"Bi""di"ng My Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: Biking

The verb "to bike" comes from an abbreviation for the word "bicycle," which literally means "two wheels." Since the invention of the bicycle in the 19th century, biking has been an excellent way to get from place to place while keeping fit and feeling good about one's impact on the environment.

The modern king or male hereditary ruler, however, typically travels in large entourages, so any biking he does must be for pleasure and not for commuting or running errands.

Answer: Director

In several flavors of Christianity, a rector is a member of the clergy who has been given control of a particular church or parish. Roman Catholic rectors are appointed by the local bishop and Anglican rectors are elected by their congregations, but both of them are said to live in a "rectory" if their home is owned by the church.

A director, by contrast, is far more likely to be secular; he or she might manage a project, or give artistic vision to a movie or television episode by managing the actors, cues, lighting, and other ingredients.

A director is typically a solo position, however - I cannot find any examples of its being filled by a pair of priests!

Answer: Bigot

"Got" is the past tense of "get," which means to obtain or possess. It was used to great musical effect by Sonny and Cher in their 1965 single "I Got You Babe," which hit Number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A bigot, however, is not someone who has double what everyone else does; instead, it's a word for someone who is strongly prejudiced against others for reasons such as race, gender or religion.

A rather unpleasant personality trait!

Answer: Divest

To invest in something is to put your money in the pot for an enterprise, in hopes that the enterprise will thus flourish and that, in time, the profits will be shared with you. To divest is to undo an investment, especially on a large scale. Opponents of South Africa's Apartheid policies (which enforced extreme racial segregation) successfully persuaded many governments and companies to divest from South African firms on moral grounds, withdrawing their funds; divestments might also be brought about for purely financial reasons.

Although many of the people making investment and divestment decisions probably wear vests of some type to work, garments with sleeves also have a strong reputation in the financial sector.

Answer: Dished

A shed (in the noun form) is a small structure often used for storage - a place where garden tools are kept, for example. In its verb form it refers to getting rid of something or letting it roll off. To dish, by contrast, is to serve up. For example, you might say that you dished out plenty of food at a holiday feast; that a bully couldn't take what he dished out to others; or that your aunts used to dish when there was good gossip to be had. Perhaps they used to gossip in a shed?

Answer: Distress

Stress is anxiety or tension. It might come from responsibilities at work, or problems at home, or the knowledge that you have only two minutes to complete a Global Challenge round. Distress is much, much stronger; a person in distress has lost control and is at a very low point.

It might be emotional, medical (doctors will run to see a patient in distress), or even good old-fashioned mortal peril (damsels in distress being a favorite choice for heroes to rescue).

Answer: Binary

There's nary a dull moment at FunTrivia! "Nary" is an expression indicating a complete absence of something; it's invariably used with singular nouns, as in "I've met nary a quiz I didn't rate." The word "binary" refers to a system of counting by twos, so that the only digits are 0 (off) and 1 (on): in this system, the number two is represented 10, and 111 gives the number seven.

This is how computers represent and transmit information; each 0 or 1 is known as a "bit." Since 00 is double a nary, could that be the most authentic binary number of all?

Answer: Bison

A bison is a large, four-footed mammal - related to cattle - that grazes the plains in large herds. In times past, the plains of North America were filled with bison (colloquially and incorrectly called buffalo), but the advent of modern hunting and ranching methods drove the beasts almost to extinction.

There are now preservation efforts underway, so we may hope that our sons and daughters will be able to enjoy them in the future!

Answer: Diversion

A story with more than one version has more than one way to tell it. Perhaps there are translation differences (as with the various versions of the Bible); perhaps one version is a book and another a film or television show; perhaps the two tellings are from two different perspectives, as when police ask multiple witnesses for their version of events. One version can even replace another, as with successive (and, one hopes, steadily improved) releases of software.

A diversion, however, comes from the word "divert": it's a distraction or a sidebar to the main event. If you are ever asked to create a diversion (in order to allow the hero to escape, for example), you should probably try to do better than telling two versions of the same story.

Answer: Bishop

A bishop is a high-ranking Christian cleric, usually in charge of the priests, churches and congregations in a given geographical area (or diocese). The post is used in "high" Christian churches, like Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Anglicanism, but the concept is not generally accepted in mainline Protestant denominations. Bishops have generally made the decision to spend their whole lives in holy orders, so they do not often have retail experience - even if their churches and cathedrals get part of their operating budget from their gift shops.

Thank you for a"bi""di"ng with me awhile. I hope you've enjoyed the quiz!