9/90Federal housing funds spent by New Jersey’s Passaic Housing Authority in 1988 and 1989 to feed stray cats: $14,865
11/00Amount the Centers for Disease Control has spent redecorating a stairwell to encourage obese employees to walk: $14,900
4/87Copies of Gabriel García Márquez’s new book burned by the Chilean government last November: 15,000
6/89Estimated number of people who attended the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, last year: 15,000
6/89Price of a bullet-resistant mink coat from Juliana Originals in New York City: $15,000
11/91Estimated number of “Schwarzkopf filets” served since March at Gallagher’s, the Manhattan steakhouse: 15,000
5/92Applications requested this year from the San Francisco Municipal Railway for one graffiti-cleaning job: 15,000
1/94Reward the town of Burns, Oregon, is offering anyone who can convince a medical doctor to move there: $15,000
2/05Estimated number of Florida homeowners who signed contracts last year forbidding them to complain about their homes: 4,000
2/08Amount that prostitutes at Nevada’s BunnyRanch have contributed to Ron Paul, according to the brothel’s owner: $15,000
1/85Number of Americans who have received new identities under the Federal Witness Security Program: 15,400
10/02Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400
1/09Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400
10/01Number of George W. Bush Halloween masks sold nationwide last year by a New York distributor: 15,811
12/95Amount by which sales of the Unabomber issue of the Washington Post exceeded average daily sales: 16,000
4/05Number of preteen “secret agents” in the Girls Intelligence Agency, a market-research firm: 16,000
3/06Amount that one of Saddam Hussein’s military uniforms sold for at auction in December: $16,000
5/92Amount a University of Florida student-government political party spent on election campaigns this year: $16,484.27
9/87Amount that two Sioux arrows used in the Battle of the Little Big Horn brought at auction: $17,000
12/95Federal grant made to Cornell University last July to create an “O.J. Simpson Trial Archive”: $17,000
10/98Number of slave laborers that Volkswagen admits to having used in one of its factories during World War II: 17,000
6/03Number of different strains of tuberculosis whose DNA has been catalogued by a New Jersey microbiologist: 17,000
6/07Minimum number of copies sold of Flipping Houses for Dummies since its publication last year: 17,000
5/01Fine that Israel imposed on a Jewish settler in January for clubbing an 11-year-old Palestinian boy to death: $17,500
Months of community service to which he was also sentenced: 6
2/06Number of workplace arrests made by U.S. immigration authorities in 1997: 17,554
Number in 2003: 445
3/03Date on which the Bush Administration announced the cancellation of monthly federal reporting of mass layoffs: 12/24/02
4/92Average number of Harlequin romance novels sold in Hungary each day last year: 17,800
6/94Amount spent by the town of Hidalgo, Texas, in 1992 to erect a l0-foot statue of a killer bee: $17,850
5/85Number of murders the average American child has seen on television by the age of 16: 18,000
10/96Estimated number of South Koreans officially registered last year as “club women” for U.S. military bases: 18,000
12/04Estimated average price of a female newborn in a Bulgarian infant-selling ring busted this summer: $6,000
Estimated average price of a male newborn: $18,000
8/05Selling price in June for a bar of soap allegedly made from the liposuctioned fat of Silvio Berlusconi: $18,000
3/05Number of Americans who called poison-control centers in 2003 to report rodenticide exposure: 18,545
9/86Number of state and federal prisoners granted early release in 1985 because of prison overcrowding: 18,617
4/97Value of the White House’s annual savings on light bills since the installation of energy-efficient bulbs: $18,850
3/88Number of toll-free calls received by the Army’s spy informant hotline in the past year: 19,000
7/89Rolls of toilet paper Chicago’s city government has produced this year from recycled City Hall wastepaper: 19,000
9/96Number of great crested newts a British housing developer plans to “responsibly relocate” by the end of the year: 19,000
9/99Amount that Florida governor Jeb Bush’s wife spent on a 5-day shopping trip to Paris last June: $19,000
Amount she declared to U.S. Customs: $500
3/09Minimum per-capita debt that Iceland owes to foreign depositors as a result of its banking collapse: $19,100
1/08Number of credit-card disputes in California resolved since 2003 by one of the nation’s largest arbitration firms: 19,300
