Cool Zooms, Part XXVI Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane

New Zealand has been described as an early adopter of radio (and a laggard with television). In 1928, "Jane" (a three-act comedy) was broadcast from radio station 2YA in Wellington. The drama performance was well-received, despite no attempt being made to adapt the stage play for radio.

No dramas! Phoenix Rising's psnz was happy to act, stage and record this question for the quiz.

Answer: Johnny Depp

In 2015, Johnny Depp was in Australia filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" when he and his wife Amanda Heard brought their dogs into the country without the relevant paperwork. Under Australia's strict bio-security laws, dogs arriving from the United States must be declared, have relevant paperwork and vaccinations plus undergo quarantine on arrival. Failure to comply with these laws may result in the animals being deported or euthanised. Depp, while he was open about having the dogs with him, did not have valid import permits and paperwork, nor had the dogs been vaccinated or quarantined.

Depp was dogged by then Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, a bulldog himself, who threatened to euthanise the dogs if Depp didn't ship them off home within three days. Luckily the actor saw reason and sent the pampered pooches home poste haste.

After the court case, Amber Heard was found guilty of one count of falsifying immigration documents was given a one month good behaviour bond. Depp and Heard then posted a video apologising to the Australian public for illegally bringing their dogs into the country. No love was lost between Joyce and Depp, with the pair trading insults.

This question was tossed into the mix and duly fetched by leith90, a proud Aussie who is glad the country's unique and diverse fauna and flora is protected.

Answer: Right to keep and bear arms

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It is one of ten articles of the Bill of Rights, ratified December 15, 1791.

The Third Amendment restricts the quartering of soldiers in private homes. The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude. An unratified, but still pending amendment, proposed in 1810 and nearly passed, would strip a US citizen of citizenship should that citizen, without congressional approval, accept a foreign title of nobility.

mike32768 of Phoenix Rising, a product of Catholic high school education, appreciates, but is no scholar of, the Bible. As a Second Amendment enthusiast, he finds it interesting to - even weakly - associate Guns and Roses... uh, Moses.

Answer: Phantasy Star

'Phantasy Star' was launched by Sega in 1987 as a single player turn, role playing game. More than thirty years later it was still continuing though its universe had expanded and it had introduced a range of multiplayer and online options.

Four distinct sub-series were to emerge during this period:
'Phantasy Star I', which launched in 1987.
'Phantasy Star II', launched in 1989, was to accommodate the company's move to the Sega 'Genesis' system.
'Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom', which focussed on a thousand year old feud between the Orakians and the Layans.
'Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium', which saw the introduction of a series of pre-programmable combat manoeuvres called 'Macros'.

This phantastic question was introduced by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin produced the quote during a speech aimed to fast track constitutional changes that would enable him to extend his stay in power. Many speculated that the proposed changes were likely to place Putin in a position where his role as the leader of his nation would be his to maintain for life. This, however, was pure speculation at the time. Under the current laws in Russia Putin is required to step down from his position at the end of his term in 2024.

Phoenix Rising's polluci19 was elected to produce this question and he responded by saying "Now you know what Putin would do".

Answer: Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was born in 1885 to Homer Loomis Pound and Isabel Weston in Idaho Territory (before Idaho was admitted to the Union) and grew up near Philadelphia. He was educated in the United States, but he travelled a fair bit to Europe in his formative years and seemed to have more of an affinity for life across the pond. After a brief teaching stint at Wabash College in Indiana, he left for Europe in 1908. Pound would become a major figure in advancing the Modernist movement in English and American literature in the early-to-mid twentieth century. In fact, T.S. Eliot later remarked that Pound "is more responsible for the 20th-century revolution in poetry than is any other individual". "The Cantos" was his most ambitious and consuming work.

Pound lived in fascist Italy beginning in 1925. His admiration of Mussolini and public support for fascism and antisemitism landed him in hot water with the United States government. He was arrested for treason at the end of World War II and imprisoned until 1958.

The others: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, Robert Lee Frost, and Edgar Bowers (no middle name).

This question was written by Phoenix Rising member JCSon who has no middle name.

