200 matches

6/84Number of times that Rod McKuen says he rewrote his latest book, The Sound of Solitude: 34

4/06Number of tunnels that have been discovered under the U.S.‒Mexico border since 2001: 34

    Number under the U.S.‒Canada border: 1

4/87Percentage of Italians who say “made in America” is a mark of quality: 34

    Percentage of West Germans who say this: 6

9/87Number of the 142 nominations to the Supreme Court since 1789 that were not confirmed: 34

    Number of the six Supreme Court nominations made by John Tyler that were not confirmed: 5

11/87Price of a leather Filofax insert to hold condoms: $34

1/88Average number of days Mario Cuomo traveled outside New York State each year from 1984 to 1986: 16

    Number of days Cuomo traveled outside the state in 1987: 34

2/88Rate of separation among Swedish couples who married after first living together (in percent): 34

    Among Swedish couples who married without first living together: 24

4/88Percentage of fourth graders who say that there is peer pressure to try wine coolers: 34

11/88Price of a 45-minute private yoga lesson for a dog at Japan Trimming School in Tokyo: $34

12/88Number of American children crushed to death by garage doors since 1982: 34

    Percentage of 1987 black college graduates who graduated from black colleges: 34

9/89Percentage of new U.S. public school teachers who say they plan to quit the profession within 5 years: 34

8/90Percentage of rural Chinese couples who say they usually spend less than a minute on foreplay: 34

1/92Average number of cheerleading-related injuries reported each day in the United States: 34

11/92Percentage change, since 1987, in licenses for bow and arrow hunting issued in the United States: +34

5/94Number of films designated as compulsory viewing for Beijing school children by the Chinese government last fall: 34

9/98Average number of public school students expelled each school day last year for gun possession: 34

11/98Number of political parties represented by the 5,065 candidates running for the German legislature last September: 34

12/02Number of countries that use the U.S. dollar as currency: 10

    Number of other countries whose currency is effectively pegged to the dollar: 34

6/03Number of sites nationwide where farmers grew “pharmaceutical crops” last year: 34

2/04Minimum price a Russian company charges to provide an alibi for an adulterer’s absence: $34

10/04Years after leaving his post during the Vietnam War that a Connecticut man was arrested for desertion in July: 34

5/05Percentage of owners of private businesses in China who are members of the Communist Party: 34

    Percentage of all adults in China who are: 5

6/05Percentage of the world’s Anglican bishops that have condemned the U.S. Episcopal Church’s ordination of a gay bishop: 34

8/06Percentage by which white women who often spend time in the sun are less at risk of breast cancer than those who do not: 34

5/07Number of suits filed against Rudy Giuliani between 1994 and 2001 by the New York Civil Liberties Union: 34

8/07Percentage of British children aged seven to eleven who say they “worry about global warming: 34

    Percentage who believe their own parents are to blame for the problem: 15

    Date on which the U.S. first proposed a Security Council resolution to disband the monitoring team: 6/8/07

6/08Percentage of American men with a net worth of at least $20 million who admit to having paid for sex: 34

    Percentage of similarly wealthy women who do: 20

12/94Price of a 12-gram canister of frankincense and a 7-gram canister of myrrh, from a Maryland company: $34.95

12/84Percentage of college men who say they might commit rape if there were no chance of being caught: 35

10/85Percentage increase in condom sales in drugstores since 1982: 35

7/88Number of countries with zero population growth: 35

5/86Number of federal commissions appointed since 1949 to study the Pentagon: 35

    In Lee Iacocca’s salary and benefits: +35

1/87Percentage change in U.S. oil imports in the first 9 months of 1986: +35

2/87Average amount of gas a cow belches each day (in cubic feet): 35

4/87Number of indoor miniature golf courses built in 1986: 35

    In the first six months of 1988: 35

9/88Percentage of Americans who say that El Salvador’s government is a pro-Soviet regime: 35

