Trivia

The Hudson Bay Co. eventually spread out over 10 times as much area as the Holy Roman Empire at its peak.

It’s a simple physiological fact that far more girls than boys grow up knock-kneed.

What’s your age? Don’t tell me. Just multiply it by 3. Add 1. Multiply that by 3. Add your age again. Knock off the last digit. What do you have? Your age. You knew that?

When the English first settled in Jamestown, the price of a bride was 120 pounds of tobacco.

Why mathematics teachers do so well in matrimony, typically, is not fully explained, but they usually appear on the most-happily-married lists compiled by the Love and War researchers.

“Writing,” said the great French playwright Moliere, “is like prostitution. First, you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for the money.”

The leader of a wolf pack is always a she.

Q. How many hairs are in one eyebrow?

A. If you guess 550, you’ll be pretty close.

When old lighthouses beamed constant light, a lot of hypnotized birds smacked into them, or fluttered around them in confusion, to fall exhausted onto the rocks and into the sea. So keepers changed to flashing or rotating lights. That helped.