Percentage of Apple fans who would like to have lunch with Steve Jobs, according to the results of a poll by ProtectYourBubble.com: 33.6

Percentage who would want to break bread with Albert Einstein: 27.3

Percentage who would want to spend time with JFK: 23.1

Source: Protect Your Bubble.

Percentage of Americans who say they feel closer to their family when sharing a meal together, according to a survey fielded by ORC International: 94

Percentage of respondents who say they would like to eat together as a family more than four nights a week: 75

Percentage who actually do: 44

Source: Olive Garden.

Ranks of London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Bangkok on the list of the top cities around the world to hail a taxi, according to the annual global taxi survey compiled by Hotels.com: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Globally, approximate percentage of people who are willing to tip a taxi driver: 46

Source: Hotels.com.

In the 54 days from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, 2011, percentage of products that were on sale on Black Friday below their initial holiday season price, according to a study by ShopAdvisor that tracked the prices of 252 toys: 46

If Santa had purchased all 252 for his bag on Black Friday, amount of money he would have saved compared to the original holiday season prices: $515

Source: ShopAdvisor.

Percentage of Americans who say that when it comes to vacuuming, they cut corners by skipping areas underneath or behind furniture and clean only when they see visible dirt on the floor, according to a Kenmore brand survey: 49

Percentage of Americans who occasionally or never take off their shoes before entering the house: 50

Source: Russell Research.

Percentage of people who enjoy spending time with their in-laws on Thanksgiving, according to a study by Wayfair.com: 70

Percentage of survey respondents who would rather do just about anything else -- whether that be washing the Thanksgiving Day dishes, going to work or standing in Black Friday lines: 30

Percentage of this year's Thanksgiving gatherings that will include more than 10 people around the table: 33

Source: Wayfair.com.

Percentage of American small business owners who say that using business cards to network is "very impactful," according to an Ipsos poll conducted for MOO.com: 34

Number of business cards given out by the average American small business owner in a given month: 40

Source: MOO.com.

As announced in February 2012, the historic joint state-federal settlement among 49 state attorneys general, the federal government and the country's five largest mortgage servicers, amount of money provided in relief to distressed borrowers and states, according to Enterprise Community Partners: $25 billion

To date, amount states have planned to spend for housing and foreclosure-related activities: $977 million

Source: Enterprise Community Partners Inc.

Percentage of managers and supervisors who say that "it's important for them to continue improving their skills in managing distressed workers," according to a poll conducted on behalf of Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace: 91

Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.

Percentage of Americans who believe that using a free Wi-Fi connection can lead to identity theft, according to a survey conducted with Private WiFi: 79

Percentage who admitted to accessing confidential work-related information while using a public hotspot: 57

Source: Private WiFi.

Percentage of employees in 24 countries who say they would be very likely to take a full-time job in another country for two to three years with a 10 percent pay increase, according to a poll conducted by global research company Ipsos: 25

Percentage of global employees who agree that "there is nothing my employer could do to convince me to take an international assignment": 35

Source: Ipsos Global Public Affairs.

To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. -- Abraham Maslow

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

Percentage of American voters who would use the new Super PAC App (created by former MIT students) that "listens" to political TV ads and tells the user how much money was spent on the ad, as well as the organization that funded it, according to a survey by Politcal.com: 77

Percentage of Political.com voters who say Super PACs wield too much influence in national politics: 80

Source: Political.com.

Estimated number of people on dating websites in the U.S., according to research by LuvFax.com: 50 million

Percentage of all relationships that now start online: 20

Estimated number of dating websites in the U.S. alone: 1,400

Estimated amount spent on U.S. dating websites each year: $1.1 billion

Source: LuvFax.com.

Percentage of employers who notice an uptick in sick days around the winter holidays, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 31

Ranks of December, July, January and February on the list of the most popular month to skip out on work: 1, 2, 3, 4

Next to actually being sick, percentage of employees who said one of the reasons they call in sick is because they just don't feel like going to work: 34

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of parents with children under the age of 18 who are beginning their holiday shopping prior to November, according to a RetailMeNot shoppers trend report: 39

Percentage of parents in the same group who still have a dismal view of the economy: 71

Percentage who worry about being able to make all the necessary purchases in the coming months: 25

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage of Americans who say they've recycled aluminum or steel cans in the past year, according to a poll conducted on behalf of Call2Recycle: 76

Percentage of recyclers who agree that "recycling is important for the Earth" and that "recycling is an important lesson for future generations": 92

Percentage who agree that "it is their civic duty to recycle": 84

Source: Ipsos Marketing, Global Consumer Goods Sector.

