Trivia

“Don’t hold your breath when you’re peering through a telescope,” advises an astronomer. “Your retina needs oxygen to see best. Take deep breaths.”

Q. How do IQ tests work? When did they start?

A. In 1905, the French psychologist Alfred Binet came up with the first. His tests measure mental age, or try to. That’s divided by chronological age to get IQ “Normal” is “1,” noted as 100, so higher or lower scores can be recorded without plus or minus signs.

History records that the entire Harvard class of 1760 was suspended for drunkenness.

It’s commonly reported that the year of marriage when the marriage is most likely to end in divorce, if ever, is the first. However, the median year of divorce is the fourth, says our Love and War man, and odds improve thereafter.

What can you say to the man who has just been fired? Maybe this: It also happens to many if not most of the world’s best football, baseball and basketball players. No, don’t say that. Not sympathetic enough. It’s true, though.

You can get a ton and a half of water per minute out of a 2 -inch-diameter fire hose.

Many historians now conclude “Little John” in the Robin Hood legends was not tall but short.

Q. How long is a newborn anaconda snake?

A. Couple of feet plus inches.