Monday, November 29, 2010

Imagine Baltimore

Imagine the Baltimore metropolitan area including the suburbs and Towson. The population of the MSA is right around 2.5 million, which was the approximate population of the original 13 colonies at the time of the Revolution.

Living in the colonies at that time were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (left). I haven't actually been in Baltimore for a while, but I did watch quite a bit of The Wire, and I don't recall a similar sprinkling of genius; but maybe you have to be there to fully appreciate the talent level of that fine city.

If you extrapolated those seven men into the current U.S. population of over 300 million you'd expect to find about 840 people in today's United States with similar talents and vision; nearly 17 per state. But that's an average. Utah might only have 7-8 while California could have 85-90.

I suppose I should draw some conclusion from these statistics but that would just insult the audience.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

And where are the Mozarts? Financial services, information technology: they are not starving and being buried in paupers' graves.

In a society where there is limited upward mobility, genus goes begging. But where there is room to expand, it fills the void. Most of the best minds are not going into politics.

Birdman said...

I am a proud son of "Charm City". I can tell you we haven't had a person of the stature you mention since Earl Weaver left. Before that it was H.L. Mencken or Wallace Simpson.

Unknown said...

" H.L. Mencken or Wallace Simpson:" great minds think alike. They were the first 2 who came to my mind. The third is John Waters. Good Morning Baltimore.

kgwhit said...

my seven from Baltimore:

Nancy Pelosi
Frank Zappa
Mel Kipper Jr.
Michael Phelps
Leon Uris
John Waters
Cal Ripken
and a bonus pick
Tupac

BB said...

Barry Levinson

Anonymous said...

it was very interesting to read. I want to quote your post in my blog. It can? And you et an account on Twitter?

d'blank said...

@annon: quote away. i don't have a twitter account.

Woody said...

The Wire was an incredible show although it is not on the recommended viewing list of Baltimore's Chamber of Commerce. I wish HBO would bring the show back for a few more seasons. It is definitely worth watching. It starts slowly so give it a few episodes before making up your mind. Start with season one and enjoy!

Birdman said...

The Wire is the best show I've ever seen on TV. Especially so given I'm from that august city. Hearing the accents and local references make it all that much more enjoyable.

d'blank said...

I wish I'd used Cleveland as the example in this post -- but see today's post.

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