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Fathers Day Fast Facts
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US Census Bureau: The idea of Father’s Day was conceived by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm.
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66.3 million Estimated number of - fathers across the nation today. (From unpublished data.)
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Nearly 95 million - The estimated number of Father’s Day cards given last year in the United States, making Father’s Day the fourth-largest card-sending occasion. (Source: Hallmark research)
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50% - Percentage of all Father’s Day cards that are purchased specifically by sons and/or daughters. Nearly 20 percent of Father’s Day cards are purchased by wives for their husbands; the remaining cards are bought for grandfathers, sons, brothers, uncles and “someone special.” (Source: Hallmark research)
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72% - Percentage of Americans who plan to celebrate or acknowledge Father’s Day. (Source: Hallmark research and National Retail Federation.)
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9,189 - Neckties lead the list of Father’s Day gifts. A good place to buy dad a tie or a shirt might be one of 9,189 men’s clothing stores around the country in 2003.
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Click on title to read more Father's Day statistics
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Date: 6/10/2006
Newsweek follows up on its 20 year old report on single women and their chances for marriage
| Twenty years since Newsweek's infamous 'terrorist' line, states of unions aren't what we predicted they'd be. |
20 years ago: In "The Marriage Crunch," the magazine reported on new demographic research predicting that white, college-educated women who failed to marry in their 20s faced abysmal odds of ever tying the knot.
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According to the research, a woman who remained single at 30 had only a 20 percent chance of ever marrying. By 35, the probability dropped to 5 percent.
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In the story's most infamous line, NEWSWEEK reported that a 40-year-old single woman was "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than to ever marry. That comparison wasn't in the study, and even in those pre-9/11 days, it struck many people as an offensive analogy. Nonetheless, it quickly became entrenched in pop culture and is still routinely cited in TV shows and news stories.
...Twenty years later, the situation looks far brighter.
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Those odds-she'll-marry statistics turned out to be too pessimistic: today it appears that about 90 percent of baby-boomer men and women either have married or will marry, a ratio that's well in line with historical averages.
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And the days when half of all women would marry by 20, as they did in 1960, only look more anachronistic.
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At least 14 percent of women born between 1955 and 1964 married after the age of 30.
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Today the median age for a first marriage—25 for women, 27 for men—is higher than ever before.
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Date: 6/6/2006
The Gilded Age of Home Schooling
nytimes.com--In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.
Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles.
Lisa Mazzoni's family splits its time between Marina del Rey, Calif., and Delray Beach, Fla. Lisa has her algebra and history lessons delivered poolside sometimes or on her condominium's rooftop, where she and her teacher enjoy the sun and have a view of the Pacific Ocean south of Santa Monica.
"For someone who travels a lot or has a parent who travels and wants to keep the family together, it's an excellent choice," said Lisa's mother, Trish Mazzoni, who with her husband owns a speedboat company.
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Date: 6/5/2006
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