Harper’s Index

Chance that an American woman considers herself a victim of injustice: 1 in 5

Chance that an American man considers himself a victim of injustice: 1 in 4

Number of witnesses called in the House campaign-finance investigation who have taken the Fifth: 53

Amount Bill Clinton earned last year in residuals for his 1992 saxophone performance on Arsenio Hall : $76

Percentage of African Americans who say they have never heard of Kenneth Starr: 26

Percentage of all American adults under the age of 33 who say this: 21

Fee for which The Amazing Kreskin says he would be willing to intercede in Starr's investigation: $1

Number of the 535 free subscriptions Hustler offered members of Congress last year that were rejected: 16

Chance that an impotence drug up for approval by the FDA lists yawning as a side effect: 1 in 3

Number of rooms planned for the Lunar Hilton: 5,000

Percentage of Americans who say they are confident that passenger trips to the moon will occur in their lifetime: 29

Percentage who say they are confident that Social Security will provide them with “significant” income: 26

Chance that a New Yorker cut from state welfare rolls in 1997's first quarter was employed within 3 months: 1 in 3

Minimum amount per 3-month period a former New York welfare recipient may earn and be considered “employed”: $100

Number of city and state agencies suing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over his withholding of public records: 4

Number of corporate spies in the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals: 6,600

Months before the 1929 stock market crash that Forbes magazine noted the “heroic scale” of U.S. economic growth: 4

Percentage change since 1994 in the annual number of independent commercial banks opening in the U.S.: +276

Maximum business deduction allowed U.S. employers per employee parking space they provide: $175

Maximum deduction allowed employers for van-pool or mass-transit expenses, per employee: $65

Ratio of pollution generated by a leaf blower in one hour to that generated by driving a car one hundred miles: 1:1

Price of Vermont's ten-day International Summer Institute for Youth in Holocaust Studies camp: $1,000

Percentage of last year's campers who were Jewish: 8

Number of field hands working at Mt. Vernon this summer as Pioneer Farmer Interns: 7

Chance that a mile of Connecticut beach is open to the public: 1 in 3

Percentage of all privately owned bison in the U.S. that belong to Ted Turner: 7

Number of animals that died in accidents at Disney's new Animal Kingdom park before it opened last April: 27

Percentage of the lab animals launched aboard NASA's Neurolab last April that died in orbit, snails excluded: 70

Percentage of U.S. plant species cited as “threatened by extinction” by the World Conservation Union last April: 29

Hours after this announcement that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt declared war on weeds: 5.5

Portion of the world's rice exports that Indonesia plans to import this year: 1/5

Estimated number of Rwandan households headed by children: 85,000

Number of juvenile offenders awaiting execution in the U.S.: 69

Amount the California prison system has spent since 1993 to prevent birds from being electrocuted by its fences: $3,400,000

Percentage change since 1994 in membership in the American Emu Association: -70

Membership of Holland's Society Against Swearing: 22,400

Number of Dutch authors to whom the Society has mailed ballpoints inscribed “watch your pen”: 2,000

Number of words in the 1999 Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary whose “offensive” designation will be italicized: 200

Number of days last March that a Georgia teen was suspended after wearing a Pepsi shirt on his school's “Coke Day”: 1

Factor by which the sweetness of Sucralose, a newly approved sweetener, exceeds that of sugar: 600

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