Trivia test/ Strange but true

TRIVIA TEST

1. LITERATURE: Who was England’s first, unofficial poet laureate?

2. MUSIC: Which musical group had a hit with “Penny Lane”?

3. MEASUREMENTS: How many meters are in an “are,” a unit of land measurement?

4. INVENTIONS: Who invented frozen food in 1923?

5. GEOGRAPHY: Which countries share the region of Patagonia?

6. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What is the traditional birthstone associated with July?

7. ASTRONOMY: The moon called Titan orbits which planet in our solar system?

8. HISTORY: In what year did Ohio’s National Guard kill four war protesters at Kent State University?

9. MOVIES: Which Disney movie featured a character named Dory?

10. RELIGION: Who is the patron saint of carpenters?

Answers

1. Ben Jonson

2. The Beatles

3. 100 square meters

4. Clarence Birdseye

5. Argentina and Chile

6. Ruby

7. Saturn

8. 1970

9. “Finding Nemo”

10. St. Joseph

STRANGE BUT TRUE

by Samantha Weaver

• It was American actress, screenwriter and notorious sex symbol Mae West who made the following sage observation: “You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

• At the 2012 USA Memory Championship, Nelson Dellis set a new record for the memorization of random digits. At the annual event in New York City, Dellis accurately recalled a whopping 303 numbers in sequence.

• The Rose Parade, popularly known as America’s New Year Celebration, was originally started in 1890. These days, hundreds of thousands of people crowd the parade route each year, and millions more view the television broadcast worldwide. The amount of work that goes into the display is astonishing: Each float has anywhere from 30,000 to 150,000 flowers on it, which are applied during the 700 to 900 hours spent on preparing each float.

• Beloved film icon James Dean was missing his front teeth; he had to wear a bridge to fill the gap in his smile.

• If you’re like the average American, at least one-tenth of the garbage you produce is made of plastic.

• Those who study such things say that American English has roughly 20 swear words (depending, of course, on how one defines swearing). In contrast, residents of ancient Rome had a lexicon of about 800 “dirty” words to draw upon.

• If you’re planning a trip by air anytime soon, you might want to keep in mind that the busiest day in airports is Thursday.

Thought for the Day: “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” — Terry Pratchett

(c) 2012 King Features Synd., Inc.