Coffee Klatch

It is my misfortune to report the news that James Doohan has died.

Yahoo! News and CNN report that “Scotty” was 85 and died from “pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease,” which he was diagnosed with last year. Read the news article for the full story, including his history with the Canadian army (where he got a finger shot off, but which he managed to hide on screen), his radio career, his family life (he had a daughter just five years ago, when he was 80), and his acting career.

Doohan started with Star Trek at the beginning in 1966 and tried seven different accents before settling on the one he became famous for. And he never got tired of people saying, “Beam me up, Scotty!” to him. He even had had it shouted to him across four lanes of traffic on the freeway.

Click here for a slide show in memoriam. Or visit IMDb to see all this movie and tv credits.

Current music: Heart of the Castle, by Kenny Kleinpeter

We all know how the price of gas in the United States has risen higher this year than it’s ever been, but where does the money go? Here’s a quick summary, based upon information from the U.S. Department of Energy and last week’s average cost of $2.33.

Crude Oil - Obviously a bit of the cost goes for crude oil. That’s what many people tie the rising cost of gas to. In fact, 85% of the changes in gas prices over the last 20 years have been related to changes in the cost of crude oil. As of last month, crude oil accounts for 54% of the price at the pump, which would be about $1.25 of that average cost per gallon.

Refining - This is what changes the oil into gasoline. The U.S. Energy Dept. estimates the cost at about 43 cents per gallon. If you use ethanol in your gas, then that cost is lower because it’s cheaper to make. Plus, there’s a 51 cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy. It’s paid for out of our tax money but it reduces the cost of making ethanol, which sort of makes that balance out with the cost for refining, so this one’s harder to figure out.

Marketing and Distribution - As of 2002, about 20 cents per gallon went to marketing. Then there’s all the middlemen that handle, resell, distribute, and transport the gas, which adds another 15 cents per gallon (again, based on the $2.33 per gallon).

Retailers - Less than 7% of the gas stations across the U.S. are owned by the big oil companies. Retailers themselves end up getting less than 9% of the price at the pump. When you add the fees they have to pay for credit card use, it comes out to about 21 cents per gallon that they get out of the total cost.

Taxes - The federal excise tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and state taxes average 25.6 cents per gallon. That’s another 44 cents per gallon.

Did you know? The country we import the most oil from is CANADA! And Mexico is second in quantity. Less that half of the oil the U.S. imports actually comes from OPEC.

For more information, and to read the entire article that I pulled these stats from, visit MSNBC’s Answer Desk.

Current music: Threads of Time, by Cherish the Ladies