The Big East

Written by Pat's Papers | Friday, 12 March 2010 10:16 AM


Growing up in the west I was always a little resentful of all the attention the Eastern time zone got. Like the graphic that noted Good Morning America was “Live ET.”  Or when ESPN would announce that a big game was scheduled for “1 pm Eastern” and leave it to the rest of us to do the math.

It’s not that I didn’t recognize the practicality. I knew it was the most populated time zone. And in the case of US TV viewers, it’s also the first time zone. But it wasn’t until I picked up USA Today this morning that I fully understood the dominance of the east.

The paper’s front page “Snapshot” breaks down the US population by time zone.  47.5% of Americans are in the Eastern time zone. When you roll in the Central zone you’re up to three-fourths of the population.

I guess this falls into the same category as the hockey game bathroom break graph that’s been getting so much attention on the site this week: It’s not a huge surprise but the impact is greater when you see a clear presentation of the actual numbers. 

On the Web

Census.gov has some other interesting population breakdowns if you’re curious


 

Enter address below to get the morning headlines in your inbox (more details)

New on the Blog

M & M Revelation

M & M Revelation

I’m mostly an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of guy. That is, until I was introduced to pretzel M & Ms.

New on the Story Stack

Popular Posts

Editor's Pick

$200M Ansel Adams Negatives Bought at Garage Sale for $45

$200M Ansel Adams Negatives Bought at Garage Sale for $45

A series of $45 glass negatives turned into $200 million for a California man after it was discovered they were made by Ansel Adams.

Pat Kiernan's Facebook profile

Links

Favorites

U.S. Newspapers

International Newspapers

News