Trivia

“The Star Spangled Banner” didn’t become a national anthem until Herbert Hoover said OK.

Maybe you’ve read that chocolate contains phenylethylamine, the same chemical that perks up the heartbeats of lovers. The report, I suspect, came from the sellers of chocolate. It should’ve come from the sellers of salami. That has about three times as much phenylethylamine.

Earliest candles of record in the western world were invented by Mediterranean sheepherders. They burned them. And ate them. “How gross!” thought the Romans, who’d drink almost anything but not the oil from their fancy lamps.