Trivia

Q. What was “the plastic of the Middle Ages”?

A. Horn. Or so some historians have called it. Craftsmen made much of it.

Got it backwards: Methadone is the drug’s generic name, Dolophine a brand name. Excuse, please.

Am told the oceans average out to be four times deeper than the land is high.

No, it was neither the Germans nor the Irish but the ancient Egyptians who built altars to the cabbage.

Q. What are “regressive words”?

A. Words made longer by adding letters at the front. Such as “ate,” “late,” “elate” and “relate.” Progressive words add letters to the back. Such as “to,” “tot,” “tote” and “totem.”

You, too, may find hard to accept this notion that women who have no children are generally happier than mothers. And that childless wives are more satisfied with their marriages than are mothers. But such were the conclusions drawn by a national magazine’s editors after they surveyed 30,000 women.

One of the most common on the phobia list is “cremnophobia” - fear of falling down stairs.

Ventriloquists refer to one another as “vents.”