6/03Amount by which total U.S. personal debt in 2002 exceeded total disposable income: $628,000,000,000
6/03Percentage of federal “domestic preparedness” funds allocated to the states since 1999 that remain unspent: 60
6/03Amount of new U.S. military aid for Colombia inserted into the Iraq war bill in March: $105,000,000
6/03Amount of new U.S. military aid promised Israel in April to offset the “burdens” of the U.S. war on Iraq: $1,000,000,000
6/03Percentage unemployment in Palestine, West Virginia, the hometown of former POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch: 15
6/03Chance that a network-television advertisement is paid for by one of the 100 largest U.S. corporations: 3 in 4
6/03Days that AT&T ceased its TV advertising last March “out of respect for the U.S. military operation in Iraq”: 3
6/03Portion of sales of its “Impeach Bush French Fries” that a California cafe will donate to an impeachment campaign: 1/10
6/03Percentage “improvement” that Minnesota senator Norm Coleman claims to be over the late Paul Wellstone: 99
6/03Minimum number of times that actor Martin Sheen has been arrested in political protests: 60
Minimum number of times Abbie Hoffman was: 65
6/03Minimum number of times that the demonstrators at this year’s largest U.S. peace rally could encircle the Pentagon: 130
6/03Number of mine-detecting monkeys erroneously reported to have been given to the United States by Morocco in March: 2,000
6/03Ratio of the top weekly fee paid a Munchkin in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz to the weekly fee paid for Toto: 4:5
6/03Last year in which no film, screenplay, or performance relating to mental illness was nominated for an Oscar: 1953
6/03Percentage of cases of communicable diseases that California medical professionals are required to report that go unreported: 80
6/03Rank of Silicon Valley among fifteen-square-mile areas with the largest number of Superfund sites: 1
6/03Minimum number of chronic medical disorders linked to exposure to industrial chemicals: 110
6/03Number of different strains of tuberculosis whose DNA has been catalogued by a New Jersey microbiologist: 17,000
6/03Number of sites nationwide where farmers grew “pharmaceutical crops” last year: 34
6/03Chance that a U.S. senior citizen reports having skipped medications or not filled prescriptions because of cost: 1 in 5
6/03Number of Medicare patients dropped since 1998 by U.S. HMOs claiming inadequate reimbursement rates: 2,400,000
6/03Average quality-of-life rating researchers assign U.S. children with cancer, on a scale of 1 to 100: 69
6/03Estimated number of Ding Dongs manufactured per minute at St. Louis’s Interstate Brands factory: 1,000
6/03Chance that a billionaire today is self-made: 1 in 2
6/03Number of motor vehicles owned by Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR’s Car Talk: 0
6/03Maximum portion of the chemical energy in gasoline that is used by an internal combustion engine: 1/4
6/03Percentage change in central London’s average rush-hour car speed since a £5 toll was imposed there in February: +111
6/03Year in which Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city: 1980
6/03Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1
6/03Amount the U.S. Air Force spent on a “nostalgic juke box” for a base in Saudi Arabia in the last two years: $14,835
Amount it spent on cowboy hats: $4,896