Dozens of bears are found dead in Alaska and Canada every summer, killed
by blood lost to the voracious mosquito. The estimated life-expectancy
of a naked man on the tundra in summer is about 15 minutes. In that
time, approximately 250,000 mosquitoes would have drawn enough blood to
kill him.
-- Gus McLeavy, "Day-by-Day Trivia Almanac"
Reporters like Bill Greider from the Washington Post and Him
Naughton of the New York Time for instance, had to file long, detailed,
and relatively complex stories every day -- while my own deadline fell
every two weeks -- but neither of them ever seemed in a hurry about
getting their work done, and from time to time they would try to console
me about the terrible pressure I always seemed to be laboring under....