6/84Market value of labor performed annually by the average American housewife: $40,288.04
3/97Federal funds spent since last October to gild Newt Gingrich’s office ceiling, gold excluded: $40,400
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
1/06Average height gain, in inches, of adolescents who use human growth hormone over five and a half years: 2
Cost per inch that represents: $41,000
12/94Price paid at auction this year for Elvis Presley’s American Express card: $41,500
4/04Average amount a Bush Cabinet member will save this year due to cuts in capital-gains and dividend taxes: $42,000
8/05Number of corpses shipped on Delta Air Lines last year: 42,175
4/88Number of garages in Los Angeles that are used as homes: 42,300
8/02Number of round-trips to the sun represented by the world’s outstanding frequent-flyer miles: 42,500
1/89Number of Americans who have a lifetime subscription to Reader’s Digest: 43,000
8/08Number of U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003 after being deemed medically “non-deployable”: 43,000
9/99Amount the Bush campaign spent for one day’s use of a plot of land near the entrance to last month’s Iowa straw poll: $43,500
12/08Minimum number of properties the U.S. government was forced to buy as part of the S&L bailout: 43,640
Number of churches and athletic clubs, respectively, that this purchase included: 3, 27
8/92Years it would take a Nike worker in Indonesia to earn Michael Jordan’s endorsement fee: 44,492
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
10/01Amount of campaign contributions that Sen. James Jeffords has returned since leaving the Republican Party in May: $17,470
Estimated amount of new contributions he has received since then: $45,000
Percentage by which this exceeds the seating capacity of Wrigley Field: 14
1/09Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies: 45,000
3/03Minimum number of local activists the Denver police department has gathered information on since the 1950s: 3,200
Amount the department spent in 2000 to put these names in an internal database: $45,800
12/91Acres of land on the West Bank seized by the Israeli government since the peace process began last March: 46,000
3/94Number of Ukrainians who have joined the Communist Party since the ban on it was lifted last October: 46,000
9/98Estimated number of American senior citizens who played tackle football last year: 47,000
8/00Amount New Jersey’s Camden police spent on riot gear in preparation for Philadelphia’s GOP convention: $47,775
10/99Legal fees paid by Princess Diana’s memorial fund this year to stop the Franklin Mint’s sale of Diana souvenirs: $48,000
2/06Number of people whom Coalition forces have imprisoned in Iraq at some point since March 2003: 48,526
3/89Total length of all roads built during the Roman Empire, in miles: 49,000
8/91Amount David Eilers, a 15-year-old Atlanta resident, earned last year from his lawn-mowing service: $49,000
6/93Estimated total number of couples married in group ceremonies by Reverend Sun Myung Moon since 1960: 49,132
Of a female Columbia University MBA: $40,022
8/93Average value of the goods and services produced each year by a full-time Japanese worker: $38,200
Average value of the goods and services produced each year by a full-time American worker: $49,600
8/98Amount British Nuclear Fuels paid the British Scouts last year to add its logo to their scientist badge: $49,776
6/89Amount Du Pont contributed to the new National Plastic Museum in Leominster, Massachusetts: $50,000
9/91Value of the prizes won by Tom Sedivy of California, in the 95 radio call-in contests he won last year: $50,000
11/93Amount the Louisiana Campaign Finance Office has earned on sales of David Duke’s 1991 campaign-contributors list: $50,000
3/94Number of condoms that will be distributed in Volusia County, Florida, during spring break this year: 50,000
6/94Membership of the Arcigola Slow Food Movement, a group founded in Italy to protest the proliferation of fast food: 50,000
7/96Number of cards on exhibit at the Business Card Museum in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania: 50,000
1/97Number of Bill Clinton Waffles a California bakery has sold since their introduction last September: 50,000
5/98Amount for which a Missouri inmate offered to sell one of his organs last winter to pay legal fees: $50,000
10/98Number of assault weapons the Defense Department gave away to foreign governments last year: 50,000
