Trivia

Q. What’s the most popular love song of all time?

A. “As Time Goes By” merits that distinction, if sales are the measure. No. 2, “When a Man Loves a Woman.” No. 3, “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

Could be you, too, have pushed a pinball machine this way or that way with some intent. There’s a name for such a nudge. It’s “gunch.”

Q. New Englanders reportedly prefer brown eggs to white. Why?

A. Because Rhode Island Reds lay brown eggs. They were first bred in Little Compton, R.I., in 1824, and locals asked for them, expecting them to be fresher than white eggs shipped in. The preference spread regionally even after the reason was no longer valid.

Ponce de Leon thought Florida was an island. And he didn’t get his fountain-of-youth notion right, either.

Clearly, more people want to be calmed down than pepped up. Pill counters say downers outsell uppers by about 4-to-1.

Earth’s rotation is what makes hurricanes spin.

Q. Didn’t it used to be against the law in this country to make men’s suits with patch pockets?

A. In effect. A 1942 federal decree ruled out pleats and cuffs, too. To conserve cloth and time in the war effort.

Ermes Effron Borgnine goes by Ernest.

Q. Why was the sperm whale so called?

A. Its head contains about 500 gallons of the world’s purest oil. Early sailors didn’t know much about the body fluids of the big beast, so in naming it took a guess.

The city hiker who occasionally ventures into the wild woods knows bears leave claw marks on trees. The rural tracker who occasionally ventures into town knows a set of four marks means black bear, a set of five, grizzly.

Your town’s streets will glitter if you mix recycled ground glass in the paving mix. New York City does that.

Q. Isn’t Kris Kristofferson an airplane pilot?

A. Quite so. Made his living at it for a while back when.