Projected percentage drop in Mother's Day sales this year, according to industry research firm IBISWorld: 14.7%

Amount this represents: $12.9 billion

OVERWONKED

Annual cost to the U.S. economy in lower productivity and throttled innovation from information overload in organizations, according to Basex: $900 billion

YOU GOT FILTERED

If you address e-mail to an executive, chance that your message will be intercepted by an administrative professional who screens, deletes and ghostwrites the boss' e-mail, according to a survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and The ePolicy Institute: 59%

Percentage of administrative professionals who now ghostwrite responses under their executives' names: 59%

FAIRLY TAXED

Percentage of Americans who say lower-income people are paying their "fair share" of federal taxes, according to a Gallup Poll: 41% (up from 32% last year)

Percentage of Americans who say middle-income people pay their fair share of taxes: 50% (same in six of the past seven years)

Percentage who say upper-income taxpayers pay their fair share: 23%

CLUELESS ON CREDIT

Percentage of Americans who do not know the current average interest rate on a credit card, according to http://www.TrueCredit.com Financial Literacy Quiz: 84%

Percentage of consumers who admitted they are not aware of exactly what information is in their credit report, and mistakenly believe that a credit score is included in the report: 90%

MAKING MARRY

Percentage of grooms who do the proposing, according to http://www.about.com: 99%

Percentage of proposals that occur in December: 15%

Average length of an American engagement: 14 months

Average amount spent on a traditional-style American wedding: $28,082

IN TRANSIT

Number of gallons of gasoline saved each year by using public transit, according to http://www.PublicTransportation.org: 1.4 billion

Estimated number of gallons of gasoline saved per day: 4 million

On average, percentage less oil consumed by a public transit rider as opposed to an automobile rider: 50%

LIPSTICK POOR

Percentage of women who said they feel forced to give up the small things that make them happy when money is tight, according to a survey done for Degree Women Fine Fragrance Collection: 63%

Percentage who said they would find it hard to give up chocolate: 40%

Percentage who would give up their sweet treats to be able to afford their favorite beauty products: 56%

SIZZLING CATFISH

Year that the people in Paris, Tenn., inaugurated their town's claim to fame as annual host of the world's biggest fish fry (100,000 people consume about 10,000 pounds of catfish and several tons of hush puppies, and attend a carnival, a rodeo, parades and even catfish races), according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1953

Estimated number of farm-raised catfish produced each year: 550 million

AID TO BIG FARMS

Percentage of U.S. farm subsidies that go to large farming businesses, according to a http://www.WorldPublicOpinion.org poll: 80%

Percentage of Americans who favor such subsidies: 36%

Percentage who oppose them: 61%

IDLE THOUGHT

"It is not how old you are, but how you are old."

— Jules Renard, writer

Contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre@bwr.eastlink.ca.