(The Seventh and Deciding Match!)
Both classes should be proud of the knowledge they displayed over the course of the competition. But unfortunately there can be only one winner.
Geography: What nationality is a Breton?
A Breton is from Bretagne, or the province of France we know as Brittany.
Advantage, Block 2.
Entertainment: What runs up and down on the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album?
A zipper. Which actually zipped.
(I'm sure you're parents will remember this one. Ask'em).
This question stumped both classes.
History: What organization was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell?
Reverend Falwell recently passed away. He was the founder of "The Moral Majority".
His obituary for MSNBC here. Both classes might be interested, since neither was familiar with the Moral Majority.
Arts & Literature: What playwright was married to Marilyn Monroe?
Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. (I could have shown you Arthur Miller, but both classes know who he is, anyway.)
Science & Nature: What non-working, stingless bee mates with the queen?
The Drone Bee
The drones are the male bees in the colony. Their sole function is reproduction. Drones who succeed in mating with a queen during her nuptial flight perish in the act.
Drones are larger and heavier than the workers, but not as long as the queen. It is easy to identify a drone by its large compound eyes that come together at the top of the head.
Usually several hundred to several thousand drones are present in a colony during the active foraging season. The young drones are fed by the workers; the older drones feed themselves honey directly from the storage cells. During the season, should the food supply diminish for any reason, workers waste no time in ejecting drones from the colony. After the first heavy frosts in the fall reduce the supply of nectar and pollen, the colony preparing for winter begins to drive the drones from the hive. They soon starve to death.
Kind of like those young people who come home after college and can't seem to find a job they like, so they decide to live at home for a few years (until they're driven from the hive and they starve to death). Neither class knows much about bees, apparently.
Sports & Leisure: What do
Does that look like champagne to you? No, it's milk. (Buttermilk, actually, but I will accept milk.) Why milk?
The tradition of the "500" winner drinking milk in "Victory Lane" began when Louis Meyer, the winner of the 1936 Race was photographed drinking his favorite beverage, buttermilk, after his victory. An executive of the Milk Foundation (now the American Dairy Association) saw the picture and, hoping to set a good example for kids, made sure that from that year on the winner of the Race received a bottle of milk to drink.
Children’s: What Ursula K. LeGuin novel tells of young Ged’s first
trip to the wizard’s school on Roke?
The Wizard of Earthsea, the first book in the Earthsea Trilogy.
(There's more in heaven and earth than Harry Potter, Horatio.)
Classics: What reclusive novelist published nine short stories in 1953 under the enigmatic title Nine Stories?
J. D. Salinger. (Advantage, Block 2)
Non-fiction: What best-selling Alex Comfort how-to guide includes sections on “Ingredients”, “Appetizers”, “Main Courses”, “Sauces”, and “Venues”?
Both classes went for The Joy of Cooking. Close! (I thought perhaps somebody's parents -- or grandparents -- had a copy hidden away somewhere.)
Book Club: Whose famed paintings of “Helga” inspired Larry Watson’s novel Orchard, about a Scandinavian immigrant who becomes the muse of a local artist?
Andrew Wyeth.
Authors: What Londoner, born Richard Patrick Russ, ditched his first wife and kids to reinvent himself as an “Irish” nautical novelist?
Patrick O'Brian, author of the wildly succesful Aubrey-Maturin series, set against the Napoleonic Wars. (Maybe you saw Rusell Crowe play "Lucky Jack" Aubrey in Master and Commander.
Book Bag: What government position did Jack Ryan hold at the start of Tom Clancy’s 1994 Debt of Honor?
National Secuirty Advisor. (Formerly Condoleezza Rice, now Stephen Hadley.)
In Case of a Tie
(The first correct, unmatched answer wins.)
Entertainment: What was “another sleepy, dusty delta day” in “Ode to Billy Joe”?
June 3rd. Here are the lyrics. Here's Bobbie herself , apparently from The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour.
Check out some of the comments:You don't see any Bobbie Gentry's around these days in the music industry. ALL WOMAN with REAL TALENT!
If you don't get chills listening to this song, check for a pulse. Still a classic.
Arts & Literature: What was the name of Captain Bligh’s ship?
The Bounty, as in Mutiny on the Bounty. Charles Laughton played Bligh to Clark Gables's Fletcher Christian (1935); Trevor Howard was Bligh to Marlon Brando's Christian in 1962, and our old friend Anthony Hopkins was Captain Bligh to Mel Gibson as Christian in 1984. Of course, it's all based on a true story.
Non-fiction: Who penned the bestseller Undaunted Courage about the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Stephen Ambrose. (I know for a fact that some of your parents have this on your shelves at home -- I know I do.)
Authors: What
You'd have to be a pretty good anagrammist to come up with Armistead Maupin. Maupin has been called "the gay Charles Dickens". (Well, sort of.)
