Trivia

Q. Why is that chocolatey confection known as the “brownie” called that?

A. One “Brownie” Schrumpf, a woman in her 80s, reportedly made such, first to gain a widespread reputation beyond her home in Bangor, Maine. Around 1914, this.

To the traditional German, “shhhh” doesn’t mean “quiet.” It means “hurry up.”

Environmentalists cite this: Early settlers cut down all the trees on Cape Cod. That let wind blow the topsoil off the land into the harbors. So ruined things both for farmers and sailors.

In the traditional belief of New Zealand’s Maori, I’m told, is the conviction that anybody separated from family loses human status, thus to degenerate into just another animal.

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.” That line was a typewriter test before - I say before - it turned into a presidential slogan. Charles E. Weller coined it to check out the first typewriter built in Milwaukee in 1867. U.S. Grant picked it up the next year as his political campaign slogan to boost it along its way to cliche-dom.

What cockroaches really like is soap.