Projected percentage drop in Mother's Day sales this year, according to industry research firm IBISWorld: 14.7

Amount this represents: $12.9 billion

Source: IBISWorld.

Annual cost to the U.S. economy in lower productivity and throttled innovation -- in organizations of all shapes and sizes caused by information overload -- according to Basex: $900 billion

Source: Basex Inc.

If you address e-mail to an executive, percentage chance that your message will be intercepted by an administrative professional who may be charged with screening, deleting and ghostwriting the boss's e-mail, according to a survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and The ePolicy Institute: 59

Percentage of administrative professionals who now ghostwrite responses under their executives' names: 59

Source: International Association of Administrative Professionals.

Percentage of Americans who say lower-income people are paying their "fair share" of federal taxes, up from 32 percent last year, according to a Gallup Poll: 41

Percentage of Americans who say that middle-income people pay their fair share of taxes, as they have in six of the last seven years: 50

Percentage who say upper-income taxpayers pay their fair share: 23

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of Americans who do not know the current average interest rate on a credit card, according to TrueCredit.com Financial Literacy Quiz: 84

Percentage of consumers who revealed that they are not aware of exactly what information is included in their credit report, and mistakenly believe that a credit score is included in the report: 90

Source: TrueCredit.com.

Percentage of grooms who do the proposing, according to about.com: 99

Percentage of proposals that occur in December: 15

Average length of an American engagement: 14 months

Average amount spent on a traditional American wedding: $28,082

Source: about.com.

Number of gallons of gasoline saved each year by using public transit, according to PublicTransportation.org: 1.4 billion

Estimated number of gallons of gasoline saved per day: 4 million

On average, percentage less oil consumed by a public transit rider as opposed to an automobile rider: 50

Source: Kidd Transportation Group.

Percentage of women who said they feel forced to make some tough choices and give up the small things that make them happy when money is tight, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Degree Women Fine Fragrance Collection: 63

Percentage who said they would find it hard to give up chocolate: 40

Percentage who would give up their sweet treats to be able to afford their favorite beauty products: 56

Source: Unilever.

Year that the people in Paris, Tenn., inaugurated their town's annual claim to fame as host of the world's biggest fish fry (where 100,000 people consume about 10,000 pounds of catfish, along with several tons of hush puppies, and attend a carnival, a rodeo, parades and even catfish races), according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1953

Estimated number of farm-raised catfish produced each year: 550 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of U.S. farm subsidies that go to large farming businesses, according to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll: 80

Percentage of Americans who favor such subsidies: 36

Percentage who oppose them: 61

Source: WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Idle Thought

"It is not how old you are, but how you are old." -- Jules Renard, writer

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of Americans who now consider owning a car is a necessity, according to a Pew Research survey: 91

Percentage who say a clothes washer is a necessity: 90

Ranks of a clothes dryer (83 percent), home air conditioning (70 percent), microwave (68 percent) and TV set (64 percent) on the list of amenities that Americans consider as necessary: 3, 4, 5, 6

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Percentage of professionals who say they very or somewhat frequently go to work when they feel sick, according to a survey developed by OfficeTeam: 75

When executives were asked how often they think employees come to work when they feel sick, percentage who said very frequently: 17

Source: OfficeTeam.

Estimated number of mothers in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 82.5 million

Percentage of American consumers who take part in some way in Mother's Day, according to Hallmark: 96

Rank of Mother's Day as the peak day of the year for long-distance telephone calls: 1

Source: about.com.

Percentage of doctors in the U.S. who would choose a different profession if they could start over today, according to the National Physicians' Study conducted by HCD Research: 30

Ranks of negotiated rates and malpractice suits on the list of the reasons cited by doctors for wanting to switch professions: 1, 2

Source: HCD Research Inc.

Percentage of college students who left school with more than $5,000 in credit card debt, according to a survey commissioned by TrueCredit.com: 24

Percentage of respondents who indicated they owed more than $10,000 for purchases made with credit cards: 10

Source: TrueCredit.com.

Number of businesses in the U.S. that consist of only the owner with no additional employees, according to a study by FindLaw.com: 20 million

Source: FindLaw.com.

