Average percentage more for car insurance that drivers pay as a result of committing a minor speeding violation (1 to 15 miles per hour over the legal limit), according to an insuranceQuotes.com report: 21
Average percentage more for car insurance that drivers pay as a result of following too closely: 19
Average percentage increase in car insurance rates upon DUI convictions: 93
Source: insuranceQuotes.com.
In 2013, average wedding cost, excluding honeymoon, according to the results of TheKnot.com's annual Real Weddings Study: $29,858
Average spent on a wedding in Manhattan, N.Y. -- the most expensive place to get married: $86,916
Average spent in Idaho -- the least expensive place to get married: $16,159
Source: XO Group Inc.
Rank of "a particular preference for print over electronic" on the list of the most popular reasons students cited for purchasing print instead of digital-based course materials, according to a Student Watch survey conducted by OnCampus Research: 1
Source: National Association of College Stores.
Percentage of organizations that believe managing critical talent is essential to success, according to Mercer survey: 64
Percentage of organizations that say they have programs that are "extremely effective" in achieving that goal: 30
Percentage of organizations that employ processes to identify critical talent with approximately 2 to 5 percent of the workforce categorized as critical: 75
Source: Mercer.
Percentage of consumers who are comfortable with a 10 plus years or "until it dies" vehicle life span, according to an AutoMD.com's survey: 78
Percentage of car owners who said they now have 150,000 or more miles on their current vehicle: 33
Percentage who said they planned to purchase a new vehicle: 10
Source: AutoMD.com.
Ranks of Jack Nicholson ($390 million), Tom Hanks ($350 million), Robert De Niro ($310 million), Barbra Streisand ($310 million) and Sean Connery ($250 million) on the list of the top five wealthiest Oscar winners, according to Wealth-X: 1, 2, 3 (tie), 5
Rank of Sandra Bullock ($150 million) -- the only Academy Award winner on the list with a 2014 nomination: 10
Source: Wealth-X.
Percentage of Americans who will hit the road or sky for a long-distance trip this spring, according to a study from Wahl Therapeutic Massagers and conducted by Opinion Research Corp.: 35
Percentage of adults 18 years of age and older who experience physical pain while traveling: 92
Across all four modes of transport -- airplane, train, bus and personal vehicle -- ranks of back, leg, neck and arm/shoulder pain on the list of the types of pain travelers experience most often: 1, 2, 3, 4
Source: Opinion Research Corp.
Percentage of American consumers who plan to file tax returns using online services this year, according to a survey by RetailMeNot: 31
Percentage who prefer to prepare their taxes themselves: 18
Percentage of people who wait until April 1 or later to file their taxes: 15
Source: RetailMeNot.com.
Rank of Derek Jeter, entering his final baseball season with the New York Yankees, on the list of the most popular players in the game, according to a survey by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute: 1
Percentage of all people who say they are very (20 percent) or somewhat (27 percent) interested in following Major League Baseball: 47
Source: Saint Leo University Polling Institute.
Year that the first theological school to admit female students for divinity degrees was formed, when the Boston Theological Seminary merged with Boston University, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1871
Year the first female bachelor of divinity graduated: 1876
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Idle Thought
"There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall." -- Bernard Malamud, novelist
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)