Trivia

Singapore’s government requires local computerists to go through a “proxy server” to get on the Internet. It filters messages selectively for censorship. Reportedly, those technical types caught bypassing that server can be prosecuted for the crime of “sedition,” punishable by caning and five years in prison.

One ladybug eats 50 aphids a day. Not exactly. About.

Wives who work on payrolls, please note: “Wherever, in the history of civilization, woman has ceased to be an economic asset in marriage, marriage has decayed; and sometimes civilization has decayed with it.” So wrote historian Will Durant.

“Women are pictures; men are problems,” said Oscar Wilde. “If you want to know what a woman really means, look at her, don’t listen to her.”

Circulated in the French society of yesteryear was a list of volunteers known to one another as “quatorziens” - meaning “fourteeners.” They were available as emergency fill-ins for any dinner party where the initial guest count added up to an unlucky 13.

If Alexander Hamilton’s opinion had prevailed, the name of this country would be “The United State of America.” Singular.

In Ethiopia, “A” is the 13th letter of the alphabet.