Trivia

Can you contradict the common claim that nothing burned once can be burned again?

Not until Mark Twain first paired up these words did they jump into the popular talk: “Wild West.” “Forty-niner.” “Billiard parlor.” “Dust storm.” “Hayride.” “Barbed wire.” “Ex-convict.” “Cussword”

Germany’s Hamburg offers in argument that it has more bridges 2,123 than any other city in Europe.

“Aunt Jemina” started out as a hit song in an old vaudeville show. An editorial writer turned entrepreneur named Chris L. Rutt thought it had such a nifty ring he and his business partners named their new self-rising pancake mix after it.

In 1371 the queen of France sent the queen of England several dolls dressed in the latest French fashions. The doll outfits were copied by English dressmakers, and costumed dolls from France went wherever ships went thereafter, making France the fashion designer of the western world. Store-window models now bear the same name as those dolls - mannequins.

Who destroyed the reeds at Acapulco? And why? Nobody knows. All that’s known is the name “Acapulco” comes from “Acatl Poloa Co,” meaning “in the place where the reeds were destroyed.”