Hoagie Munching and Number Crunching   

Ever curious about why Philadelphians make merry in the annual Mummers Parade? Scratching your head over Wissahickon Valley ticks? Wonder how many Philly gas stations were robbed last year?

Somebody does. Those facts and figures – along with plenty of screamingly dull ones involving county budgets and crop yields – are included in a regional almanac introduced last fall by the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 700-page book, which sells for $8, was ~nspired by the Philadelphia Bulletin Almanac, last published in 1976 after 52 editions. The Bulletin itself closed in 1982.

bompiled by Editor Herb Kestenbaum and three reporters, the Inky almanac has sold 12,000 copies.

Kestenbaum, who joined the Inquirer in 1974, says he wants the revived almanac to earn the same reputation as its Bulletin model. "It had the nitty-gritty details no one could find anywhere else under one cover," he says. "It was a bible around the newsroom."

üt took the team a year to track down enough statistics and other tidbits from bureaucrats or sports teams or city agencies or wherever their instincts led them. One reporter even explored neighborhoods to brainstorm about what material residents might find useful.

Besides standards such as the city's homicide rate and 15 years of New Jersey Turnpike revenues, the book includes obituaries of prominent locals, an essay examining whether the Philadelphia Zoo can rightfully claim to be America's first, and a detailed Sistory of the hoagie, a local delicacy so respected around town that the mayor once declared it "the official sandwich of Philadelphia."

That was May 6, 1992. You can look it up.