9/85Percentage change in the buying power of a Social Security check since 1970: +25

Wall Street Journal

    Of an Aid to Families with Dependent Children check: -33

Congressional Research Service

9/85Percentage of men between the ages of 55 and 59 who were retired in 1970: 10.5

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Who are retired today: 20

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

9/85Number of Chinese Communist Party and government officials forced to retire since 1981: 900,000

New York Times

9/85Professional Ping-Pong players in China: 600

U.S. Table Tennis Association (Colorado Springs)

9/85Percentage of white Americans who say that college athletes should be paid: 15

Media General (Richmond) and Associated Press Poll

    Percentage of black Americans who say this: 41

Media General (Richmond) and Associated Press Poll

9/85Number of Americans who commute from a suburb to a city to go to work: 13,900,000

U.S. Census Bureau

    Who commute from one suburb to another: 26,900,000

U.S. Census Bureau

9/85Percentage of U.S. oil imports today that come from Mexico, Canada, and Britain: 33

U.S. Department of Energy

    That come from Arab countries: 15

U.S. Department of Energy

9/85Percentage of Nicaragua’s exports bought by Japan in 1980: 3

Nicaraguan Central Bank (Managua)

    In 1984: 25

Nicaraguan Central Bank (Managua)

9/85Pounds of frozen chicken Peru exported to the Soviet Union this year to help pay back a loan: 1,860,432

Ministry of Trade (Lima, Peru)

9/85Number of U.S. banks classified as “problems” by the FDIC: 989

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

9/85Percentage of all venture capital funds that were invested In leveraged buyouts in 1983: 14

Venture magazine (New York City)

    In 1984: 21

Venture magazine (New York City)

9/85After-tax profit margin of the average publicly held Japanese company (expressed as a percentage of sales): 1.4

Texas Instruments (Dallas)

    Of the average publicly held U.S. company: 5.6

Texas Instruments (Dallas)

9/85Americans arrested for spying from 1965 to 1975: 7

Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Since 1975: 42

Federal Bureau of Investigation

9/85Number of the 48 commanders of the main contra force, the FDN, who did not serve in Somoza’s National Guard: 2

Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus (U.S. Congress)

9/85Vietnamese and Russians killed on screen in Rambo: 75

Harper’s research

    Americans: 1

Harper’s research

9/85George Bernard Shaw’s lifetime postage bill (at today’s rates): $50,000

New York Times

9/85Portion of the personal mail sent in 1984 that consisted of greeting cards: 1/2

Greeting Card Association (Washington, D.C.)

9/85Copies of The Catcher in the Rye checked out of public libraries in Chicago and never returned: 7,500

Chicago Public Library

9/85Percentage of children born in 1961 who were firstborns: 25.8

American Baby magazine (New York City)

    Percentage today: 43

American Baby magazine (New York City)

9/85Cost of a week’s tuition for two parents at Philadelphia’s Better Baby Institute: $980

Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential (Philadelphia)

9/85Rejection rate of applicants for the 1985 kindergarten class at Manhattan’s Trinity Episcopal School: 85

Trinity Episcopal School (New York City)

    For the 1985 entering class at Stanford: 86

Stanford University

9/85Percentage of fifth graders who say they think a lot about hunger and poverty in the United States: 52

Search Institute (Minneapolis)

    Percentage of ninth graders who say this: 31

Search Institute (Minneapolis)

9/85Percentage of Iowans who say that music videos are one of the “least useful changes” in modern life: 67

Des Moines Register and Tribune

    Who say that front-porch swings “should be brought back”: 57

Des Moines Register and Tribune

9/85Percentage of refrigerators in American households that are either white or almond: 90

Merchandising magazine (New York City)

9/85Average number of new recipes tried in American households every month: 1.6

Vance Research Services (Chicago)

9/85Average number of Americans who drown in the bathtub every day: 1

American Journal of Public Health (Washington, D.C.)