$36.78

$36.78 - Average cost of ingredients needed to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal — including turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and trimmings — for 10 people.

Tags: interesting trivia, Thanksgiving

54 - 91 - 214 - 91 - 45

54 - Percent increase in long-distance travel over Thanksgiving, compared with the rest of the year.

91 - Percentage of these trips taken by car.

214 - Average number of miles per trip.

91 - Percentage of kids ages 5 to 13 who say they enjoy family trips because of the extra time they have with their parents.

45 - Percentage who won’t go without an MP3 player.

Source: Health, November, 2006

Tags: Thanksgiving, interesting trivia, travel

400 million - 20 - 206

400 million - Pounds of cranberries that Americans eat each year.

20 - Percent of those eaten during Thanksgiving week.

206 - Approximate number of cranberries used in a 6-ounce glass of fresh cranberry juice.

Source: Health, November, 2006

Tags: Thanksgiving, cranberries, interesting trivia

90 - 60 - 45 or Walk Your Freakin’ Dog Yourself!

90 - Percentage of people who consider their pet dog or cat to be a family member.

60 - Percentage of pets that are overweight.

45 - Percent of owners of overweight pets who say their pet is in “ideal” shape.

Source: Health, Nov. 2006.

You mean there are people who don’t think that their pets aren’t part of the family?

Of course, now I’m wondering when the t.v. shows for helping your pets lose weight are going to start on Animal Planet. I mean, you can already buy doggy treadmills — People, just walk your dogs! Get outside! It’s good for you too! This is just plain ridiculous and absurd! Talk about your lazy human syndrome! Walk your dog outside. If you don’t have time or can’t make the effort, you don’t deserve the dog.

Tags: interesting trivia, pets, dog treadmill

Thursday Thirteen Things To Worry About (#13)

I’m a worry-wart. I worry about all kinds of things and I can’t turn it off. I worry about whether or not my cats hate me. I worry about whether or not my co-workers are talking about me. I worry about whether or not the world is going to blow up today or if my house is going to burn down or if my headache means I’m getting a brain tumor.

I’m in therapy. At least I’m trying to get a grip, but it turns out that there are a lot of people who worry about a lot of things out there. Some things are worried about far more than they need to be and some things aren’t worried about enough. That’s what this week’s theme is.

Thirteen Things about N. Mallory

1. Don’t worry so much about getting a brain tumor. Apparently there’s less than a 1% chance that you’ll develop a cancer originating in your brain. If you must worry about cancer, worry about lung cancer; it’s the leading cancer killer of women. (Check out cancer.gov)
2. Don’t worry so much about being in a plane crash. As big a deal as I make of it here, the fact is that as few as 18 people died for every 41.7 million who flew on U.S. air carriers last year. The truth is that most people’s fear of flying stems from a fear of lack of control (like mine). The odds of you dying in an automobile accident are one in 237 over your lifetime, compared with one in 1.25 million over your lifetime for a commercial plane crash, according to the National Safety Council in Itasca, Illinois.
3. Don’t worry so much about having a miscarriage. One out of five pregnancies that is confirmed in a doctor’s office ends in miscarriage. Most miscarriages occur because of chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus and not because of something the mother ate, drank, or did.
4. Don’t worry so much about having bad breath. Only about one in seven people suffers from chronic halitosis. You wouldn’t know it from the gum, mint and breath freshener advertisers. Apparently the advertisers are winning because up to 1/3rd of the patients who see their doctor about chronic bad breath don’t have it.
5. Worry a little about being in a car crash. Motor vehicle accidents are the number-one cause of accidental death for women and the number-one killer of women under the age of 35. (whew! Just missed me!) Each year, 40,000 Americans die on the road. In fact, fear of vehicular death is unbelievably low in this country because Americans are familiar with cars and think they’re “in control” — so “in control” that one in five Americans still don’t wear a seat belt.
6. Worry a little about becoming disabled. One third of all Americans between 35 and 65 will become disabled for more than 90 days, according to the American Council of Life Insurers in Washington, D.C. A 20-year-old worker’s chances of becoming disabled are approximately twice as great as her chances of dying before retirement age, yet only 28 percent participate in group long-term benefits. (My mother was surprised to learn that I always carry both short-term and long-term insurance in case something happens to my hands or arms. Can’t imagine what a programmer would do without them.)
7. Worry a little about getting breast cancer. One in 13 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer (one in eight if their mom or sister has the disease). It is the second-leading cause of cancer death in U.S. women, after lung cancer. But 94% of new cases of breast cancer are in women age 40 or older. My grandmother and great-grandmother both had breast cancer. I’m not waiting for my mother. If breast cancer runs in your family, find a doctor who will begin regular mammograms as early as 30 or 35. (To learn more, go to BreastCancer.org)
8. Worry a little about contracting diabetes. Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in America. The death rate due to diabetes has increased by 45 percent since 1987, due to the rise in type 2, the kind traditionally developed later in life — only more and more kids are getting it now. It’s also the leading cause of blindness, amputation and dialysis, and increases a person’s risk for heart disease.
9. Worry a little about going blind. An estimated one in 200 Americans is legally blind. Sixty-seven percent of blind Americans are female, mostly because women live longer, but other factors, such as genetics, sex hormones, and lifestyle differences, may put women at increased risk.
10. Be very afraid of getting skin cancer. Cancer of the skin is the most common cancer. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer, including nonmelanoma cancers, which are more common and rarely fatal, and melanoma, which accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths. The rate of nonmelanoma cancers, including basal cell and squamous cell varieties, has nearly tripled in women under 40 in the past 30 years.
11. Be very afraid of contracting an STD. Your lifetime chance of getting an STD is greater than one in two. How scary is that? Made me cross my legs when I read it.
12. Be very afraid of having a heart attack. Two in five women will die from heart disease. And women are less likely to make a big deal about it while it’s happening.
13. Be very afraid of being in a fire. You have a one in 1,179 chance of dying in a fire from exposure to smoke or flames. Fires in homes caused 82% of fire deaths in 2004. Less than 1/4th of households have a tested escape plan, and almost a third think they’d have at least 6 minutes to escape. Most likely you’d only have two or three minutes. (For more information, go to NFPA.org) This one is particularly timely for me as I prepare to move into my first home with thoughts of my friend’s housefire on my mind. You can bet your wet-willies I’ll be making extra certain to fire-proof the house.

