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: https://forms.gle/raARiVdG9aZfGnch6. 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 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) Surrealist painter René Magritte, describing his painting The Treachery of Images, said the following: “[I]t's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture ‘This is a [BLANK],’ I'd have been lying!” WHAT word fills in the blank in Magritte’s quote?
2) “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” is the opening line of WHAT novel by Daphne du Maurier? The novel was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a 1940 film, his only film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
3) Peter Gurney was an author and campaigner for the proper care of WHAT animal? Not only does the animal not originate from anywhere near Africa’s western coast, it is not closely related to Snowball’s species from Animal Farm.
4) Food historian Andrew Smith is describing WHAT cold beverage, similar to an ice cream float and almost always served as a fountain drink, in the following quotation? (Note that each of “Blank 1” and “Blank 2” is one word, and each word is repeated.) “During the 1880s, a popular specialty was made with chocolate syrup, [BLANK 2], and raw [BLANK 1] mixed into soda water. In poorer neighborhoods, a less expensive version of this treat was created, called the [BLANK 1] [BLANK 2] (made without the [BLANK 1] or [BLANK 2]).”
5) The objective of WHAT game, playable by up to six people, is to move all of one’s pieces across a hexagram-shaped board into the opposite of one’s starting corner? One name for the game is Sternhalma, but we’re looking for its different and alliterative name.
6) WHAT distinction is shared by each of the following songs? “Best Song Ever” (One Direction), “The Bilbao Song” (Andy Williams), “Crocodile Rock” (Elton John), “Jailhouse Rock” (Elvis Presley), “Monster Mash” (Bobby “Boris” Pickett), “Tribute” (Tenacious D).
Here are the answers from last time:
1) Stanley Kubrick, describing a 1971 film he directed, said the following: “[BLANK] makes no attempt to deceive himself or the audience as to his total corruption or wickedness. He is the very personification of evil. On the other hand, he has winning qualities: his total candour, his wit, his intelligence, and his energy…” WHAT first name fills in the blank, describing a character named by the American Film Institute as the twelfth-greatest villain in film history (but not your history)?
This is ALEX from the film A Clockwork Orange, played by Malcolm McDowell.
The American Film Institute made a list called “AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains” in 2003, wherein it ranked the top fifty film heroes and top fifty film villains in movie history (up to that point, of course). With respect to the list of heroes, it’s not particularly uncommon for the heroes to be from eponymous films; for example, Rocky is on the list for Rocky (1976) and Superman is on the list for Superman (1978). However, only one of the AFI’s listed film heroes is listed for a film with a title that is EXACTLY the same as the character’s first and last name, with no other text. NAME the film. Or, the hero, I suppose. The answer’s at the end of this newsletter.1
(The “first and last name” and “exactly” qualifiers should eliminate choices such as Norma Rae (1979), since Rae is not that character’s last name (Webster), and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), since there is text in that film title other than the hero’s name.)
2) Seven coordinating conjunctions can be learned by memorizing the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS; for example, “S” stands for the word “so” (not “soo”). WHAT does “A” typically stand for in the acronym?
“A” stands for “AND.” The complete set is FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, and SO.
When I Google “FANBOYS conjunctions” (no quotes), the first result I get is a link to a PDF by the Sam Houston Writing Center with some tips on how to use commas. I’ve linked to it not because I think it is particularly worth your time to read a two-page PDF about commas, but because I wanted to provide proof that I did not fabricate the below passage. I would not have picked the below example to provide an illustration of how to use commas!
2nd Rule: Introductory Bits
When using an introductory word, phrase, or clause to begin a sentence, it is important to place a comma between the introduction and the main sentence. The introduction is not a complete thought on its own; it simply introduces the main clause. This lets the reader know that the “meat” of the sentence is what follows the comma. You should be able to remove the part which comes before the comma and still have a complete thought.
Examples: Generally, John is opposed to overt acts of affection. However, Lucy inspires him to be kind. If the hamster is launched fifty feet, there is too much pressure in the cannon. Although the previous sentence has little to do with John and Lucy, it is a good example of how to use commas with introductory clauses.
