D'oh, and I only got number 5 of the April quiz.
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D'oh, and I only got number 5 of the April quiz.
Things are tough all over. Every industry is struggling through this sputtering economy, except maybe the liquor companies. Printed newspapers are especially suffering, with the double-whammy of the bad financial landscape as well as the fact that increasing numbers of readers prefer getting their news from electronic sources. As a result American publishers are cutting labor costs the same way other corporations do, by “outsourcing.” It sounds like a joke, but it’s true: the reporter who is covering your local school board meeting may be filing his story from India.
I knew our local newspaper, The East Hogwash Penny Pincher, was in trouble when the size of the daily edition kept shrinking faster than Posada’s batting average. The paperboy used to place the morning paper under the doormat, but lately he’s been able to stuff it through the keyhole. But the monthly subscription rate kept going up! You might say it’s a case of being a buck short, and --since the Penny Pincher seldom prints MLB box scores in a timely fashion – a day late.
Despite all that, today’s quiz is dedicated to the hard-boiled reporter with ink in his veins, a cigarette hanging out of his lips, and a little card with the word “Press” stuck into the band of his fedora (or whatever headgear is fashionable in Bangalore.) Now for a few column inches of all the snooze that’s unfit to print in this little birdcage liner which we like to call
Stop the Presses!
1. A hilarious Broadway hit about newspaper reporters spawned several movie adaptations, the best of which was His Girl Friday (1940) starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, and the ever-versatile Ralph Bellamy. What is the original title of the 1928 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur?
2. Between 1709 and 1712 Joesph Addison and Richard Steele edited early prototypes that could be considered the earliest newspapers in England. Name these two periodicals.
3. May 5, 1895 marked the first appearance of a comic in an American newspaper: asingle-panel cartoon drawn by Richard F. Outcault for the New York World. What was the
name of the recurrent character?
4. These days members of the media are often demonized for their intrusive insensitivity,but at one time they were ranked with institutions that were highly-respected in an even earlier era: the Church, the Nobility, and the Townspeople. What is the antonomastic term or collective synonym for The Press, first coined by Thomas Carlyle?
5. The annual American journalism prizes named for illustrious publisher Joseph Pulitzer began in 1917 as a way to honor exemplary editorial writing, reporting, and public service. Just a year later the number of categories swelled, including prizes for fiction, poetry, and drama. Name the playwright who received the prize for four of his plays, in the years 1920, 1922, 1928, and 1957.
6. Newspapers with a small-sized format first appeared in Great Britain, but as early as 1919 they were extremely popular with New York City patrons of commuter trains and subways. The term for this kind of daily was “originally complimentary,” but through the years they began to get a bad rep as the term began “to denote journalism which is unashamedly sensationalist and profits by appealing to the lowest instincts.” Yet today it accounts for 60% of the British newspaper market.* The term for this type of newspaper derives from the brand name for a condensed medicine. What is it?
7. He started his writing career in 1863 as a reporter for the local newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. One could say that this is where he “made a name for himself” which was what?
8. Until the 1980s, this was the collective noun for the British Press, originally the name of an underground river in central London. What was this term?
9. A classic movie from 1941 invariably lands near the top of lists of the best films ever made. The reason for this is its masterful, ground-breaking technique, but the story itself– the rise and fall of a newspaper magnate based on the life of William Randolph Hearst–is certainly no deadbeat. What is the title?
10. And finally, in journalistic circles, what does “30" mean?
Answers
1. The Front Page
2. The Tatler and The Spectator
3. “The Yellow Kid”
4. The Fourth Estate
5. Eugene O’Neill
6. Tabloid
7. Samuel L. Clemens aka “Mark Twain”
8. Fleet Street
9. Citizen Kane
10. “The End”
*Quoted from The Oxford Companion to the English Language, edited by Tom McArthur. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, page 1019.
My degree is in journalism, Auntie, even so I only got 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 correct.
Excellent quiz, as usual! Thank you so much for doing these.
Thank you, qimissung, for taking these quizzes and commenting. Hope you're not the only one!
Up next, a quiz inspired in part by Dark Muse's blog:
This time of year is an exciting one for fans the Sport of Kings, as it’s the season for outstanding three-year-old colts to vie for the Triple Crown, even though there isn't going to be a Triple Crown champion this year. The last time we had one? Don't ask. Even so, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, “Animal Kingdom,” will try to beat “Shackleford,” the Preakness Champ, in the last jewel in the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, on Long Island, NY.
