— A leaf blower with a two-stroke engine emits 299 times the hydrocarbons of a Ford Raptor pickup truck (Washington Post, Sept. 17).

— In October, there were almost 5.7 million “missing workers” — people who had dropped out of the labor force but, under trends prevailing before the Great Recession, would have had jobs or been looking for work.

Counting them would have raised October’s unemployment rate to about 10 percent, instead of the reported 7 percent (the Economic Policy Institute).

— Half the Republicans in the House have served three years or less (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23).