Pinks & Blues, Who Lasts, And Obits

Perhaps someone here who knows stats and the human race better than I (which is most everybody) can tell me this:

How come we usually have about eleven or so obituaries in the daily paper? Sure, there are days when there might be only eight, or sometimes twenty-plus; but generally you can count on somewhere around eleven to fourteen. Never just one, never fifty.

Generally, when you get to very old age, there are 107 women to 100 men. The figure holds up pretty well. And while there are more boys born than girls, it’s pretty close to 1:1 – how does Mother Nature arrange that balance?

I would guess that when kids are conceived, it would be random; you might have dozens of boys and a few girls. Or a few boys and loads of girls. But not guys and gals all over the place producing like unto themselves in such an orderly way.

And, at the other end, people tend to get their wings (or their asbestos underwear) at a fairly consistent rate. That’s natural death, by the way, and not as a result of gang battles, war or jumbo jets on fire crashing into huge cruise ships.

Why do kids enter puberty in the hours before sunrise? Why not at 11:30am, or 7:15pm, or any other time? When I pass over and meet Mother Nature (aka, God), I’ll have to remember that I wondered about these.