At sixes and sevens: There were two technological obstacles to the rolling out of area codes nationwide. One was the new switching equipment that was needed to dial outside one's local area without an operator. The other was the mixture of six- and seven-digit telephone numbers in some locales. For example, Toronto and Montreal, which introduced direct dialing in 1958, had this mix from 1951 to 1957.

Those scenes in the 2006 film "The Da Vinci Code" set in the Louvre were actually shot at the French museum, for which the Louvre was paid about $2.5 million. A far, far bigger payment is coming to the Louvre for the construction of a Louvre museum in downtown Abu Dhabi, scheduled for completion in 2012. Total for the use of the Louvre name and the loan of art works: in the very nice neighborhood of $1.5 billion.

Grindstone, Silver Charm and Real Quiet are all the names of:
A) Brands of vacuum cleaners
B) Characters in the Harry Potter book series
C) Professional wrestlers
D) Horses that have won the Kentucky Derby

Previous answer: Chicago is about 1,300 air miles from Havana, about 1,700 miles from Mexico City and San Diego, and about 2,800 miles from Anchorage.

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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