3/84Average price of a gram of cocaine in Los Angeles: $125
Days he has spent vacationing at his California ranch: 132
In Los Angeles: 123
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
12/85Percentage of homeowners in California who have earthquake insurance: 10
3/85Chances that an adult in the San Francisco Bay Area has completed est training: 1 in 69
8/85Cab fare from New York City to Los Angeles: $5,550
1/86Number of Cocaine Anonymous meetings held weekly in Los Angeles: 75
Number that were held there three years ago: 6
10/86Rank of Los Angeles, among all U.S. cities, in the number of homeless people: 1
12/86Average number of fund-raising dinners held each night in Beverly Hills: 6
8/86At the Port of Los Angeles: 26,437,500
8/86Number of rescues made by lifeguards on Southern California beaches in 1985: 33,278
9/86Annual percentage growth, since 1981, in the income of people who live in California and the East Coast states: 4
In the income of people who live in the other thirty-four states: 1.4
1/87Jobs California has gained since 1981 as a result of increases in defense spending: 607,250
3/87Percentage of feature films made in the United States in 1986 that were shot somewhere other than California: 57
4/87Price of an hour of valet parking at the Beverly Hills post office: $1.50
4/87Percentage of Hispanics in California who voted to make English the state’s official language: 44
5/87Number of the ten largest banks in California that are owned by Japanese: 4
8/87Vials of bleach that will be distributed to IV-drug users in San Francisco this year: 14,000
9/87Portion of residential telephone numbers in Los Angeles that are unlisted: 1/2
1/88Portion of immigrants to the United States who settle in California: 1/4
1/88Percentage of public kindergarten students in Los Angeles who are Hispanic: 62
1/88Percentage of water beds that are in California: 13
10/88Portion of all land in downtown Los Angeles that is used for driving, parking, or servicing cars: 2/3
4/88Estimated ratio of youth gang members to police officers in Los Angeles: 6:1
1/89Pounds of fish consumed each day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California: 125
Pounds of fish consumed each day at Le Bernardin restaurant in New York City: 400
4/89Price of a 10-ounce bottle of Mendocino Truffle Mineral Water: $4
4/89Average cost per square foot to dig a wine cave in California: $50
6/89Estimated number of languages spoken by students in the Los Angeles public school system: 80
9/89Amount Los Angeles rapid transit spent last year on pocketless uniforms to discourage stealing by workers: $10,528
1/90Approval rating of Mikhail Gorbachev among residents of Orange County, California, in 1989: 70
10/90Cost of dyeing a dried-out lawn green, from Landscape Services of Santa Barbara, California, per 1,000 square feet: $125
11/90Price of a set of “RN” golf balls from the gift shop at the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California: $6
12/90Phone number for the hot line of the Society for Secular Armageddonism, in San Francisco: 673-3666
12/90Number of the 26 human bodies frozen in the hope of being brought back to life that are in California: 24
12/90Price of pectoral implants for a man, from Dr. Brian Novack of Beverly Hills, California: $6,500
3/90Number of shades of artificial blood sold by Cinema Secrets, a special-effects company in Burbank, California: 6
6/90Percentage of Southern California drivers who say they have made “indecent gestures” at other drivers: 38
9/90Maximum amount a Los Angeles taxi company can be fined if its drivers are found wearing anything plaid: $1,500
10/91Cost of a one-hour lesson in “ring psychology” at Slammers Wrestling Gym in Sun Valley, California: $70
10/91Number of trial lawyers who have taken acting lessons from Applied Theater Techniques in Los Angeles: 8,000
2/91Convicted drunk drivers in Orange County, California, since 1988, whose sentence included a tour of the morgue: 569
Number of repeat offenders among them: 1
2/91Projected average speed of cars on California’s highways in the year 2010, in miles per hour: 11
2/91Minimum cost of a personalized romance novel, from Swan Publishing of Placentia, California: $45
3/91Chances that a Californian owns a convertible: 1 in 10
3/91Chances that a Californian has earthquake insurance: 1 in 3
6/91Rank of Jose, among the names most often given male babies born in Los Angeles County this year: 1
7/91Estimated black-market price, in California, of a state-issued handicapped-parking permit: $25
9/91Number of the 100 buttock implants performed in the United States last year that were done in California: 92
9/91Value of the prizes won by Tom Sedivy of California, in the 95 radio call-in contests he won last year: $50,000
1/92Percentage of Californians who voted in 1990 to limit the term of state legislators: 52
11/92Portion of the 267,000 jobs lost in California this year that were defense-related: 1/5
11/92Number of sea lions illegally killed by gunfire off the coast of northern California this year: 58
4/92Portion of all breast-implant procedures that are performed in California: 1/5
5/92Amount the city of Los Angeles spent last year on a fingerprint-reading system to catch welfare cheats: $2,282,740
Number of offenders that have been caught so far: 11