3) Take a word that means “the act of setting one free” that sometimes appears together with words such as “theology” and “sexual”—now, remove two letters, and you’ve got a word that means a ritualistic pouring of something (typically a liquid or grain) but that, especially in the bar/restaurant industry, has taken on a connotation of simply “an intoxicating drink.” WHAT two letters were removed?
The relevant words were LIBERATION and LIBATION, and so “ER” were the removed letters.
The television show ER ran from 1994 to 2009; it is the second-longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history (behind Grey’s Anatomy). The show was nominated for 124 Primetime Emmy Awards, which isn’t too far behind the leader for a drama (Game of Thrones, 161). I’ve never actually watched an episode of ER, but I do know that there is a character in ER who gets his arm cut off by a rotating helicopter blade because he was trying to retrieve a patient’s medical chart (which seems like a strange thing to have near an operating helicopter, but I suppose I am not a doctor or a helicopterologist). Then, in the very next season, the same character is killed when he is crushed by a falling exploding helicopter.
(This aside about ER and helicopters is going to go on for another 500+ words, so if you do not find this as interesting as I do, which is to say, extremely interesting, now would be a good time to scroll down to Question #4.)
One might say that it’s important in fiction for outcomes to feel earned. For example, in the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Septimus Smith has PTSD from his time as a soldier in the First World War. The story shows how his doctors are entirely unable (or unwilling) to effectively treat his condition, and he chooses to end his life by jumping out of a window rather than be involuntarily committed. Obviously this is not a hard-and-fast rule, but it usually feels more narratively rewarding when a character’s outcome makes sense within the confines of their story, rather than, y’know, having a bunch of rocks fall on them seemingly out of nowhere.
All of that is to say that this ER doctor’s death (I refuse to learn his name or backstory in any fashion) is the most earned outcome in the history of fiction. We’ve already established that this person, despite being a doctor, has a history of helicopter accidents. The name of the episode was “Freefall,” which is an example of the writers cleverly telling us “hey, something might fall.”
Here is a (low-quality) video of the events I am about to describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFcBVAwYXes
At the beginning of the video, our characters are in an elevator. The song playing is a version of “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty. (The brand of “elevator music” that you always hear in elevators, department stores, etc. is called “Muzak,” by the way.) The choice of this song is another clever allusion by the ER writers that something is about to be vertically challenged.
At about the eighteen-second mark, the doctor sees the helicopter and stares at it for ten seconds. The camera repeatedly cuts from him to the helicopter in order to subtly inform us “hey, these two have a history. This isn’t their first rodeo. Helicopter and helicoptee, like mongoose-to-cobra, two serpentine forms, he was my rival.” Around the 0:28 mark, we are actually shown a quick flashback to the Season 9 accident as another subtle reminder of the doctor’s well founded fear of helicopters.
Our doctor friend uses his fancy degree to decide that it would be a very good idea not to approach this helicopter; he instead hands off his papers to another doctor. He goes back inside the hospital for a moment but is caught up in a panic, so he retreats outside to gather his thoughts. Meanwhile, the helicopter takes off but is struggling with Chicago’s high winds. The helicopter crashes into the roof and then begins to fall to the ground (but not before inexplicably exploding in mid-air), directly towards the doctor on the ground.
In his last moments, the doctor crouches and screams, as if to say “I would prefer not to be crushed by a falling exploding helicopter today”:
It’s like they say: When all you’ve got is a [crippling but entirely reasonable fear of helicopters], everything looks like a [helicopter]. It is probably the funniest thing that has ever happened on network television.
4) Ah, geez, I got red quadrilaterals all over my chart! What I need to know is the ACTOR primarily associated with the character obscured by the green rectangle in the image below; he, the actor, has won three Saturn Awards and has been nominated for three Annie Awards. What’s his (last) name, man?
The obscured character is Luke Skywalker, so our actor is MARK HAMILL. Here’s that full chart:
I spotted you Grogu (better known as Baby Yoda) and Rey (the protagonist of the latest trilogy of mainline Star Wars films), and also made the box obscuring Luke’s name green, as a little nod to his lightsaber’s color. I left in a few of the other names as well. For example, if you’re a big fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, you know Ahsoka—but then, such a fan probably wouldn’t need the hint, would they?
