Trivia

That article of furniture known as the “dresser” was first made for the kitchen.

A herd of 2,000 walruses is not extraordinary. Such herds have been the natural pattern. It’s normal for each walrus to eat 3,000 clams a day. What’s baffling is - please ask your family’s sea sage - why are there any clams left.

Q. Does my blood pressure go down when I sleep?

A. Doctors say so. If it’s a normal 120/80 awake, expect a normal 100/60 when asleep.

Disney World in 1971 drew 10,000 people in a foreshortened year - don’t give up - and now it draws 10,000 people an hour.

Q. What did Beethoven say on his deathbed?

A. In translation: “Applaud, friends. The comedy is over.”

Q. How long does it take a plucked hair to grow back out?

A. About a month.

Q. Why is it that men are six times more likely than women to be hit by lightning?

A. They’re six times more likely than women to be outdoors when they’d be better off indoors.

It was none other than Blaise Pascal who said, “The last thing one discovers in writing a book is what to put first.”

Remarked Mark Twain: “It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing. I used to be a good boy.”

One real estate operator with numerous vacant lots for sale advertises Sunday tours of properties as “The Greatest Earth on Show.”

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck …? A certain furry animal has sickle-shaped claws and hangs upside down in subtropical trees. So what species is it? No, the aforementioned sickle-clawed upside-down hanger is a bear that so much resembles a sloth it’s called a sloth bear. You thought I was going to say it’s a duck, didn’t you?

Backyard pit chefs of considerable experience say the hardest thing to grill perfectly every time is barbecued chicken.

In Denver, I’m told, is an eatery called “Mustard’s Last Stand.”

John Travolta received his pilot’s license at age 16.

Q. What company sells the most cellular phones?

A. Motorola, in this country, 32 percent, according to the market researchers. Nokia, 15 percent. Adiovox, OKI and NEC, each 11 percent.

Q. What’s a “bedstick”?

A. A smooth dowel about 3 feet long once used to level covers when making up high wide beds. You see such in antique shops.