Do you like trivia questions? Try these:

In what country of the world are the most Bic pens sold per capita? What has replaced the 44 revolver as the Great Equalizer in the West? What unique design appears on Sears, Roebuck's best-selling women's shirts?

The answers: Bic pens are most popular in Zaire. In that African country, however, people don't write with most of the Bic pens - they wear them. Any man who can scrape together an extra $2.00 will buy a half dozen pens and stick them all in his shirt pocket. It's a status symbol, a symbol that he can read and write, even if he can't; and that he has a white-collar job, even if he doesn't.

Western outfitters report that ordinary men who 100 years ago would have worn a gun so others might think of them as more than ordinary, are today we…