From 'Miss Manners' Guide to Rearing Perfect Children': 'When acquiring a child, as when acquiring a car, one never sufficiently considers the parking problem. Yet delightful and welcome as the acquisition may be, one can't spend all of one's time running around with it.

'However, one can easily spend all of one's time worrying that it will be damaged in one's absence. There is simply no question that anyone planning to have a child will at least occasionally require a safe parking place, with a responsible attendant on charge. Why people don't consider that before they take the very first step toward having a child, Miss Manners cannot imagine. Nannies first, and then the babies sees to her the natural order of life.'_____________

Back in 1990, there was a fire in an electricity substation in Manhatten, New York city. Think about the following numbers I noted at the time. Remember that big city buildings trap heat, and the the air conditioners are not really just luxuries.

When the power went there were 80,000 people in the World Trade Centre, many of them in the two 110 story skyscrapers. On the emergency power, they each had only one elevator, and for a time, they were only going to the 44th floor. Outside, the traffic lights for Lower Manhatten (not good at the best of times!) were out for several days. ____________

At the ski resort Vail in Colorado, the lifts can shift 45,000 people an hour. It is said to be the largest in North America.

Get any children you know trying to work out things like... If 45,000 people were lined up single file, how long would the line be? How fast would the people have to move forward to get all of them past one point in an hour? Email me any other 'interesting' ways you have of illustrating the number, please?________________