Area 51

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Another month and another quiz to get it off to a challenging start.

One or two relatively easy ones today, but I think most of them you will find tough enough.

As usual, if you get stuck, you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!

Enjoy and good luck.

Q. 1: What is the official language of Brazil?

Q. 2: Which wife of a politician said in 1981, ‘Woman is like a teabag: you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in the hot water’?

Q. 3: Many expanses of water of varying sizes are designated as ‘seas’ such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, etc. But what is the only such sea in the world that does not have a coastline?

Q. 4: What book was Denzel Washington protecting in the 2010 movie?

Q. 5: What is both unusual and famous about the restaurant in Volterra, Italy called “Fortezza Medicea”?

Q. 6: In which city is the music recording company Motown based?

Q. 7: The official country retreat of the President of the USA, Camp David, is located in which mountains?

Q. 8: Where did the Incas originate?

Q. 9: What was the name of the Cuban President over thrown by Fidel Castro in 1959?

Q. 10: Although the United States has Roswell and Area 51, and Hollywood has pushed out a unending stream of movies based on them, the government does not officially recognize the existence of UFOs. However three well known countries do formally recognize the existence of UFOs, can you name them? (A point for each and a bonus point if you can name all three.)

Q. 11: Who was coming to dinner with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in 1967?

Q. 12: Who was dubbed “Lenin’s left leg” during the early stages of Russia’s Marxist movement?

Q. 13: In which US city was the first skyscraper built in 1883?

Q. 14: A double question with multiple points. The US State Department currently recognizes 194 different countries in the world, but how many take up approximately half of Earth’s land area?

HINT: It is a relatively small number of the 194 total and there is a bonus point for each of them that you can name.

Q. 15: What phrase is the unlikely link between Barbara Streisand and Bugs Bunny?

Q. 16: What is the only state in the Middle East in which there is no desert?

Q. 17: What former Soviet state is currently experiencing massive civil unrest and upheaval?

Q. 18: Which river has the largest delta?

Q. 19: Whoopie Goldberg played one in a movie and Patricia Arquette played another in a television series, what were they? (And bonus points if you can name the movie and the tv series.)

Q. 20: Which movie other than ‘The Bodyguard’ featured the song “I Will Always Love You”?

ANSWERS

Q. 1: What is the official language of Brazil?

A. 1: Portuguese.

Q. 2: Which wife of a politician said in 1981, ‘Woman is like a teabag: you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in the hot water’?

A. 2: Nancy Reagan.

Q. 3: Many expanses of water of varying sizes are designated as ‘seas’ such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, etc. But what is the only such sea in the world that does not have a coastline?

A. 3: The Sargasso Sea in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean is surrounded by ocean currents and no land and therefore has no coast.

Q. 4: What book was Denzel Washington protecting in the 2010 movie?

A. 4: The Book Of Eli. You also get a point if you said The Bible.

Q. 5: What is both unusual and famous about the restaurant in Volterra, Italy called “Fortezza Medicea”?

A. 5: “Fortezza Medicea” is a maximum security prison – the cooks and waiters are all doing sentences of at least seven years.

Q. 6: In which city is the music recording company Motown based?

A. 6: Detroit.

Q. 7: The official country retreat of the President of the USA, Camp David is in which mountains?

A. 7: Appalachians.

Q. 8: Where did the Incas originate?

A. 8: Peru.

Q. 9: What was the name of the Cuban President over thrown by Fidel Castro in 1959?

A. 9: General Batista.

A. 10: France, Italy and Chile have all formally recognized the existence of UFOs.

Q. 11: Who was coming to dinner with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in 1967?

A. 11: Sidney Poitier.

Q. 12: Who was dubbed “Lenin’s left leg” during the early stages of Russia’s Marxist movement?

A. 12: Joseph Stalin.

Q. 13: In which US city was the first skyscraper built in 1883?

A. 13: Chicago.

Q. 14: A double question with multiple points. The US State Department currently recognizes 194 different countries in the world, but how many take up approximately half of Earth’s land area?

HINT: It is a relatively small number of the 194 total and there is a bonus point for each of them that you can name.

A. 14: Seven countries take half of the Earth’s land area and they are Russia, Canada, USA, China, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.

Q. 15: What phrase is the unlikely link between Barbara Streisand and Bugs Bunny?

A. 15: “What’s up, Doc?” is Bugs’ catchphrase and the name of a 1972 comedy/romance movie starring Barbara Streisand and Ryan O’Neill.

Q. 16: What is the only state in the Middle East in which there is no desert?

A. 16: Lebanon.

Q. 17: What former Soviet state is currently experiencing massive civil unrest and upheaval?

A. 17: The Ukraine.

Q. 18: Which river has the largest delta?

A. 18: The River Ganges.

Q. 19: Whoopie Goldberg played one in a movie and Patricia Arquette played another in a television series, what were they? (And bonus points if you can name the movie and the tv series.)

A. 19: They played ‘mediums’, Whoopie Goldberg in the movie ‘Ghost’ and Patricia Arquette in the hit tv series ‘Medium’.

Q. 20: Which movie other than ‘The Bodyguard’ featured the song “I Will Always Love You”?

A. 20: ‘The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas’, a movie starring Dolly Parton who wrote the song.

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“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

When I was a kid one of the things I loved to do was to go over to my cousin’s house at night during the winter months when it was dark. He lived out in the country on a farm – and he had a telescope. It wasn’t an expensive one, but it was a lot better than anything I, or any of my friends, had so to me it was great.

Many evenings we spent looking at the moon and the stars. It fascinated me then and it fascinates me to this day.

I never did get a telescope of my own. For one thing anything decent was always a lot more than I could afford when I was a kid and for another as I grew up so did the town where I lived. To the extent that there was so much ambient light from street lights, lights in houses and buildings etc., that there was very little left to see.

When I was in Las Vegas I did make a few trips well out into the Nevada desert which provided some fantastic results. You really have no idea just how many stars are out there until you can view them from somewhere very remote. (BTW, I think what I saw were all stars, but with Area 51 and all that, you’re never really sure. Cue some Twilight Zone music!)

So how much better would it be if you had telescope actually out there in space?

Well for the past few years we have, and it’s a LOT better as you will see.

But enough of an intro from me. There are other bloggers who can write with much more knowledge and passion about these things, such as Alex at Things I love, so I’ll sign off and let you look at some of the Hubble photographs that I though were worth sharing.

And whether you believe in Creation or that it is all the chaotic result of a big fart that came from nowhere, enjoy the wonder and beauty of what is out there.