wisdom

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Another start to the week and another twenty challenging questions in our latest quiz.

Easy, difficult and few “curve balls” in this lot, so see how well you do.

As usual the answers are given waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below.

But NO cheating please!

Enjoy.

Q 1: In Italy who or what is known as “Topolino”?

Q 2: How many men in total have landed on and explored the Moon?

Q 3: How many women in total have landed on and explored the Moon?

Q 4: In their natural habitats, what percentage of penguins live south of the equator?

Q 5: In what book of The Bible is God not mentioned?

Q 6: What do they call a “French kiss” in France?

Q 7: What is the longest English word without a vowel?

Q 8: What is the driest state in the U.S.?

Q 9: A group of toads is called a what?

Q 10: The first toilet ever seen on television was on what show?

Q 11: How many of the 44 US Presidents has worn glasses?

Q 12: Can you think of a word that is pronounced differently by merely capitalizing the first letter?

There are several, a point for each.

Q 13: What word describes a woman who does not have all her fingers on one hand?

Q 14: At various times throughout history known as the “President’s Palace,” the “President’s House,” and the “Executive Mansion”, what US President officially gave the White House its current name in 1901?

Q 15: What is the only capital letter in the Roman alphabet (the one we use) with exactly one end point?

Q 16: What US state’s motto is “Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.”

Q 17: What TV comedy series character’s catchphrase was “I’m listening”?

Q 18: In what country do people generally answer the phone by saying, “I’m listening”.

Q 19: What is light as a feather, but even the strongest man cannot hold it more than a few minutes?

Q 20: How can you make seven even?

ANSWERS

Q 1: In Italy who or what is known as “Topolino”?

A 1: Mickey Mouse is known as “Topolino” in Italy

Q 2: How many men in total have landed on and explored the Moon?

A 2: Twelve men have landed on and explored the moon

Q 3: How many women in total have landed on and explored the Moon?

A 3: Zero, no women have landed on and explored the moon

Q 4: In their natural habitats, what percentage of penguins live south of the equator?

A 4: 100%. All penguins live south of the equator

Q 5: In what book of The Bible is God not mentioned?

A 5: The book of Esther.

Q 6: What do they call a “French kiss” in France?

A 6: An “English Kiss”.

Q 7: What is the longest English word without a vowel?

A 7: “Rhythm”

Q 8: What is the driest state in the U.S.?

A 8: Nevada. Each year it averages 7.5 inches (19 cm) of rain.

Q 9: A group of toads is called a what?

A 9: A knot.

Q 10: The first toilet ever seen on television was on what show?

A 10: “Leave It to Beaver.”

Q 11: How many of the 44 US Presidents has worn glasses?

A 11: Every US president has worn glasses (just not always in public).

Q 12: Can you think of a word that is pronounced differently by merely capitalizing the first letter?

There are several, a point for each.

A 12: Here are some examples, there could be others

1. job and Job

2. herb and Herb

3. polish and Polish

and there could be more, so well done if you thought of others.

Q 13: What word describes a woman who does not have all her fingers on one hand?

A 13: “Normal”. Normal people do not have ‘all’ their fingers on ‘one’ hand.

A 14: Theodore Roosevelt

Q 15: What is the only capital letter in the Roman alphabet (the one we use) with exactly one end point?

A 15: The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one end point is P.

Check out the others if you want, A(2), B (0), C (2), D (0), E (3), F (3), G (2), H (4), I (2), J (2), K (4), L (2), M (2), N (2), O (0), Q (2), R (2), S (2), T (3), U (2), V (2), W (2), X (4), Y (3), Z (2).

Q 16: What US state’s motto is “Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.”

A 16: The state motto of Georgia is “Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.”

Q 17: What TV comedy series character’s catchphrase was “I’m listening”?

A 17: Frasier Crane played by the ever excellent Kelsey Grammar.

Q 18: In what country do people generally answer the phone by saying, “I’m listening”.

A 18: Russians generally answer the phone by saying, “I’m listening”.

Q 19: What is light as a feather, but even the strongest man cannot hold it more than a few minutes?

A 19: His breath.

Q 20: How can you make seven even?

A 20: Just take away the “s”, duhhhh!

Not so easy. Hope you did okay!

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“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

churchill-opportunity-optimist-pessimist — Churchill poster opportunity optimist v pessimist

Yesterday I wrote about whether your glass is half full or half empty.

Closely related to that, though also slightly different in degree perhaps, is whether you are an optimist or a pessimist.

I have a friend who has gone through life with a “when one closes another one shuts” philosophy. He also says things like, “Behind every silver lining there’s a cloud”.

It’s amusing, but in his case and I would guess in a good many others, that attitude eventually becomes a self-fulfilling predicament. He’s never taken any chances in life and he has been in a job that he never really cared for, for the past 30 years or so. He’s just counting the days until he can retire and he has been doing that for many, many years, not just recently. Sad, but it can’t be helped, or rather he can’t be helped.

As well as creating an aversion to any sort of risk, if you think things will go wrong then they usually will, and more often than not it’s your own fault. If you set out to do something with failure uppermost in your mind, you psych yourself out of giving 100 percent to the task at hand. If you don’t give it that 100 percent effort then it will either not turn out as good as it could have, or it will fail completely. In such cases the pessimist always blames things like bad luck, or other people, never their own defeatist attitude from the outset.

An optimistic person, on the other hand, will approach a task thinking it is going to succeed. Therefore in their case they will put much more care and effort into it (even sometimes subconsciously) thereby raising their chances of succeeding. Don’t get me wrong, starting off with an optimistic viewpoint will not guarantee success, it will just make for a better attempt at the job, and the better the job you do the better are the chances it will succeed.

Failure will stop a pessimist dead in his tracks because he is sure he is going to fail from the beginning and when it happens he shrugs his shoulders and packs up and goes home.

But failure won’t do the same for a person with an optimistic outlook. An optimist is surprised by failure. He usually wants to know why it happened, so he will analyze it and then try again.

And that is one of the great secrets to success. Sir Winston Churchill probably defined it best when he said that “success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”, and although Churchill is now remembered for his notable political victories and war-time leadership, he also had his fare share of defeats as well along the way.

I have been part of several projects that have been complete failures, but that never stopped me from getting back up, dusting myself down, and trying again. And if you stay optimistic and work accordingly giving 100 percent of your effort then sooner or later you will succeed.

I’m very optimistic about that!

PS: I haven’t tried this out, but they say you should always borrow money from a pessimist, because he doesn’t expect to get paid back!

fasab

Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy

Another Twenty Challenging Questions – Yes It’s Quiz Day!

Optimist Or Pessimist?