8/88Pairs of red socks owned by Morton Downey Jr.: 124
8/97Number of U.S. military personnel convicted of adultery in the last year: 124
11/97Factor by which the B-2 stealth-bomber’s maintenance hours have exceeded its flight hours since last year: 124
6/98Number of times since 1991 that Boris Yeltsin has replaced a cabinet member: 124
3/84Average price of a gram of cocaine in Los Angeles: $125
10/90Cost of dyeing a dried-out lawn green, from Landscape Services of Santa Barbara, California, per 1,000 square feet: $125
8/96Price a New York City doctors’ group charges for an hour of “psychoanalytically guided self-inquiry” via e-mail: $125
5/97Number of the 133 U.S. polio cases reported between 1980 and 1994 that were caused by the vaccine: 125
Percentage change since then in the number of Republican candidates endorsed by a union: +125
8/00Maximum suggested donation for a week’s course in civil disobedience at Canada’s clandestine Co-Motion Action Camp: $125
6/01Estimated number of people who tried to cross illegally into England via the Channel Tunnel each night last year: 125
3/07Number of the 541 members of India’s lower house of parliament who have been charged with crimes: 125
12/97Number of legal experts who declared the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill to be constitutional: 126
Percentage of the Flat Earth Society’s membership this would represent: 3
3/99Percentage change in gasoline prices in Nigeria after government price caps were lifted last December: +127
3/99Keys required, along with the alt key, to type the euro symbol on new Windows-compatible keyboards sold in the U.S.: 0,1,2,8
1/95Maximum amount of sulfur in one human exhalation before it is considered “bad breath,” in parts per billion: 130
10/89Number of Democratic officeholders who have become Republicans this year: 130
Estimated number of times that a U.S. president has sent troops into combat situations: 130
6/03Minimum number of times that the demonstrators at this year’s largest U.S. peace rally could encircle the Pentagon: 130
1/06Years since a White House House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130
Years after resigning that the official, Orville Babcock, drowned while trying to build a lighthouse: 9
8/08Percentage change between 1989 and 2007 in the median price of an American single-family home: +130
Percentage change in the median down payment: +3.7
1/09Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130
10/91Percentage change, since 1989, in Soviet arms sales to the Third World: -7
Percentage change, since 1989, in U.S. arms sales to the Third World: +131
9/99Number of years since an elected New York City mayor went on to win higher office: 131
Days he has spent vacationing at his California ranch: 132
3/00Percentage change since 1993 in the number of criminal cases dismissed each year in New York City: +132
7/87Number of companies that paid to use the logo of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation: 133
9/97Percentage change since the passage of NAFTA in the average hourly wage of a Mexican maquiladora worker: -30
Percentage change since then in U.S. companies’ domestic sales of products assembled in Mexico: +133
1/00Estimated gross global product per capita in the year 1000: $133
Amount by which it had changed by the year 1700: +$31
1/05Number of House members in 1979 who voted against making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday: 133
Number who are Vice President: 1
7/96Average amount of food an American woman would have to consume each day in order to eat like a bird, in pounds: 134
7/03Number of Serbian Orthodox churches burned down since the end of NATO’s 1999 Operation Allied Force: 134
10/85Average number of 500- and 750-pound bombs dropped by the Salvadoran air force each month: 135
12/92Number of the world’s 187 countries that do not have Most Favored Nation trading status with the United States: 12
Number of the 175 countries with MFN status accused of human rights abuses by Amnesty International last year: 135
4/01Blocks separating Kenneth Starr’s New York University Law School office from Monica Lewinsky’s apartment: 7
Blocks separating Lewinsky’s apartment from Bill Clinton ‘s Harlem office: 135
Percentage of this accounted for by disposable batteries: 26
3/84Officially declared candidates for the 1984 presidential election: 136
8/90Number of American universities that have instituted restrictions on public speech since 1988: 137
5/04Number of blank votes recorded by touchscreen machines in a January election for Florida’s House of Representatives: 137
Votes by which the race was won: 12
9/96Percentage increase since 1980 in the average tuition at a U.S. public college or university: 138
Percentage increase since then in the average tuition at an Ivy League school: 77
1/01Percentage change since 1990 in the U.S. industrial-robot population: +138
11/05Rank of the FBI among ideal employers, according to U.S. undergraduates polled in spring 2004: 138
Rank of Microsoft in 2004 and 2005, respectively: 1, 8
3/09Number of times that Caroline Kennedy said “you know” during a 45-minute interview with the New York Times: 138
Average number of minutes per weekday the child of a nonworking mother watches television: 139
12/86Number of Oklahomans who contributed $10,000 or more to the Republican National Committee in 1981: 140
8/90Number of times the phrase “read my lips” has appeared in the Washington Post since George Bush’s inauguration: 140
9/97Percentage change since 1987 in the number of expert witnesses listed by the nation’s largest referral service: +140
