8/87Percentage increase in 1986 in the number of Americans who own gold: 60

Gold Information Center (New York City)

8/87Percentage increase in 1986 in foreign deposits in Luxembourg banks: 40

Bank International of Luxembourg (New York City)

8/87Average earnings of the ten most prosperous Wall Street professionals in 1986: $68,800,000

Financial World (New York City)

8/87Average annual percentage increase, since 1981, in the productivity of U.S. manufacturing workers: 4

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Average annual percentage increase, since 1981, in the hourly wage of U.S. manufacturing workers: 0.8

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics

8/87Percentage of 30- to 34-year-old heads of households who owned their own homes in 1975: 62.2

Mortgage Bankers Association of America (Washington, D.C.)

    Percentage who own their own homes today: 53.2

Mortgage Bankers Association of America (Washington, D.C.)

8/87Number of Palestinian homes in the West Bank that have been demolished or sealed by Israel since 1967: 1,500

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (New York City)

8/87Number of mosques in the Gaza Strip in 1967: 71

Israeli Consulate (New York City)

    Today: 153

Israeli Consulate (New York City)

8/87Percentage increase in South Africa’s 1988 defense budget: 30

South African Embassy (Washington, D.C.)

    Percentage increase in its 1988 police budget: 50

Washington Post

8/87Percentage of prison inmates in the United States in 1925 who were black: 23

United States Bureau of Justice Statistics

    Percentage today: 46

United States Bureau of Justice Statistics

8/87Campaign contributions made by lawyers in the Pennzoil-Texaco lawsuit to Texas judges: $387,900

Austin American Statesman

8/87Campaign contributions made by George Bush’s PAC to Iowa and New Hampshire state candidates in 1986: $80,000

Common Cause (Washington, D.C.)

8/87Percentage of Republican Party donors who say they could not support George Bush for the presidency: 2

John Green, Department of Political Science, Furman University (Greenville, S.C.)

8/87Amount the Iowa Democratic Party charges candidates for a list of the state’s registered Democrats: $10,000

Iowa Democratic Party (Des Moines)

8/87Acres of lawn in the United States: 25,000,000

Dr. John H. Falk, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.)

8/87Total acres in Indiana: 23,158,400

Statistical Abstract of the United States (United States Census Bureau)

8/87Percentage of California’s almond crop exported to Japan and Europe in the last year: 81

California Almond Growers Exchange (Sacramento)

8/87Amount the Tobacco Institute donated to underwrite the antidrug booklet Helping Youth Say No: $70,000

National Association of State Boards of Education (Alexandria, Va.)

8/87Record-store clerks arrested this year on obscenity charges for selling certain albums to minors: 1

Parents Music Resource Center (Arlington, Va.)

8/87Hours that Leave It to Beaver is on the air each week in Des Moines: 6

T.V. Guide (Radnor, Pa.)/Harper’s_ research

8/87Number of TV broadcasters who have lost their license due to a Fairness Doctrine violation: 0

United States Federal Communications Commission

8/87Price of a copy of Jim & Tammy Bakker, the authorized history of the PTL Club, in 1986: $100

PTL Ministries (Charlotte, N.C.)

    Today: $20

PTL Ministries (Charlotte, N.C.)

8/87Market value of Dwight Gooden’s rookie-year baseball card last fall: $120

Sports Collectors Digest (Iola, Wis.)

8/87Today: $70

Sports Collectors Digest (Iola, Wis.)

8/87Vials of bleach that will be distributed to IV-drug users in San Francisco this year: 14,000

MidCity Consortium to Combat AIDS (San Francisco)

8/87Condoms that New York City will distribute at singles bars, porn theaters, and massage parlors this year: 500,000

New York City Department of Health

8/87Estimated amount Americans will spend on bogus AIDS treatment in 1987: $1,000,000,000

House Subcommittee on Health and Longterm Care (Washington, D.C.)

8/87Percentage of Americans who say they have altered their plans because of astrology reports: 7

Public Opinion Laboratory (Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Ill.)

8/87Percentage of women’s bathing suits sold in 1977 that were bikinis: 51

MRCA Information Services (Stamford, Ct.)

    In 1986: 19

MRCA Information Services (Stamford, Ct.)

8/87Items in the L.L. Bean Women’s Outdoor catalogue offered in various shades of pink: 57

L.L. Bean (Freeport, Me.)

8/87Blossoms needed to supply nectar for one hummingbird each day: 1,600

New York Botanical Gardens

8/87Takes required to film Tip O’Neill’s Miller Lite commercial: 79

Backer & Spielvogel (New York City)

8/87Times New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal’s office door was painted before he was happy with the color: 4

Spy (New York City)