Percentage of Americans who may be missing out on credits and deductions due to their lack of familiarity with the tax system and tax law changes, according to a new study conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of H&R Block: 50

Percentage of those with college degrees who wrongly think it is possible to claim deductions or credits that were missed on previous tax returns: 45

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Number of households that represent the wealthiest 10 percent of all U.S. households, as determined by the Federal Reserve Board, according to a study by the American Affluence Research Center: 11.2 million

Percentage of luxury consumers who report they have reduced overall expenditures during the past 12 months and/or will do so during the next 12 months: 81

Percentage decline in home remodeling plans from what they were one year ago: 50

Source: American Affluence Research Center.

Percentage of Americans who view plunging housing prices combined with historically low interest rates who believe that now is a "good time" to buy a house — up 18 percentage points from a year ago and the highest level of housing-purchase optimism in four years, according to a Gallup Poll: 71

Percentage drop in housing prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas in January 2009 compared to a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: 19

Source: Gallup.

Despite it being one of the most challenging hiring environments in the nation's history, percentage of workers laid off from full-time jobs in the last three months who reported they found a new full-time, permanent position, according to a survey from CareerBuilder: 41

Percentage who found part-time work: 8

Of those workers who were laid off in the last 12 months, percentage who received a severance package from their employers: 32

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Idle Thought

"A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule." -- Michael Pollan, author

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of travelers who, unfortunately, have endured loud snoring from their seatmates on flights, according to a TripAdvisor flyer survey: 44

Percentage who have experienced obvious intoxication: 25

Percentage who have experienced excessive flatulence: 19

Percentage who have experienced couples who cannot keep their hands off one another: 11

Source: TripAdvisor.

Percentage of companies that have frozen salaries, up from 21 percent in December, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt: 55

Percentage of respondents who plan to decrease this year's bonus pool by an average of about 40 percent: 48

Percentage who have added a "clawback" (or monetary recoupment) policy: 23

Source: Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

As G-20 leaders met in London, percentage of people in the 24 countries polled who think "major changes" are required to the way the global economy is run, according to a global poll of people carried out for BBC World Service GlobeScan: 70

When asked whether the downturn in the global economy has negatively affected them and their family, percentage who said it had affected them at least "a fair amount": 62

Source: PIPA/WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Percentage of small business that at one point have had to search for an old or deleted e-mail for compliance purposes, according to a survey carried out by eMediaUSA on behalf of GFI Software: 47

Percentage that say it typically takes less than an hour to find an e-mail from 15 months ago or longer: 29

Percentage that do not feel they are sufficiently informed about compliance and e-mail archiving issues: 40

Source: GFI Software.

Ranks of taking on more projects/responsibility and working more hours as the leading concessions employees are willing to accept to keep their jobs, according to a Q1 Glassdoor.com Employee Confidence Survey of employed adults: 1, 2

Percentage who are willing to take unpaid leave: 34 (Up from 24 percent in December 2008.)

Source: Glassdoor.com.

Percentage of Americans who said they expected a tax refund this year, according to a survey by Econ4U: 83

Percentage who were planning on spending the refund: 31

Percentage who said they would use it to pay off existing credit card debt: 18

Source: Econ4U.

Percentage of American drivers who complained of an inability to focus while driving at night, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation: 18

Number of times higher the fatality rate at nighttime (6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) is than the daytime rate: 3

Source: National Sleep Foundation.

Percentage of Americans who have gone without medical or prescription drug care in the past year, due to the cost, according to a survey by Zogby: 16

Percentage of those Americans with less than $25,000 in household income who admit to doing without medical care: 34

Percentage of those from households with more than $100,000 in income who say the same: 10

Source: Zogby International.

Percentage of Americans who chose Great Britain as America's greatest ally, according to a Gallup Poll: 36

Percentage who chose Canada: 29

Percentage who said Japan: 12

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of network video downloaders who favor watching ads in exchange for free video, according to the findings from Knowledge Networks: 80 (Up from 67 percent in 2006.)

Percentage of all Internet users who say they streamed TV network video -- from clips to full episodes -- during the three-month study period: 37

Source: Knowledge Networks.

Idle Thought

"The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else." -- John Updike, writer (1932-2009)

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)