Trivia

Countless music makers in the Western world suddenly started playing harmonicas, accordions and concertinas in the 1820s. Soon, it so angered German environmentalists, who complained bitterly of noise pollution, that they burned thousands of those instruments in furious fires.

Among reptiles, the females grow bigger and live longer.

In the matter of automobiles, it has been said, women buy chassis, men buy engines. Maybe so. Our Love and War man points out, however, that has not been true traditionally of men and women in their consideration of each other, wherein the opposite has held: Men buy chassis, women buy engines.

An old proven sales method calls for the merchant to give something to the wife when he sells something to the husband, and vice versa. A motorcycle dealer in Upstate New York years ago adopted the pattern by giving a free string of pearls with each motorcycle sold. After he did so recently, he reported, the woman rode off on the cycle, and the man, who already had a bike, rode off wearing the pearls.

If you think morning is your best time of day, you’re in the majority. Pollsters say 56 percent of the people queried on this matter thought likewise.