The Remote Island by Bryan Christian The burning question of the day: Life on Mars or Eleventh Hour? Plus: Britney goes on the record, USA may not renew Monk, and our Grey's Anatomy recap.
Year in which David T. Abercrombie Co. was founded in New York City by trapper, prospector, topographer and railroad surveyor David Abercrombie: 1892
Year in which lawyer and devoted customer Ezra Fitch persuaded Abercrombie to take him on as a partner: 1900
Year in which the first Abercrombie & Fitch catalog was sent out: 1909
Number of catalogs distributed: 50,000
Number of pages in the first issue (hereafter: A&F 1909): 456
Circulation of the summer, 2002 issue of A&F Quarterly (hereafter: A&F 2002): 200,000
Number of pages in A&F 2002: 280
Cost to consumer for A&F 1909: $0
Cost for A&F 2002: $6
Number of nude or partially nude models pictured in 456 pages of A&F 1909: 0
Approximate number of nude or partially nude models pictured in the first 119 pages of A&F 2002 (including cover): 49
Approximate number of exposed breasts pictured in A&F 2002: 54
Cost to consumer, per exposed breast, for A&F 2002: $0.11
Age of college students at which A&F 2002 is targeted, according to A&F spokesman Hampton Carney: 18-22
Number of textbooks featured in A&F 2002: 1 (Accounting Concepts and Applications)
Number of exposed breasts on the model who is ostensibly studying said textbook: 2
Number of columns in A&F 1909 offering advice on what to do when lost in the woods: 1
Number of columns in A&F 2002 offering advice on how to get "this chick I banged last summer" to return phone calls: 1
Approximate number of copies sold of LFO's 1999 hit single, "Summer Girls," featuring the
refrain "I like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch": 1,000,000
Approximate number of girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch in A&F 2002: 65
Approximate number of girls who do not wear anything at all: 40
Number of pages in A&F 2002 which feature, inexplicably, a pirate theme: 20
Number of those pages which do not appear to feature any Abercrombie & Fitch products at all, unless Abercrombie & Fitch is selling tri-corner pirate hats this year, which God knows they just might be: 12
Year in which the American Decency Association ("Encouraging Christians to Guard Their Hearts") first called for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch because of "campaigns that celebrate the pulchritude and pleasures of youth": 2001
Words in the ADA's press release calling for said boycott: 1,015
Number of appearances in said press release of variations on the phrases "nude,""bare breasts,""rear nudity,""seductive pose,""groin," and "sexual intercourse": 90
Number of references to lesbianism in the ADA's press release: 2
Number of references to group sex: 1
Number of references to bondage: 1
Number of references to bestiality: 1
Number of donkeys featured in A&F 2002: 7
Number of pigs: 1
Number of gorillas: 3
Number of sea monsters: 3
Approximate number of exposed asses, either male or female, in the first 119 pages of A&F 2002: 21
Approximate number if you include the donkeys: 28
Year in which Abercrombie & Fitch began publishing A&F Quarterly as a publication separate from its traditional catalog: 1997
Approximate net sales for Abercrombie & Fitch in 1997: $513 million
Approximate net sales for Abercrombie & Fitch in 2001: $1.365 billion
Percent increase: 166
Number of pages in A&F 2002 which feature actual Abercrombie & Fitch products, with descriptions, sizes and prices: 104
Number of pages in A&F 2002 which do not:176
Number of pages in which the only identifiable merchandise is a large-frond palm tree, as modeled by an otherwise naked blonde woman: 1
Number of palm trees offered for sale in A&F 2002: 0
, featuring curious yet marvelous infusions of cucumber and rose petal.