Percentage of the disputes that were resolved in favor of the credit-card company: 94
4/89Fine that a West German federal legislator must pay for missing a roll-call vote: $40
7/87Amount the U.S. spends each month to house UN ambassador Vernon Walters at the Waldorf-Astoria: $19,663
6/84Lecture fee for Henry Kissinger: $20,000
4/87Bottles of Windex required to clean 355 miles of bookshelves in the New York Public Library: 20,000
10/87Bibles and hymnbooks the Soviet Union has allowed the Russian Baptist Union to import this year: 20,000
4/91Number of bees that invaded a Bayport, New York, house while the owners were on vacation last spring: 20,000
2/92Number of people who attended festivities in Madrid last November to celebrate the birthday of Francisco Franco: 20,000
2/92Number of carrier pigeons the Swiss Army maintains for emergency communications in wartime: 20,000
7/92Number of soldiers the U.S. Army expected to leave the service as part of a voluntary program begun last fall: 10,000
Number of soldiers who had volunteered for the program by January, when the Army suspended it: 20,000
12/92Number of Korean noses cut off and taken during a 1597 Japanese invasion that were returned in November: 20,000
9/93Number of pocket-sized cans of tear gas sold in Hungary this year by Universal Security Associates of Phoenix: 20,000
6/96Average number of Americans killed each year by private citizens using guns in self-defense: 350
9/96Number of silver teaspoons reported missing each year at the Washington Hilton: 20,000
4/99Length, in pages, of the letter Linda Tripp distributed last winter soliciting donations to her legal defense fund: 12
Number of Americans who have made a donation: 20,000
1/00Years by which new evidence suggests that the age of the first human migration to the Americas should be increased: 20,000
7/01Number of Coca-Cola commercials that the company contributed to the Library of Congress last November: 20,000
11/01Number of sparrows requested by Chinese farmers in September to help end a plague of locusts: 20,000
4/02Pages of Henry Kissinger’s White House records first released to the public last winter: 20,000
1/03Number of years that a former Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, has been leaking toxic chemicals: 18
Estimated number of people who have died there since then as a result: 20,000
Years since criminal charges were filed against him in 1991 that Union Carbide’s former CEO has been in hiding: 11
6/08Average number of cases handled each year by the U.S. government’s Mutilated Currency Division: 20,000
Date on which Nelson Mandela’s name was removed: 7/1/2008
4/84U.S. personnel in Central America: 20,212
Cuban personnel in Central America: 4,500
11/91Number of cooks who called the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line for assistance on Thanksgiving Day last year: 20,298
5/91Estimated amount that Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens will earn this season, per strikeout: $20,400
9/05Percentage markup that Abbott Laboratories charged in 2001 on solutions of sodium chloride, i.e., salt water: 20,735
3/94Average cost of hospitalizing a gunshot-wound victim in the United States: $20,750
1/00Number of false alarms of nuclear missile attacks generated by the U.S. early warning system between 1977 and 1984: 20,784
5/87Cost of flying a B-1 bomber for one hour: $21,000
1/90Number of Americans who had died of AIDS before President Reagan discussed the issue in a speech: 21,000
1/98Percentage of French gas stations that ran dry after a five-day roadblock last fall by striking French truckers: 40
3/99Minimum amount John Gotti Jr. told a federal judge last fall that he required each month for private guards: $21,000
7/93Number of people arrested in Japan last year for the illegal sale or abuse of paint thinner: 21,203
2/07Number of Silver Stars the Army has awarded so far for heroism in the Iraq and Afghan wars combined: 249
Number it awarded for the Vietnam War: 21,630
11/99Total votes by which Democrats lost six key districts and the chance to regain control of the House last year: 21,898
7/91Number of German conscientious objectors who registered with the German military in January: 22,000
2/92Total membership of American white supremacist groups: 22,000
11/97Amount Bob Dole spent last year on political advertising on the Food Channel: $22,000
2/01Number of Catholics who received penance at a weekend-long “confess-a-thon” held in Washington, D.C., last fall: 22,000