2/89Price of a one-year subscription to Incurable Romantix, a computerized love-letter service: $35

4/89Portion of U.S. government revenue in 1989 that will come from Social Security taxes: 1/4

    Percentage increase in the 1989 U.S. budget deficit if Social Security funds are not counted as revenue: 35

12/89Percentage of American men who say they deal with depression by trying to figure out their problems: 23

    Percentage who say they deal with depression by watching television: 35

12/89Number of pet-death support groups in the United States: 35

2/92Percentage increase in appropriations for the Strategic Defense Initiative voted by Congress last November: 35

6/92Percentage change, since 1989, in net purchases of U.S. Treasury securities by U.S. banks: +35

    Percentage change, since 1989, in net purchases of U.S. Treasury securities by the Japanese: -34

7/93Hourly wage the Resolution Trust Corporation paid contract workers last year to photocopy documents: $35

4/94Number of movie deals proposed to Nancy Kerrigan in the week after she was assaulted in January: 35

8/95Percentage of Americans who don’t know that Hiroshima was the site of the first atomic-bomb attack: 35

    Percentage who believe the attack was ordered by Richard Nixon: 1

1/96Percentage of Americans who favor placing ads on the dollar bill to help cut the deficit or lower taxes: 35

5/96Number of shades of white offered in the new Ralph Lauren paint collection: 35

1/97Percentage change since 1989 in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one working parent: +35

3/98Number of states that have declared March 13 L. Ron Hubbard Day: 35

3/01Minimum number of mentally retarded Americans who have been executed by the justice system since 1976: 35

8/02Percentage change last year in the total profits of Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies: +35

    Percentage change in the total profits of all Fortune 500 companies: -54

9/02Days this year that Russia banned the import of U.S. poultry because of health concerns: 35

1/03Minutes that a Massachusetts surgeon left a patient with an open incision in July while he went to deposit a check: 35

2/03Number of years the New York Police Department’s new Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence worked for the CIA: 35

12/04Minimum number of countries with a greater capacity to produce nuclear weapons than Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion: 35

4/05Percentage of born-again U.S. Christians who have been divorced: 35

    Percentage of other Americans who have been: 35

12/05Price in South Africa next year of a latex vaginal insert that latches onto a rapist’s penis and requires surgical removal: 35¢

6/06Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during the first five years of George W. Bush’s presidency: +35

    Percentage change during Lyndon Johnson’s and Bill Clinton’s first five years, respectively: +25, ‒8

1/07Percentage of their total cost that five audited Iraqi reconstruction projects spent on overhead costs: 35

    Average number of months after workers and equipment were ordered to Iraq that substantial work on the projects began: 6

10/07Percentage change in the average amount of food a person will consume when eating with one other person: +35

    Percentage change with four or seven others, respectively: +75, +96

12/07Percentage of contributions from members of the U.S. military for 2002 campaigns that went to Democrats: 23

    Percentage for 2008 campaigns so far: 35

1/09Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35

1/05Percentage change since 2002 in the average U.S. price of gasoline: +35.2

    Change since then in the amount of gasoline Americans consume per capita: 0

2/85Percentage decrease in wine consumption in France since 1978: 10

    Percentage increase in cola consumption in France since 1978: 36

3/85Percentage of household burglaries in the United States that are solved: 9

    Percentage of those burglaries that are committed by a relative or acquaintance of the victim: 36

8/85Percentage of female executives who say that wearing perfume helps a woman’s career: 36

4/88Percentage of Americans who say that God has spoken to them: 36

3/86Percentage of all bills Congress passed in 1985 that established commemorative days, weeks, or months: 36

    Percentage of unwed white fathers who do: 20

5/87Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest one percent of Americans in 1972: 28

    Percentage of North America that is: 36

1/89Percentage of Americans who say that they have more sympathy for business than for labor: 36

1/89Percentage of book reviewers who say it is ethical to review a book without having finished it: 36

11/90Percentage of hunting injuries in Georgia that are the result of hunters falling out of trees: 36

