TRIVIA TEST

1. PERSONALITIES: Who wrote the 1960s book “Unsafe at Any Speed,” which detailed safety shortcomings in the auto industry?

2. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What color is lapis lazuli?

3. GEOGRAPHY: The Falkland Islands lie off the coast of which continent?

4. HOBBIES: What does a spelunker do?

5. U.S. STATES: What is the official nickname of the state of Illinois?

6. LANGUAGE: What does the Latin term “ipso facto” mean?

7. ART: What is chiaroscuro?

8. CARTOONS: What is the name of Porky Pig’s girlfriend?

9. SCIENCE: What kind of gases are neon and helium?

10. MOVIES: Which three comedians starred in the film comedy “Three Amigos!”

Answers

1. Ralph Nader

2. Blue

3. South America

4. Explore caves

5. Land of Lincoln

6. By the fact itself

7. Use of light and shadow in artwork

8. Petunia

9. Noble gases

10. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short

STRANGE BUT TRUE

by Samantha Weaver

• It was Martin Luther King Jr. who made the following sage observation: “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

• Are you a dromomaniac? If you travel compulsively, you are.

• The famed statue Venus de Milo was lost to history for nearly 2,000 years. No one knew of its existence until 1820, when a Greek peasant tilling a field on the island of Milos hit stone — several carved blocks of stone, to be specific. Within a few weeks, archaeologists arrived and took the statue of Aphrodite to France. King Louis XVIII dubbed it the Venus de Milo and donated it to the Louvre, where it remains today.

• You might be surprised to learn that Humphrey Bogart wasn’t the producers’ first choice for the role of Rick in “Casablanca.” An actor named George Raft was originally offered the part, but he turned it down because he didn’t like the script.

• In 2010, a new species of slug was discovered in the mountains of Borneo. It is distinguished from other species of slug by its novel method of mating: It shoots its mate with a so-called love dart made of calcium carbonate and containing hormones. The researchers nicknamed the gastropods “ninja slugs.”

• If you’re traveling to Kansas anytime soon, be sure to remember that it is against the law in that state to catch fish with your bare hands.

• During the original run of the classic 1960s TV series “Gilligan’s Island,” some viewers took the show rather too seriously. Several telegrams were sent to the U.S. Coast Guard asking why the poor people hadn’t yet been rescued.

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Thought for the Day: “I want a man who is kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?” — Zsa Zsa Gabor

(c) 2013 King Features Synd., Inc.