What is a group of cows known as?

Recently I saw a trivia question of interest.

What is a group of 12 or more cows known as?

A. Bale
B. Flink
C. Clowder
D. Bed



Answer: Flink.

Flink?!    So... I have a flink of cows.    ...Doesn't sound that impressive.


Looking into it further, flink - while a real word from the 19th century - appears to have originated as 12 or more cows on the internet back in 2002 and is not a real word for 12 or more cattle.
http://www.word-detective.com/2011/03/flink/


The real answer....

Q: What is a group of cattle called?

A group of cattle is called a herd, mob, drift, drove or team. Historically, people who took cattle to market on the open range were known as drovers.


Also... bale is a group of turtles.  Clowder is a group of cats.   Bed is a group of Oysters.

More animal grouping definitions: https://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/what-do-you-call-a-group-of/



Also...

Q: How many teeth do cows have?

A: Adult cows have 8 incisors on the bottom front of the mouth and 6 molars on the top and bottom on each side of the mouth, for a total of 32 teeth. The top front of the cow's mouth has a pad of skin and no teeth.

Calves have 20 deciduous teeth and no deciduous molars. The deciduous teeth of 75 percent of calves have all erupted at birth. The deciduous teeth of calves are replaced by permanent teeth as they grow. By 30 months of age, cows have lost all of their deciduous teeth and have their permanent teeth in place.


Q: Are bulls color blind?

A: Bulls are color blind. Like all cows, bulls have deuteranopia, meaning they cannot discern red and green colors and instead see shades of yellow or blue. When it comes to bullfighting, people are often under the impression that the red color of the matador's cape is what angers the bull in the arena, and, symbolically, red is a color that denotes anger or passion. In reality, the fluttering movement of the cape is what agitates the bull and causes it to charge the matador, not the color. The animals are more incited by white or blue capes, but the red serves a particular purpose in the arena: the color masks any blood that the creature may spray while injured.

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Trivia night

Monday night in Minot and that means... trivia at the Landing Bar.

Ed has retired from hosting trivia games and is back being a player.  Matt has taken over hosting.  He put on good contests with a good balance between hard and easy with a variety of topics.  The contests didn't seem too hard yet the scores were not really high.

Some questions from memory...

1. True or false - all rattlesnakes are venomous?
2. True or False - Norman Rockwell created Rosie the riveter?
3. Which is further west... Milwaukee, Wisconsin of New Orleans?
4. Which fast food franchise has the most locations in the world?
5. What is the newest African country created July 9, 2011?
6. What is the first name of the angel from the movie,  "It's a Wonderful Life"?
7. Which two American presidents were adopted?
8. How many teams play in the World Cup?
9. What car company had the two slogans: "Go further" and "Built for the road ahead?"?
10. What common ailment are marshmallows used for?
11. In 2001 from which country was  Slobodan Milošević extradited to the Hague to be tried for war crimes?
12. In response to an articles implying he was a homosexual, what performer sent a telegram that read: "What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank."

Answers:

1. True
2. True
3. New Orleans
4. Subway.  My team didn't believe me and went with McDonalds.  McD is number 3.  Here are the rankings: http://www.franchisedirect.com/top100globalfranchises/rankings/
5. South Sudan
6. Clarence Odbody
7. Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton
8. 32
9. Ford
10. Sore throat
11. Serbia (Yugoslavia was accepted as an answer).
12. Liberace

In the first contest we finished in the middle of the pack with 13 correct answers (two teams had 17 correct).  We won the second contest with 15 correct answers and could have had maybe 19 correct answers if we hadn't second guessed ourselves.

Our team name was "French Fried Tators" after the quote from the Sling Blade movie since Matt does a good impression of the Sling Blade character. 

The team was: me, Darrell, Ed, and two young guys who work at the Minot Daily News paper (you know me, I forget names at the drop of a hat).  Marv came late and decided to join a team of people he knew with less players.  Rod didn't show up.  it was good seeing everyone.

For the "quarters" questions, Darrell won a "Field of Dreams" DVD and a bottle Dr McGillicuddy's liquor.  One of the young guys won a large bag of tootsie rolls and a box of beef jerky.

The bar provided free sloppy joes and potato chips to eat.

After the trivia contest the bar had a karaoke singing.  The singers were pretty good but loud.  North Dakota has banned smoking in bars so it was nice to not have to sit in smoke and come home smelling of it.  Some people took smoke breaks outside.   Since this is North Dakota the bar built a four sided "bus stop" type of structure to protect the smokers from the elements and at one point someone came out and told people to move at least twenty feet away from the door.

More trivia at the Landing

Another Monday, another night of trivia.  Another night in a very smokey bar.

Tonight's team was: Darrell, Mona, Marv, Tammy and I.   There were not as many people this night for trivia - only four teams I believe.

For the first game we finished in a 3-way tie for first place with 14 out of 20 answers correct.  The tie breaker question was:

Manner, a cartoonish character, was a butler for Klennex tissues. How tall was Manner?

The guesses were: 4' 3", 4' 8", and 5 2".   We (Darrell) guessed 5' 2".   The answer was 6 inches.

Here is a video of Manners.   As you can see, he was before the time of anyone on our team as we didn't have a clue who he was. The ads ran  in the 1950s. There was a minor controversy after the answer was revealed as everyone thought Ed should have made it clear he was talking about a cartoon.  As you can see from the video he was not a cartoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQg0BoXURBo

Our team went downhill in our second game.  We only got 10 out 20 questions right.  Our worst showing in a long time.  Mona doesn't play many trivia contests and she thinks she brings bad luck to our efforts.  I don't think so.  However, for eight questions we came up with two answers for each question.  For every one of the eight questions we choose the wrong answer.  All eight times!  What's the chance of that?!  The winning team only had 14 answers correct. We could have won. *argh!*

Questions:

1. What object first glowed red, white and blue in a 1996 hockey all start game?
2. What heavenly body is one astronomical unit from the sun? 
3. How high is the net for men's volleyball?
4. What country was never invaded between 1250 and 1944?
5. What media company owned Pathfinder?
6. Name the islands Napoleon was born on, exiled to, and died on?

