Trivia Bits, February 7

"Country" towns of the week: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Mexico, Peru and China, all within about 100 miles of each other in Maine. A famous signpost in Lynchville shows the distances to all of these towns, plus a few "foreign city" towns like Paris and Naples. (Thanks to Douglas Hodgkin of Lewiston, Maine.)

Why did Old West saloons have swinging doors? Our research is inconclusive. One source says that many saloons weren't sturdy enough to have doorframes. Another says this was a Hollywood invention, which allowed for patrons to enter, and rowdy patrons to be thrown out, in a visually interesting manner. What's the truth? If you can help, please let us know.

The word "robot" was first appeared in the 1921 play "R.U.R." by Czech writer Karel Capek. The word was coined by the author's brother Josef. The word "robotics," the science and technology of robots, was coined by:
A) Thomas Edison
B) Albert Einstein
C) Isaac Asimov
D) Stephen Hawking

Previous answer: No vice president of the past 50 years had previously been Speaker of the House. Nelson Rockefeller (Ford's V.P.) had been governor of New York, current V.P. Dick Cheney was once Secretary of Defense, and Hubert Humphrey (Johnson's V.P.) had been mayor of Minneapolis.

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 [e-mail] or on a postcard to P.O. Box 69, Massapequa Park, NY 11762.