STYLE YOURSELF

Percentage of Americans who agree that personal style has more to do with being comfortable in your own skin than about dressing to impress, according to a survey by Old Spice: 66%

OLD IS RELATIVE

Age at which Americans ages 18 to 29 believe that the average person becomes "old," according to a Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey on aging: 60

Age at which middle-aged respondents put this threshold: 70

Age that respondents ages 65 and above call "old": 74

CHA-CHING STARS

Ranks of Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks as the most bankable male stars, according to the Ulmer Scale: 1, 2, 3, 4

MORE LONELY

Percentage of Americans who say there is more loneliness in today's society than there used to be, according to research by Kodak: 67%

Percentage who feel it is easier to connect with friends and family today than it was five years ago (a result of e-mail, texting and social networks): 80%

WAGELESS TEENS

Current teen unemployment rate, according to Employment Policies Institute: 24%

Percentage increase from earlier this summer: 12%

For every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, the associated percentage decline in teenage employment in small businesses, according to research from the University of Georgia: 4.6% to 9%

TIGHTWADS R US

Percentage of Americans who are cutting back on their spending, according to a Gallup Poll: 71%

Percentage of Americans who say they have enough money to satisfy their basic needs: 78%

BIKINI BOMBSHELL

Year that designer Louis Reard had his models display a skimpy, two-piece bathing suit named for a Pacific atoll where atomic bombs were tested, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1946

Number of women's clothing stores that now carry the bikini, once viewed as scandalous and expected to be a short-lived fad: 47,000 (sales now more than $31 billion a year)

IDLE THOUGHT

"We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice — that is, until we have stopped saying, 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.' "

— Sydney J. Harris, journalist