Percentage of Americans who hold a favorable opinion about businessman, television personality and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to a Gallup Poll: 43

Percentage who have an unfavorable opinion about him: 47

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of American adults who say they believe in love at first sight, according to Adam and Eve's Great American Sex Survey: 55

Of those respondents, percentage who admitted they've experienced it themselves: 71

Source: Adam and Eve.

Percentage of U.S. working adults who believe they are paid fairly, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey conducted on behalf of Kenexa: 60

Percentage who feel they are underpaid: 37

Percentage who report that they are overpaid: 2

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Estimated percentage of U.S. households that take part in lawn and garden activities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 75

Percentage who grow flowers: 33

Percentage who have vegetable gardens: 25

Percentage who enjoy a garden pond: 10

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of federal managers who say they were unaware of their agency's plans for implementing a shutdown of operations if funding for federal agencies were to run out, according to the Government Business Council: 56

Percentage of respondents who said they did not know if they would have to report to work during a shutdown: 51

Percentage of respondents who rate morale in their agency as "low" or "very low": 48

Source: Government Business Council.

Percentage of Americans 21 years of age and older who say they drink alcohol at least once a week, including 5 percent who drink daily and 10 percent who drink several times a week, according to the results of a Harris Poll: 29

Percentage who say they drink alcohol at least once a month: 20

Percentage who say they never drink alcohol: 22

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of IT security professionals who reported that security breaches, such as those from WikiLeaks, made them reconsider their company's data security policies, according to a survey by Imperva: 82

Percentage of respondents who said that they knew the exact number of sensitive files they had: 18

Source: Imperva.

Percentage of respondents who have purchased soap who say their decision is based mainly on scent, according to a Mintel poll: 38

Percentage who say they prefer shower products with extra moisturizers: 35

Percentage who claim that finding soap or body wash products on sale or the cheapest is important/very important to them: 60

Source: Mintel.

Percentage of U.S. households that crafted at least once during 2010, according to a Craft and Hobby Association study: 56

Value of the U.S. craft and hobby industry: $29.2 billion

Source: Craft and Hobby Association.

Percentage of car owners who use online repair cost estimates who report saving money on repair bills, according to AutoMD.com: 73

Percentage of car owners who usually go to the repair shop who are now more likely to perform their own repairs: 31.3

Source: AutoMD.com.

Idle Thought

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?" -- George Eliot

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

Despite a historic real-estate market upheaval that sent foreclosure rates skyrocketing and home values plummeting, percentage of homeowners who say they would buy their homes again, according to poll results announced by The Allstate Corp. and National Journal: 90

Percentage of Americans who say they would advise a friend or family member to buy a home as a long-term asset: 70

Source: The Allstate Corp.

In the U.K., estimated amount of money that women save annually by flirting with shop staff until they get a discount, according to a survey commissioned by the website promocodes.co.uk: $245

Ranks of cars, holidays, TVs, houses and clothes on the list of items that people most flirted or haggled for a discount on: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Including vouchers, haggling and flirting, amount of money that Brits say they are saving annually: $941

Source: Promocodes.co.uk.

On average, percentage of their time that managers claim to spend intervening in employee disputes and handling personality conflicts, according to an Accountemps survey: 18

Number of hours a week this represents: 7

Number of 40-hour weeks per year this represents: 9

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of parents who feel they should have primary responsibility for teaching their kids the basics of personal finance, according to a survey by T. Rowe Price: 86

Percentage of parents who say they are very prepared to discuss basic financial principles such as setting goals, the importance of saving, smart spending, inflation, and diversification with their children: 28

Source: T. Rowe Price.

Projected number of hot dogs that major league ballparks around the country will serve this season, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council's 2011 annual report: 22,435,400

If laid end-to-end, that number of hot dogs would stretch from AT&T Park in San Francisco to Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, but the real question is: How many times it would round the bases: 31,160

Ranks of Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park on the list forecast as the top hot dog consuming MLB venues in 2011: 1, 2, 3

Source: National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.

Number of single people in the United States -- one-third of the population, according to Match.com: 150 million

Though women still expect men to make the first move and ask a lady out, percentage who would offer to pick up the check on a first date: 41

Percentage of women who prefer men to make the follow-up call after the first date: 48

Source: Match.com.

