Word of the week: “paraph.” It is a handwritten flourish made under a person’s signature, once popularly used as a forgery deterrent. Some famous Americans whose autograph often included a paraph: John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Sam Houston and Samuel Morse.

n “Trivia Wanted” Category of the Month: Literature. Being a mathematician/statistician by academic training and a reader of nonfiction almost exclusively, your humble trivia author admits to a less-than-deep familiarity with the world of literature. So if you’ve know some fun facts on the subject, and long to see your name and hometown in newspapers throughout this great land, please let us know.

Mungo Park will be found as an entry in standard reference sources as:

A) A Scottish-born African explorer

B) An Australian soccer arena

C) A Korean-born Nobel Prize winner

D) A Canadian wildlife preserve

Friday’s answer: The two films whose entire credited cast was nominated for Academy Awards: “Give ’em Hell, Harry!” (James Whitmore) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis). (Thanks to Alan Dunn of Bellingham, Wash.)