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Average number
of lines in the Harper's Index
: 40
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Percentage
change between the first Harper's Index, published in
1984,
and the current Harper's Index, in the average number
of words per line
: +75
|
|
Ratio of the
size of a line-stopping colon in a 1984 Harper's Index
to that in a 2000 Index : 2:1
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|
Longest number
ever to appear in the Harper's Index : 363,000,000,000,000,000
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|
Most negative
number
: -39,700,000,000
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|
Smallest non-negative
integer
: 0
|
|
Percentage
of issues of Harper's Magazine published in the last 150
years that include the Harper's Index
: 10.7
|
|
Number of syllables
in the word "sesquicentennial"
: 6
|
|
Number in "150th"
if you say "one hundred" but not "and"
: 6
|
|
Number of words
devoted to "thirtysomething" in the February
1989 Harper's Index
: 11
|
|
Ratio of the
number of lines in the March 1987 Harper's Index to that
in December 1995
: 1:1
|
|
Ratio of May
1991 to August 1984
: 1:1
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|
Ratio of January
2000 to February 1989
: 3:1
|
|
Number of lines
serving as a carefully cadenced lead-up to the counterintuitive
statistic above
: 2
|
|
Number of book
compilations of the Harper's Index published since its
inception
: 2
|
|
Number of documentaries
released, since 1987, entitled "Inside the Harper's
Index"
: 0
|
|
Number released
entitled "Down for the Count"
: 0
|
|
Number released
entitled "You Can Count On Us"
: 0
|
Percentage
of October Harper's Indexes between 1992 and 1997 that
juxtapose
statistics about costumes, pumpkins or vampires with statistics
about non-Halloween topics for comic effect
: 100
|
|
Average number
of Harper's Indexes annually that, visually, on the page,
when you look at them, are top-heavy
: 4
|
|
Average number
annually that, visually, on the page, when you look at
them, are middle-heavy, or "fat-tummied"
: 3
|
|
Average number
annually that look like a beauuuuuutiful woman
: 1
|
|
Number of times
Paul Loeb of Seattle used the construction "I suggest"
in his letter to the editor about a September 1992 Index
statistic
: 2
|
|
Percentage
of statistics in the Harper's Index that are verified
using primary sources
: 100
|
|
Average percentage
that are leftovers from a previous month's research
: 20
|
|
Months after
its inception that the Harper's Index began listing its
sources
: 11
|
|
Months after
the French Revolution that the Harper's Index began listing
its sources
: 2,336
|
|
Total price
of various wacky souvenir items listed in the January
1999 Index
: $8,000
|
|
Phone number
of the home of the Harper's Index, cleverly hidden within
a ratio to preserve privacy
: 6,146,500:1
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|
Average length
of two Harper's Indexes laid end to end, in Harper's Indexes
: 2
|
|
Percentage
of 1993 Harper's Indexes that demonstrate either that
U.S. health care policy is a crock of shit or that Japanese
people are pathologically selfless workaholics
: 100
|
|
Number of children
in 1987 trapped in a well and in the Harper's Index, respectively
: 1,
0
|
|
Rank of the
Harper's Index, regardless of whatever
: 1
|
|
|
Figures
cited have been typed into a computer and then converted
into a series of zeroes and ones, which your computer
then turns into the language we know as "English
numbers," and are the latest available as of June
2000. "Harper's Index Index" is a redundant
trademark.
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