Know It All

A person who studies fish is called an ichthyologist.

***

The card game Canasta uses 108 cards — two packs of cards plus four jokers. Pinochle uses 48 cards — two packs of cards, but cards lower than nine are not used.

***

A tightrope walker is called a funambulist.

***

Variants of the Cinderella fairy tale have been told for more than 1,000 years. In some early versions of the story, there is no fairy godmother. Cinderella’s dress and shoes comes from a tree that grows on her mother’s grave.

***

An average avocado tree produces about 120 avocados annually.

***

The first sentence of the Dickens (1812-1870) novel “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859) is “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Do you know what era the sentence refers to? Can you name the two cities? See answer at end.

***

The first ads for SPAM, the “miracle meat in a can,” were done by Gracie Allen (1895-1964) and George Burns (1896-1996) on their hit radio show in the 1950s.

***

During the 1975 Western Open golf tournament in Chicago, professional golfer Lee Trevino (born 1939) was struck by lightning.

***

King Henry VIII (1491-1547), ruler of England from 1509 to 1547, was married six times. He married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1526), in 1509. His sixth wife was Catherine Parr (1512-1548) whom he married in 1543.

***

The tonophone was the precursor to the jukebox. It was the first coin-operated piano, invented in 1896.

***

Scripps National Spelling Bee was first held in 1925. The competition is open to students under 16 years of age. The purpose of the spelling bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies and develop correct English usage.

***

The name Velcro is derived from the first syllables of the words velvet and crochet.

***

Detective Lt. Mike Stone, played by Karl Malden (1912-2009), and his partner Inspector Steve Keller, played by Michael Douglas (born 1944), solved crimes together on the television police drama “The Streets of San Francisco” (1972-1977). The detective always called his much younger partner “buddy boy.”

***

Answer: The sentence refers to the French Revolution. The two cities named in the title are London and Paris. The last line in the novel is “ It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend edition of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? Email knowitall(at)smdailyjournal.com or call 344-5200 ext. 128.