Trivia

Many societies have honored overweight people with special respect - and every such society has had a history of famine.

Q. What European city was it that operated a brothel, owned by the city itself and managed by a salaried city councilman?

A. Many cities did that 500 years ago. They also set the price of admission, always quite low, and regulated minimum age, usually age 12. This, according to British historical footnotes.

Oddsmakers calculate everything. Chances are one in 19 you’ve got red hair.

Q. How long have people been referring to the mystery story as a “whodunit”?

A. Since 1930, at least. That’s when it first showed up in print. One D. Gordon used the term in “American News of Books.”

Q. One state has more vehicles per square mile, more miles of highway per square mile, and more cars per mile of highway than any other state. Name it.

A. New Jersey.

Q. How many islands make up Venice?

A. About 120.

In the Nahuatl of the Aztecs, it was “chilli.” Spaniards changed it to “chile.” Americans wrote it “chili.” What they were talking about, Tex, was “a bowl of red.”