Trivial The Cebrennus rechenbergi, or Moroccan flic-flac spider, doesn’t simply run from danger; it cartwheels away like a gymnast doing an Olympic floor exercise routine. Found only in the Erg Chebbi desert in Morocco, it is active at night and spends its days inside a tubelike shelter that it builds from sand and spider silk.
Leonard Nimoy originated the role of Mr. Spock on “Star Trek,” after Martin Landau — the producers’ first choice to play Spock — declined the role. Instead, Landau joined the original cast of “Mission: Impossible.” Three years later, “Star Trek” was canceled, and Landau decided not to renew his contract, so Leonard Nimoy replaced him on “Mission: Impossible.”
When he wasn’t composing sonnets and odes, Lord Byron, the 19th-century Romantic poet, spent his free time sparring at a gym owned by “Gentleman” John Jackson, a British boxing champion. Byron might have been pudgy and a little slow on his feet, but he loved to mix it up in the ring. He called boxing a “most unpoetical exercise, (yet) very wholesome.”
Because roundness symbolizes prosperity, it’s customary for people in the Philippines to eat 12 round fruits on New Year’s Eve to ensure 12 prosperous months in the coming year. In keeping with the roundness idea, some people also believe it’s lucky to wear polka dots on New Year’s Eve. (It certainly couldn’t hurt!)
You never see ice on a healthy penguin’s feathers because penguins in extremely cold climates have two adaptations to make them frost-free. First, their feathers are dotted with tiny pores that prevent water from clinging to them. Second is the “preen oil” that penguins secrete from a gland and spread over their bodies. Together they make a natural de-icing system.
The ancient city of Pompeii might be the most famous site preserved in volcanic ash, but it’s not the only one. In El Salvador, the farming village of Ceren was buried under a 17-foot layer of volcanic ash after an eruption in A.D. 660. It’s so perfectly preserved that archaeologists have found footprints in the earth and finger marks on the household objects left behind when the villagers fled the disaster more than 1,300 years ago.
TRIVIA
1) After carefully reading descriptions in the text, the American Viola Society claims that what literary detective played the viola — and not the violin?
A) Father Brown
B) Sherlock Holmes
C) Miss Marple
D) Hercule Poirot
2. Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition while representing what nation?
A) Bulgaria
B) Hungary
C) Romania
D) Soviet Union
3. In Roman mythology, Vulcan is the god of what?
A) Fire
B) Ice
C) Thunder
D) Wind
4. Tradition says that Boxing Day, observed on Dec. 26, is a time to do what?
A) Challenge your enemies to a fight
B) Fly kites
C) Give gifts to charity
D) Throw out the boxes and wrapping from Christmas gifts
5. Which round fruit is a hybrid that 18th-century botanists called the “forbidden fruit”?
A) Blood orange
B) Grapefruit
C) Key lime
D) Tangerine
6. Because of its snazzy yellow crest, Eudyptes chrysolophus is known by what common name?
A) Butter penguin
B) Canary penguin
C) Macaroni penguin
D) Marigold penguin
7. In which English city would you find the Ashmolean Museum?
A) Cambridge
B) London
C) Manchester
D) Oxford
See Next Issue for ANSWERS
Leslie Elman is the author of “Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts.” Contact her at triviabitsleslie@gmail.com. COPYRIGHT 2021 LESLIE ELMAN