Free onions!

I know most people aren’t – and don’t care to be – statisticians. Statisticians spend a lot of time trying to convey the importance of ... well, why they're statisticians.

Journalists are similarly miserable, with journalism ranking among the top jobs in the U.S. for rate of alcoholism. Bourbon with your B-roll?

All that said, you'd think journalists and statisticians, finding themselves rowing down Unhappy River in the same lonely boat, would find some common ground. But, alas, it isn't so. Most statisticians think just about anyone could read words off a teleprompter at 6 and 11 (save for the inch-thick makeup and perfectly coiffed hair). And most journalists, frankly, don't give a rat's big toe about statistics (save for the bite-size pieces that fit on a teleprompter or in a couple of paragraphs).

This, of course, is vastly simplified and is based on absolutely no hard evidence other than the time I've spent number-crunching for a newsroom.

I flipped on XM yesterday in the middle of a CNN Headline News story about rising food prices. Now, I did come in during the middle of the story, so I’m willing to give Mr. Talking Head the benefit of the doubt. But his quote (paraphrased):

The cost of onions rose 400 percent in the last couple of years, then dropped 100 percent.

Again, benefit of the doubt: I’m sure he was trying to say onions are now only 300 percent higher than they were originally. But if they are, indeed, 100 percent cheaper these days, I’d like to claim my free onions.

But why onions? Why can’t the price of, say, iPods or new cars – or even pineapples (!!!) – drop 100 percent?