Trivia

Those who purport to know all about canines contend the dog that respects its master rarely leaves home for more than 45 minutes.

Q. How do those trees in bayou country survive all draped that way with Spanish moss?

A. Spanish moss doesn’t hurt them. It draws its nourishment from the air. By catching the rain and letting it drip slowly down to the tree roots, it actually helps the trees.

“Wisdom,” said the philosopher Will James, “is learning what to overlook.”

Q. Central Park carriage drivers in New York City say couples who get engaged during the rides are bad tippers. Why is that?

A. Most are young, closely budgeted, and focused far more on each other than on the driver, says our Love and War man.

The microscope was invented in 1590, the telescope in 1608. What’s noteworthy here is the two instruments that most revolutionized measurement (to gauge the smallest known and the biggest known) were developed only 18 years apart.

Chimpanzees eat monkeys.

Tolstoy was a vegetarian, too.

Q. Sea levels are rising, I know. But by how much?

A. Six inches in the past 100 years.

A teardrop can kill a million germs.