Despite all the appliances and gadgets designed to make meal preparation convenient, percentage of respondents who still spend between 31 minutes to an hour preparing dinner each night, according to a survey fielded by ORC International: 59

Percentage of Americans who are likely to buy fast food for their family after a stressful day: 39

If they had to eat the same style of food two nights in a row, percentage of respondents who said they would choose Italian: 32

Source: Olive Garden.

Percentage of Americans who visited or planned to visit malls or big box retailers on Black Friday, according to a study by Wayfair.com: 20

Percentage of Americans who will spend less than two hours on the couch this Thanksgiving: 70

Percentage of people who did not have any time at all on the couch because they were in the kitchen most of the day: 30

Source: Wayfair.com.

Percentage of all marketers who are anticipating 2012 sales to be higher or much higher than in 2011, according to a study by Experian Marketing Services: 66

Source: Experian Public Relations.

Percentage of women who say they start shopping on Black Friday, according to a Women & Co./Real Simple Survey: 11

Percentage of women who start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving: 41

Percentage who shop all year long for the holidays: 22

Source: Women & Co.

Percentage of consumers who consider re-gifting to be thrifty, according to a ShopAtHome.com Survey: 63

Percentage who consider re-gifting to be tacky: 37

Rank of Tennessee on the list of states for refusing to re-gift, with almost 71 percent of respondents viewing it as tacky: 1

Rank of Washington state on the list of top re-gifting states, where 93 percent of respondents view it as thrifty: 1

Source: ShopAtHome.com.

Percentage of mobile shoppers who will download new shopping apps for the holiday season, according to PriceGrabber.com's latest survey: 32

Percentage who plan to download price-check apps with the ability to scan bar codes: 63

Source: PriceGrabber.com.

Year that there was good news for the hard of hearing, as Miller Reese Hutchinson of New York patented the first portable electric hearing aid, the "acousticon" -- a smaller version of previous tabletop units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1901

Annual value of the business of making medical equipment and supplies in the U.S.: $79 billion

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of consumers who spend more than two hours per week shopping online who have canceled an order due to an error or slow response time, according to a survey by Monitis: 56

Percentage of these consumers who say that they would abandon their chosen online vendor if they found a faster competitor: 86

Source: Monitis.

Percentage of workers who described the morale at their companies as very good, according to an Accountemps survey: 39

Percentage of people who said workplace morale is somewhat good: 42

Source: Accountemps.

Of the vast majority of Americans who decorate for the holidays, percentage who will spend more money on decorations for the December holidays than on Halloween or Thanksgiving, according to a survey conducted by RetailMeNot and The Omnibus Company: 86

Average amount of money consumers spend on holiday decorations from October through December for everything from cornucopia centerpieces to Christmas trees: $284

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Idle Thought

"The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit." -- Moliere, playwright (1622-1673)

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

Estimated average cost to a middle-income family to raise a child from birth through age 17, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture: $235,000

Percentage of families who are stressed about money: 80

Percentage of moms who are concerned about not having enough money to raise their children, a 10 percent increase from 2011: 70

Source: BabyCenter LLC.

Percentage of their time that chief financial officers say that, on average, supervisors spend overseeing poorly performing employees, according to a survey by Robert Half International: 26

Percentage of respondents who said a poor hiring decision at least somewhat impacts the morale of the team: 83

Of those, percentage who say morale is greatly affected: 56

Source: Robert Half.

Percentage of firms imposing Thanksgiving shifts this year that will pay workers only straight time for working on the holiday, with no extra pay or compensatory time off, according to the Bloomberg BNA survey of year-end holiday practices: 9

Though well over half of the establishments expecting holiday work will provide overtime pay, percentage that will pay double-time to workers who pull Thanksgiving shifts: 22

Source: Bloomberg.

Ranks of Sunday, Nov. 13 (59 percent), and Thursday, Dec. 1 (57 percent), on the list of days with the highest percentage of products on sale in 2011, according to a study by ShopAdvisor that tracked the prices of 252 toys: 1, 2

Percentage of toys selling at a premium price on Dec. 23, two days before Christmas: 40

Source: ShopAdvisor.

Percentage of interviewers who say receiving a thank-you note impacts their decision-making process, according to TheLadders' survey: 75

Percentage of interviewees who say they "rarely" or "never" send thank-you notes: 10

Source: TheLadders.

