Trivia Quiz?

[phkrause]

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

Who inspired the song "Rosanna" by '80s band Toto?

A. Rosanna Arquette
B. Rosanna Pansino
C. Rosanna Williams
D. Rosanna East

A. Rosanna Arquette

Actress Rosanna Arquette inspired "Rosanna" - and is rumored to have inspired Peter Gabriel's hit "In Your Eyes."

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which American patriot defended the British soldiers at the trial of the Boston Massacre?

John Adams John Hancock Thomas Jefferson Patrick Henry

Answer: In 1770, John Adams agreed to represent the British soldiers on trial for killing five civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although he was a patriot, Adams believed that every person deserved a defense, and took the case without hesitation. During the trial Adams argued that the soldiers had the right to defend themselves and showed that they thought their lives were in danger from the mob that had gathered. The jury acquitted six of the eight soldiers, while two were convicted of manslaughter.

[phkrause]

Who was the only U.S. President ever to be an Eagle Scout?

Gerald Ford John F. Kennedy George H. W. Bush Donald Trump

[phkrause]

Which cocktail's creation requires the use of a tool called a muddler?

A. Cape Cod
B. Manhattan
C. Mojito
D. French 75

[phkrause]

Trivia: Dred Scott and His Path to Freedom

On March 6, 1857, in its Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court held that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court. See if you can answer these trivia questions about one of the most famous court cases in America's history...

Why Was Scott's Background Important to the Case?

Under What Law Did the Scotts File a Lawsuit?

What Major Law Did the Dred Scott Decision Overturn?

Was Dred Scott Ever Freed?

[phkrause]

Which slave sued for his freedom in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on this day in 1857?

Nat Turner Dred Scott Frederick Douglass George Washington Carver

[phkrause]

15 hours ago, phkrause said:

Who was the only U.S. President ever to be an Eagle Scout?

Gerald Ford John F. Kennedy George H. W. Bush Donald Trump

I picked Bush, but after clicking, I knew in the back of my mind it was Ford!!

[phkrause]

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which cocktail's creation requires the use of a tool called a muddler?

A. Cape Cod
B. Manhattan
C. Mojito
D. French 75

C. Mojito

A mojito, which uses crushed - "muddled" - mint leaves requires the maker to use the instrument to mash up and extract oils from the leaves.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Why Was Scott's Background Important to the Case?

Dred Scott was born in Virginia around 1799 as a slave to a family named Blow. In 1830, he moved with the family to St. Louis, where he was sold to Dr. John Emerson because of the Blow family's economic problems. Emerson was a military surgeon who traveled to posts in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory (present-day Minnesota), taking Scott along with him. In those two areas, slavery was prohibited. Scott married another slave, Harriet Robinson, at Fort Snelling in Minnesota. Later, Emerson returned to Missouri, taking along Scott, his wife, and both children, whom he owned.

 

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Under What Law Did the Scotts File a Lawsuit?

In 1836, the Scotts filed freedom suits in court under the "once free, always free" doctrine in Missouri, which claimed that they were being wrongfully enslaved. Under the Missouri Compromise, it had been ruled in previous cases that a slave who was held in a free state, such as the Wisconsin Territory, even if returned to a slave state, was free. In the city of St. Louis alone, there were more than 300 lawsuits filed under this provision from 1805 to 1865. However, the rulings had been clouded by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.

While under the Missouri Compromise, a line was established above which slavery was not allowed, except for the state of Missouri, passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed this law. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, individual states could determine whether they would be free or slave states. It took 11 years for the case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Major Law Did the Dred Scott Decision Overturn?

The result of Dred Scott case was that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, ruled that black people had no legal right to sue in federal court as citizens. Second, it ruled that states that permitted slavery did not have to honor the "once free, always free" doctrine. Third, it ruled that the Congress should not have prohibited the practice of slavery any place in the United States, including in Wisconsin Territory. This ruling by the Supreme Court is believed to have been one of the major causes that led to the Civil War.