 Answers:

1. We guessed: ice rink.   Answer: puck 
2. We guessed: Mercury.  Answer: Earth 
3. We guessed: 7 feet.  Answer: 8 feet
4. We guessed: Thailand.  Answer: Japan  
5. We (I) guessed: Washington Post.  Answer: Time-Warner.
6. Corsica, Elba and St Helena

Darrel won three of the quarters questions.  The prize selection was: several t-shirts, 3 boxes of girl scout cookies and 2 bottles of flavored vodka.  Darrell wanted to win a bottle of vodka but he kept getting the cookies.  Peanut Butter, Thin Mints and Lemon.  He was close to winning the last bottle of vodka but another person just before Darrell answered the question first.

The bar had free chili hot dogs and chips and Darrell, Marv and I each ate several of them.  Tammy and Mona did not.  Instead they teased us about the after effects we would suffer later that night.  I suffered none.

By the time karaoke started the bar was full.  The crowd was young and "riff-raff" looking.  The karaoke was loud.  The singers were good but most all the songs were recent country western songs.  We left before we got a headache from the loud music.  It was very hard to talk with one another over the music.

Trivia at the Blue Rider

The Blue Rider Bar is a small place in an old section of downtown Minot.  They hold a trivia contest every other Wednesday.

Both Darrell and Rod warned us to get to the bar early in order to get a seat.  The trivia contests start at 7 pm and we were advised to get there around 6:30 pm.  Darrell said he planned on attending but instead of Darrel, Tammy and I were surprised to see Austin.  Darrell never showed up as his dart team was tied for first place and they had to play that night a sudden best-out-of-seven match to determine the season's winner.  Rod showed up before the contest started and halfway through the first contest both Ed and Jason showed up.

We needed Ed and Jason's help as the trivia was obscure and hard.  Our team finished in the middle of the pack with 11 answers correct out of 30.  The winning team got 20 correct.

The second trivia contest was run by another team, who appeared to be a mix of college professors and students.  In this contest we got 5 answers correct out of 20 questions.  Again we were in the middle of the pack.  The winning team - the same one as in the first contest - got 11 answers correct.  Unknown to everyone was a hidden theme in the second game.  The 20 answers were alphabetic - minus A and the vowels.  That is, question 1's answer began with B, question 2 with a C, and so on.

Questions:

1. What is the second highest mountain in North America?
2. What is the name of Annie's bodyguard?
3. Which country has the most lightning strikes?
4. What is the last movie Cary Grant and  Katherine Hepburn appeared in together?
5. What item did Anthony Quinn bring to the movie set for They Died with Their Boots On before the filming of Custer's Last Stand?
6. What movie that starred Anthony Quinn won an Academy award for the "best cinematography, Black-and-White"?
7. What is the genitive singular ending? 
8. Who signed off their show by saying "And so it goes."?
9. What one word telegram did Bob Hope send Harry Truman when he was re-elected in 1948?

Answers:

1. Mt Logan
2. Punjab
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo
4. Philadelphia Story
5. A hearse
6. Zorba the Greek
7. s 
8. Linda Ellerbee
9. Unpack

A side note: Instead of the Zorba the Greek answer Rod pushed for Requiem for a Heavyweight as the answer.  I argued against it based on what I learned later were the wrong reasons.  If I knew more about Requiem for a Heavyweight, Rod would have been able to convince me his choice was correct, even though in the end it was the wrong answer.

About four names were listed as titles of a TV show. Jason knew the list of episode names were from the X-files TV show.

The bar also had quarters questions.  A number of people wanted to make funny guesses and waste their quarters.  Sometimes they were funny, sometimes they were not.  Tammy got annoyed when they gave dumb answers.

The Blue Rider Bar is smoke free so that was very nice.  I believe a college art professor is an owner of the bar.  There was lots of artwork on the walls.

Back to trivia at the Landing

I'm back in Minot and again attending trivia games.  Last Monday night Tammy and I attended Ed's trivia contest at The Landing Bar, whose location is shown by the red marker in the image to the right.

Darrell and Marv were there.  Jason, a recent Minnesota transplant and new member of the team, was also there.  Darrell, Marv and Jason were on fire and answering most of the questions until Tammy commented on how well they were doing.  Then our streak came to an end.  The last half dozen questions we had to think through or guess an answer for.

Still, we did well as we handily won the game. We had 17 correct answers out of 20 questions.  The next highest team score was 14 correct.  Our team won a $20 certificate for drinks.

For the second game we did well, but came in second place with 15 correct.  The winning team had 18 answers correct.

The prizes for the quarter bonus questions have changed.  Instead of picking one's prize for winning, one picks a slip of paper and gets the prize written on it.  No more are the good prizes taken first with the weaker prizes ignored.  One guy wanted to win a box of girl scout cookies but kept winning other things: a shirt, a bottle of vodka.  Finally on the last question he won a box of cookies and was happy.

Most of our team stayed after trivia to chat.  Karaoke started and was loud.  There are a number of different good singers now.  One couple at a table next to us were a mismatched couple.  She was young.  He looked older.  She was slim and stylish.  He was heavyset and dressed dorky.  And... what heavy, thinning hair, middle aged man wears the calf-length pants these days - especially when it is still cold outside?  They danced - she could.  He couldn't.  They sang one song together.  She was an ok singer.  He was hard on the ears.

Tammy sang well to some of the songs.  She wouldn't go up on stage to sing as she said she needed much more to drink to do so.  Two bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade were not enough.

The Landing Bar has changed since last year when I was here.  There are more people in the bar now.  It is no longer a sleepy bar on Monday trivia nights.  Fights have broken out recently and now there is a bouncer who sits by the door.

North Dakota still allows smoking in bars so Tammy and I came home reeking of smoke.  I hung our clothes outside on the clothesline in the cold to air them out.  Still, it was nice to be back at trivia with friends.

Vaughn trivia

A local radio station I sometime listen to has a morning trivia contest on week days. Often I know the correct answer, and even have won a couple times.  Often the prize is coffee from Montana Coffee Traders.  I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't call in with my answer.

Robert Vaughn's birthday is today.  He is 79 years old.  This morning the trivia question was:

Name the character Robert Vaughn played in this 1960s popular TV show.

I am not sure if the question was how I worded it or whether they mentioned the show was was The Man From Uncle.  It didn't matter as I knew the answer based on how I wrote above the trivia question.

I called and the phone rang and rang and I thought the radio station was on another line with someone who answered the question correctly.  When they answered the phone I asked if they had a winner yet.  They did not.

My answer of Napoleon Solo was correct and I won a free breakfast at the Montana Club restaurant.   If they asked I would have known the other character's name in the show was Illya Kuryakin.

