With the growing number of solo diners, hotels and resorts are making sure they are comfortable. ThePlume restaurant in Washington, D.C., created a program for solo diners last fall; several of its 18 seats arededicated to diners who want a sense of privacy yet a feeling of inclusion. “The seating for this type of dinerdoesn’t include being in the center of the room,” said the restaurant’s manager, Sean Mulligan. “We make surethey are not near the entrance or exit for privacy and  31  while making sure the diners have items likenewspapers and magazines delivered to their table if they need it.” At Metropolitan by Miami Beach, a dinner-for-one menu made its  32  earlier this year, withrecommended seating at the corner of the hotel’s terrace and the Traymore bar  33  for people-watchingalong a pedestrian area of Miami Beach Drive. At the Atwood Restaurant in Chicago, which was renovatedlast year, the general manager said an extension of the bar area was intentionally  34  into the lobby toattract the solo diner. Bjorn Hanson, a clinical professor of  35  and tourism at New York University’s Tisch Center, saidhe has observed a recent increase in solo dining among those traveling on their own. “This type of experiencecontinues to become more of a desire, and much of the stigma is less of an issue for younger travelers,” he saidin an email.

        Today, there isn’t much you can do with the tiny pocket. Some people suggest using them to keep coins orkeys, but they tend to dig into your hip. Others recommend them for matches, condoms, and tickets, but those aredifficult to extract if your fingers aren’t similarly tiny. The pockets are somewhat helpful for carrying small piecesof hand jewelry for a few moments — like if you plan to propose to your significant other, or if someone else iswashing his hands and wants you to hold on to his rings — but that’s pretty much it. For the most part, it’s best toignore them and think about the pockets as a piece of history that’s still with us.

      At the beginning of the 20th century, less than 1,000 colleges with 160,000 students existed in the US. The number of colleges skyrocketed in waves, during the early and mid 20th century. State universities grew from small institutions of fewer than 1,000 students to campuses with 40,000 more students, with networks of regional campuses around the state. In turn, regional campuses broke away and became separate universities.

      To handle the explosive growth of K–12 education, every state set up a network of teachers’colleges, beginning with Massachusetts in the 1830s. After 1950, they became state colleges and then state universities with a broad curriculum. Major new trends included the development of the junior colleges. They were usually set up by city school systems starting in the 1920s. By the 1960s they were renamed as “community colleges.”

      Junior colleges grew from 20 in number in 1909, to 170 in 1919. By 1922, 37 states had set up 70 junior colleges, enrolling about 150 students each. Meanwhile, another 137 were privately operated, with about 60 students each. Rapid expansion continued in the 1920s, with 440 junior colleges in 1930 enrolling about 70,000 students. The peak year for private institutions came in 1949, when there were 322 junior colleges in all; 180 were affiliated with churches, 108 were independent and non-profit, and 34 were private schools being run for-profit.

      Many factors contributed to rapid growth of community colleges. Students parents and businessmen wanted nearby, low-cost schools to provide training for the growing white-collar labor force, as well as for more advanced technical jobs in the blue-collar sphere. Four-year colleges were also growing, albeit not as fast; however, many of them were located in rural or small-town areas away from the fast-growing metropolis. Community colleges continue as open-enrollment, low-cost institutions with a strong component of vocational education, as well as a low-cost preparation for transfer students into four-year schools. They appeal to a poorer, older, less prepared element.