Auntie's Quiz O' the Week

[papayahed]

alll riiigghhtt I got 7, although I am kicking myself for not getting 2 and 4.

[AuntShecky]

[The answer to last week’s Bonus Question is: Barrett Strong.]


The real life generosity of legendary comedian Jack Benny belied his shtick as a tightwad. In a famous sketch, a robber demanded “Your money or your life!” The only response was silence, and as the pause grew longer and longer, the laughter from the studio audience grew louder and louder. After what – in broadcast terms – seemed like an eternity, Benny finally spoke: “I'm thinking! I'm thinking!”

To the quiz:

1. What is the unit of currency which is the medium of exchange in Ireland, Germany, Austria and nine other countries?

2. What did the Roman satirist Horace say to do: if not “honestly,” then “somehow”?

3. Name the title of the work by the Scottish writer Adam Smith extolling the virtues of a “laissez faire” economic system.

4. Which character in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is described as having “a voice full of money”?

5. Who is the French novelist who wrote about “the majestic egalitarianism of the law, which forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread”?

6. Name the character from Greek mythology who could change everything he physically touched into gold.

7. Who is the NY Times columnist awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008?

8. In which Shakespearean play does a money lender demand a pound of flesh as payment for an overdue loan?

9. Name the Italian film director whose movies include
A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.

10. Who was the writer who first used the phrase “the haves and have-nots”? (Hint: His work first appeared in the early 17th century, and the language he used was not English.)

11. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, it’s easier for what to happen than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

12. And finally, complete the title of this humor book by Jean Shepherd: “In God We Trust -----“



Answers:
1. The Euro.
2. make money
3. The Wealth of Nations
4. Daisy Buchanan
5. Anatole France
6. King Midas
7. Paul Krugman
8. The Merchant of Venice
9. Sergio Leone
10. Cervantes
11. “. . .for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.”
12. “All Others Pay Cash”

BONUS QUESTION, whose answer contains a hint about the next topic, which will be revealed in the posting of the next quiz:

Complete this line from the first chorus of the song “Ain’t We Got Fun” (Whiting-Kahn-Egan):

“The rich get rich and the poor get —“ (what?)

[papayahed]

oh, I only got four correct.

[Virgil]

Lets see, I got 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11. I got seven right.

[PabloQ]

I tied with Virgil - 1,3,6,8,9,11,12

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie. I got numbers 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 outright. And maybe you will give partial credit for answering number 4 as Mia Farrow.

[Niamh]

1, 2, 8, 10...

[Pendragon]

1, 6, 8, 11, 12. 5/12 Poorly!

[Virgil]

1, 6, 8, 11, 12. 5/12 Poorly!

Pen I would say that's roughly average. That's what I normally get on the quizes. I did a little better this time but I don't think it was typical.

[AuntShecky]

The answer to last week’s bonus question is: children.

It’s been said that having children is a blessing. Well, hearing about the California woman who recently gave birth to octuplets made me count my blessings. Number one on the list is I'm glad that poor lady isn't me. To the quiz:

These Kids Today, I'll Tell Ya!

1. Name the song from the musical Bye, Bye Birdie containing the line: “Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?”

2. What is the 1959 German novel by Gunther Grass in which the narrator/protagonist is so emotionally traumatized by the Nazis that he refuses to grow up beyond age 3?

3. Many of us are familiar with the eternal child, Peter Pan, via the animated Disney movie and the Richard Rodgers musical which starred Mary Martin in the title role. Who was the playwright who wrote the original 1902 dramatic fantasy?

4. Name the 18th century portrait artist whose most famous painting is Blue Boy.

5. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s daughter is described as an “outcast of the infantile world.” What’s the little girl’s name?

6. The 1949 movie, The Fallen Idol, stars Ralph Richardson as a butler whose duties include caring for a boy who admires him to the point of obsession, that when circumstances seem to frame the servant for murder, the kid fabricates alibis which only serve to implicate his idol further. Name the versatile 20th century British author who wrote both the screenplay and the short story upon which this fictional dilemma was based.

7. Which orphan created by Dickens famously – and naively – asked for “some more” gruel?

8. Which song composed by Hoagy Carmichael contains these lyrics by the great Frank Loesser: “Stay in shallow water” and “You ain’t the biggest catfish in the sea”?

