Numbers

By David Bjerklie, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, Michele Orecklin, David Spitz, Flora Tartakovsky and Chris Taylor

15% Increase in the amount given by the average taxpayer to the IRS this year, to $1,563

4% Increase in the number of refunds given last year

20% Decrease in the number of audits

15 min. 44 sec. Duration of commercials in the average hour of prime-time television in 1998, up 25 sec. from 1997

19 min. 13 sec. Duration of commercials per hour of ABC's sitcom Sports Night, a prime-time record

21 min. Duration of commercials per hour of ABC's daytime soap All My Children

44th Position at which the National Review placed owner William F. Buckley's God & Man at Yale on a list of the century's 100 best nonfiction books

45th Position at which the magazine placed Selected Essays by T.S. Eliot

1 Number of American authors with books in the Top 10

Sources: IRS, AP, Washington Post, American Association of Advertising Agencies, National Review