• It was famed journalist and news anchor Edward R. Murrow who made the following sage observation: “Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”

• According to news reports, hundreds of people have been trekking to the remote Indonesian village of Curugsewu to see a new addition to its rather primitive zoo: a recently captured python. This isn’t just any serpent, however; at 990 pounds and 49 feet long, it’s the largest snake ever to be kept in captivity. It begs the question: How exactly do you go about catching a python of such immense size?

• As summer approaches, you might want to keep in mind the fact that there are 1,500 known species of fleas and 9,500 known species of ants. Then again, that might be a factoid you’d rather forget.

• Actor Tom Cruise attended 15 different schools when he was growing up.

(c) 2008 King Features