Monday, December 4

Update on an earlier column: The highest individual military award for valor against an enemy force is the Medal of Honor, not the "Congressional" Medal of Honor. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the Congressional Medal of Honor Society to encourage friendships among Medal of Honor recipients. The society is now headquartered on the hangar deck of the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Thank you to reader Steven Branting and to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for this clarification.

From 1959 to 1970, which company was the title sponsor of the TV quiz show "College Bowl"?

A) Ford

B) General Electric

C) IBM

D) Nabisco

Previous answer: Debi Derryberry provides the voice for Jimmy Neutron "Boy Genius."

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Tuesday, December 5

There are only about 300 wolverines living in the "lower 48" United States, none of them in Michigan. Despite the fact that Michigan is nicknamed the Wolverine State — and the University of Michigan mascot is the wolverine — wolverines never have been native to Michigan. Those vicious, voracious members of the weasel family prefer colder climates, such as northern Canada and Alaska. Their Michigan connection might have come from 18th-century fur traders who sold wolverine pelts there.

Hugh Jackman received a Tony Award for his role in "The Boy from Oz," a musical based on the life of what man?

A) Peter Allen

B) L. Frank Baum

C) Rupert Murdoch

D) Oscar Wilde

Previous answer: "G.E. Quiz Bowl" ran on TV from 1959 to 1970.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Wednesday, December 6

Laura Bassi was the second woman to receive a degree from a European university and the first woman to receive a professorship, joining the faculty of the University of Bologna in Italy in 1732 at age 21. Her primary area of study was Newtonian experimental physics, which she taught for 28 years at the university and in seminars at her home laboratory. So formidable was her intellect, she was invited to join the faculty of the elite Bologna Academy of Sciences. Her husband, Giuseppe Veratti, was her lab assistant.

A becquerel (Bq) is a scientific unit of measurement related to what?

A) Acoustical frequency

B) Electrical charge

C) Magnetic force

D) Radioactivity

Previous answer: "The Boy from Oz" is a musical based on the life of Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Thursday, December 7

"The Forme of Cury," a cookbook compiled around 1390 by the master cooks in the household of King Richard II of England, contains nearly 200 recipes, handwritten on parchment. They run the gamut from "caboches in potage" (cabbage soup), "flaumpeyns" (pork and cheese pies) and "peeres in confyt" (pears in red wine and mulberry syrup) to dishes we'd never consider today. Furmente with porpeys (cracked wheat with porpoise), anyone?

Best known in France, prunelard and gamay are types of what?

A) Bread

B) Cheese

C) Sausage

D) Wine grapes

Previous answer: Named for physicist Henri Becquerel, a becquerel is a measurement of radioactivity.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Friday, December 8

The United States Postal Service keeps a list of towns with Christmasy names, from Angeles, Puerto Rico, to Wiseman, Arizona, with 11 Hopes, one Joy, two Faiths, six Evergreens, two Bells, a bunch of Garlands, a Santa Claus (in Indiana) and a Christmas (in Florida) among them. This is useful information if you want to add appropriately themed postmarks to your Christmas cards and packages.

Ezra Jack Keats is best known as the author and illustrator of what children's classic?

A) "The Cricket in Times Square"

B) "The Snowy Day"

C) "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

D) "A Wrinkle in Time"

Previous answer: Prunelard and gamay are types of wine grapes.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Saturday, December 9

African giant pouched rats put their keen senses of smell to work sniffing out buried landmines in former battle zones in Africa and Asia. The rats are uniquely suited for the job because they can cover a lot of ground quickly and they're too light to set off the mines. Belgian nonprofit group APOPO, which trains them for landmine work, also trains rats to sniff out medical conditions, such as tuberculosis.

An estimated 20 percent of the world's landmines are buried in which country?

A) Angola

B) Egypt

C) Niger

D) Pakistan

Previous answer: Ezra Jack Keats is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's classic "The Snowy Day."

