Facts About Americans

Only 30% of us can flare our nostrils.
21% of us don't make our bed daily. 5% of us never do.
Men do 29% of laundry each week. Only 7% of women trust their husbands to do it correctly.
40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.
67.5% of men wear tightie whities (briefs).
3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations.
13% of us admit to occasionally doing our offspring's homework.
91% of us lie regularly.
27% admit to cheating on a test or quiz.
29% admit they've intentionally stolen something from a store.
50% admit they regularly sneak food into movie theaters to avoid the high prices of snack foods.
90% believe in divine retribution.
10% believe in the 10 Commandments.
82% believe in an afterlife.
45% believe in ghosts.
13% (mostly men) have spent a night in jail.
29% of us are virgins when we marry.
58.4% have called into work sick when we weren't.
10% of us switch tags in the store to pay less for an item.
Over 50% believe in spanking, but only a child over 2 years old.
35% give to charity at least once a month.
How far would you go for $10 million? 25% would abandon their friends, family, and church. 7% would murder.
69% eat the cake before the frosting.
When nobody else is around, 47% drink straight from the carton.
85% of us will eat Spam this year.
70% of us drink orange juice daily.
Snickers is the most popular candy.
22% of us skip lunch daily.
9% of us skip breakfast daily.
66% of us eat cereal regularly.
22% of all restaurant meals include french fries.
14% of us eat the watermelon seeds.
Only 13% brush our teeth from side to side.
45% use mouthwash every day.
22% leave the glob of toothpaste in the sink.
The typical shower is 101 degrees F.
Nearly 1/3 of U.S. women color their hair.
9% of women and 8% of men have had cosmetic surgery.
53% of women will not leave the house without makeup on.
58% of women paint their nails regularly.
62% of us pop our zits.
33% of women lie about their weight.
10% of us claim to have seen a ghost.
57% have had deja vu.
49% believe in ESP.
44% have broken a bone.
Only 30% of us know our cholesterol level.
14% have attended a self-help meeting.
15% regularly go to a shrink.
78% would rather die quickly than live in a retirement home.
46.5% of men say they ALWAYS put the seat down after they've used the toilet, yet women claim to ALWAYS find it up.
30% of us refuse to sit on a public toilet seat.
54.2% of us always wash our hands after using the toilet.
23.5% admit they don't always flush.
55.2% will let someone else come in the bathroom while they're using the toilet.
39% of us peek in our host's bathroom cabinet. 17% have been caught by the host.
81.3% would tell an acquaintance to zip his pants.
29% of us ignore RSVP.
71.6% of us eavesdrop.
22% are functionally illiterate.
The average bra size today is 36C whereas 10 years ago it was a 34B.
85% of women wear the wrong bra size.
Less than 10% are trilingual.
37% claim to know how to use all the features on their VCR.
53% prefer ATM machines over tellers.
56% of women do the bills in a marriage.
2 out of 3 of us wouldn't give up our spouse even for a night for a million bucks.
20% of us have played in a band at one time in our life.
40% of us have had music lessons.
44% reuse tinfoil.
57% save pretty gift paper to reuse.
66% of women and 59% of men have used a mix to cook and taken credit for doing it from scratch.
53% read their horoscopes regularly.
16% of us have forgotten our own wedding anniversary (mostly men).
59% of us say we're average-looking.
90% of us depend on alarm clocks to wake us.
53% of us would take advice from Ann Landers.
51% of adults dress up for a Halloween festivity.
On average, we send 38 Christmas cards every year.
20% of women consider their parents to be their best friends.
2 out of 5 have married their first love.
The biggest cause of matrimonial fighting is money.
Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.
1 in 5 men proposed on his knees.
6% proposed over the phone.
71% can drive a stick-shift car.
45% of us consistently follow the speed limit.
2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light.
1/3 of us don't wear seat belts.
12% of men never use their car blinkers.
56% of women never use their car blinkers.
44% of men tailgate to speed up the person in front of them.
4 out of 5 sing in the car.

True or false?

Who is Anne Landers?

Dear Abby's sister. :-) :-)

I am officially calling shenanigans. The literacy rate in the US, defined as the percentage of people over the age of 15 that can read and write, is 99%.





I think that is true, though...

Shaun

Grumps, you aren't helping!!
Sounds like a busybody know it all? Old and crotchety, with a blue perm...

Anne Landers really is (was) Dear Abby's (Abby Van Buren) identical twin sister.

Shaun

33% of women lie about their weight. ?????

seems a bit Low???

Thanks Shaun, but until they bring their show on the road Down Under, I won't know 'em! :-)

There is a difference between functional illitteracy and being
able to read. Functional litteracy requires being able to read
but also, and most importantly, being able to understand what
you have read.

Some info here, scroll down to part 2:
http://www.eaea.org/index.php?k=12075

and here, more to the point:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_6_27/ai_54823704

It's a problem in most developed countries so the US isn't
unique in this respect.
/ Robin




Brag-warning-start:
functionally litterate in four languages ;-) not counting a
couple of computer programming languages
Brag-warning-end;

I'm sure there is an "Down Under" version
Miss Manners or something like that.

"My boyfriend is sleeping with my dog, what should I do?" type of nincompoop advice column.

I believe both are dead now, so we actually have placebo Ann and Abby.

So, I guess I was wrong. According to UN I am illiterate because I can never get MS Excel to sort my data right the first time...

Shaun

LOL sometimes you need a damn Degree to get Excel to work right.....
(swearing as I input data into one now)

From John Prine:

Dear Abby, Dear Abby ...
My feet are too long
My hair's falling out and my rights are all wrong
My friends they all tell me that I've no friends at all
Won't you write me a letter, Won't you give me a call
Signed Bewildered

Bewildered, Bewildered...

