"Pseudo-country" city of the week: Columbia, the capital and largest city of South Carolina, was not named for the South American country Colombia. "Columbia" has been a literary term for the United States since colonial times. Both "Columbia" and "Colombia" are both derived from Signor Columbus, of course. (Thanks to Devid Chetcuti of Concord, Calif.)

Our recent redundancy riffs inspired Bert Hall of Orinda, Calif., to ask about one of our least favorite words, "irregardless." The word has been around for nearly 100 years, and has, unfortunately, gone from being called "erroneous" by lexicographers to now being listed in nearly all current dictionaries. Dictionary compilers don't decide "what's a word," they just report word usage.

Many trivia fans know that actor Peter Graves of "Mission: Impossible" is the brother of actor James Arness of "Gunsmoke." (The brothers' real last name is Aurness, by the way.) The only time that Graves and Arness appeared on the same TV program was on an episode of:
A) "Mission: Impossible"
B) "Gunsmoke"
C) "This is Your Life"
D) "The Outer Limits"

Previous answer: Illinois administrative assistant Janice Moore bought the first edition of the Beatles album "Yesterday and Today" in a Sears store in 1966.

That first edition was recalled by the record company due to a controversial cover, and because of its current rarity, she was able to sell her album recently for $8,000.

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.