Trivia

Scientists now say insects get no benefit whatsoever from exercise. It doesn’t build up their muscles or improve their circulation or lengthen their lives a bit. Tell your couch potato, if that word “insect” is not too much of an insult.

Q. Who really invented the Morse Code?

A. Alfred Lewis Vail, the 30-year-old assistant to the telegraph entrepreneur Samuel F. B. Morse. Lagniappe: Were you aware that it was Morse who made the first Daguerrotype photographs in America?

Am told your cat, if any, descended about 20,000 years ago from Spanish wildcats that were quicker, stronger and dumber.

Q. Who first came up with the curious notion of giving mental patients electric shocks?

A. An Italian psychiatry professor named Ugo Cerletti is so listed. In 1938, he jolted a homeless man who was speaking nonsense syllables. The man burst into song. The professor jolted him again. The man said, Stop! Are you trying to kill me? Or words to that effect. The professor decided he was onto something.

Q. How many times can a pearl grower reseed the same oyster?

A. Four may be max. Takes 30 months for each seeding to produce.

Albert Einstein said, “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.”