Chorus:
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain't what you ain't
So listen up Buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood

Dear Abby, Dear Abby...
My fountain pen leaks
My wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks
Every side I get up on is the wrong side of bed
If it weren't so expensive I'd wish I were dead
Signed Unhappy

Unhappy, Unhappy...

Repeat Chorus

Dear Abby, Dear Abby...
You won't believe this
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss
My girlfriend tells me It's all in my head
But my stomach tells me to write you instead
Signed Noise-maker

Noise-maker, Noise-maker

Repeat Chorus

Dear Abby, Dear Abby...
Well I never thought
That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught
We were sitting in the back seat just shooting the breeze
With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees
Signed Just Married

Just Married, Just Married...

Repeat Chorus

Illiteracy, it comes in many forms. There are probably a high percentage who can read & write and function in America. I know I've run into a good number who can function on a day to day basis, but could not write complete sentences that are grammatically correct and relatively free of spelling errors, excluding typos.

67% of Internet Users believe everything they see in print. :-)

This list is so obviously MADE UP and by someone who is obviously NOT an American. "3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations." Puleezz.... if we were 75% that anal more than 21% would make our bed everyday.

Jim

Concur. I find Sabot's "good number" to be terribly high. I fear it may even include me--thank goodness for spell check!! It does, IMHO, even include a couple of teachers I know. A teacher I work with at a hobby shop (he is not one of the aforementioned) won a state Teacher of the Year last year. The stories they tell about the students and some faculty makes me prefer that an asteroid will slam into the earth before I have to trust my retired care to these following generations.

Be afraid, be very afraid...

95% of £5 notes have been in contact with cocaine.

If you buy a lottery ticket at 7pm on Saturday, you are more likely to die in the hour before the draw than you are to win.

No word in the English language rhymes with the word unicorn.

The easiest way to become a millionaire is to convert £4 sterling into Turkish Lire.

The Guiness Book of Records lists 'The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' as the hardset tongue twister.

The most dangerous part of a plane journey from the UK to Australia is the drive to the airport.

An average of four people a year in Britain are killed by writing instruments.

Three serious accidents a year in Britain can be attributed to pencil sharpeners.

Last year, 43 British adults died in their bathtubs.

27 million porn mags are sold in the UK each year.

Britons eat on average 2.2 curries a week - spending £2.8 billion every year.

Lambeth council in south London owes £850 million (as of 1999) - this is more than the national debt of Guatemala.

During December 1998, Barclays Bank's cash machines in the UK dispensed a total of £1.24 billion in notes.

The average British motorist is overcharged by 50p a year for their petrol due to faulty pumps.

Accidents in the UK home for 1996: 343 injured putting on their socks; 112 hurt reading a newspaper; 41 hospitalised by marbles; 34 hurt by cardboard; 12 hosipitalised by paperclips; 11 accidents involving bathroom scales; 6 hurt using talcom powder; 2 hurt by tea cosys.

In 1870, British boxing champ Jim Mace and an American challenger fought for almost 4 hours without landing a single punch!

On 3rd March 1991, the Queen needed 3 stitches in one of her fingers after she tried to break up a fight between two of her corgies.

During World War 2, the British Minister of food considered a plan to feed the population with black pudding - secretly made from surplus human blood bank donations. The idea was thankfully rejected.

In the last 10 years, 8 people in Britain have been killed by cows.

During the 1978 fireman strike an army unit rescued an old lady's cat from a tree and then run over it as they drove away.

50% of male Internet users in Britain have viewed pornography on the Internet.

On average, in the UK per year:

488 people are injured by zips;
3,078 people are injured by slippers;
315 people are injured by photo frames;
and 70,000 are injured by dogs.

If every credit card in Britain was laid end to end they would stretch from London to Istanbul. (As of November 2001).


Still trying find something about us Swedes, me being one.....*laughs*

For all of the above I refer to the following.

Shaun, youre forgetting about all the illegal Mexicans here. Id say they are the other 21% LOL There was a road check in Vineland NJ two weeks ago, and they were checking for propper ID more then anything else. The cops arrested 547 illegal aliens in one day! They all said "NO speaky English" until the cops said "Youre going to jail" Then they mostly replied "How come?" LOL

Actually any word ending in 'o.r.n.' i.e. born, worn would rhyme, whereas IIRC orange, purple, silver and month cannot be rhymed.


Trivia for the Lottery:

You have a better chance of being struck by lightning whilst in a submarine than winning the top jackpot.

Jim, more likely 70% of people believe everything they see in print (not sure if this includes the "22% are functionally illiterate"). :-) :-) :-)

Jan,

You live in Scotland (God's chosen country) therefore Swede=Turnip both are fed to cattle and are nicknames for failing English football managers :-) :-)

THIS IS A JOKE BY THE WAY.

Craig

Nae worries mate. I'm called Janice at work, so......
:-) :-) :-) :-)

Thanks Al a timely reminder to get out my John Prine CDs.

Can I add that 99% of statistics are made up on the spot :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)




:( and A real statistic from a survey done in Ireland some years ago states that 25% of the adult population is functionally illiterate. I work as a volunteer literacy tutor and my personal observation is that that statistic is probably true. Schools, at least here, don't provide an education they provide students with a mininum of facts needed to gain a qualification to become part of the workforce

But this is not why Jan started this thread

I can also add that statistics are like a Bikini. What they reveal is interesting, what they conceal is vital.

:-)