Cal State Prof Is a Demon for California Data

James S. Fay of Berkeley has compiled enough data on California to keep a trivia game going for months. His amalgamation of statistics, percentages and little-known facts on the state is called California Almanac 1986-87. This is the second and an updated edition of the book which has just been published by the Presidio Press in Novato.

Fay, a professor of political science at Cal State Hayward, teaches a course in California government. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He found that assembling statistical data for use in his classes was a slow and often difficult process.

Fay decided to compile a book that would serve as a reference guide to more specialized data. With the aid of two editors--his wife, Stephanie, a professor of English at UC Davis, and Anne Grodzins Lipow, a senior librarian and director of library education at UC Berkeley--Fay began work on the first edition covering 1984-85.

“We were on the telephone by the hour calling federal and state agencies for data that we fed into a computer,” he said. “One of the most useful was the U.S. Statistical Abstract that contains a wealth of information. It is published by the Census Bureau each year. It covers county and city populations, agricultural statistics, voter registration and other useful facts.”

Gradually the chapters began to take form under headings such as population, health, education, geography, defense and veterans affairs, elections and politics, energy, science and agriculture, to mention but a few.

The 1983 tally shows that California, with a population of 25 million, is the most populous state in the nation, and that more than 14 million persons--or approximately 60% of the state’s population--live in Los Angeles County and the immediate adjacent counties of Orange, Riverside and Ventura.

“For tourists and families looking for places to go on Sunday outings, we’ve listed all county museums, gardens, zoos and places of historical interest,” Fay said. “Additionally, we’ve listed every state and federal park in California.”

The section on agriculture shows that milk and cream tops the production list, followed by cattle and calves. Grapes rank third in output, while cotton is fourth. California grows more carrots, cauliflower and celery than any state in the nation.

“Wineries in California produce 91% of the nation’s wine,” he continued, “but we’re only the third largest consumer. In Washington, D.C., they drink more wine than anyplace in the country. Nevada is the second biggest consumer.”

In a section on law and justice, Fay, who is an attorney, writes that California has 800,000 lawyers and 1,400 judges. The number of lawyers in the state has increased more than 800% in the past 60 years.

Fay traced the growth of mining and minerals within the state since James Marshall made the initial discovery of gold in California while constructing a sawmill for John Sutter on the American River in January, 1848.

“Today, the state leads the nation in tungsten production and mines important quantities of magnesium, gold, silver, iron ore, mercury, and rare earths,” he wrote. “The most important production in the state is fuel production--oil and natural gas. California is fourth among the states in the nation in oil production and ranks seventh in natural gas production.”

Fay, who once served as an Army intelligence officer, ferreted out some little-known facts during the course of his research. Some can be classified as oddities. He quotes a figure of 4,884 drinking places in California, which seems low considering all the neon martini glasses visible in such cities as San Francisco.

There are 20,844 licensed barbers in the state. Cigar stores and stands dispensing tobacco have dwindled to 170. In Los Angeles, some 4,181,600 households had television sets, according to a 1982 survey.

Fay has included the official symbols, slogans and song of California. Gold prevails as the main theme and is of course the official state mineral. Our nickname is the Golden State, blue and gold the colors, the California golden trout the state fish, and the golden poppy the official flower.

“The worst choice was our official song,” Fay commented. “It’s called ‘I Love You, California.’ It was copyrighted in 1913 by A. F. Frankenstein with lyrics by F. B. Silverwood. The opening stanza goes like this:

I love you, California.

You’re the greatest state of all.

I love you in winter, summer,

spring and in the fall.”

Fay paused. “It gets worse as it continues,” he remarked. “Most people have never heard it.”