Trivia

The courthouse in Cahokia, Ill., has been in continuous use since it was built in 1737. That’s true of no other public building in this country.

Israel has poisonous “white widow spiders.”

A dignitary who claims to know says a church needs three acres of parking for every 300 members.

In pain, Lisa del Giocondo had three teeth pulled, then false teeth fitted, thus to postpone Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the “Mona Lisa.” She was the model. Her husband had commissioned the work. In 1507. Whoever fitted her false teeth did a sorry job. Nothing mysterious about that smile. Leonardo didn’t get the mouth right, either.

Q. A bird’s feathers weigh as much as its skeleton, no?

A. Indeed, and twice as much with some birds.

What’s different about that fern called the “fiddlehead” is its age, nothing else. All true ferns start as fiddleheads and uncoil as they grow.

Q. What’s “real estate grass”?

A. Annual rye. Sprouts most speedily to a thick, dark green. Its lawns help sell houses. But it’s good for only one season.