5/91Number of countries in which more than half the population is Muslim: 36

7/91Percentage of Americans who say that the Gulf war was a “victory for the United States”: 36

2/92Number of the KGB’s 486,000 staffers who have been fired in the past year: 36

6/92Percentage decrease, since 1955, in the world-record time of men running a marathon: 8

    Percentage decrease in the world-record time of women: 36

8/93Percentage change, since 1990, in contributions to congressional campaigns made by health-care industry PACs: +36

1/94Percentage of Russians who believe their country will become more democratic in the next few years: 36

10/96Maximum months of maternity leave Croatia’s new “family values” plan allows an employed, pregnant mother of two: 36

2/97Number of years the mother in the Family Circus cartoon had the same hairstyle before changing it last year: 36

9/97Number of languages taught in U.S. colleges and universities that were not taught there 10 years ago: 36

    Number of languages taught 10 years ago that are not taught today: 15

1/98Number of hours a Moscow hotel flew a Microsoft flag within view of Red Square last fall when Bill Gates visited: 36

    Number of lunches Gates ate in Moscow that were not from McDonald’s: 0

9/98Percentage of full-time U.S. undergraduates who are over the age of 22: 36

12/01Percentage change between 1998 and 1999 in the number of women construction workers: +36

9/03Maximum number of miles that Ford’s most fuel-efficient 2003 car can drive on a gallon of gas: 36

    Maximum number its 1912 Model T could: 35

12/03Percentage change since 1999 in the number of desertions from the U.S. Army: +36

2/04Percentage by which health-care spending by an obese American exceeds that by an American of normal weight: 36

    Percentage by which health-care spending by a daily smoker exceeds that by a nonsmoker: 21

5/04Days before last year’s invasion of Iraq that Osama bin Laden called Saddam Hussein a “socialist infidel”: 36

8/04Approval rating of Lyndon Johnson in March 1968, the month he announced he would not run for reelection: 36

5/05Percentage of U.S. high-school students who believe news stories should require “government approval” before publication: 36

2/07Minimum number of women in Kabul who committed suicide by self-immolation last year: 36

2/07Minimum number of Texas death-row inmates who have MySpace pages: 36

6/07Percentage of British Muslims aged 16 to 24 who advocate death for Muslims who convert to another faith: 36

    Percentage who say they “admire organizations like al-Qaeda that are prepared to fight the West”: 13

3/85Percentage of Americans who believe the Russians are our enemies because they are atheists: 37

9/86Percentage of jobs created in the United States between 1978 and 1984 that pay less than $9,200 annually: 37

10/86Percentage of men who say their biggest sports thrill would be to get the winning hit in the World Series: 32

    Percentage of women who say this: 37

12/87Average amount of time a child spends in Santa Claus’s lap at Macy’s (in seconds): 37

3/89Number of the Pentagon’s U.S. suppliers that were bought by foreign-owned companies in the first half of 1988: 37

1/90Number of extramarital affairs on Dallas during the 1980s: 37

2/90Percentage of Catholic members of the House who voted last fall to federally fund abortions for rape victims: 37

5/90Percentage of American married couples who say they never take baths or showers together: 37

4/91Percentage increase, since 1988, in the number of American college students who have their own credit card: 37

7/92Percentage of Canadians who expect their country to become a part of the United States in the next 50 years: 37

10/92Percentage of Americans in their 20s who say that corruption is an “important factor in getting ahead”: 37

3/93Tons of instruction manuals carried aboard each U.S. Navy cruiser: 37

9/93Number of Shemp Howard’s canceled checks sold this year by Odyssey Group of Corona, California, for $695 apiece: 37

11/94Percentage of Americans who think U.S. military forces should be used to “reinstate democratically elected leaders”: 37

3/95Percentage of Americans who favor returning to “President Reagan’s economic policies of the 1980s: 37

5/95Number of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays quoted on the Senate floor last year by Robert Byrd: 37