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

WEEK OF DECEMBER 11

Monday, December 11

Not to be confused with a ChapStick, a Chapman Stick is a musical instrument that looks like the neck of a 10-string guitar, without the body. It's named for Emmett Chapman, the guitarist and instrument builder who devised it in the 1960s and refined the design in the 1970s. Rather than fingering the notes with one hand and picking or strumming with the other, on a Chapman Stick a player uses both hands to "tap" the notes, producing a complex, unique guitar sound.

A museum in Urbana, Ohio, is devoted to John Chapman, who was known for doing what?

A) Commanding troops in the War of 1812

B) Designing automobiles

C) Mapping the Ohio River

D) Planting orchards

Previous answer: An estimated 20 percent of the world's landmines are buried in Egypt; many have been there since World War II.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Tuesday, December 12

"Silent Night" was performed for the first time on Christmas Eve in 1818, appropriately enough at the St. Nicholas church in Oberndorf, Austria. A priest named Josephus Mohr wrote the words and a church organist named Franz Xaver Gruber wrote the melody. Next year, the world's best-known Christmas carol turns 200.

Beginning Jan. 10, 1917, and continuing for more than a year, the Silent Sentinels staged a vigil outside the White House in support of what cause?

A) Arizona statehood

B) Asylum for refugees

C) School desegregation

D) Women's suffrage

Previous answer: John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, planted orchards in the early 19th century.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Wednesday, December 13

Despite the fact that it has been landlocked since ceding its 250 miles of Pacific coastline to Chile in 1904, Bolivia maintains an active navy, the Fuerza Naval Boliviana. The force currently preserves, protects and defends Bolivia's jurisdiction over its rivers and lakes, including the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. To this day, Bolivia continues fighting to regain its territorial rights from Chile, not on the battlefield, but at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

"Kid, the next time I say, 'Let's go someplace like Bolivia,' let's go someplace like Bolivia," is a line from which 1969 movie?

A) "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

B) "Easy Rider"

C) "Hello, Dolly!"

D) "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

Previous answer: Led by Alice Paul, the Silent Sentinels held a vigil outside the White House in support of women's suffrage.

Thursday, December 14

From the "everything has a name" department: a bobeche is the ring-shaped collar — usually glass or metal, but sometimes ceramic or other flame-resistant material — placed to catch wax drips at the point where a taper candle meets a candlestick. The word is French, but how it came to mean what it means is unclear. Also unclear is its relation to Bobeche, a dapper, irreverent clown character in 18th-century French comic theater.

Which TV character comes from the fictional planet, Gallifrey?

A) ALF

B) Doctor Who

C) Lennier

D) Sally Solomon

Previous answer: "Kid, the next time I say, 'Let's go someplace like Bolivia,' let's go someplace like Bolivia," is a line from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Friday, December 15

John Tyler, 10th president of the United States, was the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the death of the sitting president. It happened suddenly, after ninth president William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia on Apr. 4, 1841, just one month into his term. No one expected Tyler to become the president of the United States. (People nicknamed him "His Accidency.") He served one term, then retired to Virginia and ended his career as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.

The Aroostook War and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty involved a disputed boundary between what places?

A) Kansas and Missouri

B) Maine and New Brunswick, Canada

C) Montana and Saskatchewan

D) Texas and Mexico

Previous answer: Doctor Who comes from Gallifrey.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Saturday, December 16

Charles Dickens started work on "A Christmas Carol," his famous tale about Ebenezer Scrooge, in October 1843, finished writing it in six weeks and had it published in time for Christmas. The only original copy of his handwritten manuscript is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, which displays it every year at Christmastime. It shows his changes and edits, crossing out text with curly-cue lines and replacing it with shorter, more vivid description.

In John Grogan's 2005 book "Marley & Me," who is Marley?

