I know, two posts in a row with the word “pastime” in the title. It sorta bugs me, but not enough to change it. Just enough to comment about it in a lengthy non sequitur at the start of the post. Anyway.

I was walking along the other day, when I passed an ad that caused me to do a double take:

Whoa. Really? 386,000? Being from Nebraska, I am a little sensitive when people ask if we have automobiles, running water, or the like. But even I found myself asking, “Are there even 386,000 people in Nebraska?”

It turns out that there are; in fact, in 2000, there were 1.7 million people in the state. (So sue me, I suck at remembering or even estimating population facts. I never won those silly contests where you guess how many jelly beans are in the jar either.) But still, the Toyota ad is still implying that about 23% of Nebraskans are bird watchers… and that just seems a bit ludicrous to me. We really don’t get that many interesting birds in Nebraska (I know, because my dad is one of those apparent 386,000) - growing up, cardinals and blue jays were the coolest. Gold finches were common too. Occasionally a hummingbird. But is that enough for over 1/5 of the state to take up bird watching?

Obviously Toyota wasn’t worried about finding some factoid that yielded a count of exactly 386,000, but what bolt of inspiration suggested Nebraska… and bird watching? Is Nebraska known for bird watching? The number of tickets sold for last year’s College World Series seems like a more accurate figure for the ad…

…but then again, maybe it was thanks to my Nebraska bird watching skills that I was the only one able to spot the woodpecker the other day.