So last night we rented the first three episodes of the HBO series "Six Feet Under," about a dysfunctional family of undertakers -- er, death care specialists. So I was naturally drawn to this rather silly article about Ronald Reagan's mortician. And then this passage jumped out at me:

For Reagan mortician, the 'honor of a lifetime' / Longtime devotee's dignified sendoff: "He served in Germany as an embalmer of Americans killed overseas. It was there when he met his wife, a Czech who didn't speak a word of English."

File under "totally useless factoids."