12/84Number of bird species that have been sighted in Central Park since its opening in 1858: 259
In Minneapolis: 73%
3/84Copies of Playboy or Penthouse purchased per thousand people in Des Moines: 86
In New York City: 28
4/84Forgeries discovered this year in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: 45
7/84Grains of sand on the surface of New York’s Jones Beach: 2,230,000,000,000
In Los Angeles: 123
8/84Most books on the New York Times best-seller list at one time edited by a single editor (Michael Korda): 7
Number of Nehru jackets owned by Sammy Davis Jr.: 6
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
1/85Value placed on a life by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: $3,500,000
10/85Percentage change in acres of forest in New York State since 1880: +164
10/85Percentage of AIDS patients in New York City who aren’t homosexual: 41
12/85Portion of the New York City Ballet’s annual ticket income derived from The Nutcracker: 1/4
4/85Pairs of toe shoes the New York City Ballet orders for principal dancer Suzanne Farrell each season: 350
5/85Percentage of New York City police officers who fired their guns in the line of duty in 1984: 1.2
5/85Percentage increase in members of Manhattan’s West Side Rifle and Pistol Range since the Goetz shootings: 30
6/85Cost of a car wash at Steve’s Detailing in New York City: $145
6/85Percentage of New York City children who live below the poverty line: 40
8/85Percentage of families in New York City with annual incomes over $50,000 that are black: 7
8/85Cab fare from New York City to Los Angeles: $5,550
9/85Rejection rate of applicants for the 1985 kindergarten class at Manhattan’s Trinity Episcopal School: 85
1/86Cost of leasing one New York State sugar maple tree for one sap season: $29
10/86Purchase price of a parking space in New York City’s first condominium garage: $29,000
10/86Number of new products test-marketed in New York City in the last year: 198
2/86Coverage of South Africa in the New York Times in the month before the ban (in column inches): 727.5
In the month after the ban: 402
3/86Number of Russians who subscribe to the New York Times: 7
5/86Lifespan of a sidewalk tree in New York City (in years): 7
6/86Number of New York City police officers who are members of the Screen Actors Guild: 350
6/86Number of schools that have invited Lee Iacocca to speak at their graduations: 150
Number that have invited Mario Cuomo: 160
6/86Number of people who have barreled over Niagara Falls and survived: 7
7/86Percentage increase in cases of tuberculosis in New York City in 1985: 14
7/86Abortions per 1,000 live births in New York City: 852
8/86Tons of cargo handled at the Port of New York and New Jersey in 1985: 15,344,000
9/86Cost of annual membership in the Breakfast Club at New York’s 21 Club: $5,000
9/86Reported cases of people bitten by rats in New York City in 1985: 311
Of people bitten by other people: 1,519
1/87Rank of AIDS among the causes of death for women aged 25 to 29 in New York City: 1
1/87Price of a 90-minute children’s birthday party for 30 guests at Jeremy’s Place in New York City: $500
12/87Portion of all trading on the New York Stock Exchange this year that involved Japanese investors: 1/10
12/87Price of a pound of reindeer meat at Lobel’s Prime Meats in New York City: $14.98
2/87Price of a unit of whole blood in New York City in 1976: $29
Today: $70.75
2/87Price of a bouquet of wilted, dead, or beheaded flowers at Drop Dead Flowers in New York City: $37.50
3/87Market value of an airline landing slot at LaGuardia Airport in New York City: $25,000
4/87Bottles of Windex required to clean 355 miles of bookshelves in the New York Public Library: 20,000
4/87Number of information operators on duty weeknights at 2 A.M. in Mississippi: 2
5/87Number of the 15 novels on the New York Times March 15 best-seller list with the word “of” in the title: 7
5/87Number of times the word “fuck” appears in Nails, the autobiography of the Mets’ Lenny Dykstra: 160
Number of guards in New York City jails who committed suicide in 1986: 7
6/87Public revenues generated by marriage license fees in New York City in 1985: $806,090
By divorce fees: $3,637,095
6/87Income earned in 1985 by residents of the 10021 ZIP code on New York’s Upper East Side: $4,910,300,000
8/87Condoms that New York City will distribute at singles bars, porn theaters, and massage parlors this year: 500,000
8/87Times New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal’s office door was painted before he was happy with the color: 4
9/87Chances that a bride or fiancée whose picture appeared in the Sunday New York Times in June wore pearls: 3 in 5
Number of those days that were Wednesdays: 4
