Though the words "taut" and "tight" are nearly synonymous and sound very similar, they're not related to each other. "Taut" is from an Old English word meaning "drag," and is kin to "tow" and "tug." "Tight" also comes from Old English, but from a completely different word meaning "dense" or "solid."

Philo Facts: Mentioned in a recent Bit, "Father of Television" Philo Farnsworth had over 300 U.S. and foreign patents. His inventions contributed to the development of radar, the electron microscope and the baby incubator. He appeared on TV only once, in 1957, as a contestant on the game show "I've Got a Secret." The celebrity panel failed to guess his secret -- "I invented electronic television."

Anthropology buffs will be familiar with the name Lucy, given to the 3.2 million-year-old hominid skeleton discovered in Ethiopia by an international research team in 1974. Lucy was named for a:
A) Comedic actress
B) Beatles song
C) Comic-strip character
D) Wife of a British prime minister

Previous answer: The names of three of the world's 10 most populous cities start with M: Mumbai, Moscow and Mexico City. (Thanks to Sher Garfield of Bellevue, Wash.)

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.