4/02Estimated total number of calories Congress burned giving Bush’s last address 46 standing ovations: 22,000
1/05Average number of Americans injured every year by air rifles, paintball weapons, and BB guns: 22,000
1/09Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000
Percentage of hotel rooms in Cuba in hotels awarded a four- or five-star rating by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism: 65
In the Soviet Union: 22,500
5/85Total horsepower at the 1984 Indianapolis 500: 23,000
At the 1984 Kentucky Derby: 1,000
8/90Number of personal-computer disks seized from American homes by Secret Service agents last May: 23,000
2/06Number of dominoes that a wayward sparrow toppled just before a Dutch world-record attempt in November: 23,000
9/84Average yearly wages of an American auto worker: $23,566
9/91Amount the Republican Party was fined in April for illegally giving $2,700,000 to Senate candidates in 1986: $24,000
9/92Amount of writing Florida state colleges require students to complete before their junior year, in words: 24,000
8/02Minimum spending on refreshments required per luxury box at this year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament: $24,000
7/07Price from an Illinois company to turn the cremated ashes of a loved one into a 1.5-carat diamond: $24,999
Number of smaller diamonds the company offers in its “Family Plan”: 4
10/84Jobs created by every billion dollars of U.S. government defense spending: 21,000
7/87Number of Salvadoran villages bombed or strafed by the Salvadoran Air Force in 1986: 230
Number of Salvadorans displaced by government military operations in 1986: 25,000
9/87Average price of an artificial arm (operation included): $25,000
Of an artificial blood vessel: $15,000
10/90Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a 6- to 11-year-old American child in 1945: 25,000
Average number today: 10,000
2/93Number of Americans robbed or assaulted last year by people impersonating police officers: 25,000
3/96Price of a database assessing current and future crime risks for any U.S. zip code, from Urban Decision Systems: $25,000
8/97Highest bid offered at auction last May for the Watergate Hotel lock picked in 1972 to get into DNC offices: $13,000
Bid the seller expected: $25,000
Number of the ten largest U.S. newspapers that gave the story front-page coverage: 0
7/99Fee that Nike offered Ralph Nader to say “another shameless attempt by Nike to sell shoes” in a TV ad: $25,000
8/00Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a 6- to 14-year-old American child in 1945: 25,000
Average number today: 10,000
Page on which the Gainesville Sun ran the story: A1
9/05Stipend that a CIA scholarship program gives annually to undisclosed undergraduates for overseas “fieldwork”: $25,000
3/06Amount paid in January for one of William Shatner’s kidney stones: $25,000
6/06Estimated number of illegal Irish immigrants in the United States: 25,000
1/08Number of British soccer fans who have given £35 each to a website in order to collectively purchase a pro team: 25,000
10/90Bottles of suntan lotion the U.S. Army purchased in August from a Kmart in Hinesville, Georgia: 25,550
8/02Number of U.S. residents in 1954 that the FBI had slated for roundup in the event of a national emergency: 26,000
5/04Amount the federal Individual Indian Trust cannot account for, per Native American it serves: $26,000
8/06Number of AK-47s that have gone missing after being sent by the Pentagon to Iraq last summer: 26,000
1/91Estimated amount Princess Diana has spent on underwear since marrying Prince Charles: $26,460
11/86Amount The Triumph of Beauty, a portrait of Imelda Marcos, brought at auction in August: $27,500
11/08Total votes cast online last fall to decide which Thanksgiving turkeys President Bush should pardon: 27,726
6/84Membership of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1980: 800
5/03Number of words that the New York Times has devoted to February’s shuttle accident per resulting death: 28,500
10/86Purchase price of a parking space in New York City’s first condominium garage: $29,000
7/84Amount of aid to EI Salvador proposed by the Reagan Administration, per guerrilla: $30,000
9/84Butlers in Britain before World War II: 30,000
7/88Bounty that drug smugglers are rumored to have put on Barco, a U.S. Border Patrol drug-sniffing dog: $30,000
3/89Number of babies conceived in the United States last year with sperm from an anonymous donor: 30,000
5/99Estimated number of deaths for which Kurd rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is accused of being responsible: 30,000
1/07Number of Orthodox Israelis who subscribe to one rabbinically approved cell-phone service: 30,000
