Trivia

Q. Who invented New England clam chowder?

A. One Ruth Alden Bass of Duxbury, Mass., is so credited. Back when clams weren’t eaten by people from Europe even though Colonial New Englanders were desperately hungry, she saw a pig rooting for shellfish along a shoreline, so went into the sand with both hands. And came up with a salvation in seafood. The Handle Q. What’s Whoopi Goldberg’s real name?

A. Caryn Elaine Johnson.

There’s a general medical term for any malady that causes hallucinations involving animals. Including pink elephants, I presume. So if you don’t like what most people call it, you can call it “zoopsia.”

Ants had highly organized societies long before human beings did.

“The nearer the dawn, the darker the night.” That’s what Longfellow said. Actually, almost everybody has said it. With various words.

Psychology researchers say you probably remember a seven-digit phone number but forget an area-code-added 10-digit number. Because, they aver, studies indicate short-term human memory appears to dissolve when confronted with more than seven units of data. Fascinating, if factual. One more dwarf and we might not even remember Snow White, is that it?

Am informed the elephant smells through its mouth, not its trunk.