Trivia

More than a third of the world’s inventions have been created in the United States.

Around Italy’s Naples, I’m told, you can buy pasta in the shape of human ears.

In ancient Greece, “idiot” was a respected word to identify citizens who did not hold political office. Today, it’s more commonly used by citizens who don’t hold office to identify … Never mind.

In an ice-skating speed race, the eyes of the officials are not focused on the noses of the skaters, but on the skates. Winner is whoever first gets both skates across the finish line.

Which is the most expensive room in your house? Builders say it’s almost invariably the kitchen.

List 1860 as the year English inventor Frederick Walton made “linoleum” out of linseed oil and named same. That was the year the first Pony Express riders averaged 12 mph between 153 stations on this side of the Pacific. And Russian pioneers on the other side of the Pacific founded Vladivostok.

Football players refer to their legs as “wheels.” Race car drivers refer to their tires as “shoes.”

You thought a group of ducks was a “flock,” did you not? Likewise. But the collective nouners - whose reach exceeds their grasp, I think - insist ducks when swimming are a “paddling,” when floating a “raft,” and in flight a “team.”

Jane and Franklin Pierce saw their 11-year-old son Benjamin die in a railroad accident two months before Franklin was sworn in as U.S. President. Jane became “the shadow in the White House” upstairs. Later, after she descended for state dinners, she was still described as “the very picture of melancholy.” Franklin’s term ended. A political failure, he felt. They went to Europe. They lived on the island of Madeira for a while. They returned. Jane, unrecovered ever, died. Franklin’s bitterness intensified. Life at the top.