8/88Number of the last 10 elections that were won by the nominee who gave the most optimistic convention speech: 9

Harold Zullow and Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

8/88Funds budgeted by the Republican National Committee for negative research on Michael Dukakis: $500,000

Republican National Committee (Washington)

    Funds budgeted by the Democratic National Committee for negative research on George Bush: $250,000

Democratic National Committee (Washington)

8/88Percentage of Aquarians who are Democrats: 47

National Opinion Research Center (Chicago)/ Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut (Storrs, Conn.)

    Percentage of Librans who are: 32

National Opinion Research Center (Chicago)/ Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut (Storrs, Conn.)

8/88Amount a co-chairman of the Bush campaign’s finance committee contributed to the Dukakis campaign: $1,000

Dukakis for President (Boston)/Bush for President (Washington)

8/88Total funds raised by American Jewish groups last year: $2,500,000,000

Donald Feldstein, Council of Jewish Federations (N.Y.C.)

8/88Amount Israel has spent since December on defense forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: $300,000,000

New York Times

8/88Price of an Al-Asr Prayer Watch, which indicates the direction of Mecca and five daily Muslim prayer times: $95

ASR Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)

8/88Number of the 23 daily newspapers in New York City that are published in English: 10

Manhattan, inc. (N.Y.C.)

8/88Number of New York Times articles since 1984 that have mentioned Nicaragua’s La Prensa: 263

New York Times Co. (N.Y.C.)

8/88Portion of the land in Nicaragua that is owned by the government: 1/8

Nicaraguan News Service (Washington)

8/88Portion of the land in the United States that is owned by the government: 1/3

U.S. General Services Administration

8/88Acres of crossword puzzles Americans fill in each day: 54

Games Magazine (N.Y.C.)/Harper’s research

8/88Number of Kiwanis Club meetings that take place each weekday: 1,300

Kiwanis International (Indianapolis)

8/88Percentage of Americans who live within 50 miles of the place where they grew up: 54

Johnson Wax Survey on the State of the American Home

8/88Number of twelve-fingered Amish dwarfs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: 39

Victor A. McKusick, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore)

8/88Percentage of adults who say that, even if they could, they would not change anything about their appearance: 4

D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (N.Y.C.)

8/88Number of times George Bush called Ted Koppel “Dan” during his June appearance on Nightline: 3

Harper’s research

8/88Percentage of Americans who say they saw Dan Rather’s January interview of George Bush live on TV: 29

Times Mirror/Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)

    Percentage who actually did: 13

A.C. Nielsen (N.Y.C.)

8/88Average number of minutes a viewer spends watching a TV program before changing the channel: 3.7

R.D. Percy & Co. (N.Y.C.)

8/88Percentage of their lives Americans spend outdoors: 2

Environmental Protection Agency

8/88Percentage change, since last year, in the number of yellow-pages listings for tanning salons: +55

Yellow Page Research Group (Omaha)

    For solar-energy equipment wholesalers: -48

Yellow Page Research Group (Omaha)

8/88Percentage of the solar energy captured on land by photosynthesis that is consumed by humans and livestock: 3

Peter Vitousek, Ann Ehrlich, Paul Ehrlich (Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.), and Pamela Matson (NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.)

8/88Number of weed species that have developed a resistance to herbicides since 1968: 70

Homer LeBaron, Ciba-Geigv Corp. (Greensboro, N.C.)

8/88Number of people worldwide who die each year as a result of pesticide poisoning: 14,000

Oxfam America (Boston)

8/88Rank of “crashing or dying” among the reasons people say they fear flying: 4

US Air Fearful Flyers Program (Pittsburgh)

8/88Chances that an adult will die after a fall from six stories: 9 in 10

Robert Dernling and Kenneth Warner, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston)

    Chances that a cat will: 1 in 10

C.J. Mehlhoff and W.O. Whitney, Animal Medical Center (N.Y.C.)

8/88Chances that a New York City traffic officer was assaulted on the job in 1987: 1 in 5

Department of Transportation (N.Y.C.)

8/88Pairs of red socks owned by Morton Downey Jr.: 124

Morton Downey Jr. (Fort Lee, N. J.)

    By Garrison Keillor: 17

Garrison Keillor (N.Y.C.)

8/88Amount the U.S. Air Force will spend this year on imported-goatskin flight jackets: $5,193,000

U.S. Air Force

8/88Amount spent this year on Chinese yak hair for British Army helmets: $300

British Ministry of Defence (London)

8/88Cost of renting a giant panda from the Chinese government, per day: $1,500

World Wildlife Fund (Washington)

8/88Price of dyeing a dog pink at the Village Dawg Shoppe in Rockville Centre, New York (with shampoo and cut): $87

Village Dawg Shoppe (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)

    Of a purple mohawk: $37

Village Dawg Shoppe (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)