Trivia

Ladies and gentlemen, toss a quarter each on the bar to ante into this little game. Winner of the pot is the one who answers correctly this query: What company in these United States is the single largest buyer of rice? Don’t know? Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Mo. That firm does not make rice pudding.

Word is that one in every five women who undergo cosmetic surgery has done so before.

Fortune cookie counsel: “If you cannot win, make the one ahead of you break the record.”

Q. When did the U.S. Department of Agriculture stop teaching farmers how to grow opium?

A. Sometime before 1942, when Congress outlawed that sort of poppy.

Q. What do the antique dealers mean by a “Whispering Tube”?

A. That was a pipe several feet long, flared at the ends. Victoria Age romancers thought it nifty to talk softly to each other through the thing in crowded rooms. But it had to be shifted from ear to mouth, so until they got the hang of it, it was a simplex dialogue: “Glad to see you. Over.” “Where’ve you been, you naughty boy? Over.” “Out in the barn. Over.” “Doing what? Over.” “Pitchin’ hay. Over.” “Oh? Show me. Over.”