Cool Zooms, Part XII Trivia Quiz

Answer: Italian Open

Between 2002 and 2005 the tournament was sponsored by Grana Padano, a major Italian cheese producer.

In 2003, in Bresuia, Italy, Mathias Gronberg from Sweden shot to victory at the Italian Open winning $1.21 million and his weight in cheese.

Gronberg had an eagle, six birdies and a bogey and apparently a couple of wheels of cheese at the Gardagolf Country Club.

Grana Padano is a hard Italian cheese similar to parmesan, weighing 24 to 40 kg (53 to 88 lbs) per wheel. It is made from skimmed milk and is aged for somewhere between 9 months and 2 years. It has a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and can only be made in the Po Valley in Northern Italy. It is similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano, but is not the same.

This question was teed up by smpdit who can't play golf, but could happily eat her bodyweight in cheese.

Answer: Blood

"Ayam" means "chicken" in Indonesian, while "cemani" translates as "thoroughly black (down to the bones)" according to an Indonesian translation service website. The chicken's blackness is due to a dominant gene that causes hyper-pigmentation, known as fibromelanosis. This makes the chicken almost entirely black, including its feathers, beak and internal organs. Its blood, typical of other birds and mammals, is coloured red due to pigmentation of the iron ion in haemoglobin. The chicken does not, however, lay black eggs.

This question was 'jetted' into the quiz under a moonless night making the subject content hard to see when writing about it by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: William Shatner

In 2006, actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek" series, sold his kidney stone for USD25,000. The deal included the surgical stent and string used to permit removal of the stone. Shatner said the stone was so large "you'd want to wear it on your finger".

An online casino, GoldenPalace.com, bought the nephrolith. The money went to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy. With the money for the stone, Shatner said there was about enough funding to build half a house. GoldenPalace.com has a bizarre range of collectibles, including a half-eaten toasted cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary for which it paid USD28,000 at auction.

Jimmy Kimmel's comparison to a dilithium crystal is a reference to the "Star Trek" fictional universe where dilithium is an invented material which serves as a controlling agent in the faster-than-light warp drive. In the original series, dilithium crystals were rare and could not be replicated, much like a kidney stone.

Phoenix Rising member lg549 beamed this question in from the bridge of the USS Enterprise located somewhere deep in space (or at least she would like that to be the case).

Answer: Winston Churchill

'The Gathering Storm' is a largely autobiographical account by Sir Winston Churchill on the events leading up to World War II. He famously said "I will leave judgements on this matter to history, but I will be one of the historians." Film versions of this book were made in 1974 and 2002 with Richard Burton and Albert Finney, respectively, playing Churchill.

This question was drafted into the quiz by MikeMaster99, who can't imagine smoking (and chewing) one cigar a day let alone the 8-10 Sir Winston regularly finished.

Answer: Albert Einstein

The wisest being in the "Star Wars" franchise was fashioned on one of the wisest beings on our planet... how appropriate. According to Freeborn, there was a picture of Einstein hanging on the wall in the room that the model of Yoda was being worked on and that this was a significant influence in the final design of the Jedi master. This is particularly evident in the puppet's facial features, significantly the eyes, and the wrinkles around the eyes. This was then backed up by comments from the special effects artist, Nick Maley, in an interview with CineSecrets; "A picture of Einstein ended up on the wall behind the Yoda sculptures and the wrinkles around Einstein's eyes somehow got worked into the Yoda design. Over the course of this evolutionary process, Yoda slowly changed from a comparatively spritely [sic], tall, skinny, grasshopper kind of character into the old wise spirited gnome that we all know today".

This question was fashioned by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who is still reeling at the thought that Yoda could have turned out to be a tall grasshopper figure.

Answer: Avozilla

Discovered by a Westfalia farmer in the natural forest around Modjadjiskloof, Limpopo in South Africa, the Avozilla is about four times larger than the average Haas avocado (as large as a human face) and typically weighs about 1.2-1.8kg (2.6-4 lbs). It is neither genetically modified, nor the product of growth enhancing chemicals. Rather, it is a natural hybrid of the West Indian and Guatemalan avocado varieties. West Indian avocados are a larger sub-species of avocado and tend to be watery and on the sweeter side, while Guatemalan avocados have the more familiar nutty flavor and buttery consistency. Surprisingly, the Avozilla is as creamy and flavorful as smaller varieties, and its softer consistency makes it more spreadable.

This question was cultivated by Phoenix Rising member JCSon who's thinking about how many avocado toasts an Avozilla would make.

Answer: New South Wales

Comparisons between canyons is confusing, because of the various dimensions involved. Width, depth and length can all be claimed as superlatives, and even the methods of measurement are up for debate. Is depth measured from the higher bank, or the lower, etc?

