Cool Zooms, Part XXIV Trivia Quiz

Answer: Buzz Lightyear

Before production started, the name 'Tempus of Morph' was considered, too. Lunar Larry was (thankfully) discarded in favour of Buzz Lightyear. The producers named him after Apollo 11 moonwalker, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. Buzz, along with all the other characters, first appeared in the 1995 animated movie, 'Toy Story'.

The 'Toy Story' movies feature a who's who of top stars lending their voices- Tim Allen, Kelsey Grammer, Tom Hanks, Don Rickles, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, among many others. 'Toy Story 3' and 'Toy Story 4' both won Oscars for Best Animated Picture

Chewbacca is a 'Star Wars' character, Mr Arrow was from 'Treasure Planet' and Wall-E is a futuristic garbage-muncher.

Phoenix Rising player, ozzz2002, went to infinity and beyond to bring you this question!

Answer: 1862

The Flying Scotsman was the brainchild of Walter Leith, General Manager of the Great Northern Railway, when he decided that a train service that ran between London and Edinburgh was needed. This 'express' service of just over 400 miles (650 km) took 10½ hours between the two capitals - oh, and of course, that time included a lunch stop at York.

But don't get on the wrong track - confusingly, in 1924 the London and North Eastern Railway named an express locomotive 'Flying Scotsman' and it's this locomotive that achieved fame, more than the service that commenced in 1862. The locomotive became a symbol of the steam age until steam was superseded and the service was retired. After various owners and travels around the world, the locomotive was returned to England and restored, and is now a working museum exhibit.

This question was set in train by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid, who thought she could.

Answer: Paul McCartney and Wings

The sequence is artists who sang "James Bond" movie title songs starting with "Goldfinger" in 1964 sung by Shirley Bassey. The other songs in the sequence are "Thunderball" (1964) - Tom Jones, "You Only Live Twice" (1967) - Nancy Sinatra, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) - John Barry orchestra, "Diamonds are Forever" (1971) - Shirley Bassey, and then "Live and Let Die" in 1973 by Paul McCartney and Wings.

This question was bonded into the quiz by lg549 on behalf of team Phoenix Rising.

Answer: Electoral fraud

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was a writer, poet and literary critic, born in Boston, Massachusetts. Best known for his short stories and poetry, Poe produced tales in the mystery and macabre genres, and many consider him the inventor of detective fiction.

In the United States, cooping was a form of electoral fraud. Innocent people would be rounded up off the streets by cooping gangs, locked up (in a room called "the coop"), drugged or plied with alcohol and forced to vote multiple times for a particular candidate. Anyone failing to cooperate would be beaten or even murdered. Changes of clothing and disguises were also involved to fool officials at polling stations.

Cooping has been proposed as a possibility for Poe's death. He was found semi-conscious in Baltimore, Maryland. Taken to hospital, he died a few days later, unable to explain what had happened. Poe was found on an election day, was dishevelled and wearing someone else's clothing. Given the paucity of records and Rufus Wilmot Griswold's (Poe's rival) post-mortem character assassination, the truth will probably never be known.

Phoenix Rising's psnz reflected on the mystery of Poe's death, using words from one of his most famous poems:
"But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token ... Merely this and nothing more."

Answer: Cajon

All are percussion instruments. A cajon is a type of drum played with the hands. the other three instruments are pitched instruments played with mallets.
A cajon, originally from Peru is a box with a thinner layer on one side which is tapped/struck with the hands to mimic a drum. There is hole on the opposite face for the sound to escape. They are becoming more popular in western music.

A glockenspiel is composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in similar manner to the keyboard of a piano. The keys are always metal and when struck, they sound like a bell. The vibraphone has metal bars as well, however, it differs from all other similar instruments by having a sustain pedal (similar to a piano) to increase sound variety and pitch. The Marimba consists of a set of wooden (sometimes synthetic) bars struck with rubber mallets. Underneath the bars, resonators are hung to amplify the keys' sounds. The bars of a marimba are arranged like piano keys of a piano, with the groups of accidentals raised vertically, overlapping natural bars on the baseline.

This question was pitched into the quiz by 1nn1.

