Pseudo-eponym of the week: the Muphry of Muphry's Law. It was first described by Australian editor John Bangsund in 1992, as "If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." So we hope it's clear why there's no Muphry. Uncountable letters and e-mails sent to your humble trivia author over the years have complied with this law.

Some big-league baseball games are played outdoors; some are played indoors in domed stadiums. The first major-league game to be played both indoors and outdoors was on June 7, 1989, at Toronto's retractable-roof Skydome. With impending rain, the roof started to close in the fifth inning. But the process took 34 minutes, not fast enough to stop a brief rain delay until the roof snapped shut. (Thanks to Doug Lyons of Scarsdale, N.Y.)

How many letters of the alphabet are not the first letters of the names of U.S. states?
A) 4
B) 7
C) 10
D) 13

Previous answer: Ohio gets its nickname of the Buckeye State from the buckeye tree, which is related to the maple and the horse chestnut.

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.
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