6/92Number of San Quentin death-row inmates who are suing the state of California for the right to procreate: 14
8/92Ratio of the number of homebuyers in Orange County, California, last year named Smith to those named Nguyen: 1:2
10/93Portion of the 107,000 manufacturing jobs lost in California since 1987 that went to Mexico: 1/6
12/93Price of an authentic coroner’s toe-tag key chain from the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office gift shop: $5
2/93Years after winning a $3 million state lottery that a Los Angeles man was arrested for receiving looted merchandise: 3
3/93Chances that a person moving to California last year was an immigrant: 1 in 3
3/93Number of bras on display at the Frederick’s of Hollywood Celebrity Lingerie Hall of Fame, in California: 16
3/93Percentage discount a California bookstore offers on maps or guides to any country that has “recently disappeared”: 30
4/93Number of Porsches pawned last year at Collateral Lender of Beverly Hills: 21
5/93Number of registered dogs in Los Angeles named Aaron Spelling: 1
8/93Chances that an adult resident of Los Angeles is white: 1 in 3
Chances that a voter in Los Angeles’s June mayoral election was white: 2 in 3
9/93Number of Shemp Howard’s canceled checks sold this year by Odyssey Group of Corona, California, for $695 apiece: 37
12/94Rank of drug overdose, among the most common causes of accidental death in San Francisco last year: 1
2/94Royalty paid to Charles Manson for each T-shirt bearing his likeness sold by Zooport Riot Gear in California: 10¢
2/94Amount a California man won last year after suing his wife for feigning sexual attraction to him for 13 years: $242,000
3/94Number of high-level aides to California senator Dianne Feinstein who quit during her first year in the Senate: 11
3/94Average number of “pet bereavement” clients seen each week last year by Diane Kelly, a California therapist: 20
4/94Ratio of the number of casualties in the 1988 Armenian earthquake to the number in Los Angeles in January: 492:1
4/94Ratio of the force of the Armenian earthquake to that of the Los Angeles earthquake: 1:1
4/94Pairs of tickets to a Bette Midler concert given to Californians last year in exchange for their guns: 4
5/94Amount by which a California public-school teacher’s average annual salary exceeds that of a state prison guard: $1,000
7/94Participants in the annual Nude Chili Cookoff held at the Treehouse Fun Ranch in Devore, California, last July: 2,000
8/94Price of holding a wedding at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace, in Yorba Linda, California: $1,500
9/94Maximum sentence, in paddle strokes, proposed for underage vandals in a bill before the California legislature: 10
9/94Number of paramedics on duty last fall for the speed-eating contest at the Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California: 2
Number of contestants who have ever required the Heimlich maneuver: 1
1/95Price of a full halitosis-prevention exam and follow-up at the California Breath Center in Los Angeles: $450
10/95Number of mail-order catalogues distributed worldwide last year by the L.A. County Coroner’s gift shop: 10,000
10/95Price of a 4-ounce bottle of shampoo containing a chemical cloned from human sperm, from a Beverly Hills boutique: $25
10/95Number of times the phrase “affirmative action” appears in the text of California’s proposed Civil Rights Initiative: 0
Percentage of Californians favoring the initiative who do not know that it will eliminate affirmative action: 47
11/95Number of strikes bowled at Rob & Carol’s Frozen-Turkey Bowl, held last November in Modesto, California: 0
12/95Price of a sheet of “undipped” blotter-acid art signed by Timothy Leary, from San Francisco’s ArtRock Gallery: $225
12/95Percentage change since 1990 in hours of counseling required by L.A. police employees and their families: +96
12/95Fee charged by a California design firm to place a string of lights on an outdoor Christmas tree, lights not included: $75
12/95Number of California driver’s licenses made out to Jesus Christ: 6
Number made out to Jesus Christ II: 1
4/95Number of times Governor Pete Wilson has declared a state of emergency in California since 1991: 30
6/95Percentage of all second- and third-strike felony convictions in California this past year that were for nonviolent offenses: 82
8/95Number of subscribers to Call of the Wind, a California paging service that alerts windsurfers to good conditions: 450
9/95Number of California library books of modern American poetry from which pages have been reported stolen this year: 250
1/96Percentage of L.A. police officers who are black: 15
Percentage of L.A. residents who are: 14
10/96Years a California rat retailer used the name Rats R Us before Toys ‘R’ Us threatened to sue: 2
Price charged for a “jumbo” rat by the newly christened Rat Paradise: $7.50
11/96Year in which California Rep. Bob Dornan starred in the Hollywood war film The Starfighters: 1964
12/96Number of people sentenced under California’s three-strikes law for murder or rape: 65
Number sentenced for petty theft or drug possession: 5,900
12/96Number of times California has prosecuted Ubiquitous Perpetuity God, formerly Enrique Silberg, for indecent exposure: 3
