Jims, Gems, and Gyms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ben Dunne Gyms

Ben Dunne, an Irish businessman, was once briefly kidnapped by the IRA and released unharmed after about a week. In the 1990s, Dunne left the Dunne Family Stores and founded a line of gyms. The first gyms he opened were in Westpoint, Carlisle, and Northwood in Dublin. Ben Dunne also opened gyms in the United Kingdom with an eye to even greater expansion of his gyms. Ben Dunne Gyms operate under the motto: "Excellence is not about doing one thing right; it's about doing everything superbly".

Answer: Jim Marshall

James "Jim" Marshall was born in Acton, West London, England in 1923. Marshall was ill as a youth and exempt from military service because of his tubercular bones. He became a singer and then a drummer wanting to emulate Gene Krupa. Because his voice was often not heard over the drumming, Marshall built himself a portable amplification system.

In 1960, Marshall owned a store selling drums and later guitars in Hanwell, West London. He catered to musicians such as Jim Sullivan, Pete Townshend, and Ritchie Blackmore. However, they all wanted something more from their amplifiers, and Marshall gave it to them. Townshend in particular wanted something much bigger and louder. In 1962, with the help of his young apprentice Dudley Craven, Marshall Amplification was founded.

Jim Marshall, also known as The Lord of Loud, supplied equipment for musicians including Hendrix, Clapton, and Page. The "Marshal Stack" is a wall of black vinyl-clad cabinets, one atop the other. This system can be seen in the amp scene of the movie "This is Spinal Tap". There are Marshall amplifiers that can blast out loudness off the dial to 20.

Answer: Beryl

Beryl can be found from California to Brazil to Pakistan and beyond. The
class of beryls include bixbite, aquamarine, goshenite, emerald, heliodor,
and morganite. A durable mineral, beryl lands at 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale of hardness.

Beryl is a beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate; it is also combined with copper
to produce beryllium and used to make resistant wires. Beryllium is used in
the space shuttle, in nuclear reactors and even in car windshields.

Because beryl is on the upward end of hardness, its gems can be used for
many types of jewelry. The most common of the gems is probably emerald
but aquamarine and morganite are also quite versatile in jewelry.

Answer: Doug's

Doug's Gym was founded by owner Douglas Eidd in 1962. Equipped with mostly free-weight workout stations and a smith machine (invented by Jack LaLanne), this is part of what gives Doug's Gym its old-school charm. The gym is noted as a top bodybuilder's gym.

Answer: Marcasite

Marcasite, which is often called 'white iron pyrite', has a hardness of 6 -6.5 on the Mohs scale, which measures hardness of minerals. Marcasite was popular in the Victorian era, and is considered a more vintage type jewelry. Jewelry made from marcasite is not everyday wear. However, the pieces are quite striking and the name black diamonds is fitting.

Answer: Peridot

Peridot which can be pronounced (pear-uh-doe), (pear-a-doe), (pear-uh-dot), but is more correctly pronounced (per'i-dot). Along with being called the evening emerald, it is also referred to as olivine and chrysolite. The name evening emerald came about because peridot was believe to not lose itself in darkness. In fact, it was mined at night believing it was more easily seen then. It has about the same Mohs scale hardness as Amethyst, 6.5-7.

Peridot comes in shades from lime to grass green and yellow/green to brownish/
green. Many believe that Cleopatra's green jewels contained really fine (dark)
peridot along with emeralds. Peridot is one of the gems found in meteorites.

Answer: Jim McKay

Jim McKay was born James Mcmanus to Irish/American Catholic parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September of 1921. His family moved 14 years later to Baltimore, Maryland. After schooling, which included graduating from Loyola, he went into military service.

McKay was a reporter at the "Baltimore Sun" when he was asked to join the new television station WMAR-TV. Jim McKay's voice was the first voice heard on television in Baltimore. He eventually left WMAR and went to CBS; it was there while hosting "The Real McKay" he changed his last name to McKay from McManus.

While at CBS, McKay was pigeon-holed doing sports commentary, including being teamed with Chris Schenkel to call Giants football. Assigned to do the 1960 Winter Olympics, McKay was sidelined by an illness; however, he recovered in time to host the 1960 Summer Olympics. Soon after that, Jim headed to ABC and the rest is history. Jim McKay became "The Voice" of ABC sports, covering the Olympic games and hosting its popular "Wide World of Sports". I doubt any of us who were watching the Munich Olympics will ever forget hearing the following in 1972.

"When I was a kid my father used to say 'Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized'. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said there were 11 hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone". This was spoken by Jim McKay.