The Capertee Valley is located about 150 kms (90 miles) west of Sydney. It is nowhere near as spectacular as the Grand Canyon, but is almost a kilometre wider- 30 kms (18 miles), in places. The Grand Canyon is 'only' about 28 kms wide. The world's deepest canyon is Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, Tibet with a depth of almost 5,000 metres, compared to the Grand Canyon's 1,800 metres. The longest is the Greenland Grand Canyon, at over 750kms (450 miles) in length.

This question was dug up by ozzz2002.

Answer: Hampton Court Palace, England

The Great Vine at Hampton Court Palace was planted at the direction of the famous gardener and landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown during the reign of King George III. It is a variety of grape known as 'Schiava Grossa' or 'Black Hamburg' and produces sweet black grapes which are generally eaten as dessert grapes but can be used for winemaking.

Following its 250th birthday, the Great Vine was measured at 4 metres (13 feet) around the base and 36 metres (120 feet) in length. It has been housed over the centuries in a series of purpose-built glasshouses - which clearly haven't been as long-lasting or hardy as the plant itself! A normal annual harvest of grapes from the vine weighs around 272kg (600lbs) and the results are usually sold to visitors via the palace's shop.

Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81 wrote this question with the help of a nice bottle of red wine rather than a nice plate of black grapes.

Answer: 5 decades

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the US's domestic intelligence and security service. It was formed in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation. One of its most high-profile (and controversial) directors was J. Edgar Hoover, who was at the helm of the organisation from 1924 through to 1972, a period of 48 years. During this period he was a key promoter and creator of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, was involved in the "War on Crime" which saw the deaths of a number of high profile gangsters such as John Dillinger, "Ma" Barker and "Baby Face" Nelson. The FBI headquarters is, appropriately, named the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

Since writing this question for team Phoenix Rising, pollucci19 has constantly been looking over his shoulder and jumping at shadows.

Answer: 4711

"The Rocky Horror Show" (1973), is a stage musical written by Richard O'Brien. Subsequent adaptations have been titled "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". These works tell the story of a newly engaged couple caught in a storm and ending up at the home of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist and transvestite. Tattooed on Frank-N-Furter's upper right thigh and visible in the 1975 movie, is "4711". It has been suggested that 4711 cologne was a popular scent among 1970s gay communities.

Mäurer & Wirtz have produced the "4711 Eau de Cologne" in the German city of Cologne since 1799. The fragrance was created in 1792 by Italian Johann Maria Farina with its number being the building in Glockengasse where Farina worked and the name translating as "Water from Cologne".

The other answers are all perfumes. Brooks Brothers is a United States men's clothing company formed in 1818 and their product is "Brooks Brothers 1818 cologne for men". Clive Christian is a British designer who purchased the "Crown Perfumery Company" (est. 1872): one of their first products was "1872" available in several different styles. Italian Nino Cerruti called his fashion house "Cerruti 1881" after the year that his grandfather established a woollen mill and Nino's company sells clothing, accessories and fragrances including those bearing the company name.

After researching this question, Phoenix Rising's psnz carefully sniffed the air, satisfied that his personal hygiene was adequate without additional fragrances and strangely feeling no need for body art.

Answer: Delia Smith

In 1969 Ms Smith was hired as the cookery writer for "The Daily Mirror" based on the fact that her previous position was to cook food for photographic purposes. The person who hired her, deputy editor Michael Wynn-Jones, proposed soon after and they were married in 1971. Because of Smith's experience in food photography, she baked the cake which featured on the cover of The Rolling Stones' album "Let It Bleed". She went on to became one of the first British celebrity chefs. Ironically she was chosen, in 2012, as one of the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake, to make an appearance in a new version of his most famous work - the 1967 Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover.

This question was baked up by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1 who prepared for the question by listening to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "A Day In The Life".

Answer: Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy is most famous for his role as Mr. Spock in the "Star Trek" franchise. He did lay down his pointy ears occasionally and directed a number of films and TV shows throughout his very long career. It is difficult to imagine Mr Spock and "Three Men and a Baby" together though.

Measuring 9.6 km wide the asteroid no. 4864 Nimoy orbits the sun every 3.9 years and is situated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
There is also another asteroid, no. 2039, which is named after a cat called Mr Spock, named in honour of the best loved Nimoy character.

smpdit directed this question safely through many astronomical hazards to a safe spaceport.

Answer: Australia

Alex MacFarlane of Australia was born with Klinefelter Syndrome (47XXY) and so is not male nor female. To obtain a passport, MacFarlane would have to designate as a male or female gender, but Alex is neither. To be forced to then nominate as either male or female would actually create a fraudulent and illegal passport. Alex lobbied the government for years, refusing to lie on the official document and eventually the government saw reason and created an 'X' option in the gender box. MacFarlane was issued with Australia's first gender neutral passport in January 2003. While it is unclear if MacFarlane is the first person in the world to ever hold an X-gender passport, Alex was definitely the first in Australia.

This question was stamped, issued and neatly packed into a box by leith90.

