Harper's Index #6

Selections from ~1992-1994:

Number of the world's 810 vampires who live in the United States, according to the Vampire Research Center: 550
Number who live in Romania: 3

Estimated number of cows it takes to supply the 22,000 footballs the NFL uses each season: 3,000
Number of pigs: 0

Amount the CIA will spend in 1992 to buy back each Stinger missile it gave to Afghan rebels: $100,000
Amount each missile cost the United States government: $25,000

Number of finance ministers of the Group of Seven countries who have a degree in economics: 1

Number of poems included in The Best American Poetry 1993 that rhyme: 1

Ratio of the number of wild turkeys in the United States to the number of wild-turkey hunters: 2:1

Number of hunters who have had their cremated remains loaded into a shotgun shell and shot at an animal: 40

Percentage of the world's cranberries that are grown in Massachusetts: 42

Rank of cola, breakfast cereal, and ground beef, among the groceries Americans spent the most on in 1993: 1,2,3

Ratio of the number of Americans who prefer toilet paper to unroll off the top to those who prefer the bottom: 3:1

Average number of members of Congress charged with a crime each decade between 1789 and 1970: 2
Average number charged with a crime each decade since then: 24

Number of tourists murdered in Florida 1994: 7
Number murdered in Egypt: 1

Average number of Robert Ludlum novels sold worldwide, per minute: 18

Average number of Americans who die each year as a result of insect bites: 40

Ratio of the emissions produced by a car driven 50 miles to those produced by a lawn mower in one hour: 1:1

Amount by which the price of a pair of J. Crew broken-in jeans exceeds the price of a pair of regular J. Crew jeans: $8

Number of American cats fitted with pacemakers last year: 800

Chances that a funeral procession in Taiwan includes a stripper: 1 in 3

Chances that an indicted American will be defended with public funds: 3 in 4

Portion of all war fatalities in the last 500 years that took place in the twentieth century: 3/4

Gallons of Kool-Aid consumed by Americans each summer: 204,000,000

Number of Americans who must become Rhodes scholars for Clinton's Cabinet to "look like America" : 17,000,000

Rank of Bill Clinton's shoes, among the largest of any president since Woodrow Wilson: 1

Number of government employees VP Gore invited to accompany him on his trip to Russia: 600

Number of American states in which a notary public is required to be literate in English: 12

Percentage change, since 1850, in the number of wooded acres in New Hampshire: +118

Age, in years, of a piece of wedding fruitcake on display at the Grover Cleveland Birthplace in NJ: 106

Number of American amateur soccer players killed by falling goalposts since 1979: 18