Category — Chris Messick

:: Thanksgiving dinners served by St. Lauren’s shelter in 2005: 351

:: Thanksgiving dinners served by the Oak Room at the Ritz-Carlton in 2005: 138

:: Where both establishments have purchased their turkeys for the last 85 years: DiNardi’s Meats

:: Number of lights used in the Mabel Tripp Gardens annual Festival of Lights holiday event: 2.5 million

:: Total hours the lights will be lit November 19 - January 1, 6 pm to midnight: 258

:: Volunteer hours needed to hang the lights: 1200 (50 volunteers x 3 eight hour workdays)

:: Number of people who have portrayed Santa Claus in the city’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade: 8

:: Number of these who actually claimed that they were, in fact, the real Santa Claus: 2

:: Number of women who have portrayed Santa in the parade: 1, longtime New York city councilwoman, Bella Abzug, in 1977, promoting a traveling exhibit of her hats at the Ragnot Museum of Art.

:: Number of calls in 2005 to the Community College home ec department’s “Thanksgiving Emergency Help-Line”: 22

:: Only subject in the city school system officially referred to by a British name: Maths
- R. White, C. Messick, L. Dinkins-White

:: Number of formal complaints about electronic voting machines in Tuesday’s election: 435

:: Number of these complaints which came from districts actually using electronic voting machines in Tuesday’s election: 428

:: City’s Oldest Library: The Mechanics Association Private Membership Library, Halpern between 5th and 6th (est. 1842)

:: Current Mechanics Library cardholders: 1,459 (down from 5,342 in 1866, up from 471 in 1983)

:: Current Public Library cardholders: 402,173

::Mechanics Library annual circulation: 6,829 books and magazines

:: Public library annual circulation (system wide): 14,344,449 books, magazines, audio books, DVDs, filmstrips, etc.

:: Number of Orange Julius stands downtown when the company was bought by Dairy Queen in 1999: 3

:: Number of Orange Julius stands currently operating downtown: 0

:: Number of former Orange Julius stands which currently operate under a different name, yet offer a chilled, creamy orange-flavored beverage as their signature drink: 1 (the California Sunshine Orange Bar on 7th)

:: New balloons announced this week for the city’s annual Thanksgiving parade: 2, Kermit the Frog and Charlie Brown

:: Balloons which were announced to be ‘retired’ this week from Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York: 2, Kermit the Frog and Charlie Brown

:: Grand total of balloons in the city’s annual Thanksgiving parade, including the new ones: 3, Kermit the Frog, Charlie Brown and the dog from For Better of For Worse who died a few years ago
- R. White, C. Messick