10/84Percentage of Geraldine Ferraro’s votes in Congress in 1983 that supported the Democratic Party leadership: 92
Percentage of the average House Democrat’s votes that did: 76
11/84Percentage decrease-in the cost of seven ounces of Beluga Imperial caviar, from 1982 to 1983: 50
11/84Dollars spent on health care in the United States in 1983: $354,600,000,000
12/84Percentage of Americans who, in 1981, thought their chances of surviving a nuclear war were fifty-fifty: 32
12/84Amount spent by the U.S. government on advertising in 1983: $228,857,200
Amount spent by Coca-Cola: $282,150,000
3/84Total hours of television watched in American households in 1983: 213,000,000,000
3/84Dollars spent by Americans on hospital care in 1982: $135,500,000,000
Of the Vietnam War: $430.2
By corporations: 75
3/84Officially declared candidates for the 1984 presidential election: 136
3/84Valentine’s Day cards purchased by Americans in 1982: 1,000,000,000
Cut roses (dozens): 13,000,000
4/84Frames bowled in U.S. ten-pin alleys in 1983: 16,160,538,000
4/84Total memory capacity produced by the U.S. computer industry in 1983 (in “K”): 311,800,000,000
5/84Percentage change in U.S. video game sales, 1982-83: -10
In adult board game sales: +12
5/84Number of American families who say they were refused medical care for financial reasons in 1982: 1,000,000
6/84Membership of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1980: 800
6/84Campaign dollars expected to be spent for each vote cast in the 1984 presidential election: 3.38
6/84Total Defense Department telephone bill in fiscal 1984: $1,300,000,000
7/84Number of delegates to the 1984 Democratic National Convention not chosen in a primary or caucus: 873
7/84Earnings of the average U.S. female worker, expressed as a percentage of the average male’s, in 1981: 59.9
8/84Estimated world military expenditures for 1984: $970,000,000,000
In Los Angeles: 123
8/84Number of South African athletes who have changed their citizenship in order to compete in the 1984 Olympics: 6
8/84Number of Sunday newspapers in the United States in 1946: 497
Today: $1,000,000
9/84Estimated value of Israeli arms sales to Latin American nations in 1982: $200,000,000
1/85Number of the top ten military contractors that have paid no federal income taxes since 1981: 6
1/85Total U.S. investments including bank loans and stockholdings, in South Africa in 1979: $5,263,100,000
1/85Percentage of Forbes 500 chief executive officers in 1983 who had a “technical background”: 20.6
1/85Number of pieces of paper processed by American businesses in 1981: 850,000,000,000
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
10/85Budget per episode of Miami Vice: $1,500,000
Budget of the Miami vice squad unit in 1984: $1,161,741
Per 1,000 farmers: 110
10/85Average number of 500- and 750-pound bombs dropped by the Salvadoran air force each month: 135
10/85Amount the U.S. government spent on paper shredders in 1984: $4,000,000
11/85Amount Latin American countries earned on their exports in 1984: $125,000,000,000
Amount they paid in principal and interest on their debts: $49,000,000,000
11/85Percentage of Fortune 500 companies that tested employees and job applicants for illegal drug use in 1982: 10
Percentage that test today: 25
12/85Value of the items the Pentagon misplaced in 1984: $1,021,876,000
Value of the items it found: $1,013,697,000
12/85Percentage growth in West Germany’s gross national product in 1984: 4.6
2/85Percentage increase since 1980 in U.S. military recruits who hold high school diplomas: 25
2/85Number of homosexuals discharged from the U.S. military in 1983: 1,796
Amount the military spent recruiting and training the homosexuals it discharged: $22,500,000
2/85Percentage increase since 1980 in the number of Houston businesses filing for bankruptcy each month: 276
2/85Percentage of the radio and TV equipment industry’s output purchased by the Pentagon in 1982: 58
2/85Percentage decrease in articles by British scientists in the 2,000 leading scientific journals, from 1973 to 1980: 10
3/85Gross national home-gardening product in 1984: $12,000,000,000
4/85Percentage increase in South Korean exports to the United States in 1984: 30
4/85Percentage decrease in the gross national product of the Philippines in 1984: 5.5
4/85Number of manufacturing jobs New England has gained since 1982: 64,650
4/85Number of weeks, since April 1981, that Danielle Steele has not had a book on a national best-seller list: 0
5/85U.S. military aid to El Salvador since 1980, per guerrilla: $52,300
5/85Journalists killed in Latin America in 1984: 11
5/85Percentage of New York City police officers who fired their guns in the line of duty in 1984: 1.2
5/85Percentage of all cases of measles in the United States that occurred on college campuses in 1980: 1.5
5/85Percentage increase in admissions for malnutrition at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital from 1981 to 1983: 24
5/85Total horsepower at the 1984 Indianapolis 500: 23,000
At the 1984 Kentucky Derby: 1,000
