6/86Plastic pink flamingos sold in the United States in 1985: 450,000

Harper’s research

8/86Percentage of Americans who say they dream in color: 40

R.H. Bruskin (New Brunswick, N. J.)

    Who say they dream in black and white: 23

R.H. Bruskin (New Brunswick, N. J.)

8/87Items in the L.L. Bean Women’s Outdoor catalogue offered in various shades of pink: 57

L.L. Bean (Freeport, Me.)

8/87Times New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal’s office door was painted before he was happy with the color: 4

Spy (New York City)

2/88Pairs of green socks the Defense Logistics Agency purchased in 1987: 2,400,000

Dept. of Defense

    Number of condoms it purchased: 13,000,000

Dept. of Defense

8/88Price of dyeing a dog pink at the Village Dawg Shoppe in Rockville Centre, New York (with shampoo and cut): $87

Village Dawg Shoppe (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)

    Of a purple mohawk: $37

Village Dawg Shoppe (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)

4/89Jail sentence a Tucson judge gave a lawyer last year for wearing green tennis shoes in his courtroom, in hours: 40

Pima County Superior Court (Tucson, Ariz.)

10/90Cost of dyeing a dried-out lawn green, from Landscape Services of Santa Barbara, California, per 1,000 square feet: $125

Landscape Services (Santa Barbara, Calif.)

3/90Number of shades of artificial blood sold by Cinema Secrets, a special-effects company in Burbank, California: 6

Cinema Secrets (Burbank, Calif.)

4/95Percentage of Americans over the age of 65 who say that color is a “very important” factor in buying underwear: 30

Nation Institute (N.Y.C.)/Marttila & Kiley Inc. (Boston)

    Percentage of American adults under the age of 30 who say this: 11

Nation Institute (N.Y.C.)/Marttila & Kiley Inc. (Boston)

6/95Price of having one’s pubic hair cut and colored at Kaiserschnitt, a Berlin salon: $75

Kaiserschnitt (Berlin, Germany)

10/96Number of books in Dole’s “library,” according to Jack Kemp in 1985: 2

Harper’s research

    Number of them Dole “hadn’t even finished coloring”: 1

Harper’s research

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

Ralph Lauren (N.Y.C.)

5/96Price of a ten-inch Chia Garcia, a bust of Jerry Garcia seeded to sprout green hair: $21.95

D.T.F. Co. (Raleigh, N.C.)

7/97Number of years the U.S. Army estimates that its supply of sand-colored, aircraft-size camouflage coverings will last: 159

Government Accounting Office

2/98Number of American chickens that have been fitted with rose-colored lenses: 100,000

Al T. Leighton (Blacksburg, Va.)

8/98Acres of blue netting with which the Washington Monument will be draped for renovation this summer: 1.3

Target Stores (Minneapolis, Minn.)

8/01Amount the inventor of the yellow “smiley face” had received for it by the time of his death in April: $45

World Smile Corporation (Worcester, Mass.)

10/02Hours that the Empire State Building was lit “Snapple Yellow” in August: 8

Snapple Beverage Group (White Plains, N.Y.)

5/02Days after scientists this year cited the universe’s average color as pale turquoise that it was amended to light beige: 56

Ivan Baldry, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)