An exquisite piece of mechanical genius...

Racist Americana aside, that dancing Sambo doll seems really cool. Its only 25 cents and houses a mechanism that makes it dance and shake and all you have to do is pull its head! Where can I get one?
...ebay!

Wait. So the title says it's a "Mechanical Moving Toy," but in the image of the back of the envelope, it's branded an "Amazing Dancing Sambo Illusion." There's a picture of a setup with one string tied from the doll to a chair, and the other from the doll to a pencil on a table. This isn't amazing at all, it's a SCAM. Why would anyone pay $59.95 (plus shipping) for a piece of paper and a string? Hell, they probably don't even include the pencil! Baah, what a racist capitalist scumy ripoff. Surely there has to be a real dancing Sambo out there.

Here's the real dope. It's even 10% off, just $359.99! So you're saying I can spend $360 on a figurine that's missing it's left arm and attaches to a bouncy wooden platform? No thanks. For under $200, I could make an electronic, motorized, dancing figure that can shout obscenities at people as they walk past. All you need is an arduino, 4 servos, a gyroscope, a microphone, a speaker, and some 3D printed parts. Come on people, this is the 21st century, get this crap off of ebay.

Seven Women

I liked the theme of the poem Isabel read in class last Friday. The poem "Four Women" was visibly simple, but also had multiple analytic meanings. I think it would be fun to write a couple more stanzas for the poem. Here's my shot:

My skin is white
my hair is straight
My manner sassy
and my ride's not late
My parents have money
why, isn't that funny!
And what do I call me?
My name is Amanda Jones
My name is Amanda Emilia Jones

My skin is mixed
my hair is rough
I work at McDonald's
cooking your stuff
My mother was an immigrant
Arizona thinks we're illegitimate
And what do they call me?
My name is Maria
My name is Maria

My skin is olive
my hair in a bun
I'll work in a sweatshop
until the day's past done
Life in America had promise
if only they weren't dishonest
What do they call me?
My name is Ita
My name is Ita

1,369 light bulbs

In my hole in the basement there are exactly 1,369 lights. I've wired the entire ceiling, every inch of it. And not with fluorescent bulbs, but with the older, more-expensive-to-operate kind, the filament bulbs. An act of sabotage, you know. (Page 7, Prologue)

   What does this implicate? 1,369 light bulbs is a hell of a lot of light bulbs. Assuming that the light bulbs used were GE's Mazda light bulb, which used 50 watts of power and were prevalent from 1909 to 1945, this array would come out to 68450 watts, or 68.45KW. Furthermore, assuming that this part of the story takes place in the 1930's, the average cost of electricity was 6.08 cents/KWHr, meaning that it would cost 6.08 cents to light a 1000 watt light bulb for 1 hour. Adjusted for inflation, this becomes 87 cents/KWHr; most electricity today is priced at around 11 cents/KWHr.
   To power all of the narrators light bulbs for just one hour would cost nearly $60 in today's money. The cost of powering all of the light bulbs for 8 hours a day, 365 days a year would cost a staggering $173,890 (or $12,152 in the narrators time). That's enough money per year to buy not one, but TWO "ultra-luxury V-16 Cadillacs!"
   How much space do the light bulbs take up? The narrator claims to have only setup the ceiling (the walls are coming next) with the 1,369 bulbs. Assuming that the bulbs used are Mazdas, which are 7.75 inches long by 3.25 inches in diameter, the array would come out to be 37 by 37 bulbs. If there is only 1 inch between each bulb, the dimensions of the ceiling needed would be approximately 13 by 13 feet (not including space for the holders or wiring). These lights had less than 10% efficiency (45 watts go to heat, 5 go to light) and would produce just over 60KW of heat. Going out on a limb, this would be equivalent to having 15 of these "Premium Large Muffle Furnaces" all opening into one room. Toasty!
   Although "stealing power from the white companies" sounds really cool, it would probably just end up frying the narrator to a crisp in his hole. Maybe he should have just bought two Cadillacs instead.