Word of the week: "calque," pronounced like "Cal" with a K at the end. It's a word or phrase formed by translating its parts from another language. Examples: Milky Way from the Latin "Via Lactea," and "gospel" from the Greek "evangelion" ("good news"). The French word for "skyscraper" is a literal translation of "scrape" and "sky." (Thanks to Ken Clark of Kent, Wash.)

A-to-E VIP update: Thanks to Rip Miller of Richmond, Calif., who found a celeb with a shorter name than Alec Baldwin with all the letters from A to E: '30s actress Alice Brady, who won an Academy Award for "In Old Chicago." He also found one with A-F: actor Broderick Crawford. Rip notes that "Alfred Bojangles Hitchcock" has all the letters from A-H. But alas, Hitch's middle name was Joseph.

The global-strategy board game Risk, introduced in 1957, celebrated its 50th birthday last year. (Sorry to have missed it.) The game's inventor was already a celebrity, world famous as:
A) A filmmaker
B) A chef
C) A war hero
D) A former head of state

Previous answer: The 3.2 million-year-old hominid skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 was named Lucy for the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." The tune was being played repeatedly on a tape recorder one evening at the scientists' camp.

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.