In Other Words, They're Wrong III Quiz

Answer: The Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du printemps" (translated into English as "The Rite of Spring") actually caused a riot at its 1913 Paris premiere. Shocked by the setting of the piece (which depicted fertility rituals and human sacrifice in pre-Christian Russia), the nontraditional choreography, and the use of dissonance and strong rhythms in the music, members of the audience began booing the performers. Arguments broke out between those who liked the piece and those who didn't; fistfights ensued. The arrival of the police calmed the crowd somewhat, but not entirely. Luckily, subsequent performances were unmarred by violence!

The characters of this ballet celebrate spring as the season following winter, but a spring is also a useful device that stores mechanical energy. Stretch the coil out, and it exerts a force to bring its ends back toward the middle; compress the coil, and the elastic force moves its ends inward. Such a spring might be useful in giving the dancers extra verve!

Answer: Yellow Submarine

A simple, jaunty Beatles standard, "Yellow Submarine" was released in 1966 and saw quick success -- in fact, it had the most certified UK sales of any single released that year. Few could resist singing along to a refrain as charmingly nonsensical as "We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine" -- especially on hearing that "our friends are all aboard"! The 1968 animated movie of the same name featured the cartoon quartet boarding just such a submarine to sail to a land of fantastical adventures, seeing sights that coincidentally matched up with other Beatles hits.

"Yellow" is also a colloquial synonym for "cowardly," made famous in such venerable insults as "yellow-bellied" and "lily-livered." (Apparently, the abdomen is the seat of fear and flight.) There was nothing cowardly about the Beatles' voyage to Pepperland or their face-off with the wicked Blue Meanies, however -- that would have made for a much duller movie!

Answer: Left Behind

Written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins between 1995 and 2007, "Left Behind" is a hugely successful series. In addition to its sixteen books, it has generated spin-off book series, movies, and even a controversial video game in which the player blasts non-Christians to Kingdom Come (literally). Events in the books, from the Rapture of believing Christians to the defeat of the Antichrist, follow a premillennial dispensationalist interpretation of the Bible (which I cannot say five times fast).

The title refers to characters who are nonbelievers at the time of the Rapture, and who are thus "left behind," abandoned on Earth while their counterparts are brought bodily to Heaven. "Left" also, of course, refers to the direction that is not right. That isn't what's meant here -- but given the authors' aggressively right-of-center politics, perhaps this isn't such an inapt pun after all.

Answer: General Hospital

The first episode of the American show "General Hospital" aired on ABC in April 1963; at the time this quiz was written, it had been on the air for forty-five years and more than 11,000 episodes. That's an impressive run! Set in a fictional New York town, the show has featured action-packed stories and romantic thrills (including the massively hyped 1981 wedding of characters Luke and Laura) -- but it usually returns to its roots with scenes at the town's General Hospital. The British "General Hospital," modeled somewhat on its American cousin, took place in the Midlands and was one of the first daytime soaps to run on ITV; it lasted from 1972 to 1979.

The General Hospitals of these shows are medical facilities designed to handle a wide range of ailments and injuries, from sudden trauma to childbirth to intensive care; they serve a more "general" purpose than more specialized institutions like children's hospitals or trauma centers. In the military, however, a "General" is an officer of very high (perhaps the highest) military rank. The rigid rules of hospitals may remind many of the army, but they are usually run by bureaucrats rather than generals! (Hmm -- could this be an idea for a reality show?)

Answer: The Second Coming

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ..."

William Butler Yeats wrote "The Second Coming" in 1919 and filled it with apocalyptic imagery, evoking the collapse of civilization and a transition to a new age. "And what rough beast," he asks in the final lines, "its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" One of his most famous poems, this oft-quoted piece inspired generations of writers and musicians.

In addition to being the one that comes after the first, "second" can also mean a unit of time equal to a sixtieth of a minute. Perhaps the apocalypse will be shorter than we think!

