2/85Percentage of Americans who eat their evening meal between 5 P.M. and 8 P.M.: 87

Roper Organization (New York City)

12/86Average number of fund-raising dinners held each night in Beverly Hills: 6

Los Angeles Press Club

11/89Estimated number of calories a person consumes during Thanksgiving dinner: 2,250

Weight Watchers International (Jericho, N.Y.)

    Estimated number of calories a Thanksgiving turkey consumes in its lifetime: 110,000

Allen Cox (Storey City, Iowa)

3/89Percentage of Americans who watch television during dinner: 50

Roper Organization (N.Y.C.)

11/91Percentage of Americans who say that the first thing they’ll do when the recession ends is “go out to dinner”: 48

Warwick Baker & Fiore (N.Y.C.)

3/91Percentage of Americans who say they would like to have dinner with George Bush: 7

Fleishman Hillard (N.Y.C.)

    Percentage who say they would like to have dinner with Bart Simpson: 12

Fleishman Hillard (N.Y.C.)

6/93Price of golf, dinner, beer, and a “cart dance” by a topless female caddie at Fort Worth’s New Orleans Nights club: $620

New Orleans Nights (Fort Worth, Tex.)

9/03Estimated acres of forest Henry David Thoreau burned down in 1844 trying to cook fish he had caught for dinner: 300

The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods (Lincoln, Mass.)