12/95Percentage of Americans convicted on federal drug charges in 1991 who turned informant to reduce their sentence: 19

    Percentage of those convicted last year who did so: 37

2/96Percentage of Americans who say that Ronald Reagan was the president who “best personified cool ranch tortilla chips”: 25

    Percentage who say that Abraham Lincoln was the president who “best personified pretzel logs”: 37

6/96Percentage of all Shell oil spills between 1982 and 1992 that took place in Nigeria: 37

2/97Number of Shakespeare’s 37 plays that West Virginia senator Robert Byrd has quoted on the Senate floor: 37

7/97Lines of Walt Whitman poetry entered as evidence last year in New York’s dispute with New Jersey over Ellis Island: 37

12/99Percentage of federal nuclear-safety inspectors that the Senate proposed laying off last year: 37

7/00Minimum number of new bacteria species discovered to exist in the human mouth last year: 37

9/02Percentage of U.S. college students who say they would try to evade the draft if one were called today: 37

1/03Percentage change since 1990 in the number of U.S. school children labeled “disabled”: +37

3/03Minimum number of California concerts canceled since August because of new U.S. visa policies: 37

    Number of the 22 Cuban nominees invited to last year’s Latin Grammy Awards unable to attend because of such policies: 22

8/03Percentage of pedestrian fatalities on U.S. roadways last year in which the driver was drunk: 18

    Percentage in which the pedestrian was: 37

2/04Rank of the U.S. health-care system among the most efficient in the world, according to the World Health Organization: 37

8/05Percentage of newlywed couples who report having had a physically violent fight in the year before marriage: 37

1/06Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

2/08Percentage of likely Republican voters last October who knew that Rudolph Giuliani was pro-choice: 37

1/09Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37

    Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

2/87Price of a bouquet of wilted, dead, or beheaded flowers at Drop Dead Flowers in New York City: $37.50

12/86Percentage of Americans today who say that being single is “not a fully acceptable lifestyle”: 38

12/94Price of 3,4 ounces of Guilt, a new cologne from The Territory Ahead, a Santa Barbara company: $38

7/86Percentage of people who say they refuse to take part in market-research surveys: 38

11/86Percentage of Chicago public school teachers who send their children to private or parochial schools: 38

5/88Percentage of Brazilians who favor a return to military government: 38

12/88Percentage of Americans who say they strongly object to working with people who have AIDS: 34

    Percentage who say they strongly object to working with people who don’t use deodorant: 38

6/90Percentage of Southern California drivers who say they have made “indecent gestures” at other drivers: 38

4/91Percentage of U.S. taxpayers who pay more in Social Security tax than in federal income tax: 38

5/93Hip measurement, in inches, of a size-eight dress sold in the United States last year: 38

    Hip measurement of a size-eight dress sold sixty years ago: 33.5

8/93Percentage change, since 1980, in the number of people calling themselves “American Indian” on the census: +38

3/96Percentage by which Gingrich’s publisher asked retailers last fall to discount his 1995 book, To Renew America: 38

3/96Percentage of British Members of Parliament who believe that stress is reducing their interest in sex: 38

6/97Percentage increase since 1992 in the amount of overtime wages paid the White House domestic staff: +38

2/99Percentage of local TV news directors who say their stations have been sued for libel since 1995: 38

    Percentage who say they have dropped “important information” from a story since then for fear of being sued: 28

8/99Age at death last March of the sturgeon Nikita, Khrushchev’s gift to Norway, after an accidental immersion in salt water: 38

12/99Percentage of Americans who believe that the media “hurt democracy: 38

9/00Date by which the Palestinian Authority announced last summer that a Palestinian state would be established: 9/13/00

    Percentage of Palestinians who said at the time that they believed this would occur: 38

5/01Average age at which an American believes his or her physical attractiveness peaks: 38

12/01Ratio of businesses to military sites attacked by international terrorists between 1995 and 2000: 38:1

