E-Mail This Article to a Friend QUOTES + NUMBERS Gas money or school money?

$2.65

Average price per gallon of regular gasoline in Massachusetts for the week of October 19–25, up 65 cents from the same week last year, and 99 cents from the same week in 2003

$2.50

Average price per gallon of home heating oil, up 43 cents from the same week last year, and $1.18 from the same week in 2003

$100 billion

Revenue earned by ExxonMobil in the third quarter, the highest ever posted by a US corporation in a single quarter — $10 billion of which was profit

$33 billion

Combined third-quarter profits of the world’s biggest oil companies — ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and ChevronTexaco

Tell someone who cares:

Who should the Red Sox hire as their next GM?

1) Dan Shaughnessy

2) Larry Lucchino

3) That guy at Fenway who sprints from the bullpen to the dugout with the relief pitcher’s jacket

Last week’s results:

Which is the scariest costume to wear this Halloween?

Dick Cheney 53%

Harriet Miers 20%

Judith Miller 9%

A parrot with a British accent 18%

"We even had a beer called Santa’s Butt last year. They didn’t notice Santa’s Butt, but they notice this one?"

Dan Shelton, of Massachusetts-based Shelton Brothers Distributors, on Connecticut lawmakers trying to ban a British import beer called "Seriously Bad Elf" because they claim it would appeal to kids. The Beers "Bad Elf" and "Very Bad Elf" have previously been sold in more than 30 states without incident.

8.25%

The new interest cap, up from 6.8%, on federally subsidized student loans passed last week by the Republican-led House Education Committee, which will go to a floor vote next week as part of a larger budget-reconciliation package

$5800

The extra amount you could spend paying back your current four-year student loan thanks to the new interest cap

$14.5 billion

Amount the House Education Committee cut — the largest ever — from student-aid programs in the Education Department budget