8/87Takes required to film Tip O’Neill’s Miller Lite commercial: 79
12/88Number of the world’s 129 billionaires who are not American: 79
12/94Percentage of Americans who believe non-unionized workers are likely to be fired for organizing a union drive: 79
1/95Percentage change between 1992 and 1993 in the infant-mortality rate in New York City’s Harlem: +60
1/95Price of an “authentic Russian street sweeper jacket,” from the Peter the Great Coat Company, in Minneapolis: $79
8/96Price of a prosthetic nose at Hello Gorgeous!!, a San Francisco boutique devoted to Barbra Streisand: $79
1/99Percentage of the funds spent fighting Alaska’s gay-marriage initiative last year that came from the Mormon Church: 79
7/01Number of U.S. major-league baseball players this year who are natives of the Dominican Republic: 79
Ratio of their combined salaries to the Dominican Republic’s military expenditures last year: 2:3
8/03Percentage change since 2001 in the median annual compensation of CEOs of major U.S. defense contractors: +79
11/03Average percentage of the Jewish vote won by the Democratic presidential candidate in the 1980s: 59
Average percentage since then: 79
7/04Minimum number of prisoners under the age of 17 or over the age of 70 held by coalition forces in Iraq last April: 79
9/05Average percentage of students in New York State’s majority-white school districts who graduate in four years: 79
10/08Percentage of Citigroup profits in 2006 that came from credit cards: 18
Percentage last year: 79
1/94Monthly fee charged by Courtscan, a Philadelphia company providing physicians with patients’ litigation records: $79.95
12/86Percentage of Americans in 1957 who said that an unmarried woman was “sick,” “neurotic,” or “immoral”: 80
6/89Estimated number of languages spoken by students in the Los Angeles public school system: 80
9/89Percentage of American colleges that do not require an American history course for graduation: 80
10/89Percentage of supermarket prices that end in the digit 9 or 5: 80
12/90Percentage of blacks in the New York City area who would have to move for the races there to be evenly distributed: 80
5/93Membership of Philadelphia’s Silent Meeting Club, at whose gatherings talking is forbidden: 80
6/93Percentage of Panamanians who say they want U.S. military bases to remain in their country past the year 2000: 80
12/96Days an Ohio public school suspended a 11-year-old girl last October for giving a Midol tablet to her classmate: 80
9/99Number of U.S. high schools that have hired a Massachusetts firm to test students’ hair for evidence of drug use: 80
2/01Percentage of doctors at a New York City hospital who report often not knowing the cost of the drugs they prescribe: 80
3/01Ratio of U.S. spending on the bombing of Serbia in 1999 to U.S. spending on Serbian election aid last fall: 80:1
6/01Estimated number of Bosnians who have been identified from the 4,000 bags of remains from the 1995 Srebrenica massacre: 80
3/02Percentage of Americans in November who believed the government was censoring news from the war in Afghanistan: 59
Percentage of these Americans who thought such censorship was “a good idea”: 80
6/03Percentage of cases of communicable diseases that California medical professionals are required to report that go unreported: 80
3/04Percentage of U.S. defendants who require a public defender: 80
9/06Percentage of Americans in 1983 who thought it was “possible to start out poor in this country… and become rich”: 57
Percentage who think this today: 80
8/08Maximum per-day purchase of rice, in pounds, that Sam’s Club has limited each customer to since April: 80
3/86Percentage of Americans who say they believe “most” or “all” of what Ronald Reagan says: 67
Who say they believe “most” or “all” of what Dan Rather says: 81
5/00Percentage of Americans earning $50,000 or less who have watched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 57
11/00Points by which the average SAT score of a home-schooled student exceeds that of other U.S. students: 81
2/02Minimum number of criminal defamation lawsuits pending against journalists and cartoonists by Panamanian officials: 81
12/07Average amount that men spent in a store that used a “masculine” fragrance, in a Washington State University study: $81
5/87Percentage of Americans who say “of the people, by the people, for the people” is in the Constitution: 82
Who say “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is in the Constitution: 45
9/89Percentage of U.S. counties in which no doctor’s offices, clinics, or hospitals perform abortions: 82
Percentage who say the quality of the U.S. health-care system is good or excellent: 33
9/94Percentage change, since 1992, in civil-rights violations by US. colleges, according to the Department of Education: +82
6/95Percentage of all second- and third-strike felony convictions in California this past year that were for nonviolent offenses: 82
6/96Percentage of Americans who believe that “most of us buy and consume far more than we need”: 82