Percentage of girls who would choose a job in STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- vs. 32 percent of boys, according to findings of a study by Simmons College and the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts: 10

Percentage of boys who say their parents would like them to have a job in STEM vs. 11 percent of all girls: 23

Percentage of all girls who agree with the statement, "Boys have more career options than girls": 27

Percentage of boys who agree: 35

Source: Simmons College.

Ranks of the moustaches of former "Magnum P.I." star Tom Selleck, silent film legend Charlie Chaplin and Burt Reynolds on the list of the most iconic "mo" in moustache history, according to Movember and SurveyMonkey: 1, 2, 3

Ranks of Tom Selleck and Johnny Depp on the list of the current famous persons with the best mo: 1, 2

Ranks of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on the list of U.S. presidents with the best facial follicles: 1, 2

Source: SurveyMonkey.

Ranks of Tuesday, Nov. 27, Monday, Nov. 26, and Wednesday, Nov. 28, on the list of the 10 lightest shopping days expected this holiday season in terms of foot traffic, thus presenting an opportunity for shoppers to secure the best customer service and potentially the best deals, according to ShopperTrak: 1, 2, 3

Source: ShopperTrak.

When consumers were asked whether they would rather receive a tablet computer or a laptop as a holiday gift this year, percentage who indicated that they would rather receive a tablet, according to the results of PriceGrabber's third winter holiday shopping survey: 59

Percentage of shoppers who also indicated that they believe tablet computers will replace e-readers as gifts this year: 71

Source: PriceGrabber.com.

Percentage of respondents who said they will use their smartphone to do research ahead of their shopping trips, according to a CouponCabin.com survey: 70

Percentage who will use it to do research in-store: 59

Source: CouponCabin.

Idle Thought

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." -- Virginia Woolf

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

Estimated percentage of the original Pilgrims who survived a very hard year at Plymouth Colony from the fall of 1620 to the fall of 1621, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 50

Number who were saved from starvation by the Wampanoag, who gave them food and taught them farming and food preparation and storage in their new land, as well as ways to survive the bitterly cold winter: 53

Number of Native Americans who celebrated the Pilgrim's first bountiful harvest in the fall of 1621, when they held a day of Thanksgiving: 91

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of Americans who consider themselves value seekers -- someone very aware of prices, bargains, coupons and specials, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Whole Foods Market: 64

Percentage who consider themselves one-stop shoppers who want all their needs met by one store, from staple pantry items and meats to family-friendly offerings and body care: 41

Source: Whole Foods Market.

Percentage of young adults ages 25 to 34 who are married in 2012, down from 55 percent in 2000, according to a Population Reference Bureau report: 46

Median age at first marriage for men: 28.1

Median age for women: 26.5

Source: PRB.

By 2014, projected percentage employment rate for those over the age of 55 (comprising more than 21 percent of the U.S. work force), according to the Department of Labor, according to a survey from Adecco: 41

Percentage of hiring managers who said the greatest challenge to hiring mature workers is their difficulty in learning/adapting to new technology: 39

Ranks of high salary/compensation demands and overconfidence in their abilities and experience on the list of the biggest interview mistakes made by mature workers: 1, 2

Source: Adecco.

Ranks of holidays, bills and living arrangements on the list of conversations most likely to cause couples tension in the car, according to research from Allianz: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of women who admitted they are likely to discuss the relationships of friends and family in the car: 18

Percentage of women who just enjoy a good gossip in the car: 32

Source: Allianz Life Insurance.

Percentage of Thanksgiving dinners that will feature oven-roasted turkey as the main entree, according to a study by Wayfair.com: 80

Rank of stuffing and mashed potatoes on the list of perennial favorite side dishes: 1 (tie)

Source: Wayfair.com.

Percentage of IT pros who consider the IT department integral to the business, according to InformationWeek Reports Research: 60

Percentage of non-IT respondents who feel the same: 43

Percentage of non-IT respondents who consider their IT department a support or maintenance organization, compared with 39 percent of IT: 54

Source: Information Week.

With the automated sales experience relatively new (especially in stores), percentage of consumers who still prefer the help of knowledgeable sales staff, according to Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange: 70

Source: Ipsos Marketing Open Thinking Exchange.

Percentage of employers who have scheduled both Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) and the Friday after as paid days off for all or most of the work force this year, according to the Bloomberg BNA survey of year-end holiday practices: 73

Percentage of all employers who have scheduled a paid day off for Thanksgiving Day: 99

Source: Bloomberg.

Percentage of Americans who are expected to travel this Thanksgiving, according to a survey by HomeAway: 26

Percentage who plan to travel over the December holidays: 40

Source: Home Away.

Idle Thought

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." -- James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)

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