Posts Tagged ‘zip codes’
“Demographics is destiny”*…
… or not. One can decide for oneself by consulting ZIP Lookup…
How much can where you live say about who you are? According to a new interactive map by geographic information firm Esri, a whole hell of a lot. Esri’s “Tapestry Segmentation” database mines socioeconomic and demographic data to create a picture of who lives in each ZIP code–i.e., what marketers assume about you based on your particular neighborhood or city. Using Tapestry‘s 67 neighborhood classifications for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics–complete with cutesy names like “American Dreamers,” “Front Porches,” “High Rise Renters,” and “Diners and Miners”–Esri has created an interactive map of the U.S. called ZIP Lookup that lets you dig deep into the stereotypical lives of residents of your ZIP code, along with their average and income, and the neighborhood’s density…
Read more at “What Your ZIP Code Says About You,” then find out what to expect as you trick-or-treat this evening.
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As we disagree with Arthur (on this, as on so many fronts), we might recall that it was on this date in 1922 that The World We Live In (The Insect Comedy) opened in New York. Written by Karel Čapek (who had two years earlier coined the word “robot” in his play R.U.R.) and his brother Josef, the play features a tramp/narrator who falls asleep in the woods and dreams of observing a range of insects whose lifestyles and morals stand in for various human characteristics– the flighty, vain butterfly; the obsequious, self-serving dung beetle; the ants, whose increasingly mechanized behavior leads to a militaristic society; et al.– an allegorical account of life in post-World War I Czechoslovakia.
No, literally…

Look at that giant amoeba.
From The Monkeys You Ordered, “literal New Yorker captions.”

It's 7:30

I’m dressed like a cowboy!
Many more at The Monkeys You Ordered.
As we sharpen our specificity, we might recall that it was on this date in 1943 that Frank C. Walker, FDR’s Postmaster General, introduced the Postal Code system: the Zone Code– the two digit signifier included in urban addresses until the introduction of zip codes, e.g.:
Ms. Margaret Mitchell
1001 Peachtree Avenue
Atlanta 13, Georgia
With the introduction of the Zip Code, the Zone Code became the last two digits of the five-digit locator.
Walker watching the President mail a letter with a Zone address (source: Smithsonian)
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