 

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Was Dred Scott Ever Freed?

Yes. Sons of the original Blow family that had owned Dred Scott had become actively opposed to slavery. They had helped in funding Scott's court case throughout the years that sought to free him and his family. When the case was lost in the Supreme Court, they bought the family in 1857 and set them free. Although, Scott lived less than a year after obtaining his freedom, he died a free man.

[phkrause]

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which slave sued for his freedom in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on this day in 1857?

Nat Turner Dred Scott Frederick Douglass George Washington Carver

Answer: On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. The case had been brought before the court by Dred Scott, a slave who had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott argued that his time spent in these locations entitled him to emancipation. In its decision, the Supreme Court found that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom.

[phkrause]

Which world city has the most skyscrapers (100 meters or taller)?

A. New York
B. Hong Kong
C. Tokyo
D. Dubai

Ha, if you'd ask me this a number of years ago, I'd definitely say NY! But now its a bit more difficult because Hong Kong and Dubai have plenty of tall buildings. Not sure about Tokyo, my pick is still NY!

[phkrause]

What is the most poisonous tree in the world?

Black Locust tree Manchineel tree Black Willow tree Graveyard tree

[phkrause]

The wind on which planet can blow up to 1,500 miles per hour?

Mars Neptune Saturn Jupiter

[phkrause]

Trivia Questions About Alexander Graham Bell's Patent for the Telephone

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for his invention of the telephone. To celebrate that landmark development in telecommunications history, try your luck with our trivia questions to see how much you know about Bell and his inventions.

Who Was Bell's Closest Competitor for the Telephone Patent?

What Was Alexander Graham Bell's Profession?

What Was Bell's First Invention?

What Were Some of Bell's Other Inventions?

[phkrause]

On 3/7/2017 at 1:06 PM, phkrause said:

Which world city has the most skyscrapers (100 meters or taller)?

A. New York
B. Hong Kong
C. Tokyo
D. Dubai

Ha, if you'd ask me this a number of years ago, I'd definitely say NY! But now its a bit more difficult because Hong Kong and Dubai have plenty of tall buildings. Not sure about Tokyo, my pick is still NY!

B. Hong Kong

There are a lot of cities with tall buildings, aka skyscrapers, but the general rule is that buildings must reach 100 meters or more. So the city with the most skyscrapers is Hong Kong - there are at least 2,354 buildings that reach 100 meters or more.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

On 3/7/2017 at 1:15 PM, phkrause said:

What is the most poisonous tree in the world?

Black Locust tree Manchineel tree Black Willow tree Graveyard tree

Answer: Do not eat, touch, or even inhale the air around the Manchineel Tree. According to the Guinness World Records, the Manchineel tree is in fact the most dangerous tree in the world. As explained by the Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, all parts of Manchineel are extremely poisonous, and "interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be lethal". The Manchineel tree can choke you with its fruit, poison you with its sap, and blind you with its smoke. Literally every part of the tree is poisonous. Native to Florida, the Caribbean and Central America, the Manchineel is rumored to have killed the famed explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon.

[phkrause]

On 3/7/2017 at 7:03 PM, phkrause said:

The wind on which planet can blow up to 1,500 miles per hour?

Mars Neptune Saturn Jupiter

Answer: Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun, with temperatures that plunge down to 55 Kelvin, or -218 degrees Celsius. The weather on Neptune is some of the most violent weather in the Solar System. Astronomers have clocked winds on Neptune traveling at 1,500 mph which is the fastest planetary winds detected yet in the solar system. More than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth, the planet takes almost 165 Earth years to orbit our sun. In 2011 Neptune completed its first orbit since its discovery in 1846.

[phkrause]

On 3/7/2017 at 7:10 PM, phkrause said:

Who Was Bell's Closest Competitor for the Telephone Patent?