Answer: Apatite

Pronounced almost like the word appetite, the 'GEM' apatite is more useful as
a mineral. It is widely used in the production of fertilizer. However, as a gem it has a hardness of only five, so it's not very durable and is mostly used in making things like earrings or brooches. It is a greenish gem, but also can come in other hues. It doesn't polish to a clear shine, but rather a translucency.

Traces of apatite were found in moon rocks brought back with the "Apollo"
program. In 2010, further studies done on these rocks reveal the presence
of hydroxyl, causing scientists to proclaim there was water in some part on
the moon.

Answer: Jim Varney

Jim Varney was born, grew up, and educated in Lexington, Kentucky. As a child his mother saw in him his ability to imitate any of the cartoons he watched. At 17 Jim was doing stand-up in coffee houses and night clubs. Varney studied Shakespeare at the well known Barter Theater in Virginia. Before he got his big break, he did local theater performance for whatever the size of the audience.

Varney became a household face doing dairy commercials which gave America the trademark, "KnoWhutImean, Vern?" Varney shot his first commercial as Ernest P. Worrell advertising the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' appearance at an amusement park in 1980. Jim Varney did a series of "Ernest Goes To" movies and other franchises. His mother was right about his talent for mimicry. The one role the eluded Varney was Hamlet, which he longed to do. However, death from lung cancer stole that opportunity.

Answer: Tourmaline

Tourmaline comes in more colors than any other gemstone. It is said to have passed through the rainbow and thus accounts for its varied colors. Tourmaline can be found in colors from light to dark brown, lime to dark green, reds, purple, yellows, and black. It comes in single and double as well as triple colors.

Other names include dravites for the yellowish to dark browns; indigolites
for the blues; rubellite for the reds; and even schrol for the black gems.
There are watermelon, canary, verdelite and chrome tourmalines. The most
prized variety is the blue to blue/green Paraiba tourmaline. This gem was
first mined in Paraiba, Brazil 1987.

Tourmaline is mined almost world-wide and has a hardness of 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale.

Answer: Church Street Boxing Gym

Located in Lower Manhattan, New York City, the Church Street Boxing Gym was founded in 1997 by Justin Blair. The gym, which welcomes men, women, and children, features classes in boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai and more. The gym also professes to be the only gym in New York where all staff members must have ring experience.

Its status as being a world-renowned boxing gym speaks for itself. Undisputed World Heavyweight Champions Evander Holyfield and Lenox Lewis trained at the Church Street Boxing Gym.

Answer: Jim Gillette

In 1986 Jim Gillette was performing demos with the band Slut. However, it was short-lived as later in '86 he joined the group Tuff as a vocalist. Nothing lasts forever in the music world, and in 2001 Gillette left Tuff and headed for Hollywood.

Gillette met famed guitar virtuoso Michael Angelo Batio while at a party and in 1988 the two of them formed his most recognized group Nitro. Then in 2001, along with Chris Campise, James Johnson, and Jesse Mendez, Gillette formed Organ Donor.

Answer: Contours Express

Contours was started in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and has franchises world-wide.
The company borrowed a page from the top women's fitness center and in their
words, "refined and improved" it. The Contours slogan, "The Better Idea in Women's Gyms", has led them to furnish equipment designed to better reshape
the female physique in a 30 minute daily workout.

Answer: Jungle Gym

A lawyer from Chicago, Sebastian Hinton invented the jungle gym in 1920. Patented and trademarked as "Junglegym" in 1955, the playground equipment became known as monkey bars. It appealed to a child's instinct to climb, hang and swing like monkeys while exercising their muscles.

Because kids are prone to falling, the National Safety Council recommends that all jungle gyms have at least 12 inches of an impact-absorbent material on the ground beneath them.

Answer: Jim Nabors

Jim Nabors was born James Thurston Nabors in Sylacuaga, Alabama in 1930. After graduating from University of Alabama, he ventured to New York and got a job at the United Nations as a typist. Later he became a film cutter in the movie industry but moved to California because of his asthma. While singing and doing cabaret theater in a club called The Horn he met Andy Griffith, and the rest is television history.

Nabors was signed to do a one time spot on "The Andy Griffith Show" but fan demand made his stay longer. Nabors got his own spin-off show in 1964 called "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C". Nabors then went on to guest on several entertainment shows and eventually got his own show in 1969, "The Jim Nabors Hour". The show went from 1969 to 1971.

In 1994 Jim Nabors suffered a near fatal case of Hepatitis B going into liver failure. With the help of Carol Burnett, he was able to receive a transplant.