By Sam Wein

For hundreds of years, stealing and butchering another person’s livestock was a common crime, but it was hard to prove, unless the thief was caught with the dead animal and blood on his hands, or “caught red-handed.”

That little lump of flesh forward of your ear canal next to your forehead is called a “tragus.”

The aardvark has such a well-developed sense of hearing that it can detect and locate distant ants on a nighttime march.

The first million-selling record was “Dardanella/ I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” by Ben Selvin, Victor Records, in 1919.

Sammy Davis Jr. was once billed as “Silent Sam, The Dancing Midget” while performing with the Will Maston Trio.

In A.D. 1148, knights returning from the Crusades brought sugar to Europe.

Mickey Mouse, originally named Mortimer Mouse, was created by Ub Iwerks, but credited to Walt Disney, who did his film voice. In 1938, Mussolini banned all American comics except for Mickey Mouse.

“The Stars and Stripes Forever,” a march composed by John Philip Sousa, was originally a traditional song played by circus bands as a distress signal to warn circus performers that there is an emergency.

During his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair.

Symposium is a Greek term for “drinking together.” At a symposium the guests elected a leader who decided whether to drink the wine neat or mixed, and whether to drink little or much.

Since 1912, Cracker Jack has given away more than 16 billion toys.

“Big cheese” and “big wheel” are medieval terms of envious respect for those who could afford to buy whole wheels of cheese at a time, which were too expensive for the average citizen. Both terms are often used sarcastically today.

A mature, well established termite colony with as many as 60,000 members will eat only about 1/5 of an ounce of wood a day.

In 1686, a gentleman’s magazine described a good way to fool a hound and prolong a foxhunt: drag a dead cat across the trail to mask the fox’s scent. If no cat was available drag a red herring, because a smoked and salted red herring’s odor will also mask the fox’s scent. Therefore, a fake clue deliberately exposed to deceive is called a “red herring.”

Sam Wein is a Los Altos resident and trivia connoisseur.