Gazette Columnist Bee Bea Sharper Ferrets Out the Facts that Harper’s Misses

B. Bea’s Fourth Series

 

 

Year in which the advertising onslaught by sleeveless dress manufacturers that eventually convinced American women that underarm hair was unsightly began: 1915

Year in which women’s razors first appeared in the Sears Roebuck catalog: 1922.

Number of civilized countries that have outlawed the death penalty during the 20 years since the U. S. reinstated it: 110.

Year in which Michigan became the world’s first English-speaking government to abolish the death penalty: 1841.

Number of U. S. states which, incredibly, still commit capital punishment in 2001: 40.

Percentage of pollution in rivers and streams which comes from agricultural sources: 60%.

Pounds of livestock manure generated by American farms each year: 28,000,000,000.

Number of people worldwide who make their living growing, harvesting and supplying coffee: 20,000,000.

Approximate number of cups of coffee Americans drink each day: 400,000,000.

Price per pound of coffee received by many small, third-world farmers: $0.30.

Approximate dollar value of shares in pharmaceutical companies held by the George W. Bush family: $62,000 to $234,000.

Approximate dollar value of shares in pharmaceutical companies held by Dick Cheney: $150,000 to $350,000.

Approximate dollar value of shares in pharmaceutical companies held by Rep. Robin Hayes : $11,000,000.

Approximate dollar value of shares in pharmaceutical companies held by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (ranking Republican on a judiciary subcommittee that often reviews drug patent legislation): $2.2 million to $4.2 million.

Approximate dollar value of shares in pharmaceutical companies held by Teresa Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry: $2.1 million to $7.1 million.

Percentage of congressmen whose financial records were reviewed by a Washington newspaper who owned drug company stocks: 20%.

According the the Centers for Disease Control, the total number of deaths attributed to marijuana: 0.

Basic daily wage at Nike’s factory in Indonesia: U.S.$1.20.

Cost of one dose of children’s cough syrup in Indonesia: U.S. $1.58.

Age of George Stinney, a black youth,  on the day in 1944 when he earned the macabre distinction of being the youngest person ever legally executed in the United States: 14.

Amount of water that is contaminated by a single ounce of the gasoline additive MTBE: 1,000 tons.

Rate of growth of US CEO salaries since 1990: 571%.

US minimum wage in the early years of the 21st Century: $5.15.

What the current minimum wage would be if since 1990 it had grown at the same rate as CEO salaries: $25.50.

Percentage of US families that would run out of cash within three days in the event of of layoff or medical crisis: 40%.

With stock options factored in, the average income of the CEO of a major US corporation in 1997: $7,800,000.

Factor by which the average CEO’s earnings exceed that of a minimum wage worker: 728.

Number of millions of dollars in one trillion dollars: one million.

Number of people who commit suicide on an average day in Australia and East Asia: 1,000.

Rank of Idaho among states with highest number of people of Bulgarian ancestry: 1.

Number of Americans who spend three hours per day commuting to and from work: 2.5 million.

Fraction of US school children who speak a language other than English at home: almost 1/5.

Number of US grandparents who are raising their grandchildren: 2.3 million.

Number of ski houses owned by ex-CEO of Enron Kenneth Lay in Aspen, Colorado: 5.

Tons of the destructive greenhouse gas SF6 used in 1997 by Nike to create “air cushions” in its sports shoes: 277.

Number of cars it would take to produce a global warming equivalent in CO2:  2.2 million.