I have vague memories of the TV show as I was in elementary school when it was on TV (1964-1968).  I do remember that a neighbor girl with whom I car pooled to school, and who was two years older than me, had a big crush on the Illya Kuryakin character.

Broken branches, pocket gophers, trivia

When I was out in the middle pasture I came across a tree that had broken branches from the snow this winter.  Also, the branches stacked at the base of the tree trunk are similarly broken branches from previous years.

Also I am up to four pocket gophers trapped this year.  And I still haven't made an effort to get out and set all my traps.  I run across some dirt mounds when working on something else; I quickly set a trap and the next day I have a dead pocket gopher.  Another sign that I have eradicated the regular gophers last year as today, for the very first time, I found and trapped pocket gophers in the very heart of the former domain of the regular gophers. 

Yesterday I won a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant for knowing a trivia question on the radio.  In 1626 Peter Minuit bought what island using trinkets?   I seem to remember the trivia question as also indicating that he also discovered the island, but that is not true another European explorer discovered the island years earlier.  The answer?  Manhattan

Trivia, my last week

Before I returned to Montana on February 10 I had one last night of trivia Wednesday, February 9.  Most people were again surprised to see me there as every week I had told them this had been my last week at trivia.

I again joined Darrel and Marvin on the SOL team. Darrel was little late as he had locked himself out of his daughter's car that he was driving that night.  Since Darrel was late it was a good thing that I had looked up the bonus question and found its answer.

Bonus: In 1955, from what city did the present day Oakland As baseball team move?

One had to be careful in the answer as in 1955 the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City.  Then in 1968 they moved to Oakland.

There were only four teams competing this night as the Brewster team was not there.  Rod, Ed, Mark and Randy were there for the Funkymonks team.

My team was firing on all cylinders.  After the first round we were tied for the lead with the Rivits team.  For the rest of the rounds we led all the other teams.  In the end we won in a blowout having won by 90 points. And that was even after we had doubled down on the round with our lowest score.  We had four rounds where we had eight answers correct and two rounds where we had six answers correct.

4 rounds times 8 correct times 10 points each = 320
1 round  times 6 correct times 10 points each  =   60
1 round  times 6 correct times 10 points each  times 2 (double down) = 120
Bonus question correct = 20
Bonus for first place      = 100
Total points = 620

For the final round the question was:

Name 10 of the top 15 greatest movies as selected in 2007 by the American Film Institute.  The criteria for the selection was based on the film's history, critical acclaim, box office results and video rentals.

We got eight of the ten correct.   Movies 1 through 4, 6, 9, 13, and 15.  I had to argue for Star Wars as neither Darrel or Marvin thought it was top 15 worthy.  They pushed for Titanic based on box office at the number one movie though I had my doubts it qualified on the history or critical acclaim criteria.

Here are a few of the other questions:

1. What is the name of a the traditional male Japanese undergarment similar to a thong?  
2. What U.S. state ends in three vowels?
3. In what U.S. state did the movie Lilo and Stitch take place?
4. What male skater performed a triple jump in the 1952 Olympics?
5. In Morse code for the number 5 how many dots are there?
6. What sport has the term, "ball in the crotch"?
7. What material is in an Etch-a-Sketch?
8. During which U.S. war did sending valentines become popular?
9. True or False?  Shirley Temple earned $1 million by the age of 10.
10. True or False? Jack Nicholson is color blind.
11. Bug's Bunny's arch enemy is who?
12. The car company with the "Power to Surprise"?

Answers:

1. Fundoshi.  (No team got this answer correct).
2. Hawaii
3. Hawaii
4. Dick Button
5. 5
6. Billiards
7. Aluminum
8. Revolutionary War
9. True
10. True
11. Elmer Fudd
12. Kia

We had gotten 1, 6, 7, 8 and 12 wrong.

The week after I left it appears my SOL team had fallen apart. I see they finished in fourth place.  Darrel, what happened?!

Trivia, week 5

Wednesday night I surprised everyone when I walked into the Rivera Lounge.  Darrel and Marvin were happy to see me.  The other teams...

"We got to win tonight!  I can't go back to Montana until we win."   Then I explained the reason I was still in North Dakota and hadn't returned to Montana as I has planned.

We got the pre-game bonus question correct.

Dock Ellis, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, once pitched a no-hitter while under the influence of what drug?

Since I don't know sports trivia I had to look the answer up online before the game started. The correct answer was LSD.


Round 1:

1. Of the continental 48 U.S. states, which of the following has the most northern state capital?  A: Minnesota   B: North Dakota   C: Washington   D: Maine
2. The Guggenheim museum is in which city?  A: Paris   B:  London   C: Rome   D: New York
3. According to an online survey, what item do homehowners fear the most?  A: (I forgot)  B: Door knob  C: Ceiling fan  D: Fireplace
4. For the following slogan, fill in the blank: "If gas pains persist, try ___"?   A: Imodium    B: Gas-x   C: (I forgot)   D: Volkswagon
5. Who said: "How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?"  A: Napoleon   B: Jacques Chirac   C: De Gaulle   D: Sarkozy
   

We only got six answers correct.  But that was highest total number correct and we were now tied in first place with another team with the remaining teams just behind up.  Of the above questions, the ones we got wrong were: 3, 4, and 5.


Round 2:

1. What is the name of the animal that Chester the cat thought was a vampire?
2. Who wrote "One for the Money" and "Hard Eight"?
3. Which 1990s grunge band had a 2009 hit with the song "The Fixer"?
4. How long do bull riders need to stay on a bull?
5. What are the Russian letters for U.S.S.R?

In round two we got eight correct and we got the most answers correct.  (The two we missed were 1 and 2.)  My team was now in first place by ten points.


Round 3:

Concert riders are lists of demands made by musicians to make them feel comfortable offstage. Match the demand to the musician or band who made it?

1. Four organic lip balms (not Chapstick)
2. Two competent and sober local crew
3. One man sized box of Kleenex
4. Juicy baked chicken, legs, wings and breast only
5. Hot air balloon
6. One box of Cuban cigars
7. Three oxygen tanks
8. No fast food or chain restaurant food
9. French candles
10. Two packs of Zig Zag rolling papers

     A = 50 Cent
     B = John Mayer
     C = Beyonce
     D = Kenny Rogers
     E = Amy Winehouse
     F = Jane's Addicton
     G = Ted Nugent
     H = Brooks and Dunn
     I = Ozzy Ozbourne
   J = Jennifer Lopez


We only got one answer correct!  The winning team this round only got three correct.  The only answer we got correct was for Ozzy Ozbourne. But we were still in first place with 170 points, but now were tied with our nemesis: the Funkymonks team.  We were twenty points ahead of the next team.


