Trivia

The male Emperor penguin loses 33 percent of his body weight just taking care of one egg.

People bought seeds by the scoopful. Then Shakers started selling them in little packages. That, just that, is said to have done about as much for gardening as anything.

Only state capital nationwide that doesn’t have a McDonald’s is Vermont’s Montpelier. This saddens few locals.

Young men tend to have more friends than young women do. Old women tend to have more friends than old men do. Such is the claim of the social scientists.

Q. The two most common surgeries are reported to be biopsy and Caesarean. Where does hysterectomy come in?

A. No. 3.

Some but not all mongers say that fish’s name “scrod” is an acronym for “Select Catch Received On the Day.” It’s whatever. And was first served as such in Boston’s Parker House, the nation’s oldest continually operating hotel. Boston cream pie started there, too, might mention. And you know about Parker House rolls.

Unattributed quote from a very old book: “… Only two things in life really count - Character and Human Sympathy.”

Florida doesn’t get more tornadoes than any other state, but it gets more per square mile. Even so, Delaware is the state with the greatest concentration of tornadoes that result in injury.

Stunt pilots refused to fly one dangerous stunt in the old Howard Hughes film “Hell’s Angels.” So Hughes tried to fly it himself but crash-landed.

Why some Western Hemisphere nations used to be so demeaningly called “banana republics” I don’t know. Most always have made more money on coffee than on bananas.

Q. Aren’t all insects orphans?

A. Except bees, wasps, ants and termites. Those take care of their families.

Q. I say one out of every 10 hairdressers is male, right?

A. Close - 11.7 percent, at last report.