Can You Pick the Reel Answer? Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Hamlet

"The Town", the second book in the trilogy, was published in 1957, and "The Mansion", the final book, was published in 1959. "The Hamlet" relates the experiences of the Snopes family from its settling as tenant farmers and becoming outcasts to its evolution as a force to reckoned with and perhaps even feared in the nearby town. Abner Snopes, the patriarchal figure who first settles in Frenchman's Bend, may be recognizable from Faulkner's frequently anthologized and taught short story "Barn Burning". In this story, readers learn that Abner was a horse thief during the Civil War, stealing from both the Union and Confederate soldiers, and that he currently is a drifting tenant farmer who burns barns when he becomes angry at others. Of other interest is the fact that the 1958 film "The Long, Hot Summer", starring both Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, is partly based on some of the events of "The Hamlet".

The movie referred to here is, of course, "Hamlet", which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1948.

Answer: cuckoo

The word derived from "cuckoo" is "cuckold"; however, the reputation of the female cuckoo is based on false assumptions. However, many of the cuckoos do not participate in polygamous relationships. Most members of the cuckoo family truly are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species and rely on these surrogate parents to raise their young. Perhaps this parasitism is what led others in the past to assume the female cuckoo was not a loyal mate. Some may find it interesting to know that, despite the popularity of cuckoo clocks made in Europe, there are not that many Old World cuckoo species to be found in Europe; most of them live in Africa, Asia, and Australia. However, the few species that are found there are obviously quite wide spread and plentiful. Furthermore, only one of the fifty-something species actually has a call that sounds like "cuck-oo."

The movie suggested by the answer is "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1975.

Answer: Rebecca

As Isaac was thirty-seven years old and not yet married, his father Abraham sent one of his servants back to Abraham's homeland to find his son a wife. The servant, after a lengthy journey, stopped at a well with his ten camels burdened with several gifts for the woman, as well as her family, who would consent to marry Isaac. He prayed at this point that if God would send a woman to offer him and his camels water, he would choose that girl. Immediately, Rebecca (or Rebekah) appeared. Rebecca did, of course, accept the marriage proposal and she later became the mother of Jacob and Esau. Interestingly, her brother was Laban the father of Leah and Rachel, the two sisters who would become Jacob's wives.

"Rebecca" is also the name of the film that won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1940.

Answer: Paris

Pont Neuf is the oldest surviving bridge across the Seine in Paris, France. King Henry III began construction of the bridge in 1578, and it was not completed until 1607 during the reign of King Henry IV. The lengthy construction period was a result of a pause brought about by the Wars of Religion. The bridge was given its name for a practical reason: so that it would be distinguishable from the other Parisian bridges that existed at that time. Customarily, houses were built on either side of the older bridges, and Pont Neuf was widened for the same purpose; however, houses were never built, and it became the first bridge across the Seine without any. More importantly, the thoroughfare across the bridge was the first to provide separate paved routes for pedestrians so that they might be protected from the other traffic and the mud.

The movie alluded to by the answer is "An American in Paris", which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1951.

Answer: 80

The Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule argues that nearly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For example, many businesses have found that roughly 80% of their sales come from 20% of their customers and a 1992 report from the United Nations showed that roughly 80% of the world's wealth was controlled by 20% of the world's people. This principle was named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who lived from 1848 to 1923. Pareto determined that 80% of the peas he harvested came from only 20% of the pea pods in his garden; likewise, he discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of his country's people.

The film alluded to by the answer is "Around the World in 80 Days", which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1956.