Answer: Daylight robbery

King William III of England introduced a property tax in 1696 which required those living in houses with more than six windows to pay a levy. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up all windows except six. This resulted in a loss of natural light within these premises which then became known as 'daylight robbery'. This unpopular impost was not repealed until 1851 under the reign of Queen Victoria, who was well known for insisting as many windows as possible be open, even in winter time.

This question was framed by PR member MikeMaster99 who immediately saw through the transparent money making scheme!

Answer: Clutha

All the answers are rivers in New Zealand's South Island. The Clutha / Mata-Au is the country's second longest river (338km/210 miles) and the longest in the South Island. Only the Waikato River (425km/264 miles) in the North Island is longer.

New Zealand is a long, narrow and mountainous country. Most rivers are fast-flowing but generally quite short when compared with other countries. Hydroelectricity is important for energy generation and the Clutha / Mata-au and many other rivers are used as renewable sources.

Scotland's River Clyde flows through Glasgow and its name in Scottish Gaelic is "Abhainn Chluaidh". The Clutha / Mata-Au flows in a south-south-easterly direction from Lake Wanaka, through the Central and South Otago regions to the Pacific Ocean at Molyneux Bay. There it discharges more water than any other NZ river (650m³/s or 23,000ft³/s) and is one of the world's fastest-flowing rivers.

Molyneux Bay is 97km (60 miles) south of Dunedin. The city and region were the target of Scottish settlers in the 19th Century. Earlier, British Explorer Captain James Cook called the Clutha / Mata-au the "Molyneux River" after his sailing master aboard the, "Endeavour". The river's name was changed to the dual version in 1998: Mata-au means "current in a stretch of water".

Phoenix Rising's psnz lives in New Zealand's North Island but was happy to go with the flow and dive into this question.

Answer: Swahili

Born in Tanzania, Leslie Scott based the game on a building block game she and her brothers used to play in their childhood. They would stack hardwood blocks as high as they could. The name "Jenga" is derived from "kujenga", a Swahili word which means "to build" or "to construct". Scott developed the game as an activity for children and it was first introduced at the London Toy Fair in 1983.

This question was carefully constructed by Phoenix Rising member, VegemiteKid.

Answer: Gibraltar

Gibraltar International Airport is a civilian airport that doubles as a Royal Air Force runway. The History Channel program "Most Extreme Airports" ranked it as one of the most dangerous in the world, due to strong winter crosswinds around the Rock and across the Bay of Algeciras. The first runway was constructed in 1939 when an airfield was built in the middle of the Gibraltar horse racing track, and was extended in 1942 to 1.8 km to accommodate larger planes.

The major issue was that the runway was built on a narrow isthmus and the airport was extended into the ocean on either side using reclaimed land. Complicating things even further is the location of Winston Churchill Avenue, the only road in and out of the Territory. It intersects the airport's runway and thus had to be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic each time the runway was in operation.

In 2009, The British Ministry of Defence (the owner) and the Government of Gibraltar, the airport operator, announced a plan to build a tunnel underneath the runway to obviate this long-standing problem.

Question landed safely by Phoenix Rising member Humanist and ably assisted by ground crew 1nn1 and VegemiteKid.

Answer: Palmerston

The Darwin area is the ancestral home to the Larraika people, and they are believed to have had a trade route with southeast Asia. When the British landed in the bay in 1839, they named the area Port Darwin, after Charles Darwin. In 1865, the South Australian governor established a small settlement of people at Port Darwin, and renamed the area Palmerston, in honour of the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. South Australia continued to oversee the administration of Palmerston until 1911 when control was given to the Commonwealth and the name was officially changed to Darwin.

In 1980 a new satellite city was developed nearby, and it took the name Palmerston.

This question, like Darwin, underwent a series of transformations before being officially submitted by leith90.

Answer: Euthanized after developing tetanus

Poor Traveller - he survived the American Civil War, but stepped on a nail shortly after Lee's death, contracting tetanus. With no cure, Traveller was euthanized.

Phoenix Rising teammate, mike32768 was not horsing around while researching this question.

Answer: Tom Moore

In the run-up to his 100th birthday on 30th April, 2020, Captain Tom Moore - a WW2 British army veteran - vowed to walk 100 laps of his garden with the aim of raising £1000 for NHS Charities Together during the COVID-19 lockdown. His modest initial target was reached in just four days, and once his story was picked up by the media, more donations flooded in until even a target of £500,000 was easily exceeded. By the time he actually became a centenarian he had raised just over £30m and the final total was eventually announced as £32,796,475.

In addition to becoming a national and international celebrity, he also set a new record as the oldest person to have a number one single on the UK charts (for a duet of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' with Michael Ball); had the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight conduct a flypast over his garden; had a bus, train, boat and police dog named after him; and was granted a knighthood. The new Captain Sir Thomas Moore received that award from the Queen in July 2020 in a special personal ceremony held in Windsor Castle's quadrangle.

The honour of writing this question was granted to Fifiona81 who would like to thank Captain Sir Tom for his efforts and for providing some cheery good news stories during a somewhat bleak period of lockdown.