6/85Interest payments on the federal debt that were made to foreigners in 1984: $19,800,000,000
U.S. foreign aid in 1984: $15,583,000,000
Amount that will be spent on Star Wars R&D before a deployment decision is made: $76,000,000,000
6/85Average age at which American girls began to menstruate in 1900: 14.3
7/85Percentage of Supreme Court cases in which civil liberties claims were made and upheld in 1963: 86
7/85Federal tax revenues lost as a result of homeowner deductions in 1984: $43,600,000,000
7/85Amount spent for federal housing programs in 1984: $11,300,000,000
7/85Foreign aid budget of the Soviet Union in 1978: $3,500,000,000
7/85Percentage increase since 1980 in political contributions by the top 20 defense contractors: 100
7/85Number of U.S. military officers who have retired since 1980 and taken jobs with defense contractors: 1,900
7/85Percentage of all money spent by American tourists in Britain in 1984 that was spent at Harrods: 6
7/85Percentage of all snapshots taken in America in 1984 that were snapped at the three Disney theme parks: 3.6
7/85Number of children’s TV shows based on toys in 1983: 14
8/85Legal fees paid by CBS to outside counsel in 1984: $10,400,000
8/85Net profit of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1984: $10,620,000
8/85Value of the art and antiques exported from England in 1984: £615,000,000
8/85Amount the government will pay Ed Meese to cover legal expenses incurred in his Ethics Act inquiry: $472,190
8/85Percentage of capital spending by U.S. companies that went for worker health and safety items in 1978: 2.9
9/85Percentage of Nicaragua’s exports bought by Japan in 1980: 3
9/85Rejection rate of applicants for the 1985 kindergarten class at Manhattan’s Trinity Episcopal School: 85
1/86Number of South Africans whose race was legally reclassified in 1984: 795
1/86Amount General Dynamics was fined by the Pentagon in 1985 for improper activities: $676,283.80
Estimated value of Pentagon contracts awarded to General Dynamics in 1985: $8,000,000,000
1/86Percentage of U.S. Steel’s revenues derived from businesses other than steel in 1981: 31
1/86Percentage of Jeeps sold in 1984 that were bought by people living in urban or suburban areas: 59
10/86Miles of runway the U.S. military has built in Honduras since 1983: 7.3
Number of racquetball courts it has built there: 1
10/86Percentage of the 1986 freshman class at MIT that is Asian-American: 18
10/86Number of brands advertised on network television in 1985: 2,713
11/86Attacks made on the United States in speeches at the 1980 conference of non-aligned nations, in Havana: 14
11/86Number of college courses on the Vietnam War offered in 1980: 58
12/86Number of Oklahomans who contributed $10,000 or more to the Republican National Committee in 1981: 140
12/86Percentage of the 18,966 South Africans arrested for “unrest-related” offenses in 1985 who were under 20: 71
2/86Number of the three best-selling automobiles in 1985 that were pickup trucks: 2
2/86Portion of fourth-quarter GNP growth in 1985 accounted for by sales of IBM’s Sierra mainframe computer: 2/5
3/86Percentage of its income a family of four living at the poverty level paid in federal taxes in 1980: 1.9
3/86Percentage of all bills Congress passed in 1985 that established commemorative days, weeks, or months: 36
3/86Amount Pat Paulsen has raised for his 1988 presidential campaign: $57
4/86Amount Bolivia earned on its exports in 1985: $1,114,000,000
Amount of that accounted for by cocaine: $450,000,000
4/86Portion of El Salvador controlled by guerrillas in 1980: 1/4
Portion controlled by guerrillas today: 1/8
4/86Pounds of redfish harvested from the Gulf of Mexico in 1982: 2,400,000
4/86Number of spacecraft launched by the United States in 1985: 17
4/86Portion of the top 250 industrial companies that had “golden parachute” plans for their executives in 1982: 1/5
Portion that have them today: 1/3
4/86Percentage increase in the number of Americans planning trips to the Soviet Union in 1986: 54
5/86“Product categories” for which the 1988 Olympic organizers are selling official sponsorships: 44
6/86Percentage increase in trade between China and the Soviet Union in 1985: 45
6/86Percentage of the federal income taxes paid by individuals in 1981 that went to military programs: 45.5
6/86Amount the Reagan Administration has budgeted for military bands in 1987: $154,200,000
Amount it has budgeted for the National Endowment for the Arts: $144,900,000
6/86Number of books checked out from public libraries in 1985: 1,197,000,000
In the United States: 32.3
6/86Percentage change in Chrysler’s profit in 1985: -31.3
In Lee Iacocca’s salary and benefits: +35
6/86Number of weddings performed each day in 1985 at Las Vegas’s Little Church of the West: 163
7/86Amount the United States spent in 1985 on radio broadcasts to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union: $146,559,000
Estimated amount the Soviet Union spent trying to jam those broadcasts: $300,000,000
7/86Value of Central America’s exports in 1980: $7,515,000,000