A) His business partner

B) His daughter

C) His dog

D) Musician Bob Marley

Previous answer: The Aroostook War and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty involved a disputed boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

WEEK OF DECEMBER 18

Monday, December 18

Before 1861, when the federal government took over the job of printing paper currency, banks issued it themselves and the designs of the notes varied widely. Take the Santa Claus banknotes that banks from Maine to Wisconsin issued around Christmastime in the first half of the 19th century. Along with the official language that marked them as currency, they bore illustrations of Saint Nick, sometimes adapted from Currier and Ives engravings. They're no longer legal tender, but they've been known to fetch a fine price among collectors.

Since 1976, who has been pictured on the front of the U.S. $2 bill?

A) Aaron Burr

B) John C. Calhoun

C) Thomas Jefferson

D) Martha Washington

Previous answer: Marley in "Marley & Me" is the author's yellow Labrador retriever.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Tuesday, December 19

Every year since 1900, the Audubon Society has conducted a Christmas Bird Count with birders and "citizen scientists" making a tally in their local areas of the species they spot and how many of each they see. It's the longest-running wildlife census on earth. The first Christmas Bird Count was done by 27 volunteers across North America, spotting 89 species and a total of nearly 18,500 individual birds. In 2015, nearly 60,000 volunteers in the United States alone counted 646 species and more than 54.5 million individual birds.

Ducks of the genus Bucephala are commonly known by what name?

A) Goldeneyes

B) Goldfingers

C) Moonrakers

D) Spectres

Previous answer: Since 1976, Thomas Jefferson has been pictured on the front of the U.S. $2 bill.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Wednesday, December 20

Of all the nuts in the world, pecans are the one tree nut that's native to North America, growing wild throughout the United States. The nearly 400,000 acres of American pecan orchards, planted and tended by growers, produce nearly 300 million pounds of pecans a year. Americans eat about a half-pound per person per year, mostly in fall and winter, which is pecan harvest time.

Hickory, Hunk and Zeke are characters in which family film?

A) "Bambi"

B) "It's a Wonderful Life"

C) "Labyrinth"

D) "The Wizard of Oz"

Previous answer: Goldeneye ducks are members of the genus Bucephala.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Thursday, December 21

"The Icebergs" by American artist Frederic Edwin Church is a highlight in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. An arctic landscape measuring 112.5 inches across and 64.5 inches high, the painting was sold at auction in 1979 for what was then the highest price recorded for an American painting. When it was donated to the museum, shippers marked its crate "household items" hoping to make it less attractive to thieves and vandals. That scheme had the unintended consequence of making the crate look like a low-priority shipment. Thus its arrival in Dallas was delayed because it was bumped for another crate that looked more important.

There's a Titanic museum near the Harland & Wolff shipyard in what city?

A) Belfast, Northern Ireland

B) Bremerhaven, Germany

C) Glasgow, Scotland

D) Southampton, England

Previous answer: Hickory, Hunk and Zeke are the farmhands in "The Wizard of Oz."

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Friday, December 22

Kids in Iceland don't complain when they're given clothing for Christmas. New clothes — whether an entire outfit or simply a pair of socks — protect them from the evil Yule Cat who, according to legend, prowls around and eats children who don't wear new clothes for Christmas. The peculiar legend might have come from a heartfelt intention: encouraging people to donate clothing to the poor so that everyone has something new to wear at Christmas.

Which of these things do Bart Simpson and Ernest Hemingway have in common?

A) Cats named Snowball

B) Fathers named Homer

C) Grew up in Springfield

D) Sisters names Maggie and Lisa

Previous answer: There's a museum near the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Titanic was built.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Saturday, December 23

The legend of Robin Hood says that he died at a religious retreat called Kirklees Priory, where he'd gone to be healed but ended up being bled to death by the evil prioress. Before he died, he shot an arrow through the priory window and told his faithful friend Little John to bury him where the arrow landed. At Kirklees Park in West Yorkshire, England, there's a place called Robin Hood's grave, but recent radar scans have revealed there's no one buried in it.

Which country has won the most gold medals in Olympic archery competition?