Round 4:

1. What character was played by Clayton Moore?
2. Of the Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har cartoon characters, what kind of animal is Hady Har Har?
3. The Erie Canal connects Lake Ontario with what? 
4. True or False?  More cards are sent on Valentines Day than Christmas?
5. True or False? Disneyland once banned men with long hair from their theme park.
6. What color is the bottle for Aussie hair products?
7. What does a protractor measure?
8. In the Winnie the Pooh stories, what is the name of the rabbit?
9. What state is the birthplace to presidents Reagan and Lincoln?
10. What is the first name of the Jonas Brother that dated Taylor Swift?

We got all of the answers correct!  Everyone on my team knew some of the answers, and together we got a perfect score.  Darrel's wife used the Aussie hair products and he and Marvin knew what a protector measured.  I knew what Hardy Har Har was and I eventually remembered which Jonas brother Taylor Swift dated.  That one I am not proud at remembering.  I do take satisfaction that it took me a long time to remember his name.  Darrel almost turned in the paper with my first and incorrect guess until I told him to wait a few minutes while I thought about it some more.

The next highest score was 7 answers correct.  In our excitement we then realized that we hadn't doubled-down this round and only got 100 points.  *augh!*  If this decision costs us the game...!   I wailed and gnashed my teeth so much so that Mark from the Funkymonks team got some Kleenex for me to cry into.

Even though one other team (Brewster) doubled-down this round they only got five correct.  So at the end of this round we were in the lead at 270 points.  Brewster, who had doubled down, was at 250 points.  Funkymonks was at 240 points.

We're looking good.


Round 5:

1. True or False?  Do men almost always get an erection when they dream?   The teams with women on them left it to men to answer, and us men said, "How would we know?  We're sleeping!"
2. What is the name of the famous bridge in Venice, Italy that was first built in 1181? 
3. How many solid color balls are on a pool table? 
4. What lives in the Dead Sea?
5. Who had the slogan: "Don't treat your puppy like a dog."?
6. What food did Goldilocks eat?
7. What river did Tom Sawyer float on?
8. Who did Bob Cratchit help?
9. In what state did the Unibomber live?

Everyone on my team and the Funkymonks team knew that I knew the answer to the Unibomber question.  We asked if we could get extra bonus points for naming the town or if we were his neighbor.  Nope.

Since I had been in Venice I thought I knew that answer: The Bridge of Sighs.  Nope.  Wrong answer.  We also got the puppy dog slogan wrong and the Dead Sea question.

So we got seven correct.  This time we had doubled down as it is dangerous to double down on the last round.  Two other teams doubled down too.  Funkymonks got eight answer correct and gained on us, especially as they had doubled down.

At the end of this round we still were in the lead with 410 points.  Funkymonks were breathing down our neck at 400 points.  The rest of the teams were at: 310, 250 and 200.  Even if the only team left to double down got all answer correct in round 6, they would only end up with 400 points total.  Funkymonks were our competition.  Fortunately Matt was busy bowling tonight and wasn't here to help the Funkymonks team.


Round 6:

Of the top 20 companies in the Fortune 500 in April 2009, name ten companies.

Darrel, Marvin and I each came up with a list of companies and then we negotiated as to what would be included.  We went with:

GE, Exxon, British Petroleum, Walmart, Google, Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, IBM, Sony, McDonalds

We got five answers correct. The top score was seven correct, but it was not the Funkymonks team as they also got five answers correct.    We stayed ahead of them by ten points!  Score!  Goal!   Hurrah!   My team finally won the trivia game this week.   For once we beat the Funkymonks team and didn't finish in second place by a few points.   In the overall rankings for our region we are in second place behind the Funkymonks team.  We'll see how we rank after this week.

As our reward for winning Darrel, Marvin and I each got a $10 gift certificate for drinks and food at the bar.  Since I won't be here next week I let Darrel and Marvin have my share.  Even though I don't drink beer I joined Darrel and Marvin in a post-game drink and had a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade.


Answers:

Round 1:  1=C,   2=D,   3=C,   4=D,   5=C

Round 2: 1=Bunnicula    2=Janet Evanovich    3=Pearl  Jam     4=8 seconds    5=CCCP

Round 3: 1=B,   2=E,   3=G,   4=C,   5=H,   6=A,   7=I,   8=D,   9=J,   10=F

Round 4: 1=Lone Ranger ,  2=Hyenna,  3=Hudson River,  4=F,   5=T,  6=Purple,  7=Angle,  8=Rabbit,  9=Illinois  10=Joe

Round 5: 1=True   2=Rialto    3=Eight,    4= Nothing,   5=Purina   6=Porridge   7=Mississippi   8=Tiny Tim   9=Montana

Round 6: Here is the link to the following list.
    1. Exxon Mobil
    2. Wal-Mart
    3. Chevron
    4. ConocoPhillips
    5. General Electric
    6. General Motors
    7. Ford Motor
    8. AT&T
    9. Hewlett-Packard
  10. Valero Energy
  11. Bank of America Corp.
  12. Citigroup
  13. Berkshire Hathaway
  14. International Business Machines
  15. McKesson
  16. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
  17. Verizon Communications
  18. Cardinal Health
  19. CVS Caremark
  20. Procter and Gamble

Trivia, week 4

Frustration!   That's what I have.  And my team does too.  So close to winning!

Last Monday (the 24th) I again when to trivia night at The Landing Bar.  Al and Rod were not there so that hurt our team of: Darrel, Mona, Marvin and I.  Matt wasn't playing on Mark's team either and that hurt them badly.

My team did well but not quite there.  In game one we were well off the leading position as the two man team got 18 of 20 correct and we only got 13 correct.  In game two we were one point from "winning'.   Again the two person team got 18 correct, but as they won game one they couldn't win the prize of free drinks in game two.  My team had 14 correct but the winning team had 15 correct.

No trivia contest at the Landing Bar January 31 as it is Ladies Night with male strippers dancers.  Marvin admitted that last year when Ladies Night canceled trivia night he forgot and showed up to find a bar full of women.  Didn't take him long to realize what he had forgot!

Since it has not snowed the past week people got to clearing the snow off their sidewalks.  Therefore I didn't have to walk on the streets.  However Darrel and Mona drove by as I was walking and offered me a ride to the bar.


