By Protestants: 5
The average New Englander: 23
1/87Number of entries under “journalistic ethics” in the 1961 Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature: 0
7/87Number that paid to use the logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution: 23
10/87Number of states that have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968: 23
Number that have voted Democratic in every election since 1968: 0
2/89Amount of time it would take for all the Coca-Cola ever sold to flow over Niagara Falls, in hours: 23
4/89Percentage of Americans who like dogs on TV commercials because they are “more exciting than people”: 23
8/90Average number of South African police officers who have resigned each day this year: 23
9/90Percentage of men who are chronically constipated: 12
Number of these invasions the United States sent troops to help repel: 3
6/91Percentage of Americans who say they watch “too little” television: 23
7/92Percentage of Americans who believe that the president can suspend the Bill of Rights during wartime: 23
Chances that an American does not know that the Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution: 2 in 3
9/93Number of the 37 contested elections for seats in state legislatures this year that were won by Republicans: 23
11/95Age, in years, of the oldest frozen turkey about which Butterball’s hot line has ever fielded a “freshness” question: 23
8/96Number of nonskid strips the Delaware Correctional Center affixed to its gallows steps before a hanging last January: 23
10/97Rank of Hillary Clinton, among the best-selling Halloween masks last year at Washington’s Backstage costume shop: 1
Rank of Bill Clinton and the Cryptkeeper: 2,3
9/98Percentage of Americans who are in favor of outlawing cigarettes: 23
5/99Number of subscribers to Eternal Ink, the official newsletter of the Christian Tattoo Association: 23
7/99Hours after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May that the U.S. apologized to China: 23
4/01Hours after taking office in 1993 that Bill Clinton ordered a five-year delay on lobbying by ex-White House officials: 1
4/01Percentage of U.S. high school sex-ed teachers who say that abstinence is the only birth-control method they cover: 23
9/01Number of American states that permit public-school teachers to inflict corporal punishment on students: 23
11/01Prison sentence, in years, received in June by an Oregon activist for setting fire to a car dealership: 23
3/04Number of the 420 demonstrators arrested at Philadelphia’s 2000 Republican National Convention who were convicted: 23
Number whose cases are still pending: 9
7/04Number of states where a shift of no more than three seats this fall could change party control of a legislative chamber: 23
9/05Ratio of the world’s reconstruction aid given to postwar Kosovo, per capita, to that given postwar Afghanistan: 23:1
3/06Number of books published in Britain since 2004 that have “shit,” “shite,” or “ crap ” in their titles: 23
4/06Percentage of U.S. couples who regularly sleep in separate beds: 23
7/06Percentage of Republicans who viewed “Hillary Clinton” favorably in an April poll: 16
Percentage who viewed “Hillary Rodham Clinton” favorably: 23
4/07Percentage of G.O.P. House and Senate members in an April 2006 poll who believed humans are causing climate change: 23
7/07Percentage of U.S. soldiers who say they “know for certain” that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian: 23
5/08Percentage of Britons who believe that Winston Churchill is a mythical figure: 23
6/08Minimum number of U.S. Army generals fired or replaced for cause during World War II: 23
Number during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined: 1
3/09Number of serialized TV and radio melodramas in favor of population control produced by a Vermont group: 18
Number of countries in which the group has aired them: 23
5/00Years before Indonesia hired Henry Kissinger last winter that he was the U.S. adviser on its invasion of East Timor: 23.5
Median age today: 23.7
12/84Percentage of American teachers who say that if they could start over, they would not teach: 24
5/85Percentage increase in admissions for malnutrition at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital from 1981 to 1983: 24
8/85Percentage of American women who receive no prenatal care during the first three months of pregnancy: 24
3/87Percentage of Americans who say that AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality: 24
Percentage spent today: 24
5/87Percentage decrease in the average winning bid at the Keeneland thoroughbred auction in 1986: 24
5/88Percentage of 1987 United Nations General Assembly votes in which Honduras voted with the United States: 24
9/88Number of lines in Ronald Reagan’s entry in the 1988-89 edition of Who’s Who: 8
Number of lines in Nancy Reagan’s: 24
8/89Price of a two-hour Scandal Tour of Washington, D.C.: $24
12/90Number of the 26 human bodies frozen in the hope of being brought back to life that are in California: 24
10/91Percentage of Japanese who say that the Soviet Union is the greatest threat to their nation: 22
Percentage who say the United States is: 24
6/92Number of Alcoholics Anonymous groups formed in Moscow since 1987: 24
