This Useless But Compelling Fact question is a North American geographic conundrum in two parts.

First, on a standard U.S. English language keyboard (QWERTY), what is the only State in the United States that can be typed using letters on only one row?

Second, when one looks at a map of the United States, name the States that are the farthest North, South, East and West.

Good luck!

Last month, on an arts & sciences theme, we focused on science and asked you to identify the scientific discovery associated with February 18th that was subsequently overturned in 2006. We asked you to tell us what the discovery was, who discovered it and what happened?

Guess who was first with all the right answers! None other than good friend, long-time Legal Bytes reader and a senior executive with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Mark S. Frankel. Congratulations.

Mark correctly told us that while Pluto, the ninth planet in the solar system, was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18th, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and ‘plutoid’ in 2006.

Runner-up kudos goes to another friend and loyal reader, Samuel J. Dressler; who was a friend growing up in Washington Heights, a fraternity brother in university and remains a distant friend to this day. Sam noted that the name Pluto was first suggested by an 11-year-old English girl named Venetia Burney. The suggestion fit with the unofficial practice of giving planets the name of a Roman God (Pluto is the Roman God of the underworld). Coincidentally the name starts with the initials of the Planet X crusader, Percival Lowell, among other things, an astronomer best remembered as a key proponent of the notion that there were canals on Mars, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and who is widely credited with being responsible for starting the work that ultimately led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Thank you Samuel!

I can’t resist also giving an honorable mention to another good friend, David A. VanderNaalt, one whom I have known since my days at American Express, for sending me this:

Thanks Dave!

Continuing with our date related trivia themes, February 18th (yesterday) is an interesting day for Arts & Sciences in history.

On the 18th of February in 1564, Michelangelo Buonarotti, the famed Italian painter, sculptor and architect, died. On this same date in 1885, Samuel L. Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, coming on the heels of his successful book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Now those are the art factoids.

In science, however, February 18th has a discovery – that also has a somewhat unique fact – with which it is associated. The discovery, made in 1930, was subsequently overturned and determined to be incorrect in 2006.

What was the discovery, who discovered it and what happened to it?

OK. OK. So it’s been a while. . . But trivia, like rock ‘n roll, never dies. So back in August, we asked a number of trivia questions about Augustus Caesar. As you will see below, only one person got the answers all correct and so here is what he told us – embellished a bit by yours truly.

First (and easiest) the name of the month in the Roman calendar before it was called August was Sextilis. Next, Augustus Caesar was actually born Gaius Octavius Thurinus on September 23, 63 BCE. He was referred to as Octavius, but after being adopted by Julius Caesar, he was called Gaius Julius Caesar Octavius. Octavius’ mother was Atia Balba Caesonia, a niece of Julius Caesar and thus Octavius was the grandson of Julius Caesar’s sister. When Octavius’ father died, Julius Caesar adopted Octavius and changed his name. You never learned this in Shakespearean English classes did you?

Subsequently, when the Roman Senate conferred the title of ‘Augustus’ upon him, he was known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus. Although Augustus was never crowned as Emperor, the Roman Senate did bestow a permanent title of ‘Imperatur’ or Commander-in-Chief upon him. Although ruthless to his enemies (and suspected enemies), Augustus is widely regarded as the leader who gave Rome its Golden Age, but heralded the onset of a long period of internal peace in the Roman Empire – sometimes called Pax Romana or Pax Augusta – lasting more than 200 years and ending with the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE.

The winner of our August contents is our very own GALA member, colleague and friend from Australia, Peter Le Guay, partner at Thomsons Lawyers, who got every single part of the answer correct – ok, I had to prod a little, but he did. Congratulations Peter!