Trivia

President Chester A. Arthur, a practical man in money matters, sold Abraham Lincoln’s trousers at public auction.

Come time to feed the ducks at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. (11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily), loudspeakers play a John Philip Sousa march, and in appropriate cadence said ducks waddle most majestically into the lobby.

The older the ice cream lover, the more likely that worthy asks for vanilla.

Q. Was there ever an era when battles were called on account of rain?

A. So history records. Soldiers who fought with flintlock rifles did that. Their weapons wouldn’t fire when wet.

Item No. 5456C in our Love and War man’s file labeled “Divorced Women” is this statistic reported by author Lenore Weitzman: California studies indicate the average divorced woman’s standard of living drops 73 percent during the first year after the divorce.

Q. Where’s the “Upside Down River,” and why is it called that?

A. Idaho’s Wood River flows 104 feet wide and 4 feet deep along some of a nearly level bed, but it also flows through a gorge 4 feet wide and 104 feet deep.

Never oil a bassoon.