When I Was 64 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pulses

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is regularly given the responsibility for declaring a year in which to focus on a specific type of food (or occasionally just good in general, for a world where too many people are inadequately nourished). Over the years, these have included rice (2004), potato (2008) and quinoa (2013). On 20 December 2013 the year 2016 was declared to be the year in which pulses were to be celebrated, to raise awareness of their nutritional value and their role in moving to more sustainable nutrition.

Pulses are beans and peas which are harvested and dried, rather than being eaten fresh (although some may also be eaten immediately). As legumes, they play an important role in fixing nitrogen in the soil, increasing its fertility. They are a good source of protein for humans, and also for livestock. Since they can be grown locally, their use contributes to food security. Because they are high in fibre, they contribute to a diet that helps prevent or control a number of chronic diseases, including obesity and diabetes. So why not have some dahl or hummus tonight!

Answer: Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill

The leaders of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches met for the first time since the Great Schism of 1054, following which the churches in the eastern and western parts of what had been the Roman Empire split into two groups that stopped talking to each other. While the Russian Orthodox Church is only one member of the Eastern Orthodox group, so could not speak on behalf of all members, this was seen as a significant step towards a rapprochement after nearly a millennium. There had previously been some attempts at restoring a working relationship, especially following the Second Vatican Council, but political concerns kept getting in the way.

The meeting in Havana took place in a room at the José Martí International Airport, a venue chosen as neutral territory for both Rome and Moscow. Kirill was on a South American tour, while Francis was on his way to visiting Mexico. They met from 2:00 until around 4:00, before issuing a declaration that had been prepared in advance for their signatures on the day. Its call for uniting in a spiritual recognition of their shared past (the first thousand years) despite the many tensions that had developed following the schism. Nevertheless, the declaration did not actually tackle the doctrinal issues that led to the schism, and many of the other members of the Orthodox Church, especially the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, were highly critical of some of the political aspects of the document.

Answer: False

Brexit is the popular term used to describe the move to have Great Britain leave the European Union, a membership with a troubled history. In 1961 the UK applied to join the European Economic Community (EEC, also called the Common Market), but were vetoed by France; they finally joined in 1973. In 1975 the first referendum about continuing membership was held, with over two thirds of the voters in favour of remaining. The formation of the European Union in 1993 led to increasing concern about the move towards political as well as economic integration.

In 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron committed his party to negotiating better terms for the nation, to be followed by a referendum as to whether or not they should remain members of the EU. This referendum was held on 23 June, and led to a vote of roughly 17 million in favour of leaving, and 16 million in favour of remaining members of the EU. David Cameron, who had campaigned for remaining, resigned the leadership, and Theresa May took over the exit process. It proved a real challenge to negotiate terms that were acceptable to Parliament, and ultimately she was replaced as Prime Minister in July of 2019 by Boris Johnson. On 31 January 2020 the UK officially left the European Union.

Answer: augmented reality mobile game

Players needed a smart device, usually a mobile phone, that could use its GPS to help them find the real-world locations where in-game activities occur that allow them to capture and control the virtual critters called Pokémon. While the game was free, players were encouraged to spend money in-game to purchase items that provided them with an advantage.

Initial response was so overwhelming that servers were unable to cope with the demand in the early days, and outages frustrated the enthusiastic players. Non-players found themselves bemused and/or outraged by seeing the behaviour of players, wandering the streets with their eyes glued to the phone that was showing them were to go in the virtual world, without paying any attention to the realities of traffic and pedestrians around them. Some people were unlucky enough to live at or very near a location that was of prime interest, so found people milling all over their homes at all hours of the day and night. Things settled down after the first month, as players either reached the limit of rewarding progress or decided to move on to other activities after their initial exploration of the game.

During the first month, Pokémon Go achieved several Guinness World Records, including most downloaded mobile game in its first month (130 million!) and fastest time to gross $100 million by a mobile game (20 days).

Answer: Summer Olympics

This was the first time that the Olympic Games, either Summer or Winter, was held in South America. Because Rio de Janeiro is south of the equator, the event was technically held during the winter, between 5 August and 21 August. The lead up was marked by several controversies (as seems to be typical for the Olympics), including Brazil's internal political and economic woes, and a doping scandal involving Russia, which led to about a third of their team being disqualified.

The Rio games saw the first appearance of teams from Kosovo and South Sudan, as well as the Refugee Olympic Team, a group of ten UN-verified refugees who competed under the flag of the IOC. The program included 306 events in 28 different sports. Rugby Sevens and golf were added to the previous events, although neither was actually new. Rugby had been in the 1924 games, and golf in 1904.