5) WHAT three-letter word, in addition to its more common definition, is a word used to describe British high society during the Regency era? The French helped out by providing the phrase (meaning “good manners” or “good form”) that the word originates from. One last hint: this three-letter word appears at the end of the names of at least three cities that make up the fifty most populous U.S. cities as of today.
This is “TON”—the French phrase is le bon ton. Laurie Benson is a writer of historical romance novels, and we’re going to let a blog post of hers do the explaining:
When I first started reading Regency Romances, one of the first terms I ran across that made me pause was “the ton”. I’m the type of person who enjoys researching things so I searched the internet for the meaning. After I published my Secret Lives of the Ton Regency romance series, I began to get questions from my family and friends who were also confused by the term. And now that Bridgerton is out, I imagine more of you have questions. So here’s the definition, and it doesn’t have to do with a measurement of weight.
During the early 19th century, people used “the ton” to refer to British High Society. It comes from the French le bon ton which means good manners and etiquette. Another phrase used for this group was “the beau monde” which translated from French means beautiful people. In my novels, I usually use “Society” (with a capital S), which was also used to refer to British High Society. I find it’s less confusing for new readers of historical romance and that’s why I prefer to use it.
The relevant U.S. cities, by the way, are Houston, Boston, and Arlington. You might have found the phrasing “at least three cities” to be a bit odd—this was me deciding that someone could argue that Washington, D.C. should count and trying to hedge accordingly.
6) Exactly one individual is missing from this list of individuals sharing a certain distinction. NAME the individual. George Washington, Henry Knox, Josiah Harmar, Arthur St. Clair, James Wilkinson, Henry Dearborn, Jacob Brown, Alexander Macomb, Winfield Scott, George McClellan, Henry Halleck, Ulysses Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Phillip Sheridan, John Schofield, Nelson Miles.
This is an almost-complete list of the individuals who were the highest-ranking officers of the U.S. Army from 1775 (when the Continental Army was formed) to 1903 (when federal law made the “Chief of Staff of the United States Army” the senior officer of the Army). The missing person is ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
Hamilton’s exploits as a major general and as George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the American Revolution are well documented in history and by the musical Hamilton. A couple of decades later, war with France seemed imminent, and President John Adams expanded the military and asked Washington to again lead the military. Washington wearily signed on to the effort:
Thinking in this manner, and feeling how incumbent it is upon every person, of every description, to contribute at all times to his Countrys welfare, and especially in a moment like the present, when every thing we hold dear & Sacred is so seriously threatned, I have finally determined to accept the Commission of Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States, with the reserve only, that I shall not be called into the field until the Army is in a Situation to require my presence, or it becomes indispensible by the urgency of circumstances.
Washington named his old friend Alexander Hamilton his second in command, and so when Washington passed away in late 1799, Hamilton was the senior officer of the Army and remained in that position for about six months.
The answers to this newsletter were meant to spell out Hamilton’s name, and included a few Easter eggs relating to the musical:
Question #1: ALEX (“villains in film history (but not your history)” referring to Aaron Burr’s line “Now I’m the villain in your history”)
Question #2: AND (“soo” referring to Phillipa Soo, who played Eliza Hamilton in the original Broadway run of the musical)
Question #3: ER
Question #4: Mark HAMILL (“What’s his name, man” referring to the same line spoken when Hamilton is introduced in the musical)
Question #5: TON (“The French helped out” referring to French assistance during the American Revolution, depicted in the musical, and Boston and Washington being relevant places in the musical)
Newsletter Title: Malört is a brand of liquor popular in Chicago2 that is almost always drunk as a shot. “Never Discard Malört” is an allusion to “Don’t throw away your shot,” a recurring lyric/theme of the musical.
The current-ish* Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link.
*typically updated 4-6 hours after each newsletter is released
ERIN BROCKOVICH for Erin Brockovich (2000).
Malört is a type of bäsk (a Swedish-style liquor flavored with wormwood) that has a bitter and, to many (but not your author), awful taste. For those who drink, it is a bit of a Chicago meme to have your friends try Malört and record their unhappy reaction to the drink’s taste.