9. Name the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson historical novel whose adventures include a shipwreck, a murder, and a miserly character who wasn’t created by Dickens, though his name was Ebeneezer.

10. The movie version of a childhood classic once infamously pre-empted an NFL telecast at a crucial point in the progress of the game. What was its title which will forever live in infamy among long-time football fans?

11. Name the 1901 Kipling novel about an Irish orphan raised in India.

12. The bustling life of a burgeoning family raised by parents who also happened to be industrial engineers formed the basis for film versions starring Clifton Webb in the earlier version and Steve Martin in the remake. What is the title shared by the original memoir and both movies?


Answers
1. “Kids”
2. The Tin Drum
3. J. M. Barrie
4. Thomas Gainsborough
5. Pearl
6. Graham Greene
7. Oliver Twist
8. “Small Fry”
9. Kidnapped
10. Heidi
11. Kim
12. Cheaper By the Dozen
BONUS QUESTION containing a clue about the next topic: Complete the title of this bouncy song introduced in 1937 in the Marx Brothers classic
A Day at the Races :

“All God’s Children Got —“ (what?)

[PabloQ]

Number to shoot for is 8. I missed 4, 5, 8, and 12.

[Pendragon]

Only got 3.7,9, and 11

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie. I got numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, and 12.

I should have gotten 9 right too, but I said David Balfour instead.

And I got number 12 by only seeing the original with Clifton Webb, as I refuse to see the remake.

[Virgil]

Oh my, this was my worst showing yet. I only got two, 2 and 11. I should have gotten The Scarlet Letter one. I guess it's been too long since I read it. I can't believe Pablo and Dick got eight correct. Outstanding.

[AuntShecky]

The answer to last week’s bonus question is: Rhythm


This week we're all about rhythm, music, and dance, so snap those fingers, tap those toes, and get ready to cut a rug.

It’s Got a Good Beat and You Can Dance to It

1. Soon after his Philadelphia-based afternoon dance show became a pop culture institution when it went coast-to-coast, this television personality parlayed his success by hosting game shows and the annual New Year’s Eve celebration from Times Square. Who is this celebrity often dubbed “America’s oldest teenager”?

2. Who is the major poet in English literature who wrote these lines from 1645:
“Come and trip it as ye go
On the light fantastic toe”?

3. “Who could ask for anything more?” is a question from a Gershwin standard. What’s the title? (Hope you “get” this one.)

4. One-word literary term to describe the “unit of poetic meter, which in English verse consists of a fixed combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.” (Hint: the word is the same as that for the part of the body that moves in a dance “step.”)

5. What is the term for the macabre motif found in medieval mystery plays, woodcuts by Hans Holbein, and, notably, the Ingmar Bergman classic film
The Seventh Seal
in which departed souls link arms in a procession that, alas, only goes one-way?

6. Evolving from French origins, and traveling on a "circuit," this type of entertainment offered a variety of acts including acrobatic stunts, magicians, and especially song-and-dance teams which favored crowd-pleasing steps such as the “soft shoe” and the buck-and-wing. Name this now-defunct show biz medium, sometimes called the "Three-a-day."

7. What is the general term for the part of an orchestra or band that includes congas, cymbals, maracas, tambourines and other percussive instruments?

8. What was the name given to the group of earnestly hip writers such as Ginsberg and Corso who railed against the cultural repression of Post-War II America?

9. The muse Terpsichore is commonly pictured sitting down, but her area of expertise is dance. According to Greek mythology, how many Muses are there?

10. The title of a 1984 movie by Francis Ford Coppola featuring musicians and gangsters from the Roaring Twenties is the same as a landmark nightspot in Harlem. What is it?

11. She was a niece of the pioneering film-maker who specialized in Biblical epics, but in her own right she was a groundbreaking choreographer known for her work on Rodgers-Hammerstein musicals such as Oklahoma! Who was she?

12. And finally, name the Grimms’ fairy tale about a bevy of beauties who mysteriously go out stepping each night.


Answers
1. Dick Clark
2. Milton
3. “I Got Rhythm”
4. Foot
5. “The Dance of Death”
6. Vaudeville
7. Rhythm section
8. The Beat Poets
9. Nine
10. The Cotton Club
11. Agnes DeMille
12. “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”

Bonus Question: Containing a hint about the topic for the next quiz:
What was the Whitney Houston megahit originally written by country music queen Dolly Parton?