by Paula Johnson
Before July scoots by, my trivia quiz needs to appear. The quiz is short answer rather than multiple choice or true/false. However, I give the short answer its moment of glory by explaining it a bit. Have some fun.
Questions:
1. Are you still wearing waist overalls?
2. What is the meteorological term for the time snow reduces visibility to near zero?
3. What does the word raillery mean?
4. What fruit, that we often miss take for a vegetable, was once considered poisonous?
5. Which Norman Rockwell painting would you find displayed at the UN Headquarters in NYC?
6. What competitive sport held a six-day race in March 1878 at NYC’s Gilmore’s Garden?
7. Patents bring fortunes. Who gave his patent away to save lives?
8. What invention of the 20th century is consider its best?
9. What is measured by a “gill?”
10. What is the official bird of Madison, Wisconsin?
Answers:
1. This fashion statement began about 150 years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Miners and manual laborers were looking for a comfortable but sturdy pant that could take a day’s wear and more. Although Levi Strauss has his name on them, these denim pants were created by a tailor who happened to be a Strauss customer. His creation added rivets and extra stitching to areas that had hard wearing. Around 1872, Jacob Davis took his idea to Strauss, they patented the pants, hired the first commissioned seamstresses to operate out of their home and our denim jeans were born. The men built their first factory in the 1880s and never looked back. Of course, you pay big money now for jeans that they were trying to avoid making.
2. In these days of near breathless atmospheres and days of heat advisories, we might forget about those WHITEOUT conditions. Remember the blowing snow, wind drifts with high winds that create almost no visible horizon? Almost dreaming of days like this?
3. Having lived a childhood of teasing in near stereo conditions, I can handle most anything. Sometimes teasing can be downright mean. I really don’t like it when people, after skewering someone, might say “But’s it’s just a joke.” However, a twinkle in the eye, a pleasant grin, and a good-humored remark, called raillery, can lead to lots of laughter, even from the brunt of the joke.
4. Once known in Europe as the “poison apple,” our humble, but now favorite tomato was once feared. It is believed that this fear of the tomato being poisonous steamed from eating them on the pewter plates of the time. The juice of the tomato likely seeped onto the plate and the acidic nature of the juice would become contaminated from the pewter’s lead content causing a poisoning of the eater. Even in the new country (USA), early farmers thought the worm often found in the green tomato was a “poisonous rattle snake.” (This is how conspiracy theories begin.) It took until the late 1800s for an entomologist to set that theory to rest – declaring it to be just an ugly worm. The tomato finally was able to erase all the prejudices thanks to Queen Margherita of Italy. She loved the new pizza that now bears her name, made of red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. Hurray for pizza! Love live the Queen!
5. If you grew up when I did you remember those fabulous Saturday Evening Post covers with Rockwell’s paintings. His paintings were the beginning of my love affair with editorial cartoons. For me, it is difficult to find a favorite ONE. Maybe because I am always a teacher, I still favor the one of the girl sitting outside the principal’s office with the black eye, entitled “The Shiner.” However, the one at the UN Headquarters is “The Golden Rule.” It has people of many different nationalities standing together and inscribed are the words: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
6. Sir John Dugdale Astley established a championship belt for the competitive sport of pedestrianism. Sir Astley was a member of Parliament, and an elite runner in his own right. He sponsored several days long pedestrian tournaments. In March 1878 a six-day 450+ mile on a 1/8th mile track in Gilmore’s Garden (later named Madison Square Garden) was held. Contestants were not allowed to leave the track. Resting and medical tents were in place along the track. Pedestrianism became a sport when Edward Weston of the New York Herald made a bet on the 1860 presidential race. The loser would walk from Boston to Washington D.C. Weston bet against Lincoln and walked through ice and snow for 10 days to complete the bet. The sport was on.
competitive walking
7. People receive patents personally, and some earn patents for a company as an employee. As an old person, I remember the days of driving without a seat belt. That wasn’t because I was stupid or rebellious (both of which I have been), but seat belts weren’t a function in a car. The earliest seat belts were simple lap belts and weren’t always better than nothing – the upper body was unprotected and the lap belt in high-speed crashes could be quite dangerous. The first 3-point seat belt created in 1951 was uncomfortable and not acceptable. Volvo hired an aviation engineer responsible for the pilot ejection seats, to create a better design. Within a year Bolin had his model. Volvo immediately put it on the market in their cars. Neither Bolin nor Volvo used the patent for their profit, but made it public and urged all car manufacturers to use it.
8. John and I have marveled at the inventions our Grandpa John experienced in his lifetime (1868-1961). There were many in the last century that were amazing and changed our world. For one, I am grateful for indoor plumbing. There are days when I would like to try to do without the telephone, but it is short-lived. Grandpa went from horse and buggy to automobile, to first flight, and because he lived until December 1961, he experienced the first man in space that April. But John and I are sure that he and his children would have loved the internet – considered the best invention of the 20th century.
9. If you come across an old recipe that calls for a gill of milk or rum, do not despair. Generally (especially in the US) a gill equals 4 fluid ounces. In England, it can be 4 or 5 fluid ounces, but we Americans choose to be more exact. A dram is not exact at all, as in” Just a dram, Your Lordship.” Thus, if you go to a pub in England and want an actual drink of whiskey ask for a gill (4-5 oz) not a dram (less than an ounce.)
10. Madison, Wisconsin often appears on lists of best places to live in the United States. Lots of fun in Madison and all over Wisconsin. The place to go for cheese and a great fish fry. College is not only a place of higher learning, but a place for frivolity and pranks. The University of Wisconsin at Madison is not be out done. They even have a “committee” in their school government called the Pail & Shovel Party. Some of the best-known stunts by the group include a 10,000-person toga party and building a replica of the Statue of Liberty emerging from Lake Mendota nearby). A day in September 1979 students awoke to their Bascom Hill covered with 1,008 plastic flamingos. By 2009, the Madison City Council voted 15-4 declaring the plastic flamingo the official city bird. This prank is now an annual fundraiser.
Hope you had some successes with these questions. I’m already on the hunt for good fun for August.
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