11/99Percentage of Americans who said in November 1991 that they had not “heard enough” about Bill Clinton: 82
2/06Minimum number of American colleges and universities that offer programs in video-game design: 82
2/09Percentage of unfaithful female multimillionaires who say they plan to spend less on their paramours this year: 15
1/85Percentage of Russian soldiers God will kill at the end of the world, according to Jerry Falwell: 83
10/03Percentage of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who say they would relocate if compensated: 83
2/04Estimated percentage of the 2.9 million U.S. jobs lost since March 2001 that have not reappeared abroad: 83
8/04Percentage change since then in the number of people serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison: +83
11/05Percentage change since January in the total value of Saudi Arabian stocks: +83
1/07Annual budget of Miami’s police department, expressed as a percentage of the production cost of the film Miami Vice: 83
4/08Minimum number of homicides committed in the last full seasons of the three Law & Order TV shows: 83
8/84Percentage of Chicago restaurant managers who say they allow patrons to smoke cigarettes: 84
1/91Percentage of male college students who say that “some women look as though they’re just asking to be raped”: 84
5/95Ratio of the number of Chinese who own a television set to those who have hot running water: 84:1
8/95Number of Russians injured on escalators in the Moscow Metro last year who were drunk at the time: 84
10/96Percentage change since 1994 in the number of threats of violence received by members of Congress: +84
12/98Number of individual charges contained in the 8 ethics complaints brought against Newt Gingrich since 1994: 84
8/05Percentage change since 1996 in the average recruitment cost per new U.S. soldier: +84
12/07Percentage of U.S. CEOs who believed this spring that the economy was either “good” or “excellent”: 84
11/84Percentage increase, since 1970, in the number of adult Americans who live with their parents: 85
3/86Percentage of the intelligence collected by U.S. agencies that is acquired by technical means: 85
Percentage that is acquired by agents: 15
2/86Percentage of all hostage deaths in airplane hijackings since 1968 that occurred during rescue attempts: 85
8/89Estimated percentage of all the scientists who ever lived who are alive today: 85
9/89Percentage of Chinese teenagers who can correctly identify the size of the world’s population: 85
Percentage of American adults who can: 35
2/91Percentage of all valentines that are sent by women: 85
Percentage today: 56
9/93Percentage of Americans with no health insurance who live in a household headed by a full- or part-time worker: 85
7/94Estimated percentage of the $6.7 billion spent on Superfund cleanups since then that has gone to lawyers: 85
9/95Estimated percentage of all U.S. felony defendants who cannot afford to hire their own lawyer: 85
6/97Percentage of annual weapons exports that are sold by the five countries on the U.N. Security Council: 85
9/97Percentage of Tupperware’s profits accounted for by overseas sales: 85
2/99Estimated number of wind-surfing lessons per week provided for soldiers at Kuwait’s U.S. Army base: 60
Number of scuba sets available: 85
4/99Estimated percentage of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean killed by rising sea temperatures last year: 85
9/99Percentage of the proceeds of an AIDS fund-raising bike ride across Texas last fall used to cover “production costs”: 85
11/05Percentage change in the average monthly price of oil during the Carter Administration: +85
5/06Percentage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq who say the war was a retaliation for Saddam Hussein’s role in the 9/11 attacks: 85
5/07Percentage of U.S. Catholic dioceses that say they have had incidents of embezzlement during the last five years: 85
3/84Copies of Playboy or Penthouse purchased per thousand people in Des Moines: 86
In New York City: 28
7/85Percentage of Supreme Court cases in which civil liberties claims were made and upheld in 1963: 86
9/85Rejection rate of applicants for the 1985 kindergarten class at Manhattan’s Trinity Episcopal School: 85
1/89Percentage of the $9,900,000 cost of converting the VA to a Cabinet department that will be spent on new signs: 86
3/98Donations made last year to the President’s legal fund, expressed as a percentage of his legal expenses: 86
7/88Percentage of 13- to 15-year-old boys who say that it is acceptable for a man to rape his wife: 86
Who say that it is acceptable for a man to rape his date if he has spent “a lot of money” on her: 24
6/90Percentage of Chrysler’s 1989 profits that came from the sale of Mitsubishi stock: 86
2/95Percentage of Americans who believe that George Washington would be disappointed in the federal government today: 86
1/02Percentage of U.S. Jews who rank the separation of church and state among the top reasons for the country’s success: 86
Percentage of the total U.S. population who believe this: 61