Percentage of American adults who are stressed by at least one thing at work, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Everest College: 77

Overall, percentage of adults who ranked low pay as the most stressful aspect of their jobs: 14

Percentage who cited commuting: 11

Percentage who say an unreasonable workload: 9

Source: Everest College.

Estimated number of feet of underground utilities in the United States, according to the Common Ground Alliance: 100 billion

Percentage of Americans planning to dig this year who will put their community's safety at risk by not calling 811 to learn the approximate location of underground utilities: 49

Frequency that an underground utility line is damaged by digging: Every three minutes

Source: Common Ground Alliance.

Percentage of consumers who reported that they worry that the organization they are sharing their personal information with could suffer a data breach, according to the results of the annual tax and identity theft survey by PrivacyGuard: 64

When a data breach occurs, percentage of respondents who are more likely to blame the institution that was breached: 44

Percentage who are more likely to blame the thieves that stole the data: 35

Source: PrivacyGuard.

Despite concerns about a possible nuclear disaster in the U.S., percentage of Americans who think nuclear power plants in the U.S. are safe, according to a Gallup Poll: 58

Percentage who say they are not: 36

Source: Gallup.

Idle Thought

"Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids." -- John Steinbeck

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

Estimated percentage of all Americans who have worked in the restaurant industry at some point in their lives, according to research from the National Restaurant Association: 50

Percentage of adults who had their first job experience in a restaurant: 25

Percentage of restaurant managers who got their start as front-line employees: 80

Source: National Restaurant Association.

Percentage of Americans who date who say they used Facebook to snoop around a date's information and check out photos, according to Zagat's Dating and Dumping survey: 41

Ranks of through family and friends, online, random encounters, through hobbies and activities, and through work on the list of the best ways to meet someone: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: Zagat.

Percentage of Americans who love their job who say it is because of the work that they do, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs-Randstad survey: 66

Percentage who say their co-workers are the reason they love their job: 11

Percentage who cite their employer as the reason: 10

Percentage who say the pay or salary: 9

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Percentage of Americans who were concerned about whether the government was watching them online, according to a survey by YouGov: 35

Percentage who were wary about the data that social networks collect: 15

Source: Opera Software.

In 2010, percentage growth in the number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more, not including a primary residence, according to Affluent Market Insights 2011, a report released by Spectrem Group: 8

Number of households this represents: 600,000

Total U.S. millionaire population today: 8.4 million

Percentage growth in the number of households with a net worth of $500,000 or more, not including a primary residence: 6

Total number of these households today, up from 12.7 million in 2009: 13.5 million

Source: Spectrem Group.

Percentage of mature workers who said the primary drivers for postponing retirement are financial restraints, according to a survey from CareerBuilder: 65

Percentage who said they need the health insurance and other benefits: 58

Percentage of respondents who said they stay because they enjoy their job: 39

Percentage who enjoy where they work: 36

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Year that the nation's first woman doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell, received her M.D. -- as the result of a joke, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1849

Finding it hard to get a job at established hospitals and clinics, year that she opened her own dispensary, which later grew to become the New York Infirmary for Women and Children: 1854

Year that she established a Women's Medical College at the Infirmary to train women physicians and doctors: 1868

Percentage of U.S. doctors who are women: 33

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Much to the chagrin of home improvement stores, percentage decline in the DIY home improvement market from 2005 to 2010, according to research from Mintel: 21

Percentage of DIYers who say they would like to undertake a major renovation or addition to their home, but they just don't have the funds: 28

Source: Mintel.

Percentage of in-market new car buyers who believe it would be valuable to require a dealer to provide a no-haggle upfront selling price, according to TrueCar's Online Automotive Buying Behavior Report: 90

Percentage of car shoppers who believe that they will not receive a fair price for their trade-in or that the dealer will make up for the loss through other services (financing, extended warranties, etc.): 82

Percentage of respondents who would likely use a car-buying service from a trusted organization to save time and money: 80

Source: TrueCar Inc.

Percentage of women who think a bad skin day is worse than a bad hair day, according to a CosMedix survey: 38

Percentage of women who fear being seen without makeup by their significant other: 22

Source: Cosmedix.

Idle Thought

"There is nothing like desire for preventing the things one says from bearing any resemblance to what one has in one's mind." -- Marcel Proust

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