5/93Number of cardigan sweaters worn by Mr. Rogers on his TV show since 1968: 24
11/93Average number of members of Congress charged with a crime each decade between 1789 and 1970: 2
6/94Percentage of 15- to 24-year-old French workers who are unemployed: 24
Percentage of U.S. pediatricians who do not accept Medicaid: 23
6/95Ratio of soft-money contributions made to the Republican National Committee last January to those made in January 1993: 24:1
10/95Hours per day that the L.A. Central Jail runs its dry-cleaning machines to prepare prisoners’ street clothes for storage: 24
3/97Price for which a Kissimmee, Florida, woman allegedly offered to sell her five-year-old niece to a stranger last December: $24
3/97Percentage of British women who find Prime Minister John Major “attractive”: 2
Percentage who find Labour Leader Tony Blair “smarmy”: 24
8/98Number of bids received by the Russian government last May when it put its remaining national oil company up for sale: 0
Percentage by which the asking price was reduced a month later: 24
12/98Number of days this year during which Norway’s Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik was “too depressed” to work: 24
5/99Ranking points by which the name Monica has dropped in popularity among those given U.S. girls since 1997: 24
9/99Maximum amount of time that a suspect in Florida can be held in jail without being assigned a lawyer, in hours: 24
Average percentage by which the amount of East Coast rainfall on a Saturday exceeds the amount on a Monday: 22
9/01Hours that Amherst College agreed to ban coffee last term as part of a student’s performance piece about the drug war: 24
3/02Total number of opposition candidates who ran for the 84 seats in Singapore’s parliament last November: 24
9/02Number of weapons seized in a 1962 desegregation riot at a fraternity then headed by future senator Trent Lott: 24
10/02Months since his release from prison that nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee has been looking for work: 24
5/04Years in prison to which two ex-Pentagon officials were sentenced last year for taking bribes of money and prostitutes: 24
9/04Number of Afghanistan’s 33 provinces with no NATO peacekeeping presence: 24
9/05Ratio of the number of peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, per capita, to that in Afghanistan: 24:1
5/07Percentage of Pakistanis and Indonesians who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified to defend Islam: 8
Percentage of Americans who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified: 24
10/07Percentage change since 1980 in the average amount of solid waste generated by an American: +24
10/08Number of states that have refused to accept federal grants for pro-abstinence sex education this year: 24
For workers in the Soviet Union: 15
12/84Percentage of Americans who believe their presence at a sports event influences its outcome: 25
2/85Percentage increase since 1980 in U.S. military recruits who hold high school diplomas: 25
9/85Percentage change in the buying power of a Social Security check since 1970: +25
9/85Percentage of Nicaragua’s exports bought by Japan in 1980: 3
11/85Percentage of Fortune 500 companies that tested employees and job applicants for illegal drug use in 1982: 10
Percentage that test today: 25
2/86Percentage of acknowledged male homosexuals who are fathers: 25
3/87Average interest rate charged on bank credit cards: 17.83
Percentage of Americans who say they don’t know the interest rates charged on their credit cards: 25
3/88Percentage of contributors to George Bush’s 1988 campaign who gave $250 or more: 25
4/88Number of times that Richard Gephardt used the word “Establishment” in his Iowa stump speech: 25
In his New Hampshire stump speech: 3
4/88Percentage of Americans who watch an evangelical religious program on television at least once a week: 25
11/88Estimated number of times George Bush recited the Pledge of Allegiance in the month following his nomination: 25
12/88Percentage of American families whose net worth is less than $10,000: 25
2/89Percentage of state and local district attorneys who say that marijuana should be decriminalized: 25
2/90Estimated amount it will cost the Nicaraguan government to hold the elections scheduled for this month, per voter: $14
Average monthly income of a Nicaraguan: $25
3/90Average percentage increase in the protrusion of a woman’s buttocks when she wears high heels: 25
8/90Percentage of all savings and loan associations that failed during the Depression: 5
Percentage that the government expects will fail in the next five years: 25
5/91Percentage of U.S. hospitals that do not require that patients be told if they test positive for the AIDS virus: 25
7/91Estimated black-market price, in California, of a state-issued handicapped-parking permit: $25
8/91Percentage of Americans who believe they have healed physical ailments “using the power of mind”: 25
1/93Percentage of TV viewers who say they wouldn’t give up watching TV in exchange for any amount of money: 25
9/93Estimated number of nuclear reactors it would take to supply the energy consumed by U.S. refrigerators: 25
2/94Price of a one-page “Florid to Torrid” love letter, from New York City’s Do the Write Thing: $25
