STRANGE BUT TRUE

• It was 17th-century French author Francois de la Rochefoucauld who made the following sage observation: “It is more often from pride than from ignorance that we are so obstinately opposed to current opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do not want to be the last.”

• You probably know that Robert E. Lee was a general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and that he ultimately surrendered the war to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the courthouse at Appomattox, Va. You might not know, though, that Lee had a pet hen that traveled with him everywhere. It’s said that the chi...