Number of grenade launchers: 10,000
9/99Number of millennia before humans first farmed that farmer ants were farming the spongy fungus on which they feed: 50,000
1/00Estimated number of non-native species that have entered the North American ecosystem since 1500: 50,000
2/02Estimated number of acres of Civil War battlefield that were lost to development last year: 50,000
4/02Fine paid by Neil Bush in 1991 after federal regulators found him guilty of “ethical lapses”: $50,000
Minimum number of violations for which the Securities and Exchange Commission cited George W. Bush in the same year: 4
6/02Number of books to which a national reading program has assigned points that students can accumulate for rewards: 50,000
Points assigned to Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, respectively: 78, 40
2/05Number of Britons who have signed a declaration stating they will disobey any ban on fox hunting: 50,000
Number of foxes eaten by a British performance artist to protest the protests of the proposed ban: 2
4/05Average age of a Bay Area career-day audience this year to which a speaker touted stripping as a profession: 13
7/05Total value of bets taken by a U.K. bookmaker this spring on the identity of the new pope: £50,000
5/07Denomination in rials of Iran’s new largest banknote, which features a nuclear-power symbol on its back: 50,000
2/94Number of parking tickets given to former Soviet embassy employees in Washington, D.C., that remain unpaid: 50,693
12/05Estimated number of U.S. abortions that were prevented in 2000 through use of the morning-after pill: 51,000
5/85U.S. military aid to El Salvador since 1980, per guerrilla: $52,300
5/04Federal funds given last September to a group organizing the recall of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez: $53,400
7/87Number of cars exported to Japan by West Germany in 1986: 53,916
By the United States: 2,345
5/06Average number of Africans who have legally emigrated to the United States each year since 2000: 55,000
10/97Estimated number of cans of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup spilled on a San Diego interstate last February: 55,800
6/01Estimated number of blank ballots cast in protest during Israel’s national election in February: 56,000
Days before the election that the Israeli supreme court rejected a request that blank ballots be counted: 4
11/98Votes cast in an Oklahoma Democratic Senate primary last August for a candidate who had died a month earlier: 56,393
10/95Average amount Americans contributed to the U.S. Treasury each day to help reduce the national debt: $56,743
6/95Number of times an Akron radio station played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” between August and October last year: 57,161
5/04Median household income a pair of U.S. single mothers would have if they married each other: $40,568
9/92Number of people who attended the World Grits Festival, held in St. George, South Carolina, last spring: 60,000
10/92Average annual salary Zabar’s delicatessen in New York City pays lox slicers with at least ten years’ experience: $60,000
2/95Number of marijuana plants for which a grower may be sentenced to death under the crime bill passed last fall: 60,000
6/95Copies of the premier issue of the Russian-language edition of Cosmopolitan sold in Russia last summer: 60,000
3/97Amount the Library of Congress spent last year to create a braille edition of Playboy: $60,000
2/98Estimated gallons of jet fuel required to send Al Gore to Kyoto’s Global Warming Conference last December: 60,000
4/99Estimated attendance at a rally for debt relief for poor countries held outside Britain’s 1998 G-7 summit: 60,000
10/01Number of “useless laws” that Italy’s new prime minister promised to eliminate if elected: 60,000
9/03Estimated number of soccer balls the U.S. government sent Iraq this summer to help “bring life back to normal”: 60,000
8/00Number of leaf-cutter ants required to lift a 10-pound picnic basket: 60,133
8/89Amount an unemployed graduate is seeking in a consumer-fraud suit against Goddard College: $61,500
10/95Amount an auditor estimated last year that Oregon could save each year by feeding prisoners less food: $62,000
4/00Age in years of the first baby born in Denmark last January, according to the hospital’s computer: 100
Number of Americans who are at least this old: 62,000
4/85Number of manufacturing jobs New England has gained since 1982: 64,650