Answer: Mercury 7 astronauts

The TV show "Thunderbirds" first aired in 1965 and was created by Britons Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The show centres around the futuristic International Rescue, founded by billionaire Jeff Tracy with the rescues being undertaken by his five sons. Those sons were named for five of the Mercury 7 astronauts- Scott (Malcolm Scott Carpenter), Virgil (Virgil 'Gus' Grissom), John (John Glenn Jr), Gordon (Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr) and Alan (Alan Shepard Jr). The two Mercury 7 astronauts whose names were not borrowed for the series are Wally Schirra and Deke Slayton.

The Green Lantern is a DC Comics superhero whose alter ego is Alan Scott. "Bonanza" was a popular series that featured the Cartwright family. Actor Lorne Greene who portrayed Ben Cartwright, was the model for the "Thunderbirds" patriarch Jeff Tracy. There are several Johns among the British PMs and one fictional Alan (played by Rik Mayall in "The New Statesman").

Phoenix Rising's leith90 counted down from five before launching this question into the quiz.

Answer: Mythical sea monsters

In Book 12 of Homer's "Odyssey", the enchantress Circe helps Odysseus to chart a course on his homeward journey. After eluding the call of the Sirens, he will have to navigate between the two terrors. Scylla, a hideous six-headed man-eating monster occupies a cliff-side cavern only an arrowshot from the ship-destroying monster in the form of a giant whirlpool known as Charybdis. Circe advises Odysseus to choose the lesser of the two evils and sail closer to Scylla at top speed. In so doing, he will suffer the loss of only six men, rather than risk his entire ship and crew in the maelstrom.

Scholars locate the "monsters" on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria - Charybdis corresponding to a natural whirlpool on the Sicilian coast and Scylla representing a rocky shoal on the Italian mainland side. If that is not a rock and a hard place....

This question was steered safely into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's JCSon without the loss of any teammates.

Answer: Steel mill near Detroit

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest iron ore carrier on the Great Lakes when launched in 1958. It weighed 26000 tons and carried Iron ore from Lake Superior ports to steel mills in Detroit and Toledo. On November 9, 1975, it left Superior near Duluth, Minnesota with a load of Iron Ore for a steel mill at Zug island near Detroit (The song said erroneously it was headed to Cleveland). The next day it was caught in a bad storm on Lake Superior only 11 miles from the safety of a harbour at Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior. All 29 lives were lost.

This question was launched by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1 who one day will make it to the museum at Whitefish Point.

Answer: The World Is Not Enough

"The World Is Not Enough" was released in 1999 and it was the third film in which Pierce Brosnan played James Bond. Other prominent cast members included Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane and Judi Dench. The film's plot involved the assassination of a wealthy individual whose daughter Bond is assigned to protect. Not surprisingly, this daughter is involved in a nefarious plot to increase worldwide oil prices.

Interestingly James Bond's fictional lineage is traced back to the real-life Sir Thomas Bond who was comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria during the 1600s. Thomas Bond's family motto "Orbis Non Sufficit" (the world is not enough) was first described as James Bond's family motto in the 1963 Ian Fleming novel "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

This question was spied into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member Triviaballer who thinks that the theme song to "The World is Not Enough" by Garbage is one of the best of the series.

Answer: A scientist that discovered pig cholera

Salmonella was named after US veterinary surgeon Daniel Elmer Salmon. In 1883, upon hearing of his work in the New York State campaign to wipe out pleuro-pneumonia in cattle, he was sought out by the US Department of Agriculture to establish a veterinary division, which would eventually become the Bureau of Animal Industry. He set in place a number of industry standards including a nationwide system for meat inspection and quarantine requirement for imported livestock.

However, it was his work with Theobald Smith, a genius in his own right, for which he will be best remembered. Whilst Salmon took the accolades, it was Smith who'd discovered, what became known as Salmonella cholerae-suis, whilst studying diseases in hogs. Salmon and Smith, initially, named their discovery "Hog-cholerabacillus", but it was in 1900 that a proposal was put forth by Joseph Leon Lignières to have it named in Salmon's honour.

