Take a guess as what percentage of Americans finished their reproductive years without having children today.

Now take a guess as to what that rate was in 1970.

Answers here.

Update: Via Galley Friend J.E.: Obviously, there are exceptions to the child-free rule:

World’s oldest new dad is 96

He could be a great-great-grandfather. But at 96, an Indian man is the world’s oldest new dad.

Ramjeet Raghav and his 52-year-old wife, Shakuntala Devi, gave birth to their second son on Oct. 5, according to the Times of India.

He met Devi 10 years ago after practicing a life of celibacy. . . .

It’s excellent news for Mitt Romney that Obama seems to be writing off Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

But on the other hand, shouldn’t Virginia and North Carolina have been stone-cold locks for the GOP this time around? There is no universe in which VA and NC were true battleground states and the Republicans were in serious contention for the White House. Put another way: If the GOP was slugging it out in those two states, it meant they were getting creamed in the real battlegrounds.

Now, it could well be that we’re at the beginning of a long swing upwards for Romney (if Florida really comes off the board, that could be a sign). But to paraphrase Winston Wolf, let’s not all start giving each other high fives just yet.

I’m less interested in the iPad Mini than I am in the Nexus 7, which is going to be an integral part of my next woodworking project. (Mind=Blown?) But I wonder that’s part of something larger going on in the tech culture, because this ad is as devastating as anything since this:

Galley Friend J.P. dips into the archives for a George F. Will column from 2005 in which he deals with Jimmy Carter and, well . . . if you have young children present you may want to send them to another room before clicking on the link.

They show you the Ghost Hawks.

Here’s Kobe Bryant embracing his heel heat:

 “I tell Steve, you won MVP but I was playing with Smush Parker,” Bryant said before the Lakers‘ 93-75 exhibition loss Wednesday to the Portland Trail Blazers at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. “He’s playing with [Leandro] Barbosa. I’m playing with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness.” . . .

“Smush Parker was the worst,” Bryant said. “He shouldn’t have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.” . . .

“Smush Parker, with Tierre Brown as the backup,” said Bryant, laughing. “I’m taking 45 shots a game. What was I supposed to do, pass the ball in to Chris Mihm? Chris Mihm?” . . .

Another reporter sarcastically gave Brown credit for at least stepping foot on the court even if his mind wasn’t always there.

“He was present,” Bryant said with a smirk. “He was there.”

“So it was like ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’?” another reporter asked.

Bryant laughed. “Exactly,” he said.

Cue outraged defense from Santino in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

In case you’ve ever wondered how much Sesame Street makes from licensing Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, etc.

Then there’s our comment of the week from Galley Reader M.K.:

Brother, lay off the hyperbole.  You’re either listening to too much sports radio (“I’ll say it.  Dwight Howard’s performance last night was the G.O.A.T.”) or reading too many comic books (“Worst. Episode. Evar.”)

“Catastrophically bad”?  “[W]ould have been career-ending”?  You sound like Andrew Sullivan.  And considering the response from outside your isolation chamber, you missed the mark utterly.  There is no “Heisenberg effect” of Twitter.  Politics is not practiced alone.  It is meant to change upon contact with other people, and it is otherwise meaningless.

Paul Ryan is a practiced explainer — indeed, he is highly skilled in presenting the conservative case by making (deliberately) complicated issues digestible to low-information voters.  He was clearly waylaid by Biden, the veteran obfuscater of four decades’ experience.  Mitt Romney also underestimated his opponents some forty debates ago, and only two weeks ago did we see the improvement that attends experience.  Ryan naïvely assumed his explanatory gifts would carry the day, rather than being prepared to <i>force</i> the opportunity to explain over Biden’s rather surprising raspberries, interruptions, and fart noises.  He was not as prepared for a taping of <i>Crossfire with Martha Raddatz</i> as affable old Joe.

But the bottom line is, Ryan is introducing himself to the nation.  As a loyal number two, his job above all others is to promote the top of the ticket, which he did consistently (and in contrast to Biden, who mentioned Obama once).  His primary goal on Thursday was to not screw up and give the media material to chew on until Tuesday.  His next most important goal was to present himself as relaxed and confident in his ability to radiate competence.  In the few moments between Biden’s overbearing slapstick, Ryan showed a command of the arguments.  Even the most “catastrophically bad” performances by veep candidates amount to nothing (cf. Bentsen-Quayle; Gore-Quayle-Stockdale).  The goal is to demonstrate a baseline competence.  Hardcore DailyKosian critics on the left could not say Ryan betrayed a “catastrophic[]” incompetence.

No, the problem with your one-man echo-chamber — particularly with a politician for whom you personally have the very highest of expectations — is that you will tend to hyper-focus on not just weaknesses but the <i>perceived weaknesses</i> of your champion, imagining what your worst opponent might think of what you’re both watching.  “That won’t sound good to women in the 30-45 demo.” “Ohh, don’t say that! You’re playing right into the stereotype they have about theocons!”

This is meta-politics, the disease of our age.  Our opinions are not based on the substance of the disagreement but rather how we perceive those opinions will be received by other people.  “I agree with his pro-life policy, sure, but I’m not sure if it will poll well with the suburban housewives outside Philly.”  Everyone is a pundit now.  No one talks substance, they talk process. You have fallen into this trap.

The great James Bowman has been banging the drum about the emptiness of meta-politics for year, but it seems there isn’t much audience for media theory.  Too bad, because he is one of the few who gets it:

http://www.jamesbowman.net/diaryDetail.asp?hpID=218

It is malpractice to pundificate without having read Bowman’s book, <i>Media Madness</i>.

We’re getting awfully close to book time for What to Expect When No One’s Expecting. A final cover is in the works, review galleys should be sent out shortly, and I’m moving shame-facedly into full-time pimp mode. (I should get my 1,000th Twitter follower this weekend!)

With that will come a spate of demography-related pieces, like this one about the CDC birth numbers from last week.

Also, if you’re into Goodreads, there’s a page for the book there now. I’ll be filling it out over the next few days and making it more useful.

Off to shower now. I hear you feel a little less dirty each time . . .