8/97Estimated number of former Nazi SS officers or their dependents receiving a pension from the German government: 65,000
Number of them who live in the U.S.: 3,377
2/04Number of disabled Californians whose home aid Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to eliminate: 65,000
3/09Number of exotic marine animals that a new Dubai hotel keeps in its 3 million gallons of decorative tanks: 65,000
6/05Number of merit badges in Safety awarded to Boy Scouts since 2001: 15,417
Number in Shotgun Shooting: 65,249
5/08Number of Silicon Valley workers earning between $30,000 and $80,000 who have lost their jobs since 2002: 62,000
9/02Minimum number of U.S. companies, individuals, and organizations that are licensed to possess radioactive material: 67,000
2/02Pages of Reagan White House archives to be kept from the public indefinitely by order of President Bush last October: 68,000
10/07Number of copies Pope Benedict XVI’s book Jesus of Nazareth has sold in the United States: 68,000
Estimated number of pieces of silver that could be bought with the royalties: 21,250
8/87Amount the Tobacco Institute donated to underwrite the antidrug booklet Helping Youth Say No: $70,000
9/93Number of East Germans who have joined Weight Watchers since 1990: 70,000
12/02Number of names on the State Department’s list of “suspected terrorists”: 70,000
11/02Number of Australians who listed “Jedi” as their religious affiliation on the country’s 2001 census: 70,509
11/95Price Fiji began charging this year for guaranteed citizenship to each Hong Kong resident who wishes to move there: $70,970
3/89Amount antique dealer Malcolm Willits received from the sale of six secondhand Oscars in the last year: $71,740
3/09Minimum number of U.S. homeowners whose banks improved their mortgage terms in the first quarter of last year: 73,000
Percentage of them who were a month or more behind on their payments six months after the relief: 55
1/94Amount the Miami tourist bureau will spend this year on public-relations “crisis management”: $75,000
9/94Amount Wayne Newton spent last year refurbishing his pet penguins’ pond on his Nevada ranch: $75,000
11/97Factor by which Forbes magazine’s estimate of the net worth of Russia’s security chief exceeds his own: 75,000
10/98Number of calls made last year to the Social Security Administration’s fraud hotline: 75,000
Amount recovered as a result: $55,900
2/90Amount a federal legal-aid program spent last year on a legal brief arguing that the program was unconstitutional: $77,000
8/89Pounds of toxic chemicals released during each space-shuttle launch: 77,000
6/92Average monthly contributions to the Women’s Campaign Fund since Anita Hill’s testimony last October: $78,471
Number of Americans who served in World War II and were declared missing in action: 78,751
8/87Campaign contributions made by George Bush’s PAC to Iowa and New Hampshire state candidates in 1986: $80,000
2/88Amount that Bryan Miller, the New York Times food critic, spends on restaurant meals each year: $80,000
9/93Daily wage the Israeli government pays Palestinians banned from working in Israel to sweep the West Bank: $9
Number of brooms the government has sent to the Occupied Territories since the ban took effect in March: 80,000
8/05Number of new U.S. soldiers the Army would need in 2006 to replenish ranks abroad: 80,000
Percentage of this goal it expects to meet: 9.9
4/96Price paid at auction last June for the two fiberglass tablets used in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments: $81,700
4/93Number of announced layoffs reported in the New York Times in January: 83,103
Today: 12,000
2/93Number of subscribers to The Tightwad Gazette: 85,000
8/96Square footage of parking lot that Chicago Democratic Convention planners have designated as a protest area: 85,000
9/84Cost to consumers of “protecting” one job in the automobile industry via import restrictions: $85,400
3/96Cost of Spike Lee’s two courtside seats at New York Knicks home games during the regular season: $86,000
12/01Maximum number of gallons of oil stored under the World Trade Center on a given day: 86,000
5/95Boxes of cookies the Washington, D.C., Girl Scouts must sell each year to cover their liability premiums: 87,000
10/02Number of U.S. soldiers missing in action since 1945: 88,135
7/03Amount of the $106,185 price of a Hummer H1 that businesses may deduct under the proposed Bush tax plan: $88,722