2/96Years in jail a California man was sentenced to last year after his third burglary offense, the theft of four cookies: 26
2/96Days in jail served by a California man convicted last year of killing one graffiti vandal and wounding another: 4
3/96Ratio of aerospace jobs lost in California last year to the number of new jobs in the film industry: 1:2
4/96Ratio of the projected construction cost of the L.A. subway system to the cost of one space-shuttle launch: 10:1
4/96Yards by which a failed suicide missed a rowboating psychiatrist after jumping off a California bridge last year: 6
6/96Chances a Californian lives or works in a prison: 1 in 200
8/96Price of a prosthetic nose at Hello Gorgeous!!, a San Francisco boutique devoted to Barbra Streisand: $79
8/96Rank California dentists assign the trustworthiness of Bill Clinton’s smile as compared with that of Bob Dole’s: 2
9/96Number of Los Angeles high school students who earned a varsity letter in comedy last year: 220
9/96Maximum legal length, in feet, of a limousine in California: 65
Length, in feet, of the longest one available for rental there: 66.5
1/97Amount that SculptYours, in Santa Monica, California, charges to bronze a set of buttocks, depending on size: $2,700-$3,700
1/97Number of Bill Clinton Waffles a California bakery has sold since their introduction last September: 50,000
1/97Percentage change since 1992 in the number of Latinos registered to vote in California: +45
11/97Average number of new millionaires created in Silicon Valley each day last year: 64
5/97Number of microphones installed in Redwood City, California, last August as part of its “Urban Gunfire Location System”: 8
5/97Number of bulletproof Bibles manufactured last year by California’s Innovative Marketing Alliance: 1,000
6/97Combined number of root canals performed last year on two Kodiak bears at the San Francisco Zoo: 7
6/97Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 that came from taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
7/97Ratio of Californians who voted to legalize medical marijuana last year to those who voted for Bill Clinton: 21:20
8/97Price California’s Fidelity Information Recovery service charges to send an “operative” to test a mate’s faithfulness: $350
9/97Percentage change in black students admitted to Berkeley Law School since California banned affirmative action: -81
10/98Price of a set of How to Build Your Own Casket instructions, from Homemade Caskets of California: $19.50
10/98Chance that a California nursing home has been cited for violations “causing death or life-threatening harm” to patients: 1 in 3
12/98Donation received last July by a Los Angeles soup kitchen in order to provide shopping carts for the homeless: $10,000
2/98Gallons of gasoline required to truck Ted Kaczynski’s shack from Montana to California last year: 250
3/98Factor by which California foreclosures last year exceeded those in 1990: 5
5/98Price a San Francisco hotel charges guests per one-minute phone session with its on-call psychotherapist: $2
5/98Percentage of California counties declared disaster areas last February: 60
6/98Ratio of California prison jobs created between 1984 and 1994 to state jobs in higher education cut during that time: 3:1
6/98Estimated number of calls made to Californian Al Nino since last year by people asking, “Why are you doing this?”: 100
7/98Amount the California prison system has spent since 1993 to prevent birds from being electrocuted by its fences: $3,400,000
3/99Percentage change since 1996 in the value of initial public offerings of stock in Silicon Valley companies: -45
3/99Date and time of the annual pi celebration held at San Francisco’s Exploratorium: 3/14, 1:59
3/99Number of people detained or evacuated from buildings in California last December due to anonymous anthrax threats: 3,000
5/99Rank of José, among the most popular names given boys born in California or Texas last year: 1
5/99Number of subscribers to PursuitWatch, an L.A. paging service that alerts customers when a high-speed chase is televised: 350
3/00Fine levied on a California man last fall for shooting an owl with a slingshot, then beating it: $10,000
3/00 Number of rented 40-foot refrigerator trailers the LAPD uses to house biological evidence: 4
6/00Estimated percentage change in the Native American population of California during the 1850s: -65
6/00Portion of California’s revenue between 1852 and 1870 composed of taxes paid by Chinese laborers: 1/2
6/00Percentage change since 1992 in the average household income of the lowest-paid fifth of Silicon Valley workers: -2.7
8/00Price of a two-week stay at California’s Entrepreneurship Camp, for ages 9 through 16: $1,950
8/00Percentage change since 1995 in the number of assaults against federal officers patrolling the California border: +617
8/00Number of semiautomatic paint-ball rifles ordered by the LAPD in preparation for this month’s Democratic convention: 40
9/00Percentage of newborns in India who would qualify for intensive care if they were born in California: 30
2/01Chances that a young black man living in Los Angeles’s Watts neighborhood is unemployed or in prison: 7 in 10
6/01Ratio of per capita Ritalin use in Vermont to per capita use in California: 3:1
9/01Estimated number of sign-language signs in the vocabulary of Koko, a San Francisco gorilla: 1,000