9/87Amount the New York Mets spend each season for tape to wrap Gary Carter: $5,000
1/88Average number of days Mario Cuomo traveled outside New York State each year from 1984 to 1986: 16
10/88Value of the unclaimed beverage-container deposits in New York State last year: $66,000,000
10/88Number of New York City public-school teachers who were assaulted on the job during the last school year: 400
2/88Cars abandoned on New York City streets last year: 116,765
2/88Amount that Bryan Miller, the New York Times food critic, spends on restaurant meals each year: $80,000
2/88Tons of earth that groundhogs in New York State move each year while tunneling: 1,600,000
4/88Estimated waiting time for a vacancy in a New York City public-housing project (in years): 18
Federal funds spent last year to promote celibacy among teenagers: $3,000,000
5/88Average number of homeless people in New York City shelters and welfare hotels each day in 1987: 28,000
Estimated number of vacant New York City apartments that landlords kept off the market during 1987: 45,000
8/88Number of the 23 daily newspapers in New York City that are published in English: 10
8/88Number of New York Times articles since 1984 that have mentioned Nicaragua’s La Prensa: 263
8/88Chances that a New York City traffic officer was assaulted on the job in 1987: 1 in 5
8/88Price of dyeing a dog pink at the Village Dawg Shoppe in Rockville Centre, New York (with shampoo and cut): $87
9/88Amount the Reverend Al Sharpton spends on hair care each year at PrimaDonna beauty salon in Brooklyn: $1,910
1/89Pounds of fish consumed each day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California: 125
Pounds of fish consumed each day at Le Bernardin restaurant in New York City: 400
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
10/89Airfare 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
11/89Number of people who have died in police custody in New York City this year: 30
12/89Number of pets blessed at the Feast of St. Francis at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine this fall: 1,000
2/89Amount of time it would take for all the Coca-Cola ever sold to flow over Niagara Falls, in hours: 23
2/89Total volume of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, in cubic feet: 54,000,000
3/89Amount of time it takes to ride the entire length of the New York City subway system, in hours: 30
5/89Number of artists-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation: 1
6/89Estimated number of New York City residents temporarily living with others because they have no apartment: 360,000
6/89Price of a bullet-resistant mink coat from Juliana Originals in New York City: $15,000
6/89Price of a two-hour walking tour of famous murder sites in Manhattan, given by Sidewalks of New York: $10
7/89Percentage of Muscovites who say that “average people don’t have any say about what the government does”: 43
Percentage of New Yorkers who say this: 52
7/89Ratio in 1988 of New York State residents who bought lottery tickets to those who voted: 3:2
7/89Estimated number of maternity uniforms the New York City Police Department has issued its officers since 1982: 1,000
8/89Percentage increase, since 1986, in the number of boys under 13 arrested for rape in New York City: 333
1/90Number of soup kitchens in New York City in 1980: 30
1/90Percentage increase, since 1980, in the average number of shares traded each day on the New York Stock Exchange: 274
1/90Percentage increase, since 1981, in use of the term postmodern by the New York Times: 237
1/90Number of times since 1987 that President Reagan has been quoted as saying “dovervai no proveryai” (“trust but verify”) in the New York Times: 11
11/90Price of a child’s bulletproof denim jacket from the Guardian Group in New York City: $500
12/90Percentage of blacks in the New York City area who would have to move for the races there to be evenly distributed: 80
2/90Estimated total amount convicted drug traffickers in the United States owe in criminal fines: $108,000,000
Total amount New York City drivers owe in parking fines: $461,000,000
2/90Number of one-year-olds on the waiting list for the French for Tots program in New York City: 152
4/90Estimated average distance that a hospital nurse in New York City walks at work each year, in miles: 1,272
4/90Percentage of men living in Bangladesh who live past the age of 65: 55
5/90Total amount two New York lawyers were fined for having a fistfight during a deposition last year: $11,000
6/90Number of people killed by stray bullets in New York City last year: 39
6/90Pages of guidelines the New York City Transit Authority sent to a Boy Scout who wanted to clean a subway station: 6
7/90Amount of trash left in New York City’s Central Park by people attending Earth Day festivities, in tons: 100