Answer: Mary Harris Jones

Mary Harris Jones or "Mother" Jones lived from 1830 to 1930. She immigrated from Ireland. In 1861, she married George Jones, an iron worker and dedicated union supporter, and they settled in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1867, her husband and all of their children contracted yellow fever and died. She then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she worked as a dressmaker until her house was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She emerged from all of this tragedy as a crusader for the U.S. labor movement. She began with the Knights of Labor, and after helping coal miners in Pennsylvania in 1873 and railroad workers in 1877, she became known as "the miner's angel" but also "Mother" Jones because of her dedication to the care of all of the workers for whom she had also been fighting. Thus, she discovered a surrogate family to replace what she had lost. After helping to create the Social Democratic Party in 1898 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, some authorities soon began to label her as "the most dangerous woman in America." A crusader to the end, at age 82, she was arrested during a violent West Virginia strike and sentences to twenty years imprisonment; however, the governor was later persuaded to issue her a pardon.

The movie alluded to by the answer is "Tom Jones", which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1963.

Answer: daisy

Daisies belong to one of the largest families of plants in the world and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Daisy leaves, petals, and buds are edible and are often found in different salads. Furthermore, daisies have medicinal properties; they are used to relieve indigestion and coughing, and ancient Roman surgeons used to soak bandages in daisy extract to slow the bleeding from battle wounds. The name "daisy" most likely came from the Old English "daes eage", which meant "day's eye"; at night, the blossom closes completely, but at dawn, the flower's petals open to reveal the yellow "eye" enclosed within the white petals.

The film title alluded to by this answer is "Driving Miss Daisy", which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989.

Answer: green

While the color green, in China, may represent health, prosperity, and harmony, it is not considered a lucky color for men's hats. Some have argued that this taboo is the result of the fact that the words for "green hat" in Mandarin sound quite similar to the words for "cuckold"; furthermore, there is a legend that hundreds of years ago, family members of prostitutes in China were made to wear green hats. Regardless of the truth about the origin of the custom, many Chinese men do refuse to wear green hats because doing so would be a symbolic gesture that one's wife was not faithful to him. At the very least, a man wearing a green hat in China might be subject to ridicule.

The movie title being alluded to here is "How Green Was My Valley", which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941.

Answer: Oliver Perry

At the age of thirteen, Oliver Hazard Perry was appointed midshipman on board the "USS General Greene", which at the time was commanded by his father Captain Christopher Perry. During the War of 1812, the British navy controlled the Great Lakes, so Perry's victory on Lake Erie was a most important one indeed. During this battle, Perry's ship was severely disabled and all but two of his crew killed. Rather than surrender, he and his two remaining men rowed a half mile to another US ship, which he commandeered and led to an utter defeat of the British navy. His message to General William Henry Harrison was the famous "We have met the enemy and they are ours . . . ." Perry's older brother was the famous Matthew Perry who opened up U.S. access to Japan. Most interestingly, the Perry family were direct descendants of William Wallace, one of the main leaders of the Wars of Scottish Independence.

The title of the film alluded to by this question's answer is "Oliver!" which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1968.

Answer: Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt or John Smith Hurt was born in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi on either March 8, 1892, or July 3, 1893. He partnered for a while with fiddle player Willie Narmour, who recommended Hurt to Okeh Records, which offered him the two recording sessions mentioned in the question. His recordings were commercial failures, and Okeh Records went out of business during the Great Depression, so Hurt went back home to Avalon, Mississippi, where he began work as a sharecropper. In 1963, a folk music scholar Tom Hoskins set out to find the singer of a few songs that had recently been rediscovered; he found Hurt in Avalon, listened to him sing and play guitar to confirm he was indeed the recorded artist he had heard, and then convinced Hurt to return with him to Washington, D.C. He soon was performing to large audiences that numbered in the thousands and was making more money than he had ever imagined. He also recorded most of his songs for the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, he died three years later. His music has had a tremendous impact on a number of later artists, including Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Beck, and Taj Mahal. As odd as his short-lived fame was at the end of his life, many propose that his obscurity may have contributed to the uniqueness of his influential style, a style that he mastered and continued to perfect in what was essentially isolation musically speaking.

The film title alluded to here by this answer is "The Hurt Locker", which won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2010.