    Chance that a death caused by international terrorism during that period occurred in Asia: 1 in 2

9/02Percentage change since 2000 in the number of awards won by Americans at the World Championship Cheese Contest: +38

    Caliber of his first gun, a Smith & Wesson used for armed robbery: .38

6/05Number of U.S. Episcopal churches that are now affiliated with dioceses in Rwanda or Uganda: 38

8/05Number of Viagra users who have reported becoming blind from the drug: 38

12/06Number of people the U.S. counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer personally killed last season on the TV show 24: 38

2/07Consecutive years that the U.N. has ranked Norway as the best country to live in: 6

    Minutes after the ranking last fall that Norway’s aid minister said Norwegians needed to fight their “culture of whining”: 38

8/08Percentage of U.S. students aged 12 to 17 who say they use text-message slang in their written school assignments: 38

8/08Number of American cities where all regularly scheduled airplane service has been eliminated during the past year: 38

3/09Extra points that a California student added to his GPA last year by hacking into a school computer: 1.9

    Years in prison to which he might be sentenced at his upcoming trial: 38

5/84Percentage of congressmen who believe virtuous living is the path to salvation: 39

9/84Percentage of American fifth-graders who report being in love: 39

8/85Percentage of Americans who never go to the movies: 39

6/86Percentage of Americans who say they have never heard the word “yuppie”: 39

4/87Number of times the South Korean government put opposition leader Kim Dae Jung under house arrest in 1986: 39

3/88Number of candidates in the Philippines’ January regional elections who were murdered during the campaign: 39

4/88Percentage of armed conflicts in the twentieth century that were won by the country or faction that started them: 39

    Percentage of conflicts since 1980 that were: 9

10/88Number of ethics specialists employed by General Dynamics: 39

11/88Number of American state governments that maintain offices in Tokyo: 39

11/88Percentage increase in video rentals of Hoosiers on the weekend following Dan Quayle’s acceptance speech: 39

4/89Average number of points a student gains on the math section of the SAT per 100 hours of preparatory classes: 39

1/90Percentage of Americans who said in 1985 that they had never heard the word yuppie: 39

3/90Ratio of U.S. soldiers killed to those wounded in the U.S. invasion of Panama: 1:14

    Ratio of Panamanian soldiers killed to those wounded in the invasion: 2:1

    Percentage of the Panamanians killed in the invasion who were civilians: 39

6/90Number of people killed by stray bullets in New York City last year: 39

2/92Average number of shopping carts stolen from American supermarkets each hour: 39

1/93Additional electoral votes Bill Clinton would have won if blacks in the South had voted at 1988 levels: 39

1/95Number of states that are under court order to alleviate overcrowding and poor conditions at one or all of their prisons: 39

2/95Number of GAIT signatories that have been cited by the U.S. government for lax child-labor-law enforcement: 39

7/96Gallons of chewing gum scraped up each year by the maintenance crew at the Statue of Liberty: 39

7/99Percentage of Americans who describe “ barbecue ” as the aroma that best defines America: 39

8/00Percentage of refugees from the Bosnian war who have not returned to their homes since 1995’s peace accord: 39

4/01Percentage of San Francisco Opera employees who claim to have been sickened by theatrical fog or smoke: 39

1/04Estimated percentage of Afghanistan’s GDP last year accounted for by opium exports: 39

3/05Minimum percentage of Darfuris expected to require emergency food assistance this month: 39

11/06Percentage of Americans who cannot say in which year the September 11 attacks occurred: 30

    Percentage who think that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39

4/07Maximum body-mass index that China now allows for any foreigner adopting a Chinese infant: 39

    Maximum number of divorces that prospective parents can have between them: 2

8/07Percentage of Marines stationed in Iraq who say they agree that “all non-combatants should be treated as insurgents”: 16

    Percentage who say they “neither agree nor disagree”: 39

1/09Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39

tweet this  ·  bookmark or share