7/90Price of a full back-waxing for men at La Carezza in New York City: $30
8/90Ratio of the average office rent in Moscow’s business district to the rent in midtown Manhattan, per square foot: 2:1
9/90Estimated portion of the street price of crack in New York City that goes to growers, processors, and importers: 1/7
9/90Gallons of poison the New York State Conservation Department will use this fall to kill fish that displace trout: 271
9/90Number of people in New York City who jump subway turnstiles, per minute: 105
9/90Amount the New York City Transit Authority has spent this year on psychological counseling for its executives: $11,500
1/91Combined value of the mortgages given by East Harlem bank branches to local residents in 1989: $2,413,000
Combined value of the deposits in East Harlem bank branches in 1989: $221,000,000
1/91Percentage of black New Yorkers who believe it is possible that AIDS is a plot to kill blacks: 30
1/91Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Bide-a-Wee Home Association for pets: $1,700,000
Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Coalition for the Homeless: $622,000
10/91Amount Woodstock, New York, plans to earn by selling one-square-inch plots of the town for $10 apiece: $8,400,000
10/91Cost of a two-square-foot “personal meadow” from Zezé Flowers in Manhattan: $75
11/91Number of times the phrase “happens to be black” has appeared in the New York Times since January 1990: 17
11/91Number of cellular phones checked in the cloakroom by patrons each week at Le Cirque, the Manhattan restaurant: 3
11/91Estimated number of “Schwarzkopf filets” served since March at Gallagher’s, the Manhattan steakhouse: 15,000
3/91Estimated average number of seconds it takes a New York City thief to break into a locked car: 27
3/91Price of a pound of smut, a fungus that lives on corn kernels, from Grace’s Marketplace in New York City: $20
4/91Percentage increase, during 1990, in the number of times the word “recession” appeared in the New York Times: 200
4/91Number of bees that invaded a Bayport, New York, house while the owners were on vacation last spring: 20,000
5/91Number of articles in the New York Times this year that have included the phrase “mother of all”: 29
7/91Chances that an electronic scanner in a New York City supermarket will overcharge on a sale item: 1 in 2
8/91Gallons of suntan lotion sold each summer at Empire Haven Nudist Park and Resort in Moravia, New York: 9
9/91Number of New York City garment workers who earn less than the minimum wage: 10,000
1/92Chances that an organ transplanted in New York City last year came from a murder victim: 1 in 4
10/92Number of New York Times articles published this year in which the name Willie Horton was mentioned: 69
Number of articles published during the 1988 presidential campaign in which Horton was mentioned: 33
10/92Ratio of New York Met Bobby Bonilla’s annual salary to the value of his weight in gold: 5:1
10/92Average annual salary Zabar’s delicatessen in New York City pays lox slicers with at least ten years’ experience: $60,000
10/92Breasts bared on a Canadian border bridge last July to celebrate New York State’s legalization of topless sunbathing: 40
6/92Chances that a child in New York City lives in a household headed by neither parent: 1 in 7
12/93Number of New York Times articles this year in which Bill Clinton has been compared to Franklin Roosevelt: 18
3/93Number of times during the transition that Bill Clinton was quoted in the New York Times using the word “stuff”: 6
4/93Number of announced layoffs reported in the New York Times in January: 83,103
4/93Percentage change, since 1991, in the number of New York Times stories mentioning Elvis: +50
5/93Square feet of new federal office space that will be built in Manhattan this year: 921,000
5/93Square feet of office space in Manhattan that is currently vacant: 66,000,000
5/93Rank of May among months in which the greatest number of flowers at New York’s Botanical Garden are in full bloom: 1
7/93Percentage change, since 1983, in the number of listings under “housekeeping” in the New York City yellow pages: +50
7/93Estimated number of body parts suitable for piercing, according to Gauntlet, a New York City jewelry store: 30
7/93Price of a “Hillary Wig,” with detachable hairband, from New York City’s Jacquelyn Wigs: $175
7/93Number of women scalped by hay balers in New York State since 1976: 4
8/93Number of New York Times articles in May containing the words “Clinton” and “focus”: 102
8/93Enrollment at Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, in New York City: 100
1/94Rank of Ecuadorans, Italians, and Poles, among the largest illegal immigrant groups in New York State: 1,2,3
