I love trivia. While reading various books on various subjects over varying periods of time, I always come across some interesting tidbits of informationtrivial food for thought, all of which make me wonder things such as, how, what, when, where, why, and what if.

Did you know that in:

50 A.D. the Romans invented soap? How did they stay clean before thator did they?

453 A.D. Attila the Hun died from a nosebleed on his wedding night? His wife must have been something. I wonder what she looked like?

700 A.D. the Chinese invented the brassiere? Ive spent most of my life trying to put them on and take them off. Not a pretty picture.

1094 gondolas appeared in Venice? Probably because the senior citizens of Venice were finding it more difficult to swim from neighbor to neighbor.

1904 a woman was arrested in New York for smoking in public? I wonder what she was smoking.

Its fun to jot down trivial, historic events. I get most of them from the newspaper and old textbooks. Some of my students share their findings with me, as do friends. In any case, all types of unique, historic information always conjures up more questions in my mind, which sends me to the archives to do more research, resulting in more writing opportunities.

Copyright 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.