TRIVIA BITS

Which spice is made from the dried, ground fruits of the Capsicum annuum plant?

A) Cumin

B) Ginger

C) Nutmeg

D) Paprika

“The Forme of Cury,” a cookbook compiled around 1390 by the master cooks in the household of King Richard II of England, contains nearly 200 recipes, handwritten on parchment. They run the gamut from “caboches in potage” (cabbage soup), “flaumpeyns” (pork and cheese pies) and “peeres in confyt” (pears in red wine and mulberry syrup) to dishes we’d never consider today. Furmente with porpeys (cracked wheat with porpoise), anyone?

The United States Postal Service keeps a list of towns with Christmasy names, from Angeles, Puerto Rico, to Wiseman, Arizona, with 11 Hopes, one Joy, two Faiths, six Evergreens, two Bells, a bunch of Garlands, a Santa Claus (in Indiana) and a Christmas (in Florida) among them. This is useful information if you want to add appropriately themed postmarks to your Christmas cards and packages.

African giant pouched rats put their keen senses of smell to work sniffing out buried landmines in former battle zones in Africa and Asia. The rats are uniquely suited for the job because they can cover a lot of ground quickly and they’re too light to set off the mines. Belgian nonprofit group APOPO, which trains them for landmine work, also trains rats to sniff out medical conditions, such as tuberculosis.

Answer: Paprika is made from the dried, ground fruits of the Capsicum annuum pepper plant.