Average amount the Bush Administration has spent per year on contracts with P.R. firms : $62,500,000[Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives]

Average amount spent during the second term of the Clinton Administration: $32,000,000[Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives]

Amount the Department of Homeland Security will spend this year directing research at U.S. universities: $45,000,000[U.S. Department of Homeland Security]

Percentage of U.S. high-school students who believe news stories should require “government approval” before publication: 36[John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Miami)]

Percentage of Americans who say Bush is a “uniter”: 49[Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)]

Percentage who say he is a “divider”: 49[Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)]

Minimum number of U.S. adults who think Bush is “liberal” or “very liberal”: 11,800,000[The Economist/YouGov poll (London)]

Chance that a U.S. adult thinks a “conservative” is someone who supports affirmative action: 1 in 4[The Harris Poll (Rochester, N.Y.)]

Minimum number of cows whose skins are used each year for Major League baseballs: 45,000[PETA (Norfolk, Va.)/Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. (Fenton, Mo.)]

Number of female U.S. soldiers disciplined this year for mud-wrestling at an Iraqi prison camp: 2[Detainee Operations, Multi-National Forces, Iraq (Baghdad)]

Percentage in 1950 of U.S. men over 65 who were in the workforce: 46[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Percentage last year: 19[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Minimum age at which Massachusetts allows boys to marry, with parental permission: 14[Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Boston)]

Minimum age for girls: 12[Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Boston)]

Year that Boise, Idaho, banned full nudity in public unless it had “serious artistic merit”: 2001[Office of the City Clerk (Boise, Ida.)]

Number of nights each week that a Boise strip club now distributes sketch pads and pencils: 2[Erotic City (Boise, Ida.)]