Equal pay for equal work? Street prostitutes in Chicago earned an average of $27 an hour over a two-year period, nearly 50 percent more than women in retail sales, hair styling, etc.
Sunny Italy? Italy’s highest court has ruled that it is permissible to lie in giving testimony about one’s own extra-marital affairs
Reluctance to engage: According to the Department of Defense, “more than 25,000” soldiers have deserted since 2003 – a number about equal to the military’s so-called surge.
Driving Miss Daisy: 62 percent of all drivers under 24 text message while driving.
Personal beauty: Below age 30, 32 percent of Americans have tattoos. A third of them say it makes them feel sexy.
Communications: There are now 3.3 billion cell phones, one for every two people on the planet.
Athletics and games: Emergency room injury visits last year for cheerleaders exceeded all other sports combined.
Abortion fashions: Abortion before “quickening” (movement) was legal and unhampered in the U.S. for the first 50 or so years of the republic. The Catholic church did not forbid abortion until just after the Civil War.
The Land of freedom: While Sweden has accepted nearly 18,000 Iraqi refugees, the U.S. has accepted fewer than 500 – including those who worked for us.
Latte? Starbucks claims that it spends more for employee health coverage than for coffee beans.
Gas for less: Gas in the US costs about $3.50 a gallon. In Britain, it’s $8.50; in Turkey, $9.25; and in Venezuela, 20 cents.
Economy on the farm: In Scotland, cows are fed anti-gas drugs to reduce the amount of methane they emit. Gorham farmers plan to bottle their gas and send to Augusta.
Prohibition redux. For every 100 people in prison when Nixon began the Drug War, there are now 509.
Pink slips: A Japan Navy destroyer accidentally ran down a small fishing boat, killing two men. The chief of the Japanese Navy was fired. The only U.S. general or admiral to have been fired since George Bush took office was Shinseki, who told him the Iraq planning was a mistake.
Yankee thrift: The New Hampshire Legislature costs $13 million a year to operate. THe Maine Legislature costs $23 million – plus several million in “Clean Elections” funds to pay for individual campaigns.
Equal pay for equal work: New Hampshire legislators receive 200 bucks a year in salary. Maine legislators earn about $11,000.
Taxation: Fund managers on Wall Street paid FICA on less than .02 percent of their pay. Every worker in Maine paid FICA on 100 percent of their pay.
Free speech vs. patriotism: Wearing a T-shirt with the names of the U.S. Iraqi War dead printed on it can get the wearer a year in jail in Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Agricultural success: Afghanistan now provides 92 percent of the world’s heroin. Poppy production in that fair land set a new, all-time record last year and is on track to exceed that this year.
Cheer up: While feeling depressed, people will spend up to 300 percent more for the same item as people on a normal emotional level.
Grandma and grandpa: About 36 percent of the federal budget is now spent, one way or another, on seniors.
An aspirin a day: There are three times as many salespeople selling drugs to hospitals and doctors today there were in 1995 – one for every three doctors.
High costs in the Big Apple: Rudy Giuliani spent $60 million in his presidential campaign and obtained one delegate.
Care in the air: Germany has a nudist airline on which passengers shed clothes after boarding. Hot drinks are not served in flight – for safety considerations.
Job opportunities: In the U.S., there are more casino dealers than machinists and three times more security guards than either.
Value of work: The average CEO income of 30 defense contractors last year was $9,095,000 – or about $5,000 per work hour.
The richest of all: The U.S. ranks fourth in wealth per capita – after Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden.
Booze as a benefit: Recent studies show that alcohol boosts HDL (good cholesterol), improves the body’s use of insulin and, if taken with meals, lowers blood glucose.
Irish tenors vs. basso profundos: Men with deeper voices not only live longer and have more children, but also are more attractive to females for casual encounters.
Rodney Quinn, who lives in Gorham, is a collector of statistics and a former Maine secretary of state. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.
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