9/85Cost of a week’s tuition for two parents at Philadelphia’s Better Baby Institute: $980
8/88Number of twelve-fingered Amish dwarfs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: 39
11/89Percentage of Pittsburgh residents who work in the steel industry: 1
10/91Amount traders on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange can be fined for fighting, per punch: $1,000 [see page 18]
8/91Depth of the tank treadmarks left on Pennsylvania Avenue after the Gulf war victory parade in June, in inches: 1/2
5/93Membership of Philadelphia’s Silent Meeting Club, at whose gatherings talking is forbidden: 80
1/94Monthly fee charged by Courtscan, a Philadelphia company providing physicians with patients’ litigation records: $79.95
9/94Average income tax levied by the city of Philadelphia this year on each visiting major league player, per game: $231
9/94Amount for which a Pennsylvania woman is suing the state’s lottery commission because she has never won: $1,500,000
3/96Hours Shaquille O’Neal spent snowed in at a Pennsylvania hotel in January with the cast of Sesame Street on Ice: 45
7/96Number of cards on exhibit at the Business Card Museum in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania: 50,000
8/96Days in jail to which a Pennsylvania man was sentenced last March for repeatedly oinking at his ex-wife: 30
10/97Price the Philadelphia Museum of Art charges for six ounces of pasta shaped like Rodin’s “The Thinker”: $3.50
6/99Fee charged by a Pennsylvania cyberpsychologist for online treatment of Internet addiction, per minute: $1.50
9/99Percentage of white Pennsylvania men denied gun ownership between 1778 and 1789 for refusing a state loyalty oath: 40
6/00Number of “marriage studies” majors learning “the art of getting and staying married ” last term at a Pennsylvania college: 8
8/00Amount New Jersey’s Camden police spent on riot gear in preparation for Philadelphia’s GOP convention: $47,775
10/02Number of teenagers enrolled last summer in Secure Corps, a “homeland security training” camp in Pennsylvania: 92
8/03Estimated percentage change since 2002 in applications requested for a “homeland security” camp in Pennsylvania: +100
3/04Number of the 420 demonstrators arrested at Philadelphia’s 2000 Republican National Convention who were convicted: 23
Number whose cases are still pending: 9
10/06Percentage of funds used to get Pennsylvania’s Green Party Senate candidate on the ballot that came from right-wingers: 100
6/06Amount a Pennsylvania T-ball coach paid a player last year to hit an autistic teammate with a ball: $25
11/07Chances that a new public-school teacher in Philadelphia will leave within six years: 7 in 10
2/09Minimum number of Amish households in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that use electricity generated by solar power: 2,000