Wednesday night I went to the Rivera Bar for the Tavern trivia contest.  Darrel, Marvin and I were again the SOL team.  Rod, Ed, Mark and Randy were again the FunkyMonks team.  There were four additional teams there.

We again got the bonus question correct:

From 1956 to 1964, this forerunner of "reality television", with host Jack Bailey, offered to make woman a "what for the day"?

We knew it was "Queen".   In fact, Marvin's mother was on the show when she was in Minneapolis/St. Paul one time.  Darrel, being the youngin' of the group didn't know the answer off the top of his head.

Our team started off with a bang.  While the first round was a difficult round we reasoned out the multiple choice answers and ended with eight of ten correct.  We would have had nine correct but Darrel wrote down the wrong letter for the choice to the question: What Persian ruler was the son of Darius?   I - having watched the movie 300 - knew the answer was Xerxes.  Which was answer A.  Unfortunately Darrel misread how Marvin had written down the question answers and thought Xerxes was B.

Ok.  No matter.  We were in the lead with 110 points.


In round 2 we got seven answers correct.  We were now in a first place tie with the Rivitts team.

Then came round three.  Oy, yoi, yoi!   We really needed my girlfriend Tammy.  The question was:

Match ten months to ten different birthstones.

Darrel and I each knew our birthstones.  Marvin did not.  We had eight left to guess and we had no clue.  We randomly guessed thinking we'd get a few more answers right by chance.  We got all the rest wrong.   Tammy would have know most if not all of the answers.  She has a ring with the three birthstones of her daughters.  Later I quizzed Tammy.  I only had to name the months and she knew all the answers.  She didn't even need to know what birthstones were listed as the choices to choose from.

Augh! 

At the end of round three we were now in third place and tied with another team.  The first place team has 240 points and we only had 180 points.

Round four we felt good but only got seven of the ten correct.  What we got wrong:

• We guessed Cheyenne, Wyoming as the Rodeo Capital of the World.  Apparent it is Cody.    
• True or false?  An episode of Seinfeld had Kramer and Newman playing a game of Monopoly on a subway when a Ukrainian passenger knocked their board over.   The answer is false.  The game was Risk.  Darrel has seen the TV show episode and immediately remembered it.  However I believe he focused on the subway, who was playing and the Ukrainian.  He overlooked that the game was Risk not Monopoly.  That's the danger we all have fallen into when realizing we know the answer to the question.
• And Darrel and Marvin couldn't quite remember what STP stood for.  We guessed Superior Treated Petroleum.  The correct answer was: Scientifically Treated Petroleum
  

We were now in forth place.  Several teams had used their "double down" option and that moved them up.  At the end of round four the leading team was 360 points, then next was 300 points, then 260 and us at 250 points.   The top two teams had used their double down option.

Bad news.  Mark from the Funkymonks team mentioned he was going to get Matt.  Matt plays on their team except during the winter as he has bowling on Wednesday night.  Tonight his team bowling ended early and he was available.   We asked Mark to take his time in getting Matt.  Matt is very good at trivia.  Darrel even texted Mark when was getting Matt that Darrel wanted Mark to get him a hamburger from the A&W restaurant south of town.  Marvin wanted a snickers bar.  I decided I wanted a Papa Murphy's pizza and by the way, can you cook it before you bring it back?

Mark texted back to Darrel:    Dear Darrel,   FU!   Love, Mark.

An example how our teamed worked well together was on this question:

What famous economist was famous for the theories of the Invisible Hand and also Supply and Demand?

I knew the answer but could not remember the man's name.  My weakness: remembering names.  After describing all what I knew about the man, when and where he lived, Marvin after a few minutes asked if he also wrote "The Wealth of Nations".  Yes!  But who?  We waited and I thought and thought and all of a sudden his name popped into my head: Adam Smith.

Round five was good for us.  We got eight questions correct and also double downed this round.  This left us in second place with 410 points.  The leading team had 430 points and our Funkymonk competition was behind us at 400 points.  They also got eight correct even with Matt now on their team and they also had double downed.

The contest would depend on the last round.  The question:   Name the actor who played the title character in each of the ten movies listed.

We felt good.   We knew the answers to eight of the movies.  I could picture the actor to the other two movies but could not remember their names.  Darrel could picture the actor to one of those two movies but could not name him either.  It was so frustrating!!   I even knew that the one actor had three names and the other actor had an older more famous brother.  In the end we got eight correct and Funkymonks got all correct as Matt knew the answers to several movies that no one else on their team knew.

In the end the Funkymonks team won with a score of 500 to our 490.  If we had written down the correct answer letter to Xerxes we would have tied for first place.

Augh!!!  

For the 'which actors played the title role' question:

1. Little Nicky
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. The Talented Mr Ripley
4. The Island of Dr Moreau
5. The Truman Show
6. Ali
7. Shakespeare in Love
8. Napoleon Dynamite
9. Capote
10. Shindler's List

The answers:

1. Adam Shandler
2. Matt Damon
3. Matt Damon
4. Marlon Brando
5. Jim Carrey
6. Will Smith
7. Joseph Fiennes
8. Jon Heder
9. Phillip Seymour Hoffman
10. Liam Neeson

Neither Darrel nor I couldn't remember Phillip Seymour Hoffman's name.  And I couldn't remember Joseph Fiennes name.  His older brother is Ralph Fiennes.   Darrel had never seen the Shakespeare in Love movie was he doesn't watch chick flicks.    We also didn't fall in the trap of naming Tom Hanks for the Saving Private Ryan movie.  I wanted to go with Hanks as he was the biggest star in the movie but Darrel heard the question as: who played the titled character in each movie?  That would be Matt Damon.   That is also why Gwyenth Paltrow was not the correct answer for Shakespeare in Love.

Tavern trivia, week 3

Wednesday night was another trivia night.  I again played on Darrel and Marvin's team (SOL) to even things out for team members.  Rod, Al, Mark and Randy made up the Funkymonks team.

This week our team got the bonus question correct so we did not start 20 points behind.

We started off strong in the first round with nine out ten answers correct and we were tied for first place.  For the question as to which of four animals had the best sense of smell I knew that bears had the best smell, even over dogs.

The second round was not so good as we only got five answers correct.  We were no longer tied in first place.

The third round was to match 10 drugs to their use.   I'm talking about prescription drugs now...  I knew a couple of drugs from caring for my mom and dad, and who doesn't know from the ads what Clariton and Levitra are for?  We got a respectable six answers correct.  And for the incorrect answer the uses were so similar no wonder we got then confused.  For example, one use was for "combats depression" (Elavil) and another use was "gives you a peaceful feeling" (Paxil).   We got these wrong as we had switched them.