12/02Days it takes an adult in Los Angeles to breathe in more air pollution than EPA guidelines recommend for a lifetime: 25
7/02Days after receiving it last year that a California dump lost its landmark status because it is a Superfund site: 20
Amount spent since 1989 to clean up the site: $23,000,000
7/02Months after enacting it that California’s energy commission last spring renewed its ban on using duct tape on ducts: 16
9/02Ratio of military recruiters to college counselors at East Los Angeles’s Roosevelt High School: 5:1
1/03Minimum number of locals hired to act as Arabs heckling U.S. troops during an army war game in California last year: 15
11/03Amount that energy companies’ market manipulation cost California consumers between 2000 and 2001 per capita: $260
Amount California has received per capita in energy-company settlements since then: $2.60
11/03Age in years of a California bristlecone pine that is the oldest tree on earth: 4,733
Age in years of a Nevada bristlecone when the U.S. Forest Service let a graduate student cut it down in 1964: 4,950
12/03Date on which Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to discuss California’s energy policy: 5/17/01
12/03Chances that a participant in California’s September 24 gubernatorial debate grew up speaking English at home: 2 in 5
2/03Number of California inmates serving 25 years to life under the three-strikes law for thefts worth less than $400: 344
2/03Chances that a new student at the University of California at Berkeley last fall had at least one foreign-born parent: 2 in 3
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
4/03Percentage of California’s economy that is accounted for by agriculture: 7
Percentage of the state’s water that is used for agriculture: 43
6/03Portion of sales of its “Impeach Bush French Fries” that a California cafe will donate to an impeachment campaign: 1/10
6/03Percentage of cases of communicable diseases that California medical professionals are required to report that go unreported: 80
6/03Rank of Silicon Valley among fifteen-square-mile areas with the largest number of Superfund sites: 1
8/03Number of years San Francisco has given itself to realize the goal of recycling all of its trash: 17
8/03Rank of California governor Gray Davis’s approval rating in May among the lowest in the 55-year history of the state poll: 1
9/03Price a San Diego physicist paid at auction in June for mechanisms used to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima: $167,000
11/04Minimum number of Californians serving a life sentence for cheating on a driving exam: 1
2/04Number of disabled Californians whose home aid Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to eliminate: 65,000
10/05Amount that Oakland residents can now be fined if their dog has not been implanted with an ID microchip: $100
10/05Years after the Watts riots that the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation trademarked “Burn Baby Burn” for a hot sauce: 40
10/05Portion of L.A. County ’s black residents who would need to move in order for the city to be fully integrated: 3/4
12/05Number of degrees Fahrenheit that temperatures in California ’s wine country have risen since 1971: 1.6
3/05Amount to which a San Diego defense analyst’s payments to Social Security had appreciated when he retired in 1994: $261,372
Amount to which he calculated they would have grown if he had invested in a Dow Jones index fund instead: $248,166
4/05Average age of a Bay Area career-day audience this year to which a speaker touted stripping as a profession: 13
4/05Price a California company charges for a chain-mail condom: $75
8/05Total weight, in tons, of the population of the Los Angeles metropolitan area: 883,000
11/06Chances that a Californian lives in an area whose air pollution exceeds that state’s legal limit: 9 in 10
Estimated amount that smog costs California in extra health-care expenses each year: $71,000,000,000
4/06Number of dogs that a California clinic trained to diagnose cancer by sniffing patients’ breath: 5
9/06Number of schools and publishers that subscribe to a California company’s plagiarism-detecting database: 5,000
Chances that a college paper today is plagiarized at least in part, according to a study using the database: 3 in 10
6/07Cost, from a California company, for a headset that can control a video game with brain waves: $50
1/08Number of credit-card disputes in California resolved since 2003 by one of the nation’s largest arbitration firms: 19,300
Percentage of the disputes that were resolved in favor of the credit-card company: 94
4/08Chance that a Silicon Valley technology company started since 1995 was founded by Indian or Chinese immigrants: 1 in 3
5/08Percentage of the population of Los Angeles County in 1990 and 2006, respectively, that was African American: 14, 9
5/08Number of Silicon Valley workers earning between $30,000 and $80,000 who have lost their jobs since 2002: 62,000
9/08Projected amount that same-sex weddings will add to California’s economy during the next three years: $684,000,000
9/08Estimated annual sales-tax revenue that California receives each year from medical-marijuana sales: $100,000,000
3/09Extra points that a California student added to his GPA last year by hacking into a school computer: 1.9