RHS February 2022 Trivia

 1. What poem begins:

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death 

 Rode the six hundred. ?  Who wrote it?

 

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

 

2. Which British Prime Minister foolishly stated:

 

""My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time..."

Neville Chamberlain

3.  Who has the record for winning the most money on Jeopardy all time?

Ken Jennings with a total of $3,370,70.00

4. Where does one find the Islets of Langerhans?

In one's own body

5. Who wrote the Gothic horror story Dracula? What was this author's country of birth?

Bram Stoker 

Born:November 8, 1847, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland

RHS January 2022 Trivia

1. What is the oldest known city in all of the Americas [and one of the very oldest in the world, older than the earliest pyramid in Egypt]? 

 Caral-Supe 

2. Who perfected the first commercially viable cathode-ray tube? Then made and sold the first commercially available television sets? And then also created the first television network? 

Alan B. Dumont 

3. What is the most widely produced [in greatest quantity] food staple in the world?  

Corn [Zea mays / maize] 

4. Who was the oldest ever active NFL football player?  

 George Blanda 

5. Currently, who is the all-time "Jeopardy" money-winner?

 Ken Jennings

RHS December 2021 Trivia

 

1. The original shop of a 300+ fast food chain , based originally on a five cent hot dog and

still featuring hot dogs today was opened at the corner of Surf and Stillwell in Coney Island,

NY, in 1916. What is its iconic name?

Nathan's Famous -- my dad used to deliver fountain syrups to Nathan's in Coney Island by horse and wagon from Brooklyn from my grandfather's syrup business.

2. Another iconic fast food joint, one of the first drive-ins, first set up in Lodi, California, in 1919

with its special, home-made root beer sold in a frosty mug and delivered to your car by a carhop.

What was it called?

A&W Root Beer named for Roy Allen and Frank Wright -- first franchised restaurant chain

3. Mistletoe, a parasitic plant with evergreen foliage and berries has long been associated with

romance [fertility] and Christmas decorations, was first recorded in literature as a "danger" to

housemaids in 1820 by author Washington Irving known for which well-known scary tale of

American folklore?

"The Headless Horseman"

4. Name the four singing and dancing stars of the Christmas movie "White Christmas."

Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Danny Kaye, and Bing Crosby

5. Traditionally, what was a Yule log?

A large log intended to burn for the 12 days of Christmas starting on the Winter Solstice.

RHS November 2021 Trivia

 

1.Which car company introduced the three point seat belt? In which year?

 

Volvo.   1959.

2. What is a Furcula?

A wishbone.

3. Canadian Thanksgiving is regularly on which day and week in October?

Second Monday of October.

4. Which U.S. President made Thanksgiving a national holiday?

Abraham Lincoln.

5. What is the term for the plastic or metal on the end of a shoelace designed to facilitate inserting the lace in the eyelets of a shoe?

Aglet.

 

RHS October 2021 Trivia

 

1. Hallowe'en, All Hallows (Saints) Evening, which comes just before All Hallows Day, was celebrated on the Celtic Calendar'sCross Quarter celebration of Samhain (Summer's End). It is believed to have been the start of the New Year on the CelticCalendar. What other Celtic Cross Quarter day is still observed regularly here in the United States and elsewhere?

 

February 2nd, Ground Hog Day, Celtic Imbolc (Lamb's Milk), later Catholic Candlemas 

https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Cross-Quarter+Days

2. Which early civilization first exhibited a number system with a specific character for zero in a true positional place notation?

A. Indian?  B. Chinese?  C. Pre-Columbian Meso-America? D. Ancient Middle East?

 

C. Pre-Columbian America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0#Pre-Columbian_Americas

 

3. In the film "Ground Hog Day" who played Buster who presided over the ground hog shadow-detecting ceremony?

 

Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray's older brother

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Doyle-Murray

4. Peggy Lou Snyder, a vaudeville dancer and vocalist who appeared under the name of Harriet Hilliard, later married a formercollege football player and saxophone-playing band leader. They had two sons, Eric and David. They became a famous comedy family. What was her married name?

 

Harriet Nelson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Nelson

5. What was the name of the British physician who developed the concept of "vaccination" by exposing patients to the more benign cow pox to build their immunity to the scourge of small pox?

 

Edward Jenner  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner#Invention_of_the_vaccine

 Get Your Covid Vax!

 

RHS September 2021 Trivia

 

Something a little different: English borrows words from many languages and all over the world. Below I will list six continents and then provide six loan words borrowed into English from a language originally spoken on one of these continents. Just match the continents to the words!

Africa | Asia | Australia | Europe | North America | South America

1. pajamas    ___ASIA_______

2. corn          ______EUROPE_____

3. tomato      _____SOUTH aMERICA______

4. banana     _____AFRICA______

5. squash     _____NORTH AMERICA______

6. barramundi _____AUSTRALIA______

Extra Credit: Can you identify the single source, i.e., the people from whose language the following words were all borrowed?

bar [meaning 'coin'], drag [referring to cross-gender dressing], lollipop, pal, shiv [ knife, razor, or other sharp or pointed implement, especially one used as a weapon]

 

The Gypsies: aka Romani, aka Zigeuner,, Tsigane, Gitane, etc., etc.

 

RHS August 2021 Trivia

 

1. The first commercially successful home blender was financed by and later named for what famous American band leader?

Fred Waring [and his Pennsylvanians] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Waring#Waring_blender

2.What first radio announcer, later show host, and later TV presenter who was the announcer for "The Original Amateur Hour," and the second announcer for "The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour," and presenter of TV's "Truth or Consequences" created, produced, and hosted TV's "This is your Life"?

Ralph Edwards  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Edwards

3. Who was the New York State-born, originally Dutch-speaking slave who was the first black woman to win a court suit against a white defendant and who became a prominent Abolitionist and women's rights activist?

Isabel Baumtree aka Sojourner Truth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

4. Can you name the Vienna-born mathematician, American movie star, and inventor who improved traffic stoplights, influenced Howard Hughes' airplane designs, and devised frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communications to prevent German jamming of radio-controlled torpedoes [and which communications technology is critical in today's defense communication satellite networks]?

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler aka Hedy Lamarr  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr

5. What famous American author and wit became a close friend of Nikola Tesla [whose inventions made alternating current the basis of most electrical devices, creating the binary environment for electronic computing] and once while playing with a Tesla generator suddenly found his constipation relieved and who at times borrowed money from his friend Tesla?

Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain   https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/11/twain-and-tesla/