11/05Percentage discount that Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez has said he will offer poor Americans on oil and gas purchases: 40
Minimum number of Americans who have signed up so far at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington: 140
3/90Percentage increase, since 1977, in the number of American children diagnosed as having learning disabilities: 142
2/93Percentage change, since last year, in the number of Americans who are older than the president: +142
2/96Percentage change since 1985 in the number of personal bankruptcy applications filed in U.S. courts: +142
2/03Number of deaths in 2001 that the Japanese government classified as having resulted from overwork: 143
9/08The fair price of a barrel of oil, according to Osama bin Laden in 1998: $144
Date on which oil reached $144 per barrel: 7/2/08
6/85Cost of a car wash at Steve’s Detailing in New York City: $145
12/97Percentage change since last year in the number of prisoners beheaded in Saudi Arabia: +146
5/00Percentage change since 1988 in the amount of seafood eaten worldwide that is cultivated rather than caught: +146
9/90Number of U. S. factories that pose a “high risk” of cancer to nearby residents, according to the EPA: 149
8/05Average amount of sugar consumed each year by a U.S. preschooler, expressed as a percentage of body weight: 149
Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149
3/84Books published in East Germany in honor of the 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth: 150
In West Germany: 50
4/86Number of seats on an American Airlines Boeing 727-200 before deregulation in 1978: 129
Number today: 150
Percentage change in the number of FAA inspectors since then: +2
10/87Cost of storing a unit of blood for three years at Bloodline, Inc., in New Jersey: $150
3/90Number of gay marriages that have taken place in Copenhagen since they became legally binding last October: 150
1/91Pounds of Saudi Arabian sand the army has imported to study its effect on military equipment: 150
4/93Number of “Home of Bill Clinton” birdhouses sold by Russell’s Smokehouse in Hope, Arkansas, since November: 150
4/93Percentage change, since 1991, in sales of rubber chickens at House of Magic in San Francisco: +150
1/98Rolls of toilet paper received in lieu of an annual bonus last fall by each worker at a Moscow clock factory: 150
5/00Percentage increase in NATO troops required to seal Kosovo ‘s border, according to a Pentagon official last March: 150
5/04Minimum number of Italian men accused of paying for a “sexual anxieties” diagnosis to avoid military service last winter: 150
10/04Estimated price a British cable company will charge for a kit to track “ evidence of the paranormal” via the Internet: £150
2/05Number of children’s choir members from Pink Floyd’s 1979 hit “Another Brick in the Wall” who are now seeking royalties: 1
Estimated amount each member is owed: £150
1/08Minimum number of U.S. deaths from food allergies each year, according to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network: 150
8/00Average number of seconds it takes to complete a transaction at a Wendy’s drive-through: 150.29
4/88Number of tourists in Jerusalem who received psychiatric treatment for religious delusions last year: 152
2/90Number of one-year-olds on the waiting list for the French for Tots program in New York City: 152
1/00Number of years after North America’s first library opened in 1638 that it published a subject guide: 152
8/87Number of mosques in the Gaza Strip in 1967: 71
11/96Number of members in the Hillary Rodham Clinton fan club in Bombay, India: 153
10/06Number of U.S. coal-burning plants on which construction has begun or been completed since 2005: 153
7/07Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the hurricane: +153
1/09Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm: +153
11/97Number of presidential nominees for U.S. government positions denied a Senate hearing since 1987: 154
2/00Percentage change in Colombia’s estimated cocaine production since 1990: +154
11/86Number of college courses on the Vietnam War offered in 1980: 58
4/88Percentage increase, since 1967, in the number of mosques in the Gaza Strip: 158
7/97Number of years the U.S. Army estimates that its supply of sand-colored, aircraft-size camouflage coverings will last: 159
6/86Number of schools that have invited Lee Iacocca to speak at their graduations: 150
Number that have invited Mario Cuomo: 160
5/87Number of times the word “fuck” appears in Nails, the autobiography of the Mets’ Lenny Dykstra: 160
10/95Price of a six-day how-to course in prostitution from Amsterdam’s Prostitute Information Centre: $160
2/98Gallons of liquor George Washington distributed to his district’s voters before his first election to office in 1758: 160
11/06Number of State Department foreign-service members whose jobs require them to know Arabic: 160
Number of them who actually do: 64
Number that have one today: 161
11/94Number of U.S. soldiers certified as fluent in Haitian Creole: 161
10/96Number of countries whose GNP last year was less than the amount spent worldwide at Wal-Mart: 161
6/96Number of U.S. news stories published since 1991 containing the words “princess” and “colonic irrigation”: 162
6/86Number of weddings performed each day in 1985 at Las Vegas’s Little Church of the West: 163
2/87Percentage increase, in the first six months of 1986, in cases of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea: 163
5/03Number of words that the Times devoted to 1998’s U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa per resulting death: 163
10/85Percentage change in acres of forest in New York State since 1880: +164