8/94Average amount left by the tooth fairy in 1969, per tooth: 25¢
Average amount left today: $3.30
10/94Ratio of worldwide military spending, per soldier, to educational spending, per school-age child: 25:1
3/95Amount by which the weekly pay of a full-time minimum-wage worker exceeds the poverty level: $25
6/95Number of Ho Chi Minh scholarships awarded to students last year by a community college in New York City: 25
10/95Price of a 4-ounce bottle of shampoo containing a chemical cloned from human sperm, from a Beverly Hills boutique: $25
11/95Average life span, in years, of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon: 25
11/96Price of a dozen rolls of “Helms Happens” toilet paper: $25
12/96Points by which Washington Monthly editor Charles Peters says his IQ exceeds that of John F. Kennedy: 25
4/97Estimated number of Cobra attack helicopters privately owned by Americans: 25
11/97Price a Dallas firm charges for a 60-minute tour retracing JFK’s 1963 motorcade route in a period convertible: $25
3/98Value of the food and medicine purchased since December 1996 with Iraq’s “Oil for Food” proceeds, per Iraqi: 25¢
10/98Number of fishing rods and tackle boxes that can be checked out of Georgia ‘s Tybee Island public library: 25
2/99Percentage by which box-office receipts at theaters running the new Star Wars trailer rose on the day of its appearance: 25
Portion of the audience at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre that day who left before the feature film began: 1/3
8/99Number of CIA laptops containing top-secret information sold inadvertently at a government-surplus auction in 1995: 25
8/00Percentage of public relations executives who say they have “had to lie ” in the course of their jobs: 25
4/01Years before a British official was killed in Athens last winter that a CIA bureau chief was killed there with the same gun: 25
5/01Minimum number of Las Vegas casinos that use face-recognition technology to identify known card cheats: 25
2/02Total annualized percentage return on New York City’s stock markets on perfectly sunny days between 1982 and 1997: +25
12/02Average number of miles by which the magnetic North Pole moves each year: 25
12/02Days it takes an adult in Los Angeles to breathe in more air pollution than EPA guidelines recommend for a lifetime: 25
2/03Percentage of Moscow residents who say that city residents from Chechnya or the rest of the Caucasus should be expelled: 25
5/03Average factor by which levels of uranium in the urine of Afghan test subjects last fall exceeded normal: 25
6/03Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1
4/04Factor by which a blimp being developed for the U.S. government by Lockheed Martin exceeds the size of Goodyear’s: 25
7/04Number of publications on women’s rights that the Labor Department has removed from its website since 1999: 25
1/05Percentage “more intelligence” given up by prisoners in Iraq since coercion of them was banned, according to a U.S. general: 25
3/06Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld ’s vacation home: 25
6/06Amount a Pennsylvania T-ball coach paid a player last year to hit an autistic teammate with a ball: $25
Number of these courses that broke the law by being primarily devotional and sectarian, according to a September study: 22
5/08Percentage, in a recent study, by which the average weight gain of rats eating saccharin exceeded that of rats eating sugar: 25
1/09Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1
3/01Percentage of Washington children who completed an 8-year antismoking program in the 1990s who now smoke regularly: 25.4
11/92Average cost of a homemade Thanksgiving meal for ten: $25.95
6/84Percentage of voters who say they are more likely to vote Democratic in November if a woman is on the ticket: 26
9/86Percentage of teenagers’ favorite songs that they say are about sex, violence, satanism, or drugs: 7
Percentage they say are about love: 26
10/87Minutes Jerry Falwell spent soliciting contributions during the average Old Time Gospel Hour in July: 26
3/89Average number of calories burned during an “extremely passionate” one-minute kiss: 26
Number of calories in a Hershey’s Kiss: 25
2/90Percentage of the value of all foreign-owned U.S. real estate that is owned by Japanese companies: 15
Percentage of the value of all foreign-owned U.S. real estate that is owned by Canadian companies: 26
2/90Number of brand-name products that appear in Back to the Future, Part II: 26
2/91Percentage change, in the last year, in the number of home-equity loans made by American banks: +26
3/91Percentage increase, during 1991, in the number of people seeking emergency food aid in U.S. cities: 26
7/93Average decrease in the number of minutes women spend on housekeeping for every hour spent at a paying job: 26
9/93Percentage change in the number of racial-harassment complaints filed: +26
7/94Number of physicians who are running for the U.S. House or Senate this year: 26
10/94Percentage of Americans who believe that the world will be “better off” in the year 2000: 26
11/94Chances that a U.S. teenager has not spoken to either parent for more than ten minutes during the last month: 1 in 5