L.M. Boyd Trivia

• Q. Look up “sleeping in the nude” in your Love and War man’s files and see if the proportion of Americans who do so is greatest in Texas.

A. Texas has the greatest ratio of people who sleep in their underwear. Hawaii is No. 1 in nude sleepers. Did I mention more men than women sleep in the nude?

• It’s a matter of record that the Persians 6,000 years ago used petroleum to make mortar.

• Garlic is said to contain the antibiotic allium, which lowers blood pressure.

• Our Love and War man is pleased to report a hummingbird’s wings beat 55 times a second when feeding, and 200 times a second when courting.

• Another of those uncommon words for common things is “kerf.” It’s the cut made by a knife or saw or torch.

• Observed Rebecca West: “Every mother is a judge who sentences her children for the sins of the father.”

• In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge was asked if he’d campaign again for the presidency, he said, “I do not choose to run.” The questioner asked, “Why not?” Coolidge said, “No room for advancement.”

• You don’t read much about Empress Anne of Russia. But she does turn up in the historical footnotes as the one monarch who wiped herself down daily with melted butter.