Bell was not alone in his quest to develop a device that could transmit the spoken word over wires. In fact, several other inventors were pursuing similar projects at the same time as Bell. Among those racing Bell to develop the first successful telephone were Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci, Thomas A. Edison, and Charles Bourseul. Of those, Gray was right on Bell's heels. Bell filed for his telephone patent barely two hours before Gray made a similar filing. Western Union, which had dominated the telegraph industry in the latter half of the 19th century, was desperate to get in on the telephone business as well. To do so, the company hired Gray and Edison to develop their own telephone system, but Bell sued to block Western Union's effort.

Interestingly, the telephone we know has its roots in both patents. Gray's design used water as a transmitter, and Bell's original phone used a diaphragm with a needle in water. Bell spoke to his assistant in the other room saying "Come here, Watson! I want to see you!" An odd sentence to change the world with, but a world-changing one nonetheless. On August 3, 1876, he managed to extend the range even further, four miles from his lab to his home. And the rest, as we know from the device in our pockets, is history.

 

On 3/7/2017 at 7:10 PM, phkrause said:

What Was Alexander Graham Bell's Profession?

Just when, and if, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone is the subject of some debate. His brilliance, though, wasn't. Bell wasn't an electric engineer or physicist, but rather a professor of elocution and speaking who'd dedicated his life to working with the deaf and hard of hearing. In fact, his interest in speech dated back to his boyhood years, when he and his brother built a talking automaton, and Bell helped the Mohawk tribe near his Canadian home translate their language into visible symbols, learning to speak it in the process. 

 

On 3/7/2017 at 7:10 PM, phkrause said:

What Was Bell's First Invention?

As a child, Bell was fascinated by the workings of the natural world around him. The family of his close friend, Ben Herdman, operated a nearby flour mill. Curious about the work that was being done there, he was told by his friend that grains of wheat had to be removed from the husks that surrounded them, a laborious task. At age 12, Bell developed a somewhat primitive dehusking machine that was adopted by Herdman's father and others. Bell's dehusker consisted of nail brushes attached to a rotating paddle that freed the grains of wheat from their husks.

 

On 3/7/2017 at 7:10 PM, phkrause said:

What Were Some of Bell's Other Inventions?

Although he is clearly best remembered for his work on the telephone, Bell also developed other inventions and helped to refine and improve others' inventions. In the latter category, he came up with a refinement for Thomas Edison's phonograph by developing a wax-coated cardboard cylinder to replace Edison's tinfoil cylinder, an innovation that improved the phonograph's performance. Because his mother and wife were both deaf, Bell was especially sensitive to the needs of the hearing impaired. To better evaluate a person's hearing, he developed an audiometer that emits sounds at varying levels of intensity. He also developed a primitive metal detector to help pinpoint the location of the bullet lodged in President James A. Garfield's body after an assassination attempt in 1881. Sadly, Bell's invention did little to help Garfield, who died soon thereafter, because the metal detector was confused and confounded by the metal springs in the bed on which Garfield was lying. 

[phkrause]

Which woman was not married to Donald Trump?

A. Carla Bruni
B. Marla Maples
C. Ivana Zelnickova
D. Melania Knauss

[phkrause]

Which of the following U.S. presidents served only one term?

Thomas Jefferson George W. Bush Jimmy Carter Franklin D. Roosevelt

Jimmy Carter

[phkrause]

Who created the TV talk show "The View"?

Oprah Winfrey Barbara Walters Whoopi Goldberg Larry King

Barbara Walters

[phkrause]

22 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which woman was not married to Donald Trump?

A. Carla Bruni
B. Marla Maples
C. Ivana Zelnickova
D. Melania Knauss

A. Carla Bruni

If you didn't guess Carla Bruni, "you're fired!" She's the only one who dodged the Donald bullet.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

22 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which of the following U.S. presidents served only one term?

Thomas Jefferson George W. Bush Jimmy Carter Franklin D. Roosevelt

Jimmy Carter

Answer: There have been nearly a dozen one term presidents who ran for second terms but were denied by voters. Democrat Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. He lost a campaign for re-election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. Carter's White House biography blames several factors for his defeat, not the least of which was the hostage-taking of U. S. embassy staff in Iran, which dominated the news during the last 14 months of his administration. Iran released the 52 Americans the same day Carter left office.