Source: Self, August, 2006.


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants Thanks to Denise for the Pug graphic!

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, meme, bloghopping, risks, accidents, health, cancer, fear, interesting trivia

19 comments See also in Interesting Trivia, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Thursday Thirteen, Memes

244 - 680 - 9 - 70

244 - Average percent markup between the actual cost of a hospital visit or stay and what the hospital bills for it.

680 - Average percent markup at the nation’s 100 most expensive hospitals.

9 - Percentage of people in the last year who negotiated with a hospital to get their bills lowered.

70 - Percentage of those who say it worked.

Source: Health, June, 2006.

Tags: interesting trivia, healthcare, hospital costs

Finally, A Reason To Sleep In, Mom!

My mom is one of those God-awful early-risers.  You know, those people who are awake before 5 am and have had breakfast, are dressed, and have read the paper and gotten started on the day by 7 am?  Those are my parents.

The battle to sleep in on Saturday mornings began the moment I turned pre-teen.  Or maybe it was when Saturday morning cartoons stopped being interesting.  I don’t know.  Either way, I always wanted to sleep until 10am or later.  My Mom thought sleeping past 7am was a crime against nature.

Even after I moved out, it was not unusual for her to call me at 8 am and act surprised that I was still in bed.

Now, with me being on the East Coast in the Eastern Time Zone and them being in the Mountain Time Zone.  It actually works out quite well.  I’ve actually called and woken them up a couple of time and had the pleasure of saying, “Oh, did I wake you?”

Anyway, it turns out that catching a few extra zzzz’s may actually help you stay slim.  According to a study of more than 68,000 women presented at the American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego this year, those who slept seven hours weighed 7 (seven) hours weighed 5.5 lbs less than women who slept 5 (five) hours or less.  Frequent all-nighters may slow your metabolism.

Talk about getting your beauty sleep!  From now on I’m going to tell my mom that I’m getting my skinny sleep.

(Source: Self, August 2006)

Tags: sleep, health, weight loss, wellness, interesting trivia

How Long Do You Have To Work To Earn A Big Mac?

According to today’s Parade magazine, the UBS Bank calculated how long it takes an average worker around the world to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. If you live in Tokyo, apparently you can have a Big Mac soonest.

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Tags: Big Mac, McDonalds, world economy, interesting trivia

71 - 1

71 - Percentage of people in a British study willing to trade their office-computer password for a candy bar

1 - Rank of Snickers bars among most popular vending-machine snacks

Source: Health, September, 2006

Tags: candy, interesting trivia

20 - 32 - 24.7 - 3

20 - Percentage of U.S. restaurant meals that were purchased from a car in 2005.

32 - Restaurant meals, per year, the average American actually consumes in the car.

24.7 - Minutes that the average American connutes to work each day.

3 - The increased risk of obesity that you incur for every 30 minutes you spend sitting in the car each day.

Source: Eating Well, October/November, 2006.

Tags: obesity, interesting trivia, eating out

52 - 28 - 21

52 - Percentage of Americans who can name at least two members of the cartoon Simpsons family.

28 - Percentage of Americans who can name at least two freedoms granted in the First Amendment.

21 - Percentage who believe the right to own a pet is one of them.

Source: Health, July/August, 2006.

Tags: First Amendement, The Simpsons, Freedoms, trivia