Average amount by which “kosher”-to-“kosher” calls are cheaper per minute than calls to non-plan numbers: 3¢
1/05Total number of cats that entered the Cat Fanciers’ Association 2004 “Best Cat in Championship” competition: 31,899
Points by which a cat named Colin Powell defeated the runner-up: 114.35
12/88Average salary and benefits of workers in American industries in which the number of jobs is increasing: $22,000
Average salary and benefits of workers in American industries in which the number of jobs is decreasing: $32,000
8/91Pounds of opium stockpiled by the U.S. Defense Department to treat radiation sickness: 32,000
9/92Estimated number of Tupperware parties and demonstrations held each day, worldwide: 32,000
10/01Ratio of Oregon rainfall in April 2000 to rainfall last April after a Native American tribe held a rain ceremony there: 2:3
Amount the tribe subsequently billed an Oregon power company for costs associated with the ceremony: $32,000
8/94Number of federal workers employed full-time this year to manage national-security documents: 32,397
9/91Number of children admitted to hospital emergency rooms last year for injuries involving shopping carts: 32,866
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
9/90Estimated amount the national debt will increase in the time it takes to read this line: $33,000
8/86Number of rescues made by lifeguards on Southern California beaches in 1985: 33,278
7/95Weight, in pounds, of an apple pie baked by students at Spokane Community College last July: 33,500
12/90Members of the Christian Motorcyclists Association: 33,805
4/91Number of beagles used in radiation research that the Department of Energy will bury in a toxic-waste dump in 1991: 850
12/91Value Lloyd’s of London has placed on a Viking turd owned by England’s Archaeological Resource Centre: $34,000
12/91Amount the city of Montreal will spend this year on a rest room for dogs in William Bowie Park: $34,000
1/96Change since 1994 in the number of antidepressant prescriptions filled each day for managed-care patients: +34,542
1/05Phone number of The G.I. Rights Hotline, a nongovernmental service for U.S. military personnel: 800-394-9544
Estimated number of calls the line received last year from soldiers seeking a way out of the military: 34,800
11/95Average amount a current member of Congress has received from telecommunications-industry PACs since 1985: $34,942
5/95Price of a floral dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in her last film, from Norma’s Jeans of Maryland: $35,000
2/99Amount a fourth-grade Denver class has raised since last March to buy and free Sudanese slaves: $35,000
9/01Price of Bob Dylan’s high-school essay on The Grapes of Wrath, from a New York City collectibles dealer: $35,000
5/06Maximum number of Africans brought to America in any single year during the trans-Atlantic slave trade: 35,000
6/06Minimum amount that a Massachusetts special-ed teacher received in donations from 2003 to 2005 by faking cancer: $35,000
5/07Amount the British military spent in 2002 researching whether psychics could find terrorist hideouts: $35,000
Chance that a psychic it tested could, blindfolded, identify some portion of the contents of a sealed envelope: 1 in 3
7/00Amount the U.S. government spent on drug testing per employee who tested positive between 1997 and 1998: $35,222
2/93Miles of bad checks written by Americans each year: 35,500
1/00Acres of hemp grown by “patriotic” U.S. farmers in 1942 at the behest of the U.S. government: 36,000
2/95Total amount the U.S. government earned last year through the auctioning of Aldrich Ames’s possessions: $36,400
10/91Number of tabs of LSD confiscated at a series of Grateful Dead concerts in Landover, Maryland, in March: 36,442
6/04Number of Library of Congress book collections it would take to hold the data created worldwide in 2002: 36,764
8/98Truckloads of nuclear waste the Department of Energy plans to begin driving to New Mexico for storage this year: 37,000
Number of highway accidents the DOE estimates these shipments will be involved in through the year 2033: 50
3/04Fine paid by two of John Ashcroft’s PACs for breaking campaign-finance laws during the 2000 election cycle: $37,000
3/95Average amount of his Social Security and Medicare taxes a single 30-year-old man will never receive in benefits: $37,200
Average amount in excess of his Social Security and Medicare taxes a single 65-year-old man will receive: $35,200
4/05Amount a Nebraska man made this year by auctioning his forehead to advertisers: $37,375