10/89Number of Democratic officeholders who have become Republicans this year: 130
10/89Number of the 3 clubs from which Lloyd Bentsen resigned during the 1988 campaign that he has since rejoined: 3
10/89Number of states in which there are at least as many registered black voters as registered white voters: 6
10/89Percentage decrease, since June 1985, in funds raised by the Democratic National Committee: 14
Percentage decrease in funds raised by the Republican National Committee: 21
10/89Estimated number of speeches Oliver North would have to give to earn the $150,000 he was fined in July: 6
10/89Ratio of Soviet arms sales to Third World countries to U.S. arms sales to Third World countries in 1986: 4:1
Ratio today: 1:1
10/89Ratio of per capita Nicaraguan war casualties since 1979 to per capita American war casualties in Vietnam: 33:1
10/89Portion of the trading on the Mexican stock exchange that consists of government-debt securities: 3/4
10/89Percentage of job applicants to the Houston Police Department who say they have used marijuana: 50
10/89Tons of marijuana that must be seized in Miami before the U.S. Justice Department will prosecute: 2.5
10/89Chances that a post-office employee in New York City has failed a drug test during the last year: 1 in 3
10/89Rank of AIDS, among the leading causes of death of children between the ages of 1 and 4 in New York City: 1
10/89Percentage of New Yorkers who say they have no opinion of Mayor Ed Koch: 1
10/89Number of bystanders shot in Los Angeles in 1986: 10
10/89Airfare for a corpse on an American Airlines flight from New York City to Los Angeles, one way: $630
Airfare for a live person, round trip: $398
10/89Total number of frequent-flier miles U.S. airlines owe their passengers: 600,000,000,000
10/89Amount the U.S. Postal Service spent last year to maintain mules to deliver mail in the Grand Canyon: $100,000
10/89Percentage of supermarket prices that end in the digit 9 or 5: 80
In 3 ounces of Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream: 7.5
10/89Change, since 1986, in the number of Americans who are dieting: -17,000,000
10/89Weight of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, woman who killed her husband in July by sitting on him, in pounds: 500
10/89Estimated total value of the candy distributed last Halloween: $1,000,000,000
10/89Amount paid at auction last year for the hat worn by the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz: $33,000
10/89Estimated number of ash trees used to supply major league baseball teams with Louisville Sluggers this year: 6,600