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Trivia Bits Saturday, July 4
Little Letters: Kathryn Dawn Lang likes to spell her name with lower-case letters. Lang is also notable for appearing on the cover of the debut issue of two magazines. One of them was Entertainment Weekly, which was dated Feb. 16, 1990. The other …
Trivia Bits Friday, July 3
Keep Quiet: To hide his Jewish origins, Marcel Mangel changed his name to that of a French Revolution general, François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers. He became Marcel Marceau, the French mime who came to define the art form. His father, a kosher …
Trivia Bits Thursday, July 2
The Ebola virus is named for the Ebola River, in the D.R. Congo, where the virus spread to more than 55 villages in 1976. This probably ruined any tourism industry along the Ebola River. In fact, the Ebola virus is a lot like the Marburg virus, …
Trivia Bits Wednesday, July 1
Happy Canada Day: Our Canadian readers are celebrating Canada Day and probably not reading this column in their papers. Originally, it was called Dominion Day, because Britain promoted some of its colonies to a semi-independent status called …
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Trivia Bits, November 10Word of the week: "transliteracy," which is the ability to read, write and interact using multiple media, including the latest electronic media such as Facebook and MySpace. The term was coined just a few years ago by a team of researchers in the English department of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ken Clark of Kent, Wash., asks us about words like "emcee," that are spelled-out versions of the letters that they stand for. We've been unable to discover a specific term for these "acronym opposites." Is there one? Ken is also looking for more instances of two-letter reversals of words like these, to add to "kayo" and "okay," plus "jayvee" and "veejay." If you can help with either of these, please let us know. "For the benefit of all" is the motto of: A) The Red Cross B) NASA C) The London Police D) The United Way Previous answer: According to Guinness World Records, the world's most dangerous bird is the cassowary of Australia, which has razor-sharp claws and can reach speeds up to 30 miles per hour. 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. COPYRIGHT 2008 STANLEY NEWMAN DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE
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