Percentage of Americans who feel that Mother's Day and Father's Day should be celebrated equally, according to a survey by RetailMeNot: 81

Percentage of respondents who feel that, in general, mothers tend to receive more attention or celebration on Mother's Day than dads do on Father's Day: 77

Percentage of dads who do not expect their wife or significant other to get them a gift for Father's Day: 60

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage of consumers for whom "showrooming," the process of researching in-store before buying online, remains popular, according to a study by Interactions: 76

Percentage of shoppers for whom the emerging trend of "webrooming," or researching online before buying in-store, is even more common: 88

Source: Interactions.

Percentage of grill owners who say grilling is just plain fun, according to a Weber survey: 77

Percentage of grill owners who agree that grilling makes a weeknight dinner a special occasion: 75

Source: Weber-Stephen Products Co.

Year Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, thought of the idea of Father's Day, according to the Census Bureau: 1909

Number of children her father, a Civil War veteran, farmer and widower, raised: 6

Year President Richard M. Nixon signed a law making Father's Day a permanent fixture of the third week in June: 1972

Source: Census Bureau.

Rank of the number of Father's Day cards sold (94 million) after Christmas (1.5 billion), Valentine's Day (144 million) and Mother's Day (133 million): 4

Source: Hallmark.

Percentage of mothers with a master's degree or more who are staying at home in order to care for their families, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data: 10

Among mothers with professional degrees, such as medical degrees, law degrees or nursing degrees, percentage who are relatively affluent and are out of the workforce in order to care for their families: 11

Percentage of the nation's 35 million mothers ages 18 to 69 who are living with their children younger than 18 that is made up of these so-called "opt-out moms": 1

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

Ranks of laptops, smartphones, gaming systems and tablets on the list of the top technology wants on a graduate's wish list, according to a survey by Asurion: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Asurion.

Ranks of Amazon, Samsung, Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, HP, Dell and Acer on the list of the most reliable computers, according to the results of RESCUECOM's Computer Reliability Report: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Source: RESCUECOM.

Approximate amount Americans spend on wedding gifts, according to a survey done on behalf of Expedia.com: $103

Source: Expedia.

Percentage of moms who consider themselves to be the "sole decision-maker" in the vehicle shopping process, according to an independent study by C+R Research, commissioned by Cars.com: 73

Percentage of moms who like to purchase from the same dealer for each vehicle they need so they can develop a relationship: 59

Source: Cars.com.

Idle Thought

"Everybody knows if you are too careful, you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something." -- Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet and playwright

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

Rank of the art collection of David Geffen, a Dreamworks Animation co-founder, on the list of the owners of the 10 most valuable private art collections in the world, according to Wealth-X: 1

Net worth of David Geffen: $6.3 billion

Value of his art collection, consisting mostly of works by American artists from the second half of the 20th century, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning: $2.3 billion

Source: Wealth-X.

Percentage of all women who wear high heels, even though the majority of heel wearers complain these shoes hurt their feet, according to a survey by the American Podiatric Medical Association: 49

Number of pairs of high heels owned by the average woman who wears high heels: 9

When asked what they do when shoes hurt their feet, percentage of women who said they'd "wear them anyway if I like them": 38

Source: American Podiatric Medical Association.

In 1950, cost per mile of driving a car 10,000 miles per year, according to the annual Your Driving Costs study by AAA: 9 cents

Cost of a gallon of gasoline in 1950: 27 cents

Source: AAA.

Rank of Geneva, Switzerland, as the most expensive city in the world to order a club sandwich, at an average of $32.60, according to research released by Hotels.com: 1

Ranks of Paris ($29.36), Helsinki ($24.35), Stockholm ($24.05) and Oslo ($23.80) on the list: 2, 3, 4, 5

Rank of New York City at $17.99 (the most expensive city in the U.S.) on the list: 13

Source: Hotels.com.

Percentage of executives and managers who believe their leadership is stuck in a bubble most of the time, according to a survey conducted by AMA Enterprise: 33

Percentage who believe it happens on occasion: 50

When respondents were asked how often the leadership team was aware of the problem, percentage who said usually: 9

Source: American Management Association.

