Trivia

Fifi Rodriguez | Jan 23, 20130

TRIVIA TEST

1. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What does it mean to be polydactyl?

2. TELEVISION: What TV series produced a spin-off series called “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C”?

3. U.S. STATES: Which state has only one syllable in its name?

4. MUSIC: What did singer Art Garfunkel do for a living earlier in his career?

5. GEOGRAPHY: What U.S. city is nicknamed “Beantown”?

6. LITERATURE: In Greek tragedy, what does the tragic hero need to possess in order for the story to unfold properly?

7. GEOLOGY: What kind of rock can float?

8. ENGINEERING: What is a girder?

9. MEASUREMENTS: How long is a fortnight?

10. RELIGION: Who founded the Church of England?

Answers

1. To be born with extra toes or fingers

2. “The Andy Griffith Show”

3. Maine

4. He was a math teacher.

5. Boston

6. Hamartia, or a fatal flaw

7. Pumice

8. A beam, usually made of steel

9. Two weeks

10. King Henry VIII

STRANGE BUT TRUE

by Samantha Weaver

• It was German-born theoretical physicist (and sometime philosopher) Albert Einstein who made the following sage observation: “An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

• According to research conducted at Rutgers University, graduate students who are studying business are more likely to cheat than students in any other field of study.

• You’ve almost certainly heard of Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black American to serve as such. You might not know, though, that he was known to call a court recess at 1 p.m. so he could watch the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.”

• Cheese has been around for a long time, and it can last longer than you may think. In Ireland 25 years ago, a hunk of cheese was discovered that dated back 1,700 years — and it was still edible.

• If you’re like the average person, the hair on your head takes two to three months to grow 1 inch.

• At the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis, it was particularly hot. An ice-cream vendor was doing so much business that he ran out of the cups in which he was serving the ice cream. He looked to the other foodsellers to see if they had any spare containers that would be useful, but he had no luck. Finally, desperate not to lose any more business, he bought some waffles from a nearby vendor and wrapped one around each scoop of ice cream as he sold it. The result was even more popular than ice-cream in a cup, and thus the ice cream cone was born.

• The most common surname in Germany is Schultz.

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Thought for the Day: “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” — Katharine Hepburn