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July 1995

June 1995 August 1995

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[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change in the number of rural Americans living in mobile homes between 1980 and 1990 : +52

[Harper’s Index]

Maximum price of a three-year license to sell hot dogs outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art : $900,600

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since 1970 in the number of American children born to one white and one non-white parent : +253

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of the U.S. population whose ancestors came through Ellis Island : 2/5

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the world’s twenty largest banks that are American, Chinese, or Japanese, respectively : 0,1,11

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a U.S. urban public-school student in 1909 was born to immigrants : 1 in 2

[Harper’s Index]

Gallons of onion ice cream sold last summer at Vidalia restaurant in Washington, D.C. : 10

[Harper’s Index]

Number of people who applied for thirty-six tasting positions at an Oakland ice cream company last winter : 10,000

[Harper’s Index]

Number of people who developed food poisoning after attending a Connecticut Food Association reception last spring : 57

[Harper’s Index]

Weight, in pounds, of an apple pie baked by students at Spokane Community College last July : 33,500

[Harper’s Index]

Date on which the state of Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery : 3/21/95

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the forty-four US. House and Senate committees that are chaired by white men : 41

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the first five presidents of the United States who died on the Fourth of July : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Number of pollsters retained for use by President Clinton : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Average number of times a commercial beekeeper is stung each year : 400

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a fatal act of terrorism committed in the United States since 1982 was attributed to a domestic group : 2 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who believe citizens do not have the right to buy and store “large quantities of weapons” : 71

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage who say armed, antigovernment groups should be infiltrated “even if it infringes on their constitutional rights” : 72

[Harper’s Index]

Number of suburban murder-for-hire cases filed with U.S. law enforcement agencies since 1988 : 1,053

[Harper’s Index]

Number of convicted felons who ran for the position of Chicago alderman this year : 5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated property damage caused in a New York suburb last spring by a man firing a slingshot from his Lincoln : $7,000

[Harper’s Index]

Ratio of children’s emergency-room visits for injuries related to fireworks last year to those related to “desk supplies” : 1:5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated number of concurrent “killer bee” stings that a healthy adult human can survive : 1,300

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that an act of terrorism committed worldwide in the last year killed an American : 1 in 80

[Harper’s Index]

Number of patients referred to Norway’s new hypochondria clinic since it opened in March : 23

[Harper’s Index]

Number of years Jeanne Louise Calment, France’s oldest woman, smoked cigarettes before she quit in 1993 : 98

[Harper’s Index]

Change since 1976 in the percentage of white American high school seniors who smoke : ???7.5

[Harper’s Index]

Change since then in the percentage of black high school seniors who do : ???20.8

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a minimum-wage earner is over the age of nineteen : 2 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of men between twenty-five and thirty-four who earn enough to keep a family of four from poverty : 66

[Harper’s Index]

Median annual income Americans believe they would need to fulfill their “dreams” : $102,200

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since last year in the number of Americans who say they would require $1 million to do so : +75

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change in the number of rural Americans living in mobile homes between 1980 and 1990 : +52

[Harper’s Index]

Maximum price of a three-year license to sell hot dogs outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art : $900,600

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since 1970 in the number of American children born to one white and one non-white parent : +253

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of the U.S. population whose ancestors came through Ellis Island : 2/5

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the world’s twenty largest banks that are American, Chinese, or Japanese, respectively : 0,1,11

[Harper’s Index]

Rank of China, among the world’s largest tobacco producers : 1

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since last year in retail car sales in Mexico : ???42

[Harper’s Index]

Average annual interest rate on a car loan in Mexico : 102

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a U.S. urban public-school student in 1909 was born to immigrants : 1 in 2

[Harper’s Index]

Gallons of onion ice cream sold last summer at Vidalia restaurant in Washington, D.C. : 10

[Harper’s Index]

Number of people who applied for thirty-six tasting positions at an Oakland ice cream company last winter : 10,000

[Harper’s Index]

Number of people who developed food poisoning after attending a Connecticut Food Association reception last spring : 57

[Harper’s Index]

Weight, in pounds, of an apple pie baked by students at Spokane Community College last July : 33,500

[Harper’s Index]

Date on which the state of Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery : 3/21/95

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the forty-four US. House and Senate committees that are chaired by white men : 41

[Harper’s Index]

Number of the first five presidents of the United States who died on the Fourth of July : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Number of pollsters retained for use by President Clinton : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Average number of times a commercial beekeeper is stung each year : 400

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a fatal act of terrorism committed in the United States since 1982 was attributed to a domestic group : 2 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who believe citizens do not have the right to buy and store “large quantities of weapons” : 71

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage who say armed, antigovernment groups should be infiltrated “even if it infringes on their constitutional rights” : 72

[Harper’s Index]

Number of suburban murder-for-hire cases filed with U.S. law enforcement agencies since 1988 : 1,053

[Harper’s Index]

Number of convicted felons who ran for the position of Chicago alderman this year : 5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated property damage caused in a New York suburb last spring by a man firing a slingshot from his Lincoln : $7,000

[Harper’s Index]