The games mascot was named Vinicius, after Vinícius de Moraes who wrote the original Portuguese lyrics for the song 'The Girl from Ipanema', which brought Brazilian bossa nova music into the international spotlight. According to the official mascot announcement, Vinicius "represents all of the different animals in Brazil. He combines the agility of cats, the sway of monkeys and the grace of birds. He can stretch his arms and legs as much as he wants."

Answer: Vincent van Gogh

Had I told you that the paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum, you might have had no difficulty identifying the artist, if the style were not sufficient clue to distinguish him from the incorrect options. Both this painting and 'Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather' were stolen on 7 December 2002, and found by the Italian Guardia di Finanza (under the kitchen floor of a villa near Naples associated with a gangster under investigation) in January of 2016; the recovery, however, was not announced until September, and was shortly followed by the return of both paintings to the Van Gogh Museum.

'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen' did not originally include the congregation at all. In 1884 it just showed the church where van Gogh's father was pastor, and a peasant with a spade in the foreground. This figure was later painted out, at which time the congregation figures were added, and the trees gained leaves.

Answer: Bob Dylan

None of the incorrect options won a Nobel Prize during their lifetime; since the prizes are not awarded posthumously, they will continue to be among the many highly esteemed authors whose work has not been recognized. The guidelines for the prizes require that the author's work must have benefited mankind "in an idealistic direction", a requirement that has not always been easy to interpret. Those of us who grew up with Dylan's music as the background to a time of idealistic protests, and who spent many hours discussing the possible meanings of his thought-provoking lyrics, have no problems with his selection.

The announcement on 13 October stated that the Nobel Prize in Literature had been awarded to Bob Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition", with the person who made the announcement describing parallels between his work and that of the ancient Greek poets, such as Homer and Sappho, whose work was meant to be performed, not just read.

Answer: Chicago Cubs

The incorrect options are teams with multiple wins, although Boston famously had a long gap between their 1918 victory and the next one in 2004. The Cubs, then called the White Stockings, were one of the founding members of the National League in 1976; they were renamed the Cubs in 1903. In 1906 they made the third edition of the World Series, but lost to the White Sox. They went on to win in 1907 and 1908, but it was all downhill from there, with multiple appearances all ending in disappointment until 2016.

In 2016, the Cubs won 103 games, finishing the season with the best record in the Major Leagues. They defeated the San Francisco Giants in the National League Division Series, then the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, to make their first World Series appearance since 1945. After having only one victory in the first four games (of the best-of-seven series) against the Cleveland Indians, they won four in a row to achieve the status of World Series champions. The city held a victory parade and rally on 4 November, estimated to have been attended by over five million.

Answer: Donald Trump

Businessman Donald Trump was a somewhat surprise winner of the Republican nomination, due to his previous lack of political experience, but he earned it over more familiar faces, with Ted Cruz coming second at the nominating convention. Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady and Secretary of State, was nominated by the Democrats. (Barack Obama, the then-current president, was ineligible to run again, having served two terms.)

Most experts expected Clinton to win decisively, and elect the nation's first female president as successor to its first African American president, but it was not to be. While she won the majority of the votes, 65,853,514 to 62,984,828 (48.2% to 46.1%), the American electoral system is based on the votes of electors selected by each state. Trump won 30 states, Clinton 20; he ended up with 304 electoral college votes to her 227.

This election saw multiple 'faithless' electors, who did not vote as they had been pledged when appointed. This was the first time since 1808 when there was more than one elector in this position, and the first time they came from different parties. While a number of others attempted to vote against their pledge, only seven ended up doing so. This is why the numbers for the two candidates do not add up to 538.

Answer: Cuba

In the 1950s, Fidel Castro was part of a revolutionary movement that sought to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista, who had himself seized power in a 1952 military coup. In 1959 they succeeded, and Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba. His political philosophy was nationalist and Marxist-Leninist, which led to the establishment of a one-party state in which most businesses were nationalized, and extensive socialist reforms were implemented. He served as Prime Minister until 1976 before a title change to President that lasted until 2008, when he retired due to ill health, and handed over the presidency to his brother Raúl, while retaining his position as First Secretary of the Communist Party until 2011.

Diplomatic relationships between the United States and Cuba were more than a little strained during Castro's years, aggravated by incidents such as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Then there were the numerous reported attempts by the CIA to assassinate him - did you hear the one about the poisoned cigar? In March 2016 US President Barack Obama visited Cuba, the first serving president to do so since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Although Obama had moved to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2014, the embargo that the US had imposed on Cuban goods in 1960 remained in place.