Below are six trivia questions. If you’d like to participate, you can either reply to this e-mail or submit your answers via Google Forms by using the button below. Like most trivia, the answers can be readily found via Google, so you’re on the honor system (i.e., do not use external resources to help you answer any of the questions). The SIXTH question of each set is generally designed to be a question that cannot be easily Googled; correct answers to those will be tracked and recognized in the next newsletter. The answers, and the next set of questions, will be published on Mondays and Thursdays.
1) In yoga, the Hanumanasana (or “Monkey Pose”) and Samakonasana, though not full-bodied poses per se, are examples of poses that place the practitioner in WHAT physical position (which may or may not have an “s” at the end)? Bowling and ice cream aficionados may know this answer in other contexts.
2) NAME the opera singer, known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” who was one of the most highly regarded nineteenth-century singers. Emily Dickinson wrote the following about one of the effervescent singer’s concerts during her tour of America with P.T. Barnum: “[H]ow bouquets fell in showers, and the roof was rent with applause – how it thundered outside, and inside with the thunder of God and of men – judge ye which was the loudest.”
3) Imperial Woman, written by Pearl S. Buck in 1956, is a fictionalized biography of a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor; upon his reign finishing in 1861, she became the de facto head of the Qing dynasty. Thus, Imperial Dynasty is about WHAT woman, sometimes called the “Empress Dowager”?
4) NAME the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 605 BC to 562 BC. Generally regarded as one of the greatest kings of that empire, he may be most famous today for his Biblical appearances (the prophet Daniel interprets his dreams), his brutal military campaigns in the Levant, or for his construction projects (he may have commissioned the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for one of his wives).
5) NAME the vintage film that belongs to, and precedes, the following set of films: Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, The Dead Pool. I know what you’re thinking—did the film franchise alluded to in this question have six films or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.
6) Each of the five sets of questions and answers above refers to an item belonging to WHAT set, the theme of this newsletter? Several parts of the set have not been named or alluded to in this newsletter.
1) The 1974 film The Little Prince was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song Score; thus, for the first time, an openly transgender person was nominated for an Oscar. NAME the English composer, perhaps most famous for her BBC Radio work in the 1950s, who earned this distinction.
This is ANGELA MORLEY.
Do you remember the scene from the original Star Wars (Episode IV) in which Luke Skywalker is navigating the Death Star trench, hears Obi-Wan say “Use the Force, Luke!”, and turns off his targeting computer in order to blow up the Death Star? Of course you do:
Angela Morley orchestrated the music for that scene. Here’s composer John Williams on her after her passing in 2009:
Angela Morley was a respected colleague and valued friend for over forty years. She was certainly one of the finest musicians I've ever known or worked with. As an orchestrator, her skill was unsurpassed, with a technical perfection that was drawn on and nourished by a lifelong devotion to music. She will be irreplaceable and greatly missed.
2) The 1976 film The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song Score; thus, for the second time, an openly transgender person was nominated for an Oscar. NAME the English composer, perhaps most famous for her BBC Radio work in the 1950s, who earned this distinction.
This is also ANGELA MORLEY.
Morley, in addition to her many accolades and the many notable films she worked on (including Superman (1978), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Hook (1991), Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2 (1992) and Schindler's List (1993)), put together most of the score to Watership Down (1978) in the span of two weeks:
In 1978 the beloved children’s classic, Watership Down was brought to the big screen in animated form. Hired to score the project was Australian composer, and Master of The Queen’s Music, Malcolm Williamson.
However, due to the pressure associated with the project, Williamson quit the project, delivering only seven minutes of music when recording was due to start just three days later.
Morley was brought in to save the day. She was reluctant at first to join the project, as she was unfamiliar with the children’s novel and was concerned at the lack of preparation time available to her. However, she worked quickly by using Williamson’s sketches, reading the book, and watching footage from the film. She subsequently delivered a full score within two weeks.