1/94Ratio of the number of New York City cabbies killed last year to the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Somalia: 6:5
10/94Number of stories a New York City cat fell last June without sustaining serious injury: 46
Average number of stories a cat must fall before reaching its maximum falling velocity of 60 miles per hour: 5
12/94Number of blocks from Tiffany’s that thieves tried to sell goods stolen from the New York store this fall: 10
2/94Ratio of the murder rate last year in New York City to the murder rate in Little Rock, Arkansas: 1:1
2/94Percentage change, since 1990, in the frequency with which the word “penis” has appeared in the New York Times: +100
2/94Price of a one-page “Florid to Torrid” love letter, from New York City’s Do the Write Thing: $25
4/94Percentage change, since 1992, in New York Times articles mentioning the “information superhighway”: +2,025
6/94Number of times Hector Montalvo, a New York City bank teller, has seen Cats: 374
6/94Amount Random House lost on the 29 of its books included on the 1993 New York Times Notable Books list: $698,000
7/94Number of Coney Island rides that have been designated New York City historical landmarks: 3
1/95Percentage change between 1992 and 1993 in the infant-mortality rate in New York City’s Harlem: +60
10/95Number of years ago the executive news producer of NBC’s New York City station was producing Howard Stern’s TV show: 3
10/95Number of microwave ovens blown up at a New York State prison this year by inmates trying to light cigarettes: 15
11/95Price of a man’s solid gold Nelson Mandela Commemorative Timepiece, from Hope Industries of New York: $5,000
11/95Number of “Snapple enthusiasts” who attended the first Snapple Convention, held last summer in a New York suburb: 3,800
2/95Number of times the word “tsunami” appeared in the New York Times in the month following last fall’s elections: 14
3/95Price of a blood-proof Emergency Medical Services jacket from Anna Sui, a New York City boutique: $210
4/95Rank of New York among states with the highest incidence of wrongful execution between 1900 and 1965: 1
4/95Number of earthquakes measuring between 3 and 5 on the Richter scale that have hit the New York City area since 1980: 16
Year in which Kalawao, Hawaii, the county with the largest income gap, ceased functioning as a leper colony: 1969
5/95Number of times the word “Newtonian” has appeared in the New York Times this year: 13
Number of times it referred to Isaac Newton: 3
6/95Number of Ho Chi Minh scholarships awarded to students last year by a community college in New York City: 25
Maximum average speed in miles per hour that Manhattan’s traffic commissioner believes is achievable: 9
7/95Estimated property damage caused in a New York suburb last spring by a man firing a slingshot from his Lincoln: $7,000
7/95Maximum price of a three-year license to sell hot dogs outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: $900,600
9/95Rank of New York City, among habitats with the largest number of peregrine falcons per square mile, worldwide: 1
1/96Purity of the gold New York Life Insurance used last year to gild its headquarters’ dome, in karats: 22
2/96Price a New York City company charges for removal, cleaning, storage, and reinstallation of an air conditioner: $239
2/96Chances that a New York City public school is heated with coal: 1 in 4
3/96Cost of Spike Lee’s two courtside seats at New York Knicks home games during the regular season: $86,000
6/96Percentage of racial epithets published in the New York Times last year that consisted of the word “nigger”: 57
7/96Ratio of the circulation of Weight Watchers Magazine to that of the New York Times: 1:1
7/96Seating capacity of the Ménage à Trois Chair, from Kinky Joe’s Erotic Furniture of New York City: 5
8/96Price a New York City doctors’ group charges for an hour of “psychoanalytically guided self-inquiry” via e-mail: $125
8/96Minimum price of a line of Al Kracht’s custom poetry, from Limerick Lane Poetryworks of Chappaqua, New York: $7
9/96Hours of study required to lose a Long Island accent, according to Long Island’s Professional Voice Care Center: 52
1/97Percentage of people who go to the bathroom in New York’s Penn Station who do not wash their hands: 40
10/97Price of a pair of fangs from New York City’s Sabretooth boutique: $65
11/97Years it took a prisoner injured at the 1975 Attica prison riots to win a judgment against New York State last June: 26
Number of other Attica prisoners’ cases pending: 1,280
2/97Hours of training required to become a licensed hair braider in New York City: 900
Hours of training required to become a New York City emergency medical technician: 117