’ll be hosting a presentation and book signing here in Fort Wayne next month! Here are the details:

Want to hear stories about how we put together the Allen County Photo album book? And want a sneak peek at the next book due out this autumn?

Well, mark your calendars for 6 p.m. Saturday, May 23, when I will step into Studio M at Mitchell Books and give a visual presentation about:

• Some of our favorite photos from the book — and the stories behind them.
• Some photos that didn’t make the cut for some, um, interesting reasons.
• A sneak peek at some photos that will be in the next book.

Plus, I’ll have a fistful of black Sharpies if you’d like me to scrawl my signature across your book.

This will be a free but ticketed event because the venue holds only 60 people. If demand is high, Mitchell Books would be interested in having a second event.

Once I receive information from Mitchell about the ticketing procedure, I’ll post it here. (I’ll also run some ads in The News-Sentinel, in print and online.)

You can find more info on the new Allen County Photo Album blog.Possibly related posts:

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The headline in the Washington Post reads: House Offers $825 Billion Stimulus. That’s a lot of cash. But it’s such a large number that it’s difficult to wrap your mind around it.

Here are a couple of riddles I came up with to put that number in perspective.

Riddle #1

Let’s say you had an unlimited supply of $100 bills, wrapped in packs of 100. That’s $10,000 per pack.

If you began throwing the $10,000 packs into your fireplace at a rate of one pack every second, 24 hours a day, how long would it take until you had burned through $825 billion?

Answer below.

Riddle #2

Let’s say you have $825 billion in your checking account and it can be yours only if you spend it all in one calendar year. How much money would you have to spend every minute, 24 hours a day?

Answer below.

Answer to riddle #1:
2 years, 7 months and 11 days

Answer to riddle #2:
$1.6 million

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Click the image of the front page to see it larger, or you can download and view the PDF. (2.1 Mb)

The point of the design for today’s News-Sentinel was to play up not only the major news of the day, but also to make sure the reader could tell we had an exclusive interview with the family.

Did this page do the trick? Was it different enough from the front page of Brand X?Possibly related posts:

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You can find the Google map I did in support of the package right here.

Or you can download the PDF of today’s graphic over here.Possibly related posts:

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The Helvetica coffee mug from Veer, with some sans serif typeface humor.Possibly related posts:

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I love this sans serif! Christmas hint: Five weights for only $150.

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