Wow! That’s wacky, wonderfully so

• Before he became famous for writing such masterworks of science fiction as “The Time Machine,” “The Invisible Man,” “The Island of Dr. Moreau” and “The War of the Worlds,” H.G. Wells wrote textbooks on biology.

• It has been estimated that it can take up to 50,000 years for a plastic container to decompose.

• This sounds like it could be an observation made by any of a number of modern authors: “Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” You might be surprised to learn, then, that it was 17th-century French novelist Gustave Flaubert who is credited with that quote.

• For the first six or so months after birth, a baby can breathe and swallow at the same time. If you’re old enough to be able to read this, you can’t do it — go ahead and try.

• Renowned novelist William Faulkner was a high-school dropout. He later decided to take a few courses at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, but he didn’t fare well there, either — he made a D in English.

• Those who study such matters say that California by itself constitutes the fifth-largest economy in the world.

• The next time you’re out on a date, be careful about how you treat the wait staff. In a recent survey of singles, 43 percent of respondents said they pay close attention to a date’s behavior toward servers.

• At an auction in New York, a man got what he thought was a bargain on a used car. He got a bit more than he bargained for, though; when he opened the trunk, he found a dead body. Investigation showed that the car had been sitting on the lot for three months.