Trivia

What Kathie Lee Gifford and Yo-Yo Ma have in common - this took some research - is both were born in Paris.

Q. Where’s the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library?

A. The Beauvoir estate in Biloxi, Miss. - that’s where it will be. It’s a building.

First European to figure out how to make porcelain paste was the German alchemist Johann Friedrich Boettger. In 1708, this. He was not elated. He was trying to make gold. Still, he didn’t know he was 900 years behind the Chinese in porcelain perfection. And he did know he had something good going. What was soon to become fine Dresden porcelain turned into gold, sort of.

Q. What’s wrong with drinking yourself to sleep every night as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody?

A. If drugging out at bedtime interferes with the mending mechanisms of your normal dream sequences, you can become emotionally erratic and somewhat irrational without even knowing it, say the specialists. You turn into a prisoner of your own war deprived of sleep during your own interrogations, or something like that.

In Southeast Asia that part of a house reserved for women is called a “zenana.”

You can powder your sugar in a food processor.

Q. Why is hard, shiny leather called “patent”?

A. Because it once was made by a patented process. American inventor Seth Boyden came out with it in 1819. Same year Minneapolis and Memphis both got their starts.

Comedienne Elayne Boosier asked, “What do hookers do on their nights off? Type?”

In early football, when the “quarterback” position was first created, so was the “snapback” position, now called “center.”

Q. Which of the United States won admission by only one vote?

A. Texas, California, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Why the Eskimo has less body hair than any other human group has not been explained, either.