"She is come at last - at last - and all is gas and goiters." —Charles Dickens, "Nicholas Nickleby," 1839

"[The slingshot] to have some gas with the birds." —James Joyce, "Dubliners: An Encounter," 1914

"When it comes to dancing, she's a gasser." —Cab Calloway, "The Hepsters Dictionary," 1944

Look at the August 2, 1945 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Our issue before the Japanese surrender and the ending of World War II. 

Not a word about the dramatic developments to come in days. The bomb at Hiroshima, then at Nagasaki. Finally, the surrender. And the welcoming (and uncertainty) of peacetime.

Look at the December 18, 1941 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Our first issue after the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. 

Not a word about the dramatic developments. The issue must have gone to the printer by December 7.

Nationally, American households’ natural gas bills averaged $439 in 2014. This is the latest estimate of the Labor Department’s Consumer Expenditure Survey.

This amount is actually lower than the average gas bills in six prior years. 

In 2008, when the average was at an all-time high of $531. In 2006, when the average was $509. 

"Those who are attacking public service regulation frequently introduce what they have to say by a preliminary observation, to the effect that 'there is a widespread belief that regulation has broken down.'  A few local instances of dissatisfaction over the outcome of rate cases are multiplied into 'widespread dissatisfaction.'  An undersized bass is converted into a fish of enormous size and weight."  Henry Spurr, July 7, 1932

Natural gas bills were 0.40 percent of Americans' consumption expenditures in 2015. 

In other words, one dollar out of every two hundred and fifty dollars of expenditures is spent on gas. Not that much.

Indeed, this percentage in 2015 was the lowest in any year since the Commerce Department started tracking expenditures in 1959. 

Only 2012 had a percentage as low as 0.40. Natural gas bills were 0.45 percent of expenditures in 2013, and 0.47 percent in 2014.

Spoiler alert! Here are answers to the crossword puzzle, State PUCs, in the July 2016 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly:

Across

1. Typical no. of commissioners in states: five

3. Very common in commission names: service

5. In Iowa, New Jersey, Vermont's names: board

7. Commissions' association: naruc

9. Smaller no. of commissioners in states: three

11. Commissioners' research arm: nrri

12. ___ discrimination: undue

13. Acronym for commission: psc

19. Commissions' judges: alj

"I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison." -W.C. Fields

"We believe that electricity exists because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it. But we cannot figure out how it travels inside wires." -Dave Barry

"In the early 1980s, I got into a war with my management. They just kept on suing me and I lost everything. So I had to go out on tour to make sure the electricity stayed on." -Meat Loaf, musician

On August 11, 1860, Otto Blathy was born in Tata, Hungary. He was the co-inventor of the transformer at age twenty-five.

Indeed, Otto literally came up with the name transformer. Not only did the term transformer stick in our industry...

Transformers ultimately became the name of Hasbro's robots in disguise, Bumblebee and his team of heroic autobots, on the hunt for the evil Decepticons loose on earth. Their motto, "Rev up and roll out."