Trivia

To simmer down a big bird, an African ostrich farmer puts a paper bag over its head.

Nothing so clearly demonstrates the inequality of opportunity, said a British judge, as this: “Women make the best murderers, but men do most of the killing.”

Q. What’s the oldest engineering work devised by humans?

A. The bridge.

The counting compulsion is so universal it has a name - “arithmomania.” People so inclined count stairsteps, telephone poles, window panes, bathroom tiles, sailboats, whatever. Itemized most commonly by arithmomaniacs are passing cars.

That more wives than husbands remain faithful has long been assumed. A survey has pinned down the statistics. Forty-five percent of the husbands say they find fidelity “difficult.” Only 21 percent of the wives acknowledge that.

An ancient maxim in medical annals: “The only thing to benefit from war is surgery.”

Vikings colonized all of Sicily.

Men who taught school in the New York City of 1872 weren’t allowed to go to barber shops for shaves. Disreputable places, barber shops. Stay out of them.