Number 11

Much fanfare about that Newsweek edition the other week. The one about the World's Best Countries.

A few people walking around a little incredulous that the U.S. came in 11th place. (Omigod!)

I don't pay much attention to these kinds of analyses.

I harken back to my statistics professor telling us the old adage about "Lies, damn lies, and . . . statistics."

And that was the professor talking! Ha!

However these survey things do inspire some lively discussions.

And talking about surveys, allow me to point you in a slightly different direction: The Happy Planet Index.

Number 11 looks pretty good after taking a look at what those Happy Planet people have to say. (Eeek!) They lump Gringolandia in the same happiness territory as Chad, Nigeria, and Madagascar. Yep, not so good.

Interestingly, Happy Planet gives some of the highest marks to Central American countries. Costa Rica finished first. (I lived there for a couple of years. Yeah, I guess they walked around smiling quite a bit. )

Moreoever, Nicaragua finished a helluva lot higher than the U.S. Go figure. (Funny quirk: Nicaragua came in at number 11!)

I'm not sure what to make of all of it. I did read a very interesting point of view here.

I'm not going to stick my toe into this debate.

But I'm very happy to tell you about it.