A) Belgium

B) France

C) Japan

D) South Korea

Previous answer: Both Bart Simpson and Ernest Hemingway had cats named Snowball.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

WEEK OF DECEMBER 25

Monday, December 25

Myrrh resin was a versatile, valuable commodity in the ancient world. Ancient Egyptians used it for perfume, as insect repellant and for embalming bodies. Throughout history, it's been recommended for relieving symptoms of everything from gum disease to diarrhea. (Not that we're recommending this.) Medical researchers continue to investigate its anti-microbial properties for treating wounds and skin inflammations.

According to legend, how did Cleopatra have herself smuggled into Julius Caesar's palace?

A) Disguised as a soldier

B) In the Trojan Horse

C) Inside a giant cake

D) Rolled in a carpet

Previous answer: South Korea has won the most gold medals in Olympic archery competition.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Tuesday, December 26

Though there's evidence that ancient boxers wore hand protection when they fought, the boxing gloves we know today originated with a bare-knuckle boxing champion named Jack Broughton. After he unintentionally killed a ring opponent in 1741, Broughton devised rules to make boxing safer and more sportsmanlike; prohibiting a boxer from hitting a downed opponent, for example. During workouts and at the training school he ran in London (where most of the students were aristocrats), he recommended wearing what he called "mufflers" to protect hands and cushion blows.

The Boxer Rebellion was a social uprising that occurred in which country?

A) Australia

B) China

C) India

D) Russia

Previous answer: Cleopatra was rolled in a carpet and smuggled into the palace for a secret meeting with Julius Caesar.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Wednesday, December 27

If such a thing as a "best-seller" existed in the 1530s, "De civilitate morum puerilium" ("On Civility in Children") by the Dutch humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam, might qualify as the best-selling book of its time. Written in Latin for the 11-year-old son of a nobleman, the book outlines proper manners and conduct for children to prepare them for adult society. Its lessons — from warnings against fidgeting at the dinner table to recommendations for disguising a fart in polite company — remain relevant today.

Which two vegetables are the usual main ingredients in the English dish called bubble and squeak?

A) Carrots and celery

B) Okra and onions

C) Potatoes and cabbage

D) Turnips and peas

Previous answer: Led by the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, the Boxer Rebellion occurred in China.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Thursday, December 28

The nerpa, or Baikal seal, is the only seal that lives exclusively in fresh water — the water of Russia's Lake Baikal, to be specific. Smaller than most seals, Baikal seals typically grow to be about 4 to 4 1/2 feet long and weigh 140 to 160 pounds. Archaeological evidence shows they've existed in Lake Baikal for hundreds of thousands of years. The question biologists haven't yet answered is how the seals arrived in the remote, landlocked lake in the first place.

Seals, sea lions and walruses are part of which biological group?

A) Cephalopods

B) Chiroptera

C) Pinnipeds

D) Strigiformes

Previous answer: Made with potatoes and cabbage, bubble and squeak takes its name from the sound cabbage makes when it's cooking.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Friday, December 29

If you believe the TV show: America's got talent. Know who else does? Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Cambodia, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar ... There have been 70 separate local versions of the "Got Talent" TV franchise, making it, possibly, the most widely viewed reality show format in the world.

In the ancient world, what would be most likely to be measured in talents?

A) Gold

B) Fabric

C) Land

D) Wine

Previous answer: Seals, sea lions and walruses are pinnipeds, from the Greek for "fin-footed."

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].

Saturday, December 30

Lhasa apso dogs originated in Tibet, where Buddhist monks bred them as companions and watchdogs for monasteries. (Despite their small size, they're great protectors.) The breed arrived in the United States in the 1930s via explorer/adventurer Charles Suydam Cutting, who visited Tibet and received a pair of Lhasa apsos — a male named Taikoo and a female named Dinkai — as a personal gift from the 13th Dalai Lama.

Which of these is a national symbol of Tibet, not a Mac operating system?

A) Cheetah

B) Snow leopard

C) Snow lion

D) Tiger

Previous answer: In the ancient world, a talent was an increment of weight commonly used to measure precious metals.

TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].