Still six out of ten was not bad as the Funkymonks team has Randy on it and he works as an EMT.  They got eight out of ten correct.

At the end of round three we had 220 points, 40 points behind the leading team.

For round four we felt good about our answers and between Darrel and I, and Marvin flipping a coin, we decided to double down.  A mistake that cost us the game.  We only got six answers correct. In the late 1800s there were 10,000 pigs in New York City, not rats as we had thought.  If we had thought about it more we would have realized that 10,000 was too low of a number for rats.  Our doubling down had us now in first place, but not every team doubled down.

Round five was great for us as we got nine answers correct, the best showing of all teams.  All but one of the other teams had doubled down by now.  Even so we were just ten points behind the Funkymonks team who were now in the lead.  Man!  Round five was the round we should have doubled down!

Round five had lots of easy questions:

• Which drummer from the rock band Genesis became a successfully solo artist?
• Which non-flying bird lays the largest egg?
• Name the tire company who has a blimp?
• Who sang the James Bond song, "Live and Let Die"?
• What is the name of the sexual position where the man and woman face each other?   Boring! - which was shouted out - was not the correct answer.

Marvin knew six was the number of fouls before a player was ejected from an NBA game.

Finally the answer came to me for: name the book and movie series where the lead characters are: Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter?   The Chronicle of Narnia.

Darrel and I put together the answer to "What does the internet phrase ROTFLMBO mean?"  I knew the first part "Rolling On The Floor Laughing" and Darrel knew "My Butt Off".

The best I could do for "What Shakespearean comedy is about a case of mistaken identity?" was to guess "The Taming of the Shrew".  The correct answer was "Twelfth Night".

The last round was "Name 10 of the 17 movies Heath Ledger was in between 1997 and 2009".  Oh my.

Darrel and I came up with the two easy answers: The Dark Knight and Brokeback Mountain.  I came up with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  Then a struggle to name more movies.  I then came up with The Patriot.   I knew Heath had been in the movie Casanova but couldn't remember the movie title other than it was a person's name.  Neither Darrel or Marvin saw the movie so they had to guess who I was talking about when I described the historical person I was talking about.  After some head scratching and a few wrong guesses, they named Cassanova.  Bingo!  Darrel and I both had seen 10 Things I Hate About You and remembered the story, but we couldn't remember the correct title. She's All That was not correct.  I also knew the movie story where Ledger was fighting battles as a knight.  The best I could do was guess Dragonslayer.  Wrong.  The movie was A Knight's Tale.  Once the answers were revealed I kicked myself for forgetting about The Brothers Grimm.

So all we got right were five.  But Funkymonks only got four right so that meant we were tied for first place at 480 total points.  However the host went over all the rounds' scores again and found he had under-counted an earlier round by Funkymonks by ten points and therefore they won the game with 490 points.  *augh!!*    So close!

Btw... round five answers were: Phil Collins, Ostrich, Goodyear, Paul McCartney and Wings, and Missionary.

Revolutionary trivia

Monday was another night of trivia.  Again I walked/ran the three quarters of a mile to the Landing Bar.  It was harder to walk on the streets than the cleared sidewalks.  The snow that remained on the streets was packed to a hard icy sheen.  As this packed snow was not flat, it made for worse walking than on ice.  For the few times I had to use the street I had to wait in a driveway for a vehicle to pass by.

Mona and Rod both showed up this night and they were a great help to Darrel, Al and I.  In game number one we tied for first place with two other teams with 13 answers correct out of twenty.  We went through three tie breaker rounds before we lost.  The tie breaker question was:

What state had the most revolutionary battles?

We guessed: Virginia, then New York, then Pennsylvania. Our rational was to guess big states.  The correct answer was South Carolina.  What?!

In game number two we placed in the middle with 15 correct answers. Sometimes for our guesses the obvious logical answer was correct; other times it was not.  We seemed to go 50/50 on our guesses this night.

For the "quarters" bonus question Mona got one correct and got a small blanket for a prize.  She would have won another quarters question except at the time she didn't have any quarters to play.  I didn't have any quarters as in my rush to get to the contest on time I forgot to bring money or my wallet.

Tavern trivia, week 2

Wednesday night I went to the Riveria Lounge for another night of World Tavern trivia.  Ed, Randy, Mark and Rod were there for the Funkymonks team I played with last week.  Darrel and Marvin were also there, and this week I played on their team (team name: SOL) to even things out.

Things got off to a bad start for our team when Darrel hadn't gotten the answer completely correct to this week's bonus question.  All the other four teams had gotten the bonus answer correct so we started out 20 points behind them.

But that didn't matter as each round we gained on the other teams until the fourth round when we passed the other teams for the lead.  We also had chosen this round to be our "double down" round which was a good thing as this was our best round with eight answers correct of the rounds four through six when the double down option was valid.

We were still in the lead going into the sixth round.    Most of the teams had used their double down option by now so things were looking good for our team. Then it all fell apart.  The question this round was to name 10 of the 19 names of the kids in the reality TV show:  19 kids and counting.

Neither Darrel, Marvin or I had seen the show.  They left it to me to come up with 10 names. We guessed five boy names and five girl names not knowing how many kids there were of each sex.  Since there were so many kids in the family I figured they were religious and would name their children with religious names.  What I didn't know was that all but two of the kids names begin with J.   "Jinger" with a J?  Come on!

Meet the Arkansas family that has all of America talking: parents Michelle and Jim Bob.  Kids: Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jeremiah, Jedidiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn-Grace, Josie, Anna and Mackynzie.

Therefore the only names our team got right were James and Joesph.

We later learned from the host that another team had watched the TV show and they got six names correct.  I think this team must have doubled down on this round as they won with 490 points to our 440 points.  Dang!  We were so close.

We also had done poorly in round 3 when we had to match the concerts with the years they were held. We did worse than we should have done. We only got four correct.  We knew the dates for the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Concert for Bangladesh (1971), the Freddie Mercury Tribute benefit concert (1992) and the Tribute for Heroes (2001).  We got the other six wrong though I should have known when the No Nukes concert (1979, Live Aid concert (1985), and SARS Benefit concert (2003) [Has it been that long since the SARS outbreak?!] were held.  Others I vaguely heard of (Live 8 in 2005 and Live Earth in 2007) and one not at all: The Billion Hands Concert in 2008.  I guess as I have aged I get disconnected from the concert scene more and more.

