Trivia

Q. How many U.S. planes were shot down over the Soviet Union during the Cold War?

A. Thirty-nine. Count of the American dead therefrom - 177.

Is “queueing” - you tell me - the only English word with five consecutive vowels?

Q. What with the change in average heights of men and women over the decades, I’m wondering what those heights are today?

A. In the United States: Men, 5-foot-9.1 inches; women, 5-foot3.7 inches.

Q. You said what older men prize most are certain books, radios or TV sets, and what older women prize most are photographs. Where’d you get that?

A. From numerous interviews with firefighters.

In 1938, California’s Pacific Grove set a $500 fine for molesting butterflies. It’s a Monarch staging area.

Q. Can you name the only movie cowboy who always ordered milk at a bar?

A. Hopalong Cassidy.

In 1974, the firefly was decreed the “official insect” of Pennsylvania.

Arctic flowers grow no thorns.

Q. Can black panthers have spotted leopard cubs?

A. Yes, and vice versa.

Q. Wasn’t Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer the U.S. Army officer who took on the most Indians in one fight?

A. Give that distinction to Col. Kit Carson. At the First Battle of Adobe Walls, he fought a strategic retreat against 5,000 to 6,000 wellarmed horse-mounted warriors. His casualties: Three dead, 15 wounded. At the Little Bighorn, as you know, Custer stood fast against 2,500 to 4,000. Many historians have been highly critical of both Carson and Custer.