Tricks, Treats And Garlic

This Halloween, add garlic to your costume: According to European folklore, adorning your neck with a wreath of garlic (Allium sativum) protects against the "evil eye," wards off snakes' fangs and scorpion stingers, and makes witches and vampires disappear on sight. Not bad for a bulb. Test your garlic "breadth" with this quick quiz:

  1. As recently as 1918, Americans wore garlic garlands in public to protect against:
    a) warts b) industrial pollutants c) leprosy d) influenza
  2. Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly ate three chocolate-covered garlic cloves daily to improve her:
    a) memory b) muscle tone c) eyesight d) skin quality
  3. Last year, Americans consumed garlic in the amount of:
    a) 300 thousand pounds b) 30 million pounds c) 300 million pounds d) 3 billion pounds
  4. Modern medicine lauds garlic for:
    a) lowering cholesterol b) warding off certain cancers c) reducing heart-disease risk d) all of the above
  5. To reduce garlic breath, try chewing on:
    a) sprigs of parsley b) apple slices c) sugarless gum d) fresh mint leaves
  6. Fresh garlic is best stored:
    a) in the refrigerator b) in a plastic bag c) in terra cotta pots or mesh bags d) in an airtight container
  7. Garlic is a good source of:
    a) vitamin B1 b) vitamin C c) selenium d) all of the above
  8. According to a Yiddish saying, "A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you ..."
    a) thrown off b) a seat c) a free ride d) a date

—Elisa Bosley

Answers: 1d, 2a, 3c, 4d, 5a, 6c, 7d, 8b