Imitation is the best form of flattery. The Eagle-Tribune, Lawrence, Mass., wanted a quick computer assisted story that would give a reporter a chance to learn databases as well as grab the reader. So we borrowed a story that was done by Steve Doig at the Miami Herald.
We requested dog registrations for 20 communities in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. Some towns used FoxPro and provided dog registrations, including name, breed, owners, address, color and sex, on floppy diskettes. Others gave us the data on nine-track tapes. Some towns required the reporter to input data. In the end, we had 18,000 dogs. We crunched them down by most common breed per town, per state, and most common name per breed. The winner: Max, the mutt.
The payoff. A Plaistow, N.H. woman who had 33 Chihuahuas - each with its own bed, living in her home. They all ate at 3 p.m., and she never let them out of her home. Oh yes, the most common Chihuahua's name? Chico, of course.