Trivia

Q. Who invented the paper clip? A. A Norwegian named Johan Vaaler. He patented it in Germany in 1900. Eighty-nine years later, admirers erected a monument to him in Oslo - a 22-1/2-foot-tall paper clip.

It’s certainly no oddity to see an artist marry an artist, but it’s five times more likely a scientist will marry a scientist.

The reckoners say they can calculate the height of Mount Everest to within a foot and the distance to the moon to within an inch.

The British eat less pasta than any other Europeans.

One of the first things scientists tried to do with the newly discovered X-rays in 1895 was photograph the soul.

Q. When Marco Polo’s China crew burned great jointed grass to warm themselves in winter, it exploded, and the sound of it gave us our Western word for bamboo, right?

A. Colorful but not correct. Word tracers say it’s from the Malay “bambu” of Indic origin. Still, that doesn’t mean those little explosions didn’t sound like “bam” and “bu” to earlier ancients.

Scientists first found out the sex drives of animals in captivity tend to diminish. Then they learned the sexual potency of men under stress likewise appears to lessen. Research continues.

No, rabbits aren’t rodents, but porcupines are.

“The greatest advantage of the hotel is that it is a refuge from home life,” said the late but not recent George Bernard Shaw.

Please enumerate all the creatures that sleep while standing on one leg. Start with the flamingo.