This question had been bugging Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 for some time.

Answer: Hallways

Shotgun houses are popular in the south of the USA. They consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. They have a narrow, rectangular structure. The front room is the living room. The kitchen is usually in the back with the bathroom, and the bedroom(s) are in the middle. You need to walk through the bedrooms to get from one side of the house to another. They are called shotguns houses as all the door are aligned so you could shoot a shotgun though an opened front door and the bullet would pass though an opened back door without touching the house. Elvis Presley grew up in a shotgun house in Tupelo Mississippi.

This question was blasted into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Castle

Popular for almost 200 years under the Normans, the motte-and-bailey were fortifications that had three main design elements. The motte was a raised dirt mound (or natural hill) with a flattened top forming the site of a castle. The keep was located on top of the motte and was the castle's primary defensive element and location of the castle's lord and family habitations. The bailey was the low ground next to the motte, usually surrounded by a palisade fence, and containing stables, kitchens, stores, workshops and a chapel. It was usually kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte, but the shape depended somewhat on the terrain. Their great advantage was, besides being an effective defence, that the motte-and-baileys were inexpensive to construct. There were around 1,000 motte-and-bailey castles built in England, Wales and Scotland, but they can also be found in other parts of Europe including Denmark, southern Italy and Germany. Later, timber was replaced with stone to avoid the hazards of fire and increase the castle's durability.

This question was piled up by Phoenix Rising's castleophile, VegemiteKid. Okay, not a real word, but it should be.

Answer: The city's port

Callao on the Pacific Ocean is part of the metropolitan area of Lima, Peru's capital and largest city. Callao is a seaport, settled by the Spanish in 1537 and having an extensive naval history as one of South America's major ports. The distance between Callao and Lima is about 12km (7.5 miles).

Civitavecchia is a city and port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, some 60km (37 miles) from Rome. It was previously an Etruscan settlement before being constructed in the second century by the Emperor Trajan. Roman Catholic popes played a significant role throughout much of Civitavecchia's history. Today it is a ferry port, major cruise center and less-importantly a fishing port.

Oakland is a major West Coast seaport in the United States and the busiest port in the San Francisco Bay area. The Oakland area was colonised by Spanish settlers in the 18th century. In the gold rushes of the 1850s, Oakland grew because land there was less expensive than San Francisco. Now the fifth-busiest US port, the distance between Oakland and San Francisco is 20km (12.6 miles).

Lyttelton is a port town on Lyttleton Harbour, about 12km (7.5 miles) from Christchurch City on the South Island of New Zealand. It was the landing place for settlers in the Canterbury region. A rail tunnel begun in 1860 and completed in 1867 through the steep Port Hills linked Christchurch with Lyttelton. Previously, people faced an arduous journey between the two. Since then a road tunnel was opened in 1964, having taken three years to construct.

Phoenix Rising's psnz was delighted to work on this question, since some of his ancestors were involved with the design and construction of the Lyttelton rail tunnel in the 1860s.

Answer: French toast

French toast is a breakfast dish dating back to the fourth or fifth centuries where it was found in a Roman recipe book. "Pain perdu" translates as "lost bread" and is a way of using up stale bread. Aside from utilising a food that would otherwise be thrown away, older bread soaks up more liquid than fresh bread, without falling apart.

One way of preparing pain perdu involves soaking slices of stale bread (optionally with crusts removed) in a mixture of egg and milk. The liquid mixture may also contain sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla. The slices are then fried in melted butter or vegetable oil until crisp and golden-coloured. The French toast may be served sprinkled with sugar or toppings like jam, honey or maple syrup.

There are numerous international variants of French toast or pain perdu recipes, including different sweet and savoury versions. Some other names are "gypsy toast", "German toast", "eggy bread" and "Bombay toast".

Phoenix Rising's psnz freely admits to salivating while writing up this question. Or should that be "salivating freely"? À votre santé!

