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Trivia Bits by Paul Paquet

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Paul Paquet

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  • Trivia Bits, January 8
    Singing Nun: Older readers may have wondered whatever happened to the Singing Nun. In 1963, Sister Luc-Gabrielle had a No. 1 song, "Dominique," about the founder of her order. The Singing Nun kicked the habit, so to speak, and released in …

  • Trivia Bits, January 7
    A quarter for your thoughts: Having gone through all 50 states, the United States Mint is now issuing a coin to honor the District of Columbia. The District submitted three designs, all of which included the words "Taxation Without …

  • Trivia Bits, January 6
    You’re not paranoid if …: They thought Martha Mitchell was crazy. Definitely paranoid. The attorney general’s wife was convinced that there was corruption and criminality in Washington, a scandal she said went all the way to the …

  • Trivia Bits, January 5
    Word of the week: Buffalo. Here is a grammatically correct sentence using the word “buffalo.” A lot. "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." Say what? The phrase, popularized by William Rapaport of …

Trivia Bits, October 30

Eponym of the week: Oregonian Henry F. Phillips, for whom the Phillips-head screw and screwdriver were named. The self-centering design became especially useful on automated assembly lines that used electric-powered screwdrivers. Though Phillips received three U.S. patents for his design in 1936, it was so widely copied that by 1946 he had lost his patent protection.

Of Coarse: The next time you're in northeastern Minnesota, visit the Sandpaper Museum in Two Harbors, on the shores of Lake Superior. It's located in the building where 3M was founded in 1902. You knew that 3M's first product was sandpaper, right? Well, the "Mining" M in 3M's name represents the mining of corundum, which is used to make sandpaper.

You may be familiar with the sign "The buck stops here" that sat on the White House desk of Harry Truman. But there was a different message on the sign's other side, which was:
A) "Call me Harry"
B) "I'm from Missouri"
C) "What'll it cost?"
D) "This meeting is over"

Previous answer: A resident of Cape Cod, Mass., is called a Cape Codder.
(Thanks to Paul Dickson, author of "Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe.")

TRIVIA FANS: Send the trivia questions you've always wanted answered, or original TriviaBits ideas of your own, with your full name and hometown, to Stan Newman at StanTrivia@aol.com or on a postcard to P.O. Box 69, Massapequa Park, NY 11762.

Stanley Newman is the editor of the Newsday Crossword and author/editor of more than 125 books on crosswords, word games and trivia, including "15,003 Answers: The Ultimate Trivia Encyclopedia" (Random House). To find out more about Stanley Newman visit StanXwords.com, or e-mail him at StanTrivia@aol.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 STANLEY NEWMAN
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Originally Published on Thursday October 30, 2008

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