[phkrause]

Joltin' Joe DiMaggio Trivia: Gone But Not Forgotten

On March 8, 1999, baseball great Joe DiMaggio died at his home in Hollywood, Florida, at the age of 84. How much do you know about DiMaggio and his contributions to baseball? To find out, try your luck with these trivia questions.

In How Many Consecutive Games Did DiMaggio Get a Hit?

What Were His Father's Hopes for DiMaggio?

What was the Biggest Salary DiMaggio Ever Earned in Baseball?

Who was the Great Love of DiMaggio's Life?

[phkrause]

17 minutes ago, phkrause said:

In How Many Consecutive Games Did DiMaggio Get a Hit?

Widely considered to be an unbreakable record, DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak got underway on May 15, 1941, when he hit a single, ending a short batting slump. Over the next two months and 55 games, the Yankee Clipper hit safely at least once in every game. The closest runners-up to DiMaggio's record were a 45-game streak by Willie Keeler of the Baltimore Orioles that straddled the 1896 and 1897 seasons and a 44-game streak by Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds in 1978. 

During DiMaggio's 1941 hitting streak, which ended on July 17, the talented Yankee centerfielder enjoyed a batting average of .408 (91 hits out of 223 at-bats). Other stats from DiMaggio's singular feat included 15 home runs and 55 RBIs.

 

17 minutes ago, phkrause said:

What Were His Father's Hopes for DiMaggio?

Born Giuseppe Paolo (Joseph Paul) DiMaggio on November 15, 1914, in Martinez, California, DiMaggio was the eighth of nine children born to Italian immigrants Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio. His father was a fisherman, who hoped that his five sons would follow in his footsteps when they grew up, but Joe had no interest in his father's trade and found the smell of dead fish nauseating. Later in life, DiMaggio recalled that as a boy he would do almost anything to avoid having to clean out his father's boat, prompting his father to call him ¨good for nothing" and ¨lazy.¨ 

Two of DiMaggio's four brothers -- Vince, the oldest, and Dom, the youngest -- went on to play baseball in the MLB. In fact, it was Vince who helped Joe break into minor league baseball in 1932. Vince, who at the time was playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, persuaded his manager to let Joe fill in at shortstop, thus beginning a history-making career in the sport.

 

19 minutes ago, phkrause said:

What was the Biggest Salary DiMaggio Ever Earned in Baseball?

In 1949, DiMaggio made baseball history when he became the first MLB player to earn $100,000 a year, which seems like a pittance when compared to the multimillion-dollar contracts so common today. However, as pointed out by the Society for American Baseball Research, DiMaggio's 1949 salary was roughly equivalent to 30 times the earnings of average Americans during that period. SABR notes that DiMaggio's 1949 status as the game's highest-paid player was more than justified by his stellar career performance and the fact that the Yankees attracted roughly 2 million fans a year to their games.

 

20 minutes ago, phkrause said:

Who was the Great Love of DiMaggio's Life?

DiMaggio was married twice. He was first married to actress Dorothy Arnold on November 18, 1939. Their marriage ended in divorce on May 12, 1944, and produced DiMaggio's only child, Joe DiMaggio Jr., born October 23, 1941. 

DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe on January 14, 1954. The actress filed for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty 274 days after the wedding. Despite their short-lived marriage, there can be little doubt that Marilyn was the great love of DiMaggio's life. He remained close to her for the rest of her life, comforting her during times of trouble. 

Shortly before the actress's untimely death on August 5, 1962, DiMaggio was rumored to be talking of his hopes that the two would remarry. In the wake of her death, DiMaggio made arrangements for her funeral and for the next 20 years had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week. As he lay dying in 1999, his last words spoke of a hoped-for reunion with Marilyn in the after-life.