Trivia

“The Brady Bunch” and “Gilligan’s Island” go back a ways, but they and their theme songs endure. So do the royalties. Sherwood Schwartz wrote the music for both, and he’s quoted as saying he still gets about $60,000 a year for same.

Why the incidence of left-handedness among artists is higher than average is not known.

Highest point above sea level in the Maldives is only 8 feet, so in that Indian Ocean island nation not a whole lot is more important than global warming.

It was Buckminster Fuller who noted the surface of the earth is proportionately smoother than that of the finest man-made ball bearing.

What popularized so many mixed drinks was Prohibition. Bad booze needed taste touchups. These created demand for many exotic concoctions, with spices, lemons, limes and bitters most abundant. Quinine water supposedly came along to fight malaria. In fact, it was invented to cover up what tasted bad with what tasted worse.

Something else happened in 1492. Pope Innocent VIII was given the first blood transfusion of record.