On a trip to school re­cently, I drove past a lovely pasture as the cows and calves grazed in the sunrise. 

My daughter looked out the car window and exclaimed: “Did you know that there are more pigs than people in Iowa?”

Of course, she is right. That’s been true at least since the 1850 Census, four years after Iowa achieved statehood. 

It seems my daughter has inherited her mom’s ability to keep random facts in her memory (a skill that will prove useful when she’s a future “Jeopardy” champion). 

She didn’t discover this fun fact from her usual go-to source, YouTube. 

Instead, she...