6/84Annual earnings, including overtime, of a Carnegie Hall stagehand: $90,000
6/04Number of Americans who died in 2002 from infections they contracted while hospitalized for other ailments: 90,000
2/01Pages of documents related to racial profiling by New Jersey State Police released by the state last year: 91,000
6/08Number of Iraqis who receive regular payments from the U.S. government in exchange for not fighting: 91,600
6/08Number of poor Oregonians who have entered the state’s health-care lottery system: 91,675
12/93Price of a life-sized computer-controlled triceratops, from the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue: $93,000
Factor by which this exceeds the total sales of the seventeen books by Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee: 4
4/00Gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico this year after an oil rig’s anchor punctured an underwater pipeline: 94,500
11/93Amount Americans have spent this year on bullets fired from the gun used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald: $95,000
1/05Estimated value of a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set given to Laura Bush in 2003 by the Saudi crown prince: $95,500
1/94Profits earned last year by two men selling used girls’ underpants from vending machines in Japan: $96,000
5/02Shipments of nuclear waste to be trucked cross-country once Nevada’s Yucca Mountain dump opens in 2010: 96,000
Annual number of “accidents or incidents” that Nevada estimates these trucks will be involved in through 2048: 54
8/05Acres in Israel to which a born-again Christian from Texas bought oil-exploration rights in 2000: 96,000
Chapter and verse of Deuteronomy that he says predicts his success, because of the phrase, “let him dip his foot in oil”: 33:24
5/84Average income of American physicians: $99,500
3/87Market value of an airline landing slot at LaGuardia Airport in New York City: $25,000
4/87Amount Sotheby’s estimates the Bible President Reagan sent to Iran would bring at auction: $100,000
10/89Amount the U.S. Postal Service spent last year to maintain mules to deliver mail in the Grand Canyon: $100,000
1/90Estimated number of plant and animal species that have become extinct since 1980, worldwide: 100,000
6/90Number of shares of his Chrysler stock that Lee Iacocca has given away during the last 12 months: 100,000
8/90Amount the U.S. Air Force spent this year to study the effects of jet noise on pregnant horses: $100,000
9/90Rickshaws the city of Jakarta, Indonesia, has dumped into the ocean since 1985 to reduce traffic congestion: 100,000
3/91Number of muscles in an elephant’s trunk: 100,000
6/91Amount of cash CNN reporter Peter Arnett says he wore sewn into his clothes while covering the Gulf War: $100,000
8/91Federal funds the National Cancer Institute will spend this year interviewing Latin American tribal healers: $100,000
5/93Number of deeds to a square inch of land in each of the fifty states bought by Chinese citizens last year: 100,000
11/93Amount the CIA will spend this year to buy back each Stinger missile it gave to Afghan rebels during the 1980s: $100,000
3/95Minimum price of a competition-level koi, a Japanese show carp, from Konishi Koi Farm in Hiroshima: $100,000
2/96Income at which North Carolina Representative Fred Heineman believes the lower middle class begins: $100,000
Chances that an American worker’s annual income falls short of this: 39 in 40
11/98Amount for which a North Dakota town has agreed to rename itself after a brand of schnapps for four years: $100,000
5/01Number of visitors since 1999 to a Lithuanian theme park depicting life in a Stalinist gulag: 100,000
3/02Year in which a Pentagon report warned that banning chlorine sales to Iraq would cause epidemics of waterborne diseases: 1991
9/03Amount Thailand has promised to pay survivors of anyone who dies of SARS contracted there: $100,000
11/03Campaign contributions that one voting-technology CEO raised to become a Bush “Pioneer” this year: $100,000
2/05Amount that makers of the video game JFK Reloaded will pay the player who best replicates the murder of Kennedy: $100,000
9/06Estimated number of Americans who get degrees each year from nonaccredited “diploma mills”: 100,000
Number of Pentagon employees who had such degrees on their résumés, in a recent congressional study: 257
10/96Units of public housing the federal government plans to demolish by the year 2000: 100,920
Units it plans to construct by then: 24,679