Ratio of children’s emergency-room visits for injuries related to fireworks last year to those related to “desk supplies” : 1:5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated number of concurrent “killer bee” stings that a healthy adult human can survive : 1,300

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that an act of terrorism committed worldwide in the last year killed an American : 1 in 80

[Harper’s Index]

Number of patients referred to Norway’s new hypochondria clinic since it opened in March : 23

[Harper’s Index]

Number of years Jeanne Louise Calment, France’s oldest woman, smoked cigarettes before she quit in 1993 : 98

[Harper’s Index]

Change since 1976 in the percentage of white American high school seniors who smoke : ???7.5

[Harper’s Index]

Change since then in the percentage of black high school seniors who do : ???20.8

[Harper’s Index]

Chances that a minimum-wage earner is over the age of nineteen : 2 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of men between twenty-five and thirty-four who earn enough to keep a family of four from poverty : 66

[Harper’s Index]

Median annual income Americans believe they would need to fulfill their “dreams” : $102,200

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since last year in the number of Americans who say they would require $1 million to do so : +75

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change in the number of rural Americans living in mobile homes between 1980 and 1990 : +52

[Article]

The New Right writes back

by Darcy Peters, Marcus Boldt,

[Article]

How a Bill Becomes a Law: the New Approach

by Julie Kays,

[Poem]

C’mon Pigs of Western Civilization

by Allen Ginsberg,

[Article]

Treading water in the press pool

by Rick Wartzman,

[Article]

A crib sheet for Clinton-bashers

by Harper’s Staff,

[Photography]

The twins

by Tina Barney,

[illustration]

American style

Art by Terry Niedzialek,

[Article]

Meeting McNamara

by Harper’s Staff,

[Article]

Confessions of a Dirty Warrior

by Fernando Almirón,Translated by Alex Frankel,

[Article]

Wizards of id

by Duncan Scott,

[Article]

David Koresh and the FBI’s religious intolerance

by James D. Tabor, Eugene V. Gallagher,

[illustration]

Retablo of Maria Marcos Reballoso and Leonardo Arsola

by Harper’s Staff,

[Cartoon]

Kemosabe no more

by Joe R. Lansdale,Drawn by Timothy Truman, Rick Magyar,

[Poetry]

The motor running under me is running hot

by Harper’s Staff,

[Article]

How do you stop an elephant?

by Robert C. Smith,

[illustration]

Sacraments for a high priest

Art by Roxy Paine,

[Article]

Spaced mountain

by Patrick Wells, Douglas Rushkoff,

[Fiction]

Tobacco’s latest marketing ploy?

by Harper’s Staff,

[Photography]

Jews of the 70s

3 generations

by Marc A. Jacobs,

[Article]

Lost loves

by Harper’s Staff,

[Article]

The not-so-great American novel

by Sarah Heekin,

[illustration]

Side stroke

Art by Lorraine Shemesh,

[Poetry]

The overhead rack

by John Updike,

[Article]

Modern terms

by Thomas Merton,

[Illustration]

Action painting

Art by Mark Tansey,

[Letters]

Letters

by Harper’s Staff,

[Harper’s Index]

Harper’s index

by Harper’s Staff,

[Article]

Seen But Not Heard

The message of the Oklahoma bombing

by Lewis H. Lapham,

[Article]

Dancing with headhunters

Scenes from the downsized life

by G.J. Meyer,

[Article]

Toxic dreams

A California town finds meaning in an acid pit

by Jack Hitt,

[Fiction]

The mirror

by Lynn Freed,

[Reviews]

Modern Victorians

Dressing politics in the costume of history

by Marilynne Robinson,

[Article]

Inscribed upon the body

On nose, chest, and hands, a father's life

by Natalie Kusz,

[Double acrostic]

No. 151

by Thomas Hazlehurst Middleton,

[Puzzle]

Eleventh commandment

by E.R. Galli,

[Findings]

A skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw.

[Findings]

The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was driven by the quadrupling of its population and consequent rural impoverishment, an overabundance of qualified applicants for elite academic degrees, rising costs and trade deficits, and falling productivity, which were variously associated with internal unrest, opium imports, and the depletion of silver reserves.

[Findings]

Men can rate the facial attractiveness of women without paying attention, but women cannot do the same for men; gay men find the faces of purportedly fertile women and men more attractive; adolescents and adults both rate the faces of children younger than 4.6 years old as more appealing than those of older children; and body odors associated with fear quicken the visual processing of others’ facial expressions of fear.

[Findings]

The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was driven by the quadrupling of its population and consequent rural impoverishment, an overabundance of qualified applicants for elite academic degrees, rising costs and trade deficits, and falling productivity, which were variously associated with internal unrest, opium imports, and the depletion of silver reserves.

[Findings]

Men can rate the facial attractiveness of women without paying attention, but women cannot do the same for men; gay men find the faces of purportedly fertile women and men more attractive; adolescents and adults both rate the faces of children younger than 4.6 years old as more appealing than those of older children; and body odors associated with fear quicken the visual processing of others’ facial expressions of fear.