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11/28/2004: Yet Another Trivia Quiz....
though this one's a bit shorter; I'm still recuperating from my cold (though yes, I feel much better, thanks for asking). Answers Tuesday evening.
1) Name the original 7 Mercury astronauts. (Minimum acceptable answer is, of course, their names; extra credit for their ranks and branches of service as well...)
2) And just for the hell of it, what are the original Mercury astronauts doing now? (i.e., if the astronaut is deceased, say so (extra credit for naming the cause of death and/or date of death); if the astronaut is still alive, what is he doing for a living?)
3) It is possible to configure Google automatically to translate retrieved web pages into any one of a number of languages you choose. One of those language choices is "Bork Bork Bork". What is the origin of this "language"?
4) Annoyed by magazine subscription cards (you know, the ones that fall out of the pages of the magazine like a bad case of dandruff)? Bet you don't know who invented them.... Want to prove me wrong?
5) What was the original purpose for which Lysol was marketed? Hint: I doubt you'll ever find anyone using it for this purpose.
6) There's a mountan in Jordan called Jebel Musa. At the base of this mountain is a monastery, and in the monastery the monks keep a fire extinguisher next to the monastery's most prized possession. What is that possession?
7) Who was Kimba Wood, and why did she have her 15 minutes of fame?
8) A legal question: in 1893 Justice Gray, writing for a majority of the United States Supreme Court, established an important precedent in botanical law in his opinion for the Court in the case of Nix v. Heddon. What critical precedent did he establish?
9) Remember the late 70's sitcom What's Happening? I've been trying to forget it all this time myself. And one of the things I've been trying to forget is this: how did the character Fred Stubbs (played by fellow St. Louis native Fred Berry) get his nickname, "Rerun"?
10) British actor Jonathan Hartman has tried out many times, all unsuccessfully, to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. Finally, he's devised a plan, albeit a weird one, eventually to succeed in achieving his life's ambition of appearing in an RSC production. What is that plan?
11) EXTRA SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SEASON BONUS QUESTION: What is the connection between country singer "C.W. McCall" (former Omaha adman Bill Fries), who reached number one on both Billboard's pop and country charts in 1976, and everyone's favorite New Age Christmas Music Mavens, Mannheim Steamroller?
Len on 11.28.04 @ 08:08 PM CST
Replies: 5 comments
on Monday, November 29th, 2004 at 6:41 AM CST, rlrr said
5) Feminine hygiene product.
on Monday, November 29th, 2004 at 1:19 PM CST, Len Cleavelin said
I'll take that, though I wasn't thinking euphemistically...
on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 12:23 AM CST, SadPunk said
1. Off the top of my head: Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Alan Shepard... that's all I can think of right now.
2. Grissom is dead; that's all I know of as of today. Glenn, of course, had a mich-publicized return to space in the late 90s at age 77.
3. The Swedish Chef on the old "Muppet Show."
10. I'll take an educated guess that he wants to play Yorick in a production of "Hamlet." I.e., have his skull used as a prop for the famous "Alas, poor Yorick!/I knew him, Horatio" speech.
That's all I got.
on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 12:24 AM CST, SadPunk said
#2 should read "much-publicized," not "mich." Duh.
on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 9:26 AM CST, Len Cleavelin said
Ok... on (1) that's four out of the seven; if you think of the remaining three before this evening you can, of coure, return and finish the list. :-) And for (2), Grissom is dead (I'll not state cause of death yet in case anyone decides to answer that one), and surely you remember what post-NASA career John Glenn retired from in 1999. :-)
As to (3), right on! The World-Famous Swedish Chef is the one! Bork! Bork! Bork!
And on (10) I'll give it to you. AFAIK, Hartman is still alive, but he's apparently (according to my sources, at least), written a will bequeathing his skull to the RSC to be used as the skull of Yorick in productions of Hamlet.
Good job!