Percentage of self-employed workers (from small-business owners and consultants to fishing guides and freelance writers, private contractors, artists and construction workers) who say they are "completely satisfied" with their jobs, (compared with 28 percent of all wage or salaried employees), according to a survey by the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends project: 39

Percentage of all workers who are their own bosses who say they are dissatisfied with their employment situation, half the proportion of other workers who are dissatisfied: 5

COUPON CLIPPING

Savings achieved by consumers using packaged goods coupons last year, according to The Promotion Marketing Association Coupon Council: $3 billion

Estimated number of dollars worth of packaged goods coupons that are offered annually: $400 billion

IT'S A DATE

When on a first date, percentage of respondents who say they will decide in just a half hour whether they will see the other person again, according to a survey conducted jointly by American Way, the in-flight magazine of American Airlines and by specialty dating service It's Just Lunch: 66

Percentage who say they make the decision in the first five minutes: 16

PROBLEM SOLVER

Percentage of Americans who think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, according to a Gallup Poll: 57

Percentage who think that government should do more to solve our country's problems: 38

MULTILINGUAL

Number of school-age children (ages 5 to 17) in the U.S. who speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 10.9 million

Number of those children who speak Spanish at home: 7.9 million

HELPING OTHERS

Percentage of all participating food banks that reported a significant surge in demand for emergency food assistance over the past year, according to a survey by Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger relief charity: 99

Percentage of food banks that report that the increase is particularly driven by first-time users of the food assistance system: 98

Percentage of food banks that reported that they are seeing more children as clients: 56

Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre@bwr.eastlink.ca