Has the character of Superman always been able to fly?

So, how did you do?

Last week, of course, was the annual April Fool’s column, where three of the items were faked, and you had to find them. The correct responses are:

1. Chameleons – they don’t change their colors primarily to camouflage themselves. Their skin color is like a 1970s Mood Ring – it reflects their feelings, the ambient temperature, and the light hitting the chameleon.

2. The “iron maiden” torture device probably did not even exist in medieval times, much less kill people. The device is now believed to have been a hoax perpetrated by a couple of writers back in the 1700s.

3. Napoleon Bonaparte was not short. In fact, he stood five feet, seven inches tall – an inch or so taller than the average Frenchman of his day. You can ascribe his conquering personality to anything else you like.

That’s our annual exercise in trivial nonsense, and if you got all three, give yourself a cookie! You earned it.

Now let’s move on to this week’s trivia, all verified 100% accurate by yours truly (until one of you finds an error, that is).

Did you know …

… Germans eat more chocolate than Americans? The average German consumes 114 chocolate bars annually, while the average American consumes less than half that number – only 51. (I bet we enjoy it more, though.)

… fortune cookies are not a Chinese invention? The popular vanilla-flavored folded cookie with a “fortune” inside, which tops off every Chinese dinner you can think of, was invented by Makoto Hagiwara (1854-1925), a landscape designer from Japan. He created the cookies while operating a Japanese tea garden restaurant in San Francisco, California, in the late 1890s. (I’m still waiting for the fortune that says, “Help! I’m being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory!”)

… the idea for a mega-hit movie series came about in a nightmare? James Cameron (born 1954), a writer and director, was in Rome in 1982 working on a film called “Piranha II: The Spawning.” Cameron became ill with food poisoning and, one night during his illness, he had a vivid nightmare about an invincible hit man from the future sent to kill him. Cameron remembered the dream and turned it into the script for “The Terminator.” (Fans of that movie series are probably glad Cameron didn’t just take an antacid or something.)

… it’s against the law in Massachusetts to eat peanuts in court? (If you do, the fine isn’t just peanuts, I’m sure.)

… Superman originally could not fly? Created in 1938 by two Cleveland, Ohio men, Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) and Joe Shuster (1914-1992), the comic book superhero was originally described as having the power to “leap tall buildings in a single bound” – but not flight, as he had to come back down and jump again. It wasn’t until the character was being animated by Paramount Pictures in the 1940s that flying became one of his powers. That came about because the animators figured it would be too much trouble to draw him bending his knees over and over again. The editors at DC Comics agreed, and Superman could suddenly defy Earth’s gravity at will. Additional trivia note: In the first edition of “Action Comics,” the one in which Superman makes his debut, mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent – the superhero’s alter-ego – goes to work for the Cleveland Star, a real newspaper at the time. The fictional Metropolis Daily Planet came later. (Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … a broad jump?)

… a criminal got his nickname from the FBI? Theodore Kaczynski (born 1942), who pleaded guilty in 1998 to a string of bombings that left 27 people dead between 1978 and 1995, was given the nickname “Unabomber” by the FBI. The nickname came from his earliest victims – universities (Un) and airlines (A). Additional trivia note: Kaczynski is housed in Florence, Colorado, at the ADX Florence, a “supermax” prison. He is serving eight consecutive life prison sentences, without the possibility of parole. (Good.)

… a noted author was gifted a year’s salary just so she could write? Harper Lee (1926-2016) was finding it difficult to balance her work and her writing in 1956, and she confided her concerns to some dear friends. The friends gave Lee a full year’s salary so she could quit her job and concentrate on her writing, and it turned out to be a great idea – Lee used the time to write the classic “To Kill A Mockingbird.” (Can you imagine the trivia I’d turn out if somebody did that for me?)

… books like the “Farmers Almanac” have a hole through them for a reason? The books were made that way so they could be hung on hooks or nails inside outhouses. (I’ll let you take it from there.)

… the only continent on Earth that does not have a McDonald’s restaurant is Antarctica? (Granted, the requirements for a freezer would be easy to meet, but…)

… a famous martial arts actor was very, very fast? In a speed demonstration, Bruce Lee (1940-1973) once snatched a dime out of a person’s open palm before the person could close his hand – and left a penny in the dime’s place. (Uh, keep the change, Mr. Lee.)

… Earth is home to more than 100,000 different species of butterflies? (And they’re all beautiful, too!)

… wine can be fortified? Not necessarily with vitamins and minerals, though. Fortified wine means that spirits, usually brandy, were added to the wine during its fermentation. This raises the alcohol content of the wine. (Drink enough wine and you’re fortified, too.)

Now … you know!

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