Trivia

Wed., Jan. 29, 1997

L.M. Boyd Crown Syndicate

Q. What was the first musical instrument?

A. The drum. Most agree the second was some sort of flute. Whether it was made of a reed or a hollowed human shinbone is unknown. Both the Incas and the Tibetans much later fashioned fancy flutes out of the arm and leg bones of people.

Q. Where’d the tomato come from?

A. Same place the potato came from. The Peru-Ecuador-Bolivia area of the Andes.

A man can pick about 500 coconuts a day, a monkey about 1,700.

Q. What are the three kinds of animals that walk naturally by alternately moving the two left feet, then the two right feet?

A. Giraffes, camels and cats, research reveals.

What proportion of husbands are henpecked? So inquires a client. Our Love and War man’s files contain a report on that matter from the American Institute of Family Relations. About 33 percent of the husbands can be so described, it’s said. These are browbeaten fellows who can’t rightfully claim to be the heads of their households. Many of the other 67 percent undergo occasional nagging, but they can handle it.

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