Cool Beans Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sean Bean

Sean Bean (whose real name is actually spelled Shaun Bean) had a number of TV and film roles before his appearance in 1993 in 'Sharpe's Rifles', but it was his portrayal of the swashbuckling soldier Richard Sharpe that made him a household name. The series was based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell and set during the Napoleonic Wars. It chronicled Sharpe's rise from lowly sergeant to the officer classes, ending up as a Lieutenant Colonel by the time of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The main series ran from 1993 to 1997 but Bean later returned to the role in 'Sharpe's Challenge' (2006) and 'Sharpe's Peril' (2008) in which Sharpe was called out of retirement to undertake a mission in India.

Following his success in 'Sharpe', Bean played the villainous agent 006 Alec Trevelyan in 'GoldenEye' (1995); the ill-fated Boromir in 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001); and the Lord of Winterfell, Eddard "Ned" Stark, in the first series of 'Game of Thrones' (2011).

Answer: Cloud Gate

'Cloud Gate', formed from around 100 metric tons of stainless steel, is 20 metres (66 feet) long and stands 10 metres (33 feet) tall. It has a highly polished surface that is shaped somewhat like a bean - hence the nickname - and has the effect of producing a distorted reflection of Chicago's city skyline.

The centre of the sculpture forms an arch and contains a concave recess that produces more odd reflections of those people who walk through it. Other notable works by Kapoor include the 'Orbit', an observation tower in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London; several similar pieces known as 'Sky Mirror'; and 'Marsyas', one of the largest works to be installed in London's Tate Modern gallery.

He also won the 1991 Turner Prize.

Answer: Mr. Bean's Holiday

Rowan Atkinson's bumbling Mr. Bean first appeared in the popular British TV series of the same name, which originally aired from 1990 to 1995. Each episode focused on the child-like titular character attempting to carry out everyday tasks and chores, but instead constantly causing disaster and being forced to improvise solutions to try and rectify the situation. Examples included managing to lock himself in a post box, accidentally kidnapping a baby and getting stuck on a train to Russia. In the film 'Bean' his disasters revolved around his job as an art gallery security guard, while in its sequel 'Mr Bean's Holiday' he won a trip to Cannes where he snuck into the film festival and upstaged a real film with his video diary.

The incorrect options were all episode titles from the original TV series.

Answer: Boots

L.L. Bean was founded by Leon Leonwood Bean in 1912 in Freeport, Maine. Bean invented a type of waterproof boot for hunters with the rubber sole of a wellington boot combined with leather upper section of a more conventional hiking boot. The result became known as Maine Hunting Shoes, Bean Boots or duck boots. Five years later his business had expanded from a one-room mail order enterprise to its first store on Freeport's Main Street as it began to sell a wider range of clothing, shoes and general outdoor equipment.

Its founder died in 1967, but the company remained a family business despite its expansion across the United States and internationally.

Answer: Word processor

Bean is a simple free word processor package for Mac users developed by a programmer named James Hoover. It is designed for straightforward word processing tasks that don't require all the fancy features, graphics and options of major packages such as Microsoft Word, but do need something a bit more sophisticated than a basic text editor.

It uses Apple's application programming interface (API) named Cocoa - a fact that goes someway to explaining its name.

Answer: Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love

Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of singer-songwriters Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana) and Courtney Love (of Hole), was born in August 1992. Unfortunately her childhood made the headlines for all the wrong reasons - firstly a child welfare investigation when she was just a few weeks old, followed by the death of her father in 1994 and then her mother's well-documented drug problems and subsequent stints in rehab in the 2000s.

However, Cobain went on to gain some measure of fame in her own right, working as a model, artist and musician and making a variety of TV appearances.

Answer: Cat

Beans the Cat was created by cartoonist Friz Freleng and made his screen debut in the 1935 animated short film 'I Haven't Got a Hat'. He was a small but mischievous character with a black body, white face and large eyes. He went on to become part of a short-lived duo with Porky the Pig, starring in nine features before being phased out due to his declining popularity compared to his porcine co-star.

Other lesser known characters of the same era included Little Kitty (Beans' love interest), Oliver Owl and two puppies called Ham and Ex.

Answer: John Wayne

Judge Roy Bean (real name Phantly Roy Bean Jr.) was born in Kentucky in around 1825 and was on the wrong side of the law for much of his early life with known crimes including murder, duelling, assault (including domestic abuse), theft and cattle rustling. His main career during this time was as a saloon-keeper and in the early 1880s he established various saloons in the area west of the Pecos River in Texas. He dubbed himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos" after being appointed justice of the peace and gaining the right to preside over the trials of other criminals. He became noted for his controversial and somewhat random decisions, but was not responsible for as many hangings as implied in the film interpretations of his life. He died in 1903.

Walter Brennan won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for portraying Bean in the 1940 film 'The Westerner'; Paul Newman played the title role in 1972's 'The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean'; and Ned Beatty played Bean in the 1995 TV drama 'Streets of Laredo'.

Answer: 2

During his 20 years with the Lakers, Kobe Bean Bryant became one of the team's greatest stars and one of the sport's best players of all-time. Bryant and the Lakers won the NBA championship a total of five times and he appeared in the NBA All-Star game 18 times, was the 2008 NBA MVP and became the Lakers' all-time leading scorer with a new record of 5,640 points. He was killed in a helicopter crash in 2020 along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and posthumously elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bryant chose not to play in the 2000 Olympics and was unable to take part in the 2004 Games due to ongoing legal issues following a sexual assault allegation. He did compete at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and won a gold medal on both occasions. He announced his retirement from the national team after that second victory.

Answer: Molasses

The baked beans found in most people's kitchen cupboards are usually canned and consist of baked white haricot beans served in sauce. They derive from Native American cuisine, which traditionally used maple syrup as a sweetener. The recipe for Boston baked beans calls for molasses instead of maple syrup or sugar, which were readily available in the Boston area as the product was also needed for its rum distilleries. Boston baked beans also differ from standard baked beans by including salted pork or bacon as a flavouring. Boston's connection to baked beans led to the city's nickname of 'Beantown'.