Which irritating insect is helping us battle disease?

Scientists love studying fruit flies, especially if they’re working on genetics. Drosophila melanogaster is cheap, easy to maintain and lays lots of eggs, lots of times. Moreover, about three-quarters of human disease genes have a match in the genome of fruit flies. So, even though they are annoying, they are helping us battle neurodegenerative disorders, aging and even cancer.

Trivia question: What president’s diary entries, starting with an 1809 diplomatic trip to Russia, were so short the Massachusetts Historical Society could fit them within Twitter’s character limits?

A) John Quincy Adams

B) Ulysses Grant

C) Andrew Jackson

D) Woodrow Wilson

• Sports editor and theater critic Dick Schaap was unusual in that he could vote for both the Tony winners and the Heisman selection. Best known as a sports broadcaster, he also won five Emmys, for profiles of Sid Caesar and Tom Waddell, two for reporting, and for writing. In fact, the Emmy category for writing was renamed for him and in 2005 his own son Jeremy won for writing “Finding Bobby Fischer” for SportsCenter.

• Most actors go their entire lives without being nominated for an Oscar, let alone winning one. Then there are the people who win on their very first try. Some are Broadway stars or established singers: Julie Andrews, Shirley Jones, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Hudson, for example. Others are children, such as Tatum O’Neal and Anna Paquin. Others were unusual casting choices such as Haing Ngor, Marlee Matlin and Harold Russell. Oddly, no best actor has ever won for his first film.

• Henry Ford became something of a hero when, in 1914, he cut the workday from 9 to 8 hours and raised daily pay from $2.34 to $5, reasoning that his employees should be able to afford his cars. But as unionization came to the auto sector, he changed his mind. Even though the press were watching, in 1937 he sent a “Service Department” full of goons out to beat UAW pamphleteers in the “Battle of the Overpass.”

• They say that someday the entire country of the Maldives will get sub- merged by the Indian Ocean, thanks to global warming. If so, a restaurant called Ithaa will be ready, since it is already underwater. The world’s first underwater eatery is about 50 feet down and has a transparent acrylic roof offering a panoramic view of the sea life swimming by.

• Rice University in Houston isn’t named for the cereal grain, but for William Marsh Rice. He turned a general store into a massive financial empire worth $4 million, which was really, really massive in 1900. That was the year he was murdered in his sleep by his valet, who was working with a lawyer named Albert Patrick. That lawyer also had a forged version of Rice’s will, which would have redirected the money that founded Rice into his own pocket. They were both arrested.

Trivia answer: John Quincy Adams was very concise. 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 Paul Paquet at paul@ triviahalloffame.com or visit him online at www. triviahalloffame.com.