11/97Days after Mexico’s drug czar was arrested this year for corruption that his lawyer was arrested for bribing jurors: 165
1/99Value of each 20,000-yen government-issued “ shopping voucher” to be received this year by 35 million Japanese: $165
12/01Price of a 12-hour do-it-yourself anger-management course from an online vendor: $165
11/03Attendance at last year’s largest annual conference on “establishing the truth behind” JFK’s assassination: 165
Minimum number of such conferences held worldwide each year: 3
8/05Number of U.S. cities that have agreed to meet the Kyoto Protocols on global warming: 166
Number introduced during the current session: 167
11/05Percentage change since 2004 in the number of NFL teams that require all fans to get full pat-downs: +167
7/06Average number of extra calories children consume for every hour of television they watch: 167
12/07Number of bills, amendments, and resolutions sponsored by Fred Thompson during his eight years in the Senate: 167
1/93Retirement benefits that will be paid to George Bush in 1993, expressed as a percentage of his previous salary: 169
12/93Percentage change, since 1980, in the number of U.S. physicians specializing in emergency medicine: +171
11/02Number of colleges that have organizations to elect John Cusack as U.S. president in 2004: 172
10/05Estimated amount of African wealth held in foreign accounts, expressed as a percentage of African GDP: 172
1/09Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172
5/88Number of jokes told about the Republican candidates on late-night network television in January and February: 173
About the Democratic Candidates: 110
6/90Average number of U.S. companies that filed for bankruptcy each day last year: 173
7/93Price of a “Hillary Wig,” with detachable hairband, from New York City’s Jacquelyn Wigs: $175
10/00Percentage change since last year in the number of deaths in Britain due to the human form of mad cow disease: +175
12/01Minimum number of anthrax hoaxes reported in the United States in the three years before September 11: 175
12/89Number of designs submitted by Soviets for a national memorial to those who died under Stalin: 176
9/04Minimum number of ex-senior government officials who have worked for a major U.S. defense contractor since 1997: 176
7/01Minimum number of people who have been trampled to death at soccer matches in Africa since April: 177
5/07Number of British men last year who had cosmetic surgery to reduce the size of their breasts: 177
11/03Percentage change since 2000 in the number of U.S. surgeries performed each year to treat morbid obesity: +178
11/87Cases of child pornography investigated by the federal government in 1982: 82
11/84Number of police officers and Secret Service agents at the wedding of Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti: 180
9/91Weight of the ovarian cyst removed in May from a West Virginia woman, in pounds: 180
6/92Percentage change, since 1990, in the mortality rate for Iraqi children under the age of five: +180
3/90Number of times WXTB, a Florida radio station, played “Stairway to Heaven” consecutively on December 31, 1989: 181
8/99Rank of broccoli and peaches, respectively, among U.S.-grown produce with the highest residual pesticide levels: 18,1
5/88Pounds of mud for rubbing baseballs bought by major league teams each year from Burns Bintliff of Delaware: 182
4/05Number of U.S. residents convicted of “international terrorism” between fall 2001 and fall 2003: 184
5/87Percentage increase in the number of traps set by Maine lobstermen since 1965: 185
Percentage increase in the number of lobsters caught by Maine lobstermen since 1965: 13
Square feet of roads under construction in the occupied territories in the 1990s per settler: 185
3/90Estimated amount of oil spilled off the coast of Morocco in December, expressed as a percentage of the Valdez spill: 186
3/00Estimated percentage change since 1979 in the number of birds killed annually by U.S. communications towers: +186
7/02Military budget of Israel in 1967 expressed as a percentage of the budgets of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria combined: 58
9/00Percentage change since 1990 in the number of deaths from accidental poisoning among elderly Americans: -10
Percentage change since then in the number of such deaths among Americans between the ages of 45 and 64: +188
10/96Number of state and federal court opinions written since 1977 that have included a reference to Elvis Presley: 189
8/06Number of new skin-whitening products that have been introduced to Asian and Pacific markets since 2002: 189
4/03Percentage in import duties on Vietnamese catfish sought from the Commerce Department last year by U.S. catfish farmers: 190
4/03Decibels of sound pressure employed by a new “thermoacoustic” refrigerator: 190
6/08Number of men in Madhya Pradesh, India, who have undergone vasectomies this year in exchange for gun licenses: 191
5/90Average ratio of a CEO’s salary to that of a blue-collar worker at major Japanese automobile manufacturers: 20:1
Average ratio at major US. automobile manufacturers: 192:1
5/90Percentage increase, since 1980, in the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in the United States: 193
10/86Number of new products test-marketed in New York City in the last year: 198
9/02Days before Bolivia’s June election that the U.S. ambassador warned Bolivians not to vote for the Socialist candidate: 4
2/01Number of “prefectures…east of the mountains…growing nothing but thorns,” according to poet Tu Fu: 200
7/89Proposed maximum fine for participating in a dwarf toss in South Carolina: $200