25 Years Ago in TV Guide: Our favorite June 1983 cover featured this motley group: Alan Alda, Valerie Bertinelli, Erik Estrada and Linda Evans. Those four and others were discussed in the article "They're Stars -- But Can They Act?'' Alda was praised as "A consummate actor. Will be around forever." The comments on the other three were (how shall we say it) somewhat less flattering.

Reverent/irreverent update: Our recent Bit about the wide range of films scored by Elmer Bernstein prompted Allan McKibben of Walnut Creek, Calif., to write us about screenwriter James Lee Barrett. His Hollywood scripts had a comparably impressive range, from the Biblical epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" to the less-than-epic "Smokey and the Bandit." Barrett received a Tony Award for collaborating on the musical "Shenandoah."

Long before Wisk was introduced in 1956 as the first liquid laundry detergent (its "Ring around the collar" commercials debuted in 1974), the name Wisk was:
A) A character in a Charles Dickens novel
B) A brand of hunting rifle
C) A variety of avocado
D) A common surname in Austria

Previous answer: Giving a person "the third degree" is derived from Freemasonry. Specifically, the Masonic ritual associated with attaining the Third Degree.

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.