Apart from fast-running steeds, a somewhat less speedy member of the animal kingdom made news this week. “Tex,” of Knoxville, Tennessee who hasn't had female companionship for over twenty years, is finally going to have a date–no mean feat for a 550-lb tortoise who is 130 years “young.” Since Tex is not all that Internet savvy, he couldn't access online dating services, so his handlers sprayed him with some after-shave and hooked him up with an Atlanta belle named “Corky.” Now comes the hard part–when Tex has to pin a corsage on Corky’s shell. Hmmm–wonder what their first date will be. Maybe Tex will take her to the Belmont.
If you haven't already guessed, this week’s bungle in the jungle features our fellow creatures as they relate to literature and pop culture. Let’s try to learn something from our betters as we zoom in on the zoo which we like to call
Critters, Litters, and Letters
1. What does the mnemonic sentence: “King Phillip Came Over From Germany Saturday” help us remember?
2. Although born in the Midwest, this distinctive American poet (1887-1972) relocated to NYC, home of the Bronx Zoo, which inspired works such as “The Fish,” “The Monkeys,” and “The Pangolin.” Who was this poet?
3. At a special event in Oxford, an undergraduate approached the guest of honor and asked him what he meant when he wrote the line: “Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree.” He responded, “I mean ‘Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree.’ “ Who was this poet, born in the same place as the poet in question #2?
4. Name the specific type of allegory which features real or fabulous creatures such as the phoenix or the unicorn, used to illustrate human flaws and virtues, for example, the medieval Reynard the Fox, Chanticleer in Chaucer’s “Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” and the talking animals in Kipling’s Just So Stories.
5. What is the creature from the Old Testament whose name roughly translates as “That which gathers itself together in folds,” interpreted through the centuries as a sea serpent, a whale, or a crocodile, and, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, symbolizes envy?
6. Who was the naturalist (1809-1882) whose painstaking research unwittingly caused controversy even to this day, with his innocuous descriptions such as “A hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits?”
7. A New York newspaper man, Don Marquis, created a humorous character who committed his philosophical observations to paper when the office was empty and the world was asleep. Funny thing, though, “archy” typed all of his musings in lower-case letters. Why?
8. Name the Yorkshire county veterinarian (1916-1995) who wrote a series of best-selling non-fiction books about his practice all with titles culled from an English hymn?
9. “The Hind and the Panther” is a 1687 poem which, including the two creatures in the title, uses a bear, a wolf, an ape, a boar, and a fox to represent various contentious religious sects. Who is the author of this politically-charged work designed to promote reconciliation?
10. And finally, an original science fiction novel by French author Pierre Boulle formed the basis for a highly-popular 1968 movie and its numerous sequels. What was the title of the first film version?
Answers:
1. Classification system for living things:
Kingdom,
Phylum,
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus,
Species.
2. Marianne Moore
3. T. S. Eliot
4. Bestiary (or beast fable)
5. Leviathan
6. Charles Darwin
7. archy was a cockroach, so he couldn't reach the shift key to make upper case letters.
8. James Alfred Wight (“James Herriot”)
9. Click here for answer.
10. Planet of the Apes
Oh, I only got 6, 7, and 8. I Always think I'm fairly smart until I take these, Aunty. :)
I got 3,4, 6, and 9 correct. A poor score! :(
Ouch. Have these quizzes gotten this much harder since I've stopped taking them? Maybe my brain has atrophied; maybe there is some financial incentive involved now and easy answers just won't do. I only got 5, 6, 8, and 10.
I guessed "fable" (after Aesop) for number 4, but I'm glad to now know the term "bestiary." I know Leviathan well, and I like the interpretation of him as a whale, and all the musings and Biblical quotations on that topic in "Moby Dick."
I knew Darwin was the answer for number 6 because I've actually heard this quote in a lecture before, which described the skirmish of words between Matthew Arnold ("that levite of culture") and Huxley (Darwin's bulldog). Arnold is famous for saying (after directly quoting the Darwin line you printed above), of that hairy quadruped, "there must have been something in him that inclined him to Greek." I've taken a lot of care in trying to understand the profundity of that notion. :)
I only knew James Herriot because I've seen that name on the spines of books countless times in bookstores everywhere! I also gave "All Creatures Great and Small" to an animal loving girlfriend once.
I guessed Blake for number 9 and was disappointed.
Thanks again for the quiz Auntie.