Migrant Farmworkers, 1956

from Across the Tracks: Mexican-Americans in a Texas City, by Arthur J. Rubel (1968). Rubel was a medical anthropologist who was captivated throughout his life by the interconnections between culture, behavior, health and illness.

According to this study, farmworkers earned about $4.59 per day. Adjusting for inflation, that would be about $35 per day now. Figuring conservatively that they worked 10 hours per day (when you've got to get everything planted or picked during a short amount of time, you work long hours), that would be about $3.50 an hour in today's wages. That's a hell of a lot less than minimum wage!

Taxonomy of Tramps

from You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads, by James P. Spradley

Spradley spent time with skid row men in Seattle in the 1960s and produced this definitive anthropological work documenting how they saw themselves and their world. Here's his taxonomy of the different kinds of tramps. So, for example, while working stiffs ride the rails from job to job, box car tramps just ride the rails because that's what they do.

Bush at the top of the polls, for once

Poor Bushie - he just can't catch a break. According to an MSNBC poll, he's more of a villain than the leaders of the Axis of Evil or even Satan. From crooksandliars.com.