Trivia

The no-smoking movement already has been taken to the extreme. Massachusetts in 1646 made it unlawful to smoke within five miles of any townsite.

Q. Tracers of British family trees say they can’t go back earlier than 1066 A.D. Why not?

A. After the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror ordered every man in the kingdom to select any surname. For a while there, a father named John Smith might have three sons named Edward Farmer, Matthew Cook and Arthur Hunter.

Q. Was there ever a time when gold wasn’t highly prized?

A. If so, it’s not a matter of record. One of the earliest maps was an Egyptian creation to show the way to a gold mine.

What President U.S. Grant really wished he’d been was a math teacher.

Most of the French Canadian frontiersmen were short. Shorter than 5-foot-6. Tough and tireless, those littler men. It’s known they suffered fewer back problems than their taller contemporaries. That still can be said of shorter men, might mention,

Am advised Montana’s Bozeman carries an old law that bans sexual activity in the front yard of a house after sundown by nude members of the opposite sex. Skip the wit. Move on.