Know It All

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American tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard (1833-1901) invented the tuxedo. In 1886, Lorillard attended a formal ball in a new style of formal wear he designed himself. Lorillard dubbed it a tuxedo, named after Tuxedo Park, N.Y., where he owned 13,000 acres.

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The last word in most dictionaries is zyzzyva, a tropical American weevil that is destructive to plants.

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According to a survey of teenagers, two out of three boys believe they will make $1 million by age 40. One out of three girls believe the same thing.

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Dick Van Dyke (born 1925) plays Rob Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show” (1961-1966). Rob writes for a television show. Do you remember the name of the show and his co-workers’ names? See answer at end.

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A wealthy industrialist purchases an island he wants to develop, but his plans go awry when he discovers the island is cursed by voodoo, complete with man-eating plants and zombies. It is the plot of the campy B-movie "Voodoo Island” (1957) starring Boris Karloff (1887-1969).

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The tall white hats that chefs wear are called toque blanche, meaning white hat in French. The hats are tall, pleated and rounded at the top.

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Some tips for cooking cauliflower: Place a piece of stale bread on top of the cooking cauliflower to stop the house from smelling. Cook cauliflower with a strip of lemon peel to keep the cauliflower from changing color.

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The average cow produces 90 glasses of milk per day.

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Anne Francis Robbins was born in 1921. After her parents were divorced, she took the last name of her stepfather, Loyal Davis (1896-1982). After college, she became an actress under the stage name Nancy Davis. She married Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) in 1952, and has been named Nancy Reagan ever since.

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Both John Travolta (born 1954) and John Denver (1943-1997) were offered the lead role in the 1982 movie "An Officer and a Gentleman.” They turned it down so Richard Gere (born 1949) got the part of Officer-in-training Zack Mayo.

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David Smith Jr., nicknamed "The Bullet,” set the world record in 1998 for farthest human cannonball flight. He was shot 181 feet, 1 inch at a speed of about 70 mph.

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In the third century, BC Greek scholar and astronomer Eratosthenes (275BC-195BC) accurately measured, without instruments, the circumference and tilt of the Earth and its distance from the sun and moon.

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Winston Churchill (1874-1965), prime minister of Britain during World War II, won the 1953 Nobel Prize in literature for his book "The Second World War.” The six-volume book series took five years to complete (1948-1953).

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Answer: Rob writes for the fictional Alan Brady Show along with co-workers Buddy and Sally, played by Morey Amsterdam (1908-1996) and Rose Marie (born 1923). Petrie’s boss was Mel Cooley, played by Richard Deacon (1921-1984). Alan Brady was played by Carl Reiner (born 1922).

Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? E-mail knowitall@smdailyjournal.com or call 344-5200 x114.