Interclass Smackdown -- Round 2!

Q1: What overalls are named for Dungri, a suburb of Bombay (Mumbai)?

A: Dungarees. While we (Americans) thing of them as synonymous with blue jeans, in England they apparently refer to overalls. (George Bernard Shaw characterized the English and Americans as "two peoples separated by a common language".)
[Both classes got this one right.]

Q2. What actor was stung in The Sting?

A: Robert Shaw. Maybe you remember him as "Quint" in the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws.
[Neither class was able to get this one. Block II thought "Henry Fonda"; Block IV, "Robert Redford (who at least was in The Sting.) Actually, Kristin LeBel came up with the name Shaw, but nobody paid her any heed).]

Q3. What did Peter Minuit buy for the equivalent of $24?

A: Manhattan Island. I was surprised that Block II was stumped by this. (They ended up going with "Sri Lanka".) When I was in school, this was one of those bits of Americana that everyone learned by 5th grade. Back in the day, we were all pretty proud of Mr. Minuit for making such a shrewd deal. Nowadays, I guess it's not something that we brag about.
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q4. What’s the name of Dr. Seuss’s egg-hatching elephant?

A: Horton!
[Both classes knew this.]

Q5. What’s a row of crows called?

A: A murder. (If you think that's fun. . .)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q6. Who was world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949?

A: Joe Louis. They called him "The Brown Bomber." (It was a simpler, more racist, time.) Nevertheless, Americans of all colors were proud when, on the eve of World War II, Louis defeated the German Max Schmeling, avenging an earlier loss. (Louis originally had taken the world title from James J. Braddock. )
[Advantage: Block IV.]

Q7. What Robert McCloskey favorite is honored by nine bronze ducks in Boston’s Public Gardens?

A: Make Way for Ducklings.
[Both classes knew this.]

Q8. What 1866 novel, written in only three days, was based on the author’s recurring nightmares of a double life?

A: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both classes got this one, but I have to admit that I thought you both got it wrong. I was thinking of Fyodor Dostoevesky's The Double. But here's my excuse. The question is wrong! Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote Dr. J in 1886, not 1866. That was right in the middle of Dostoevsky's career. And Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler in less than a month (still much more than three days).


Q9. What jailed Sioux militant was the subject of Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse?

A: Leonard Pelletier. (I bet most classes in other schools wouldn't get that one. See what happens when you can offer your students lots and lots of classes?)
[Both classes knew this.]

Q10. What Aussie author copped the Booker Prize for his debut novel Vernon God Little, a dark comedy about a Texas high school massacre?

A: D. B. C. Pierre?? Neither class knew this, and neither did I. Come to think of it, I know hardly anything about Australia. A few actors, but not authors. Oh, and the Crocodile Hunter.
Oh, and Pierre? It turns out he's a "self-confessed serial 'conniving bastard' ".

Q11. What author of 80-plus romance novels opened an art gallery near her San Francisco mansion in 2003?

A: Danielle Steele
[Advantage: Block IV]

Q12. What Australian author penned The Touch, about a miner who swaps a trunk of gold for his 16 year-old Scottish cousin?

A: Colleen McCullough. (One of the two Australian authors -- Nevil Shute is the other -- that I do know.) Both classes were stumped by this one, and I don't blame them.


And, the winner of the second Interclass Smackdown: Block IV!