Trivia

According to the historical footnotes, Theodore Roosevelt wore a ring containing a lock of hair from Abraham Lincoln’s head. Not so winsome, that little touch. Muscle men and bully boys carried locks of hair back then. But ladies’ locks, mostly.

“Maieusiophobia” is “fear of pregnancy.” “Erotophobia” is “an abnormal aversion to sexual love.” Not infrequently do those two relate.

Expectant mothers on the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil long paid a standard fee for complete maternity care: one chicken.

There was a time in Beirut, Lebanon - before the bitter men with the guns - when the sheep always had the right of way.

Here’s a message from a scientist who says: “Although taking a hot bath may cleanse away many dead bacteria, the heat helps those remaining to reproduce up to 20 times more.” Was a time I’d have cited this to a fine woman with a washcloth in one hand and my ear in the other … long ago, long ago.

Q. Where’d we get the word “scalawag”?

A. From the name of the undersize temperamental ponies raised on Scalloway in the Shetland Islands. Or so says one word tracer. Others say that’s dubious.