Monday trivia

Monday night I attended another trivia contest.  This contest was at my old stomping grounds: The Landing Bar.

At the trivia contest last Wednesday I learned that the people on my old team no longer regularly came to The Landing for trivia.  But since I was in town Darrel, Marvin and Rod said they would come on Monday.  Darrel came but Marvin and Rod never showed up.  Rod's job is delivering out of town packages, and with the snow that day, he must have had to work late.

Ed is still the host of the contest and he brought Al with him.  So my old SOL team was Darrel, Al, and I.  Mona was going back to work on nights and was sleeping in to prepare. Jeff and Donna haven't been coming to trivia for some time now.

Even though I had seen a TV advertisement the day before for the Landing Bar and their schedule (including trivia night), a number of other trivia regulars weren't there and the crowd was less than I am used to.  We only had four teams competing.   Several old teams had merged.  Only the judge was here from the lawyer team and he sat with the team of women and their team name was "Something" women and the judge.  I forget what  the "something" was.

Mark, the biker dude from my Wednesday trivia team, was here and he was on the "Minds over Minot" team.  I learned that the other guy originally from Hawaii who had been on that team moved to Bismarck.  He was very good at trivia.  His absence didn't matter as the "Minds over Minot" team scored highest in both contests.

My team didn't do well.  In the first contest we got 12 right out of 20 questions for last place.  In the second contest we got 13 right and again were in last place by one.  We gave it a good try but were very rusty.  We couldn't even figure out the answer to the question, "What food processing company is named after the first three letters of each of two adjoining states?"   The answer is at the bottom.

I hung around and chatted with the other contestants after the contest was over.  Karaoke started at 9 pm and more people came into the bar for karaoke and the participants seemed to be decent singers.

In the cold night air I had walked to the bar and found with all the snow here that a number of homeowners hadn't cleared their sidewalks of snow.  I had to cross the street a few times to find clear sidewalks.  A few times I walked on the street itself.  Darrel dropped me off on his way home so that solved the problem of walking home.  I could have used the walk and fresh air in order to get some of the cigarette smoke off my clothes.  I swept the freshly fallen snow of the driveway but that wasn't enough to air out my coat.

The answer is: Oreida for Oregon and Idaho.

Tavern trivia

Wednesday night Rod called and invited me to join him, Ed and a couple other people for a night of trivia at a different bar (the Riviera Lounge) than I usually go to in Minot.  This trivia contest is part of a nationwide trivia contest run under http://www.worldtaverntrivia.com/

Each contest is a series of six parts of ten questions each for a total of 60 questions. Each question is worth ten points. For rounds four, five or six you can "double down" meaning if you feel good about your answers you can have the points earned in that round doubled. It can be a bit of strategy as to when to "double down" as you don't know what the questions will be in the next round and how well you could do.  The game starts with a 20 point bonus question so the total possible for the night was 720 points.  Our final score was 650 points and we won first place by 90 points.  Our prize for the night were two $20 drink certificates for future use at the bar.

Each person on our team (Funky Monks) is good at trivia and we have differing areas of expertize. Ed knows music, Randy is an EMT and knows medical stuff, Rod is good with music, literature and stuff one learned in school, and I know useless things, such as "Pennyworth" is Batman's butler's last name.  The other guy - whose name I already forgot - looked like he could be a member of the Hell's Angels and he knew that blood was thicker than water... in fact, he also knew it is six times thicker.  And we could play off one another as I remembered the author of the novel "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" also wrote "The Great Gatsby".  But I forgot the author's name (you know me and remembering names).  Rod knew the author's name is F. Scott Fitzgerald and we were the only team to get that answer correct.  We all were bad with 1980s TV trivia.  Who knew that Tom Hanks guest starred on "Family Ties" as an alcoholic uncle?  See the video here.

Darrel and Marvin from my SOL team of Monday nights were also there as another team and they were our main competition.  We were one question ahead of them until the fifth round when we got nine answers correct and we had selected this as our double point round.  We felt good about our answers and didn't want to risk doubling on the sixth round.  That was a good decision as the SOL team also doubled on the fifth round and they had got three questions wrong.

The sixth round was to name the top ten cities in the world based on population in 2006.  We only got 4 cities right and the top team that round only got six cities right.  The SOL team also only got four cities correct.  Cities we were sure were in the top ten, such as Tokyo and Mexico City, were not.  Our correct guesses were Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow and Sao Paulo, Brazil.    I would link to the list of the top ten but it seems to vary based on years and criteria (city itself or the metro area).  It seems as if the trivia question called for the city itself as this list comes closest to the top ten we were told: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762524.html   A city metro list can be found at http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm  so you can see how we thought Tokyo and Mexico City should be on the list.   On our team I argued for Shanghai, Beijing and Moscow as the other team members were not for them.  I was surprised to learn that Seoul, South Korea are on the lists.

North Dakota still allows smoking in bars, and while the bar was nowhere near full, my clothes reeked of smoke by night's end.  Yuck.

Well being of U.S. states

Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota all aren't doing too bad.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125849/Hawaii-Tops-Utah-Nation-Best.aspx

Hawaii's residents had the highest well-being in the nation in 2009, pulling ahead of 2008 leader Utah, and coming in with a new high state Well-Being Index score of 70.2. Utah and Montana are also among the top well-being states in the country, sharing the same score of 68.3.

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index 2009 state-level data encompass more than 350,000 interviews conducted among national adults aged 18 older across all 50 states. Gallup and Healthways started tracking state-level well-being in 2008. The Well-Being Index score for the nation and for each state is an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.

The Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 would represent ideal well-being. Well-Being Index scores among states vary by a narrow range of 9.7 points. The 2009 Well-Being Index score for the country is 65.9, unchanged from 2008.


On a state-by-state basis, U.S. adults' average satisfaction in 2009 with their own standard of living -- that is, "all the things you can buy and do" -- fell in a fairly narrow range, from 82.3% in North Dakota at the high end to 69% in Nevada at the low end.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125834/Standard-Living-North-Dakotans-Satisfied.aspx

Trivia night

Since I am in Minot for a little longer I decided to attend trivia night tonight.  Also helping was the warm weather as the temperature was around 20 above and not 20 below.

I walked to the bar.  With all the snow Minot has right now most sidewalks are buried under snow.  I had to walk on the street.  This was not a problem as there were hardly any cars out and about.

