Middle of the Road Trivia Quiz

Answer: Groucho

Chico (birth name Leonard) was born in 1886, Harpo (Adolph, later Arthur) 1888, Groucho (Julius) 1890, Gummo (Milton) 1893 and little Zeppo (Herbert) 1901. Groucho would eventually admit that his nickname of Groucho was because he was the grouchy one of the Marx brothers. It's unknown exactly when he and his brothers started using their nicknames on a regular basis.

Groucho was, among other things, a vaudeville performer. He originally used a German accent for his routine but when anti-German sentiment spread, he changed it to a fast-talking guy known for his one-liners. Groucho was well known for his painted-on mustache and his cigar. He even hosted a quiz show called "You Bet Your Life" which ran from 1947 to 1961. Sadly, in 1977, Groucho died of pneumonia at the age of 86.

Answer: Free Parking

Free Parking is the 21st space in a Monopoly board if you start counting at the beginning of the board, as in the Go space, the space where all pieces begin at the start of the game. (Jail is the 11th spot and Go to Jail is the 31st spot.) There are eleven spaces on each side of the board but there are four corner spaces which count twice (for each of the two rows they are in), so if you subtract four spaces, you get 40 spaces on a Monopoly board.

According to the official rules, nothing happens when a player lands on Free Parking; it simply is a free resting place. Despite this, players have been known to add their own rules to Free Parking whereby people can collect money. Sometimes all money that would normally go to the bank goes to Free Parking although it does vary from player to player. This additional rule is one reason why a game of Monopoly can take a very long time to play.

Answer: Moonraker

In 1979, "Moonraker" debuted, the fourth of seven movies Roger Moore starred in as James Bond. In the movie, Hugo Drax, upset with humanity, planned to kill Earth's population and replace it with a superior model of humans.

Although Ian Fleming did write a novel called "Moonraker", the movie bore hardly any resemblance to the novel. Just two years prior to "Moonraker" being released, "Star Wars" was released and became such a big success that it was decided that the next "James Bond" movie should have science fiction elements in it.

"Moonraker" was the last movie that Bernard Lee appeared in as M due to his death from stomach cancer on January 16, 1981; up to this point, he had appeared in all 11 "James Bond" movies. On May 23, 2017, Roger Moore died of lung and liver cancer, becoming the first actor to play James Bond to die.

Although "Never Say Never Again" was a movie starring James Bond, played by Sean Connery, it's not considered a part of the Eon series of movies (Eon being the name of the production company that made these movies).

Answer: Attack of the Clones

The "Star Wars" prequel movies tells the story of Anakin Skywalker from a young boy to his transformation into Darth Vader. The trilogy of movies includes "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones", and "Revenge of the Sith".

In "Attack of the Clones", Obi-Wan Kenobi is tasked with finding who is ordering assassination attempts on Padme, while Anakin is tasked with protecting her. During Obi-Wan's search, he encounters clones being made for a droid army. During Anakin's protection, he falls in love and eventually marries Padme.

Answer: "Melody Time" (1948)

Although Walt Disney personally greenlit 20 movies, only 19 were produced during his lifetime; Walt died between greenlighting the 20th movie ("The Aristocats") and the movie being produced.

The tenth Disney movie produced in Walt Disney's lifetime was "Melody Time", an anthology film composed of seven shorts. These shorts include a mishap while ice skating, a tugboat that gets in trouble, and stories about Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed. The reason "Melody Time" is an anthology film is due to many animators serving in World War 2 meaning that the animation had to be done quickly, which is easier accomplished if the length of a segment is quick, and the length can be quick if there are many stories rather than just one.

Answer: Proverbs

There are 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament (some other versions have more books, such as 1 and 2 Maccabees). The middle book would be book #20, which is Proverbs. Most of these proverbs were written by Solomon; however, Lemuel and Agur also wrote one chapter's worth of proverbs each as well. The general consensus is Solomon wrote Proverbs 1 through 29, Lemuel wrote Proverbs 30, and Agur wrote Proverbs 31. Proverbs are wise sayings that deal with every aspect of life. Even people who do not believe in the Judeo-Christian God can and have followed these proverbs, sometimes unknowingly so.

Examples of these proverbs include:

"When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan." (Proverbs 29:2 NKJV)
"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." (Proverbs 18:17 ESV)
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5) (KJV)

Answer: Earth

The planets in order of size from largest to smallest is Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury.

In terms of surface area, Earth is 196.9 million miles squared while Neptune is 2.941 billion miles squared, quite the jump in size!

The inner planets (the four planets before the Asteroid Belt) are the four smallest while the outer planets (the four planets after the Asteroid Belt) are the four largest. The inner planets also happen to be terrestrial planets, since they have solid surface while the outer planets are gas planets due to their gaseous surface. Split down the middle, this would mean Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets and Neptune is the smallest of the gaseous planets. All of this to say, if you split the eight planets in half by size, you get some very interesting information!

Answer: order

The rank of the classification of living things is usually remembered by a mnemonic sentence, although there are several sentences that are used such as "Knights play chess on fine green sand" and "King Phillip came over from Great Spain". The first letter corresponds to kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species, thus making order the middle rank.

There is no general consensus on what makes something an order. It is up to the taxonomist to decide.

The classification for humans is:
Kingdom - Animalia (animal)
Phylum - Chordata (chordate)
Class - Mammalia (mammal)
Order - Primate (primate)
Family - Hominadae (hominid)
Genus - Homo (human)
Species - Homo Sapiens (wise human)

Answer: Maryland

The order the colonies ratified the Constitution were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Ohio wasn't one of the original 13 colonies.

In April 1788, Maryland voted to ratify the Constitution by a vote of 63-11 with the eleven voting against it because of the lack of a Bill of Rights.

One possibility of why Maryland's called the Old Line State was because of the Maryland Line regiment who served during the American War of Independence. Perhaps it was even given to the state by George Washington himself.

Answer: The Statue of Zeus

The wonders are, in chronological order, The Great Pyramid, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, The Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. The Great Wall of China isn't considered one of the ancient wonders, but it is considered a wonder of the modern world.

As its name implies, the Statue of Zeus was sculpted to honor the Greek god Zeus. It was created in 435BC and was destroyed about 900 years later, although the exact year and the exact reason is unknown. At 41 feet tall, it is the shortest of the wonders whose height is known (the exact height of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is unknown).