3) It is very likely that you or someone you know has had multiple run-ins with a product with the brand name Comirnaty (also known by its international nonproprietary name tozinameran). Comirnaty was developed and distributed in response to WHAT?
Comirnaty is what the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is called. I’ve read the below a few times, and it still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but here you go:
The name is coined from Covid-19 immunity, and then embeds the mRNA in the middle, which is the platform technology, and as a whole the name is meant to evoke the word community,” Scott Piergrossi, Brand Institute president of operations and communications, said.
The goal in naming drugs is to overlap ideas and layer meaning into a name, he said. In this case, the high-priority concepts the teams started with were COVID immunization and the mRNA technology. The clients themselves came up with community as an image and association they wanted to elicit, Piergrossi said.
So that’s the Co- prefix, followed by the mRNA in the middle, and ending with the -ty suffix, which nods to both community and immunity. Plus, community and immunity are conceptually mnemonic across the entire name.
“Identifying those word parts and plugging into the community concept really executed nicely at the end of the day,” Piergrossi said.
Obviously there is not much about the pandemic that is particularly funny, but the fact that one of the “high-priority concepts” that the naming team started with, in order to name the vaccine meant to help immunize people against COVID-19, was “COVID immunization”? That’s great.
4) The first rule of Fight Club, as expressed in the same-named film and novel, is “you do not talk about Fight Club.” WHAT is the second rule of Fight Club?
The second rule of Fight Club is also that YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB. Here are the rules of Fight Club:
You don’t talk about Fight Club.
You don’t talk about Fight Club.
When someone says “stop” or goes limp, the fight is over.
Only two guys to a fight.
One fight at a time.
No shirts, no shoes.
Fights go on as long as they have to.
If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.
Have fun!
Okay, I made up the last one.
5) Of the many songs to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., exactly one of them has a title that explicitly names a English monarch with a regnal number. The song was released in 1965 and is based on a British music hall song from 1910. NAME the monarch named in the song’s title.
The answer is HENRY VIII, because the song is “I’m Henry VIII I Am” by Herman’s Hermits. It’s a pretty catchy song—here’s how the song starts:
I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times beforeAnd every one was an Henry (Henry)
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry
Henry the eighth I amSecond verse same as the first
I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times beforeAnd every one was an Henry (Henry)
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry
Henry the eighth I am
I haven’t fact-checked this, but I understand that the song is one of the shortest Billboard Hot 100 songs ever, clocking in at one minute and 49 seconds. WHAT WAS THE NEXT SONG after "I'm Henry VIII I Am" that is under two minutes long that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100? The song was first released in December 2018; remixed versions that are longer than two minutes (and that might be more famous to you) were subsequently released. The answer’s at the end of this newsletter.1
6) WHAT distinction, related to this newsletter’s theme, is shared by the following songs? “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” (Pink Floyd), “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (Kylie Minogue), “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic), “Glad You Came” (The Wanted), “Killing in the Name” (Rage Against the Machine), “Kiss It Better” (Rihanna), “Mr. Brightside” (The Killers), “Zero” (Yeah Yeah Yeahs).
Each of these songs has a SECOND VERSE THAT IS IDENTICAL (OR NEARLY IDENTICAL) TO THE SONG’S FIRST VERSE. This newsletter was going for a theme of “groups of things where the first and second thing are the same” to get you going towards that theme:
Questions #1 and #2: The questions were very similar and had the same answer.
Question #3: The first and second shots of the COVID-19 vaccine that one can receive are identical.
Question #4: The first and second rules of Fight Club are the same.
Question #5: The song is an example of a song that has identical first and second verses; more relevantly, it is probably the most notable example of the phrase “Second verse, same as the first” in music.
Newsletter Title: “Eek” and “Aardvark” are both words that have the same first and second letter.
Question #6 Leaderboard
The Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link. (I expect a slight delay here, but this will be updated before Trivia Newsletter CVIII goes live.)
“OLD TOWN ROAD” by Lil Nas X.