Year a long-running part of the nation's communications technology passed into history as the last hand-cranked telephone system in the country converted to direct dialing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1983

In Bryant Pond, Maine, that year, number of subscribers who were still on the old system and were still using equipment that had served rural customers since the turn of the century: 400

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of chief financial officers who say they now prefer to cultivate business relationships via social networking, according to a Robert Half Management Resources survey: 45

Percentage who say their primary purpose for networking is to grow business: 60

Percentage who said it was to keep up with industry news and developments: 20

Source: Robert Half.

Rank of motor vehicle crashes on the list of the leading causes of death for teens, according to a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: 1

Among 16- and 17-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes, percentage who were speeding and had no passengers: 30

Percentage who were speeding and had two teen passengers: 44

Percentage who were speeding and had three or more teen passengers: 48

Source: AAA.

Percentage of teens who say bullying remains worse than parents realize, according to a Harlequin TEEN and The Jed Foundation survey: 78

Percentage of young women who say they have been bullied: 70

Percentage who say they do not bully others: 69

Yet percentage who engage in behaviors deemed as bullying, such as gossiping, name-calling and teasing: 30

Source: Harlequin Enterprises Limited.

Idle Thought

"Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's." -- Billy Wilder

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

Percentage of Americans who believe that having a secure job is by far the most important requirement for being in the middle class, easily trumping homeownership and a college education, according to a Pew Research poll: 86

Percentage of respondents who say health insurance is an essential ticket to a middle-class life: 66

Percentage who say the same about owning a home: 45

In 1991, ranks of homeownership (70 percent), two or more cars (48 percent), a college education (46 percent), stocks, bonds or other investments (41 percent), and a white-collar job (33 percent) on the list of what Americans thought it took it to be in the middle class: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends.

Estimated number of potential trick-or-treaters in 2011 -- children ages 5 to 14 -- across the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 41 million

Number of occupied housing units across the nation in 2011 -- all potential stops for trick-or-treaters: 115 million

Number of costume rental and formal wear establishments across the nation in 2010: 1,634

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of millennials who agree with the statement "If taxes on business profits were reduced, companies would be more likely to hire," according to a survey of adults ages 18 to 29 for Generation Opportunity by the polling company Inc./WomanTrend: 69

Percentage of millennials who agree with the statement "the economy grows best when individuals are allowed to create businesses without government interference": 65

Percentage of millennials who prefer reducing federal spending over raising taxes on individuals to balance the budget: 65

Source: Generation Opportunity.

As the "bring your own device" (BYOD) trend sweeps across the business world, percentage of employees who consider the ability to be "tracked" through a number of technologies built into most of the popular smartphones an invasion of their privacy, according to the results of a survey for Fiberlink: 82

Percentage of respondents who would not give their employer access to view what applications are installed on their personal device, considering it to be private information: 76

Percentage who are concerned to extremely concerned about their employers tracking websites they browse on personal devices during non-work time: 82

Source: Fiberlink.

Ranks of Wenzai Huang of China ($1 billion net wealth, and gifting 5.97 percent of net wealth), Hans-Werner Hector of Germany ($1.8 billion net wealth, and gifting 3.53 percent), and Terrence Pegula of the U.S. ($3.3 billion net wealth and gifting 3.03 percent), on the list of the top 20 emerging mega donors, according to Wealth-X: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of this list of emerging mega donors who are American: 20

Number of the top 20 next mega donors who come from India and China: 7

Source: Wealth-X.

Percentage of U.S. adults who agree that renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, should be a bigger part of America's energy supply in the future, according to a poll conducted on behalf of Sungevity: 89

Percentage of respondents who expect their elected officials to support solar energy initiatives: 80

Percentage who believe, regardless of who is in office, the White House and other official federal and state residences should use solar energy: 81

Source: Sungevity.

Percentage of Americans who will hand out candy this Halloween, according a survey by the National Retail Federation: 72.2

Percentage of respondents who will carve a pumpkin: 46.3

Percentage who will visit a haunted house: 20.8

Source: National Retail Federation.

Percentage of consumers who are planning to spend the same or more on holiday shopping this year than in 2011, according to the results of PriceGrabber's first holiday shopping survey: 62

Percentage of consumers who planned to start their holiday shopping in September: 17

Source: PriceGrabber.com.

Number of U.S. adults (32 percent) who believe homeowners should be able to strategically default on their mortgages without any consequences, according to a survey conducted online by JZ Analytics on behalf of ID Analytics: 68 million

Number of Americans (13 percent) who would likely strategically default on a mortgage: 28 million

Number who know someone who has strategically defaulted on a mortgage: 36 million

Source: ID Analytics Inc.

Percentage increase in the total acreage owned by the 100 largest private landowners in the past five years, up from 27.2 million acres in 2007 to 32.3 million in 2012, according to a survey published by the The Land Report: 18.6

Source: Land Report.

Idle Thought

"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work." -- Robert Orben

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