I thought I was late to the 7 pm start but when I went inside I didn't see any of the regulars at trivia night.  No one.

I hung around outside for a little bit weighing whether to leave.  I asked a guy coming inside whether the bar still had trivia nights and he said yes.

A short time later a few of the regulars arrived and then Ed (the host) and Al came.

Darrel and Mona didn't come so it was just Al, Marvin and I for a team. We called our team the "3 Blind Mice". We did better than expected.  For the first contest we came in second with 14 correct answers out of 20 questions.  In the second contest we tied with several other teams for second place with 12 correct.  Both times the winning team had 15 answers correct.

To be fair, a few of our correct answers were guesses.

Marvin won one of the "quarter in the bucket" trivia questions.  He chose a long ice scraper with brush for his prize.  Pretty handy right now.

His trivia question:  What state has the nickname of 'The Inland Empire'?
Answer: Illinois

The bar clientele were average to ugly looking. Partway through the contests two 20-something women came in and sat at a table next to us.  They were sitting mostly at my back on one side so I couldn't see them.  Marvin could and commented how attractive they looked.  They did look out of place.

Minnesota and Montana have banned smoking in all indoor places including bars.  North Dakota still allows smoking in bars and my clothes now stink of cigarette smoke.  Yuck.

After the trivia contests were over just before 9 pm many of the trivia regulars left and did not stay for karaoke later that evening.  I left also.

A few questions:

1. What color are papaya seeds?
2. In what city was the first All-star baseball game played?
3. Battery Park is located on the south end of which island?
4. What kind of hat did Bat Masterson wear?
5. What island was invaded under the codename 'Operation Urgent Fury'?
6. What is the plural of: basis?
   
7. What 1984 movie about underdogs starred Robert Carradine and had the tag line "Their time has come!"?
   

The answers:

1. Black
2. Chicago
3. Manhattan
4. Derby
5. Grenada
6. bases
   
7. Revenge of the Nerds
   

News IQ test

There is a 12 question test from the Pew Research Center of your recent news knowledge.   *pat myself on my back*  I got all twelve questions correct.

Click here to take the quiz.

Minot trivia night

Monday night I went to The Landing Bar for their weekly trivia contest. Darrel, Mona, Jeff, Donna, Al and Marvin were all there.  I lucked out as they apparently all haven't been attending regularly this past month.

Plenty to catch up on as they all have been busy since I was here this Spring.  For example Darrel's car racing fun was ended this summer when during the second race of the year he was involved in a wreck which totaled his car.  He then got into golfing.  Golfing?!  That seems to be a long ways from car racing.

I told the group about Tammy and they all want to meet her.  I also told about hiking with her and others this past summer.  I told them about hiking up a mountain in a thunderstorm with Tammy, Joyce and Sue Ann and I got teased for having a "hiking harem".

The bar had some ribs and chicken wings left over from an earlier benefit for a couple who were involved in a motorcycle accident where they broke an arm and ribs.  Hence: ribs and chicken wings.  The wings were good.  The others felt the ribs were too salty.

We did well in the two trivia contests but always finished a couple points below the winners.  15 and 14 correct in the two contests.

One team who sat at the bar whooped it up pumping their arms when it was announced that team "Shortbus" was in last place having not even gotten more than 9 questions correct.  If you can't be proud of winning, then be proud of losing.

Darrel and I had a little disagreement with Mona, Jeff and Donna about the spelling for the answer to one question.

"What 1975 Broadway musical was a retelling of "The Wizard of Oz"?

The answer is "The Wiz".  Jeff and Mona spelled it: "The Whiz" while I felt - and Darrel agreed with me - that the spelling was "The Wiz".  While it does have other meanings, Darrel and I felt "whiz" was the spelling for a guy taking a leak. (Why when alcohol is involved does this meaning come to mind?)  Jeff and Mona dug in their heels regarding their spelling.  Fortunately one doesn't have to spell the answer correctly.


For the question:

"What musical group did Ed Ames leave to pursue a solo career?"

We went around and around trying to guess late 50s and early 60s musical groups.  Kingston Trio?  No.  We tossed out a few other guesses before Donna mentioned "Peter, Paul and Mary".  As you can see we don't always take it super seriously, especially with alcohol involved.  Of course the more sober of us discounted this guess.  But having run out of ideas we went with Donna's later guess: The Ames Brothers.    Surprise...correct!

One of the quarters questions was:

"What family friendly association sponsored "Disneyland" when it started in the 1950s?"

Lots of quarters were tossed in the bucket before The Diary Association was guessed.  I think the winner was helped when prior to his guess, Donna said loudly to other members on our team: Dairy.

ABC quickly found multiple sponsors for the new show, to be called “Disneyland”: It secured family-friendly advertisers such as Swift Foods, Peter Pan Peanut Butter, the American Dairy Association–and the newly formed American Motors, which built Nash, Hudson and Rambler cars and Kelvinator appliances.

Marvin won the final quarters question which was for all the money in the bucket.  The question:

"On his hit, Fingertips (Pt, 2), in addition to playing the harmonica, Stevie Wonder played what musical instrument?"

Lots of quarters were added to the  bucket before Marvin, as a lark, guessed bongo drums.  Bingo!  (Or is that... Bongo?!)

By age 13, Stevie Wonder had a major hit, "Fingertips (Pt. 2)", a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop and R and B charts and launched him into the public consciousness.

Odds and ends

Diet before pregnancy can affect baby's sex. Also, eating bananas increases the odds of having a boy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3340540/Diet-before-pregnancy-can-affect-baby%27s-sex,-new-research-suggests.html


Link Between Psychological Stress and Overeating: socially subordinate female rhesus macaques over consume calorie-rich foods at a significantly higher level than do dominant females.


"Great tits cope well with global warming, though British tits were found to be better adjusted than Dutch tits." Sadly, the story isn't about what a guy would like to think it was about. Link to the BBC story.


Cat urine makes mice macho, helping lure female mice as female mice prefer aggressive males. Click here for the story.


Cleaner air may threaten Amazon rainforest by causing a drought in the southern hemisphere. Link to Washington Post story.


According to Harpers magazine...

Amount that the IRS has spent since 2006 on an outsourced program to collect unpaid taxes: $87,000,000

Amount the contractors have collected during that time: $50,000,000

(Source: National Taxpayer Advocate (Washington))

From how the news media covers global warming these days you'd think the following statistic would be an increase instead of a decrease.

Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4