Answer: A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel follows the life of Lieutenant Frederic Henry, who serves as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War I -- just as Hemingway himself did. Over the course of the novel, Henry struggles with the devastation of war and the development of his love for Catherine Barkley, a nurse. His fourth novel, "A Farewell to Arms" has become a classic of modern literature.

The possibility of losing an arm or a leg is probably of great concern to Lieutenant Henry during the fighting. Nevertheless, the book concerns itself solely with the process of giving up weaponry (the armaments or "arms" of the title) and the military, and seeking a life of peace. Like many heroes of war fiction, Henry is wounded in combat, but the damage is to his knee rather than to his arm.

Answer: The Odd Couple

Playwright Neil Simon wrote the first version of "The Odd Couple," which saw great success in its 1965 Broadway run. The story of two men, neatnik Felix Ungar and slob Oscar Madison, who are forced to live together after Ungar's wife throws him out of their house, it spawned a successful 1968 movie, two ABC sitcoms ("The Odd Couple," 1970-1975, and "The New Odd Couple," 1982-1983) and even a cartoon show with animal characters ("The Oddball Couple," 1975-1977). The story has staying power: the film "The Odd Couple II" set a record for the longest separation between movie and sequel with the original cast: a full thirty years! (Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau reprised their roles as Felix and Oscar.)

"The Odd Couple" is so named because the two men are so mismatched, or "odd"; "odd" also refers to numbers that are not divisible by two (such as 1, 3, 5, and 79). Since a "couple" is two, however, it would be very strange to have one that was not even!

Answer: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

William Ross Wallace's 1865 poem "What Rules the World" ends with these two lines: "For the hand that rocks the cradle / Is the hand that rules the world." It's a line that clearly has some resonance: a 1984 Smiths song and a 1994 Black Sabbath song both take their titles from that line. Perhaps its most famed appearance (apart from Mother's Day celebrations) is the 1992 movie "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," starring Rebecca DeMornay as a nanny who -- crazed to achieve revenge on the mother who's hired her -- begins to sabotage her life and steal the loyalty of her children.

The "hand" that rocks the cradle (the nanny's hand in the movie and the mother's hand in the poem) is a body part, but "hand" can also be used to describe the collection of cards possessed by a player during a card game. Perhaps the line from Wallace's poem means that any hand of cards that can rock a cradle is a winning hand indeed!

Answer: Rules of Engagement

Organizations that use force -- from units of the military to police forces -- generally have "rules of engagement," directives that lay out when and how they are permitted to use force to engage an enemy (or a perceived enemy). There are some situations where an armed soldier or officer might be expected to act right away, and others where they must not act without specific orders -- for example, American and Soviet submarines played cat-and-mouse games with each other throughout the Cold War, but could not open fire unless their governments declared war. The 2000 film "Rules of Engagement," starring Samuel L. Jackson as a Marine colonel and Tommy Lee Jones as his Marine lawyer, sought to explore the difficulties of evaluating these rules in a combat situation.

There's more than one type of engagement, of course: one could engage an enemy in combat, or become engaged to a loved one by agreeing to get married at some future date. Although stand-up comedians have argued for decades that there is no real difference between those situations, most people would agree that it's wise to keep them separate!

Answer: The Four Seasons

"The Four Seasons" has long been valued as an evocative title. The Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was among the first to use it. In 1725, he published twelve concertos for violin (backed by a string quartet and a few other instruments). He called the first four in the series "Le quattro stagioni" and named each after a season of the year; he even included sonnets on the seasons to guide the interpretation of his music! In 1981, Alan Alda gave the same name to a romantic comedy he wrote, directed, and starred in; it follows the friendship of three couples who vacation together during each season of the year. Finally, the band The Four Seasons, led by Frankie Valli, had a number of hits (mostly in the 1960s), including "Walk Like a Man" in 1963.

"The Four Seasons" is a common phrase referring to the seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall and winter. "Seasons" can also refer to the act of adding seasoning (e.g. herbs and spices) to food. Could seasons be the spice of life?

I hope you've enjoyed this quiz. Thank you for your help in reversing the evil work of our verbose mastermind!