Percentage of Americans who name New York City as home to the least courteous/most rage-inducing drivers, according to a survey done for Expedia: 33

Ranks of Los Angeles (22 percent) and Atlanta (9 percent) on the list of cities with the least courteous drivers: 2, 3

Ranks of texter (a driver who texts, emails or talks on a phone while driving), tailgater and multi-tasker on the list of the most annoying or offensive behaviors: 1, 2, 3

Source: Expedia.

Percentage of workers who use remote technology to keep up with their jobs after work who said they experienced high stress levels, compared to 36 percent for those who never check emails after work, according to a survey from Gallup: 48

Source: SaveOnPhone.com.

Percentage of people who believe the best gift for a new graduate is money, according to a survey conducted by RetailMeNot: 50

On average, amount consumers consider an appropriate gift for high school graduates: $165

Amount they consider an appropriate gift for college graduates: $464

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Year that the first practical automatic dishwasher was born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1839

Year that Josephine Cochrane, a socialite who devised the dishwasher out of some annoyance at how her domestic staff damaged her china, was awarded a patent: 1886

Decade during which Cochrane sold her machines mainly to restaurants and hotels -- her company eventually becoming KitchenAid, now part of the Whirlpool Corp.: 1890s

In 2011, of the nation's more than 132 million housing units, number that had automatic dishwashers: 86 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of American adults who are willing to help college graduates find work, according to a survey conducted by Fairfield Inn & Suites: 77

Percentage of respondents who claim to have a mentor in their profession: 49

Percentage of respondents who said that recognition is not of significant importance to people who help others in their profession: 51

Source: Fairfield Inn & Suites.

Idle Thought

"A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular." -- Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)

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

Percentage of their salary that applicants would give up to have a job that lets them use familiar skills rather than risk being out of their depth in a job requiring skills they don't have, according to results of a recent survey by Survey Sampling International: 7

Percentage raise plus good health and retirement benefits that it takes to lure people from the job they already have with a company they know: 12

People may complain about commuting, but percentage more desirable it is having a 15- to 30-minute commute than working from home: 20

Source: SSI.

Percentage margin by which employers consider women to be better prepared than men for success in their first jobs, according to a survey conducted by KRC Research on behalf of Bentley University: 59 to 41

Percentage margin by which employers give the edge to men over their entire careers: 53 to 47

Source: KRC Research.

Percentage of Americans 65 and older who held a driver's license in 2010, compared to barely half in the early 1970s, according to a report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: 84

Percentage of drivers on U.S. roads who are 65 and older: 16.6

Source: AAA.

Percentage of prime-time viewers ages 18 to 49 who are what the study calls "cord lovers" -- meaning they have maintained or added to their cable or satellite services in the past six months -- according to a TV Dailies poll conducted by Ipsos MediaCT: 64

Percentage who were found to be "cord shavers," who had cut back on the level of services in the past six months: 27

Percentage of respondents who had not had a cable or satellite subscription at all in the past six months: 7

Source: Ipsos MediaCT.

Percentage of U.S. women who said they did not own any adult toys, according to an AdamAndEve.com survey: 54

Percentage who admitted they owned at least one: 41

Percentage of men who said they didn't own a sex toy: 64

Percentage who admitted they owned at least one: 32

Source: Adam & Eve.

Percentage of North American households who own a grill or smoker, according to a Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association survey: 80

Percentage who use their grill year-round: 60

Ranks of the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Father's Day on the list of the most popular holidays for outdoor cooking: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

Percentage of Expedia Elite Plus members who said that going on vacation is more important now than it was two years ago: 63

When asked the most important factors when making travel arrangements or while traveling, ranks of hotel room cleanliness, good customer service and privacy of online information: 1, 2, 3

Source: Expedia.

Nationwide, percentage increase in the number of people who traveled to work by bike over the last decade, from about 488,000 in 2000 to about 786,000 during the period from 2008 to 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 60

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of U.S. consumers who prefer personalized offers reflecting their shopping habits, according to a survey conducted by Synqera: 85

Percentage of Americans who coupon-browsed instead of window-browsed during the 2013 holiday seasons: 66

Source: Synqera.

Percentage of U.S. adults who had experienced a power outage for more than 12 hours in the last two years, who reported household costs ranging from spoiled food replacement to property damage repair, according to a survey sponsored by Briggs & Stratton Corp.: 69

Percentage of respondents who endured a power outage in the last two years who identified replacing spoiled food as the most common outage-related cost: 40

Source: Briggs & Stratton Corp.

Idle Thought

"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think." -- Aristotle

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