Answer: Chongo

Thirty one episodes of the 'Banana Splits', a show about a fictional rock band comprising four 'animals', was created by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC and ran from 1968 to 1970 before greater coverage via syndication from 1972 onwards. The band comprised Fleegle the beagle (guitar), Bingo the ape (drums), Drooper the lion (bass) and Snorky the elephant (keyboards). All but Snorky provided vocals. The show was a mix of live action and animation. It had several segments including the live action 'Danger Island' where an archaeologist and some shipwrecked mariners including 'Chongo' were pursued by comically incompetent pirates.

This question was regretfully introduced into this quiz by PR MikeMaster99 who now has the 'na na na' theme song going through his head - a truly dreadful earworm!

Answer: 1963 Stingray Corvette

The year 1963 marked the launch of the first of Chevrolet's second generation models of Corvette - a convertible and a new coupe design. It was the coupe version that had two separate rear windows in order to incorporate a central raised windsplit feature that ran the full length of the car. Given that most cars have one single rear screen in order to aid visibility, it should probably come as no surprise to learn that this bit of striking design was removed from 1964 onwards.

The second generation Corvettes had the additional "Stingray" name because their eventual design originated from two different development programmes - a 1957 concept design known as the "Q-Corvette" and a 1959 sports car concept called the "Stingray Racer".

This question was driven into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81, who didn't notice any visibility problems the one time she drove a car with a split rear screen...

Answer: The Isley Brothers

I'll be upfront, The Isley Brothers were not the first band to record the song, that honour went to the Top Notes in 1961. The Top Notes, however, did not live up to their name with the song and could not turn it into a hit, and that's where the Isley Brothers came in. They re-worked the number in 1962, placing so much more emphasis (with ascending notes) on the line "well shake it up baby now", which gave the song the "oomph" it needed to climb the charts. It would find its way to number seventeen on Billboards' Hot 100 and it would become the band's first entry into that chart's top forty.

Over the years there have been numerous covers of the song, the most notable being by the Beatles in 1963, however, if you want to listen to a slightly off-beat rendition that turns it into a celebration, check out the 1993 reggae version by Chaka Demus and Pliers.

This question was shouted out by Phoenix Rising's, slightly twisted, pollucci19.

Answer: Mallorca

Traveling east from Gibraltar, you'd first pass Mallorca, the largest of Spain's Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. You'd next pass two Italian islands, Sardinia then Sicily, the second-largest and largest Mediterranean islands, respectively. Onward past the Greek island of Crete, you'd finally pass Cyprus on the eastern end of the sea. The entire journey would cover roughly 2,200 nautical miles and take approximately five days at an average cruising speed of 20 knots per hour.

This question was craftily navigated into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member, JCSon.

Answer: Queensland

The Tropic of Capricorn bisects Australia, passing through Rockhampton on the east coast of Queensland and it is after this that the Capricorn Coast in central Queensland is named. It is known as the 'Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef'. It is an extensive piece of coastline that stretches some 120 km that encompasses Rockhampton, Mackay and Yeppoon, as well as the Barrier Reef islands, Great Keppel and Heron, extending to Five Rocks in the north. It is a popular and picturesque tourist destination with beaches, gorges and rainforests in the region, as well as walk-in sapphire mines, and Dreamtime cultural experiences of the aboriginal people of the area.
Other notable towns the Tropic of Capricorn passes through or near in Australia include Longreach, Alice Springs and Newman.


This question was plotted with some latitude by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: The Victoria Memorial

The Victoria Memorial is a white marble and gilt bronze statue of Queen Victoria, commissioned after her death. It was funded by donation from around the British Empire, with monies coming from Australia and New Zealand and from various African tribes. It was placed at the end of The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace was completed in 1837 for Queen Victoria's ascension. As her family grew it became necessary to increase the size of the building and The Marble Arch was moved to make room for an extra wing. Marble Arch now stands as a gateway to Hyde Park, though only the Royal Family and The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are allowed to drive through it.

There are unsubstantiated rumours of a passageway linking Buckingham Palace to Clarence House.
Nelson's Column is located in Trafalgar Square, at the other end of The Mall.
Winston Churchill's Tea Room doesn't really exist.

smpdit fondly remembers meeting 1nn1 outside Buckingham Palace, in the pouring rain. 1nn1 has a Union Jack umbrella as a memento of the day.