We were dumbstruck to learn that even in this multicultural era of
seldom enforced immigration laws – the last name Smith still stands as the most common surname in the United States – and as of 2021 there are 2,627,141 people with this last name living today. This article points out that there is always at any given time a Smith serving in Congress (currently that duty falls on the shoulders of Representative Chris Smith, who hails from the 4th District of New Jersey). This article rambles on for seven pages with just these sort of charming factoids:
• During W.W. II there were nearly 76,000 Smiths in uniform
• Roughly eighty Smiths die in the United States every day, only to be replaced by an equal number of newborn Smiths
•A quarter of a million Smiths are arrested annually, etc., etc., etc….
The author makes it quite clear that there are Smiths in almost every field of endeavor and the name appears frequently in the history books of the nation – and despite all this minutia, the article is never boring.
