Off The Map Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brigadoon

Brigadoon was the Scottish village in the 1947 Lerner, and Loewe Broadway musical. A film version with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse was released in 1954, and 1966 saw a televised version with Robert Goulet and Peter Falk as the two lucky tourists. Glocca Morra is an Irish village mentioned in the musical "Finnegan's Wake." Lake Wobegon is the town mentioned in Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," and Asphodel Meadows was the place to which the Ancient Greeks consigned ordinary souls after death.

Answer: The Great Dictator

Writing, starring in, and directing one's own movie is often a guarantee of mediocrity; but not when the one doing it is Charles Chaplin. The "Little Tramp" depicts Hitler here in a way that is timeless. The final speech from "The Great Dictator" (1940) is as amazing to watch today as it was in 1940. By all means, check it out on You-tube or some other service. All the other films listed as choices are about World War I and culled from my personal "great movies" list.

Answer: Fire Island

Fire Island is a real life beach resort south of Long Island popular among the New York City set and is NOT mentioned in the book. According to the author, it was on Fire Island that he got the idea for the book. "The Phantom Tollbooth" had the misfortune of being released in 1961, the same year as Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach," and has received few of the big literary prizes.

It has, however, been made into a film by Chuck Jones in 1969, and was even used as the basis of an opera.

Answer: Berzerkistan

Most readers of "Gulliver's Travels" recall Lilliput, the home of the tiny people and Brobdingnag the home of the giants. A few will even recall Glubbdubdrib the home of a magician and the ghosts of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Homer, and Aristotle et. al. However, in order to read of Berzerkistan you must read Garry Trudeau's classic comic "Doonesbury".

Answer: Panem

In Orwell's projected future, Oceania contained the Americas, England, Australia, and southern Africa. Eurasia was most of Europe, Russia, and parts of the Middle East. Eastasia was China, Japan, and most of India with a "disputed area" that contained the rest of Africa, Indonesia, the rest of India, and a large chunk of the middle east. Panem was created by Suzanne Collins in her "Hunger Games" novels.

Answer: Snidely Whiplash

Snidely Whiplash was the arch-villain in one of Ward's shorts ("Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties") that were presented along with "Rocky & Bullwinkle." Sometimes the funny business of cartooning collides with the not-so funny world of real-world politics.

In 1962 as a publicity stunt, Producer Jay Ward leased a small island on a lake between Minnesota and Canada, which he named "Moosylvania." The stunt included a road trip campaign to get it designated the 51st state with a 50 city petition drive to collect signatures.

When the petition was to be delivered to the White House, they were turned away with unusual brusqueness. It seems that their campaign (ending in October) collided with the real-world Cuban Missile Crisis.

Answer: Fallout

The premise of "Fallout" is that in the aftermath of a global nuclear war the protagonist, an inhabitant of a Vault, is tasked to find a replacement Water Chip and save their Vault. Fallout deviates from most role-playing video games in that it often allows the player to complete tasks in multiple ways.

The game was developed and published by Interplay Productions in 1997 and has several successful sequels.

Answer: Equatorial Kundu

Equatorial Kundu is described in the show as being somewhere near the Ivory Coast. It's used early in the series when the President of the country comes to the White House to discuss getting AIDS drugs for his country, and then later when the country's government has been overthrown and a genocidal war against the native "Induye people" is under way.

The other three countries cited as possible answers are all real member states in the real world United Nations.

Answer: Genovia

"The Princess Diaries" started as a series of young adult novels by Meg Cabot. Walt Disney Pictures bought the movie rights and the film stars Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews (who is the protagonist's grandmother.) Queen Elizabeth II knighted Andrews one year prior to the film's release, making her a Dame of the British Empire.

Freedonia and Sylvania are from the Marx Brothers classic "Duck Soup" while Grand Fenwick is from "The Mouse That Roared." "The Mouse That Roared" started as a novel by Leonard Wibberley, but also became a film in 1959 starring Peter Sellers.

Answer: Agloe

The book reveals that fictitious towns are sometimes added as a copyright trap to identify subsequent plagiarism by lazy cartographers. The three incorrect entries, as well as the correct answer, are all historically verified "copyright traps." However, Agloe in New York State and Argleton in England both now exist at their indicated locations. I guess "If you name it they will come."