Trivia

Q. How long has the Internet been handling more mail than the U.S. Postal Service?

A. Since 1995, according to newspaper reports.

A heavily loaded raft floats more swiftly down the river than a raft with nothing on it.

In 1858 dancers in Paris performed a high-kick routine said to display “their tail feathers” - even as a duck’s. French for duck is “canard.” A diminutive of it gave the dance its name: “cancan.”

The female ostrich lays maybe two dozen eggs. Some hatch early. To feed those first little birds, the mother cracks open the unhatched eggs.

Q. Swedish cooks historically have seasoned with cardamom seeds. They grow in such tropical climes as India. How did those early people so far north find out about them?

A. Vikings made it all the way down to Constantinople - cardamom had come that far north - and took home a sufficient supply to start a culinary tradition. The Swedes use 50 times more cardamom per capita than do the Americans.

Engineers measured the force of breakers along the coast of Scotland at 6,000 pounds per square foot. Gives you some idea of why ships break up on the rocks, no?