2/04Amount Bill Gates has pledged to fight malaria through 2008, expressed as a percentage of USAID spending since 1998: 86
5/08Number of Senate bills that John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have co-sponsored together since 2005: 86
2/85Percentage of Americans who eat their evening meal between 5
3/88Percentage of individual investors who did not sell any stock in the two weeks following the October crash: 87
Percentage of Americans who rank the stock-market crash as the most important problem facing America today: 2
3/88Percentage of the top sixty Republican presidential campaign aides who are black or Hispanic: 0
Percentage of all robberies: 65
8/88Price of dyeing a dog pink at the Village Dawg Shoppe in Rockville Centre, New York (with shampoo and cut): $87
5/93Percentage of Americans who would accept a new 50¢ tax on a six-pack of beer to help finance health-care reform: 87
10/94Percentage of Oliver North’s Senate campaign contributions of more than $200 that came from outside Virginia: 87
Percentage of his opponent’s reelection-campaign contributions of more than $200 that did: 81
5/98Percentage of Ford Explorer owners who have never taken their vehicle off-road: 87
8/98Number of $530 monogrammed Louis Vuitton World Cup soccer balls sold in the U.S. since last April: 87
10/85Percentage of the marijuana smoked in the United States that is imported, according to the DEA: 88
According to NORML: 45
2/87Number of 14-year-olds currently detained in South Africa: 88
10/88Percentage of Americans who oppose using nuclear arms in response to a non-nuclear Soviet invasion of Europe: 88
11/93Percentage of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who say the P.L.O. needs “democratic reform”: 88
Percentage of American adults who are: 62
3/96Number of handwoven napkins bearing Alfred Nobel’s portrait that were stolen from last year’s Nobel Prize banquet: 88
10/96Percentage change since 1989 in the number of federal prison inmates over the age of forty-nine: +88
9/98Percentage of U.S. universities that use student evaluations as a factor in granting tenure: 88
5/01Percentage of U.S. adults who say they are at least “somewhat satisfied” with their physical appearance: 88
6/01Number of PBS stations that aired a program called “Magnificent Lovemaking” during March fund-raising: 88
1/02Number of nations that got less than ten minutes’ coverage on U.S. network evening news in the 1990s: 88
7/02Number of fishing boats bought and sunk by the U.S. government since 1995 in efforts to protect overfished species: 88
12/02Percentage of the 223 trade unionists reported murdered or missing worldwide last year who worked in Colombia: 88
10/03Percentage of Americans who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of this year’s tax cut: 88
5/06Percentage of the 156 provisions of 2001’s USA Patriot Act that were permanent in the original law: 88
Years by which the other two were extended: 4
1/09Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88
5/84Percentage of American women who use deodorant: 89
Of American men: 75
8/86Percentage of Australian business executives who say the Japanese are untrustworthy and unethical: 89
6/88Ratio of unexploded grenades, artillery shells, and land mines to sheep in the Falkland Islands: 1:4
To people: 89:1
12/90Winning distance in a guitar-throwing contest held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last July, in feet: 89
1/93Percentage of Super Bowl viewers who do not live in the United States: 89
8/95Number of the bombing victims whose families have retained the services of defense attorney Johnnie Cochran: 89
5/96Percentage of U.S. stock owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans: 89
3/99Percentage of the 2,397 surveillance cameras monitoring public spaces in New York City that are privately owned: 89
11/04Percentage of judges nominated by George W. Bush since 2000 who have been confirmed by the Senate: 89
7/05Number of previous baseball seasons that Washington, D.C., fielded a professional team: 89
Chances that it had a losing record: 4 in 5
9/87Percentage of the members of the Texas Restaurant Association that serve chicken-fried steak: 90
12/87Number of direct-mail solicitations sent to Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond this year: 90
3/89Percentage of the U.S. hazardous waste shipped abroad that goes to Canada: 90
5/89Percentage of Nightline programs about terrorism, broadcast since 1985, that dealt with the Middle East: 90
Percentage of international acts of terrorism since 1985 that took place in the Middle East: 43
Percentage of bird species that are: 90
1/90Number of congressional votes dealing with Nicaragua that have taken place since 1980: 90
7/92Percentage by which Boris Yeltsin increased Russian Army officers’ salaries in February: 90
4/94Percentage of editors of U.S. daily newspapers who say that an advertiser has tried to influence their content: 90
Percentage who say the advertiser was successful: 37