Answer: Siberian Hamster

"Basil the Rat" (1979) was final episode of season two of the BBC programme "Fawlty Towers" . Manuel, the hotel's waiter, owns the rat, having previously purchased it in the belief that it was a Siberian hamster. As a hamster, he'd been mentioned previously (but not seen) in the episode "The Germans" (1975, season one, episode six). "Basil the Rat' is stand-out in the series. The hotel staff are busily running around attempting to bring the hotel into order to avoid a "closing down" order from the health inspector, when the rat decides to make his first appearance. Hilarity follows as the team try to hide the rat; the Major keeps trying to shoot it and John Cleese's Basil Fawlty is trying to poison it with a piece of poisoned veal. To add to the confusion, Manuel has also named the rat Basil and when he hears that the chef has put basil into the ratatouille, he goes into a tailspin.

This question was set and trapped by Phoenix Rising's own ham-star pollucci19.

Answer: Gozzi

Gozzo, or gozzi (plural) are a wooden boat of Levantine origin (they look to me like the boat Indiana Jones 'appropriated' in his search for the Holy Grail). They were brought to the Mediterranean by Arabs and reproduced by sailors of the Italian maritime republics who frequented the eastern Mediterranean ports. Each region had its own variations, and they came together annually to see which was best in the Regatta of the Ancient Maritime Republics. One boat from each of the four maritime republics (Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa, and Venice) is rowed by a team of eight. A colourful procession with participants from each republic dressed in traditional medieval costume precedes the race, the location of which rotates each year.

More recently old jeep engines were used in the boats, as part of the effort during World War II. Regardless of whether they are made for sails or motors, they are crafted by master carpenters.

This question was paddled in by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid in readiness for a festival. When we're allowed, with social distancing, of course.

Answer: Back of beyond

"Back of Beyond" is a term commonly used in Australia to describe any place that lies beyond the Black Stump. Also known as the outback or the Never Never, these regions are generally deserts and not the most comfortable of surrounds to be dwelling in. Having said that, the phrase first found its way into print in England and Sir Walter Scott's novel "Antiquary" (1816), in which he writes "You... whirled them to the back of beyond to look at the auld Roman camp".

This question blew in from Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who's been outback a number of times, either to work or explore.

Answer: Jacob

The story of Jacob and Esau begins in Genesis chapter 25 in the Bible. They were twins born to Isaac and Rebekah, with Jacob trying to be born first by grasping his brother's heel and trying to pull him back in. The firstborn son was entitled to inherit the leadership of the family and a double portion of the inheritance. One day Esau was famished and came home to find Jacob cooking some stew and begged him for some. Jacob convinced Esau to trade his birthright for the stew.

In Genesis 27 we read that another day Isaac asked Esau to hunt some wild game and bring him some of the tasty food that he liked. Rebekah overheard and, while Esau was out hunting, advised Jacob to disguise himself as Esau and take their father some tasty food she made using goats from their flock. The result was that Isaac blessed Jacob, the blessing that the eldest son was entitled to. So Jacob took the birthright and the blessing that belonged to the firstborn son.

Phoenix Rising member lg549 is blessed to be an eldest child and entitled to inherit this question.

Answer: Lana Turner

The 1974 film "Persecution" was released under several titles, including "Sheba", "The Terror of Sheba" and "The Graveyard".

Carrie Masters is a bitter woman, blaming her son David for her crippled leg. She dominates him in a bizarre kind of revenge. Later in life, married and with a new-born, David becomes insane and seeks vengeance against his mother. The movie starred Lana Turner and Ralph Bates as mother and son.

Lana Turner (1921-1995) gained fame as both an actress and pinup model in a career spanning almost 50 years. Her debut role was as a murder victim in "They Won't Forget" (1937). Seven-times married, she garnered one best actress Academy Award nomination for "Peyton Place" (1957). In 1958, her daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed Turner's lover to death. Lana Turner's final film appearance was in 1980, and she later had a guest-starring role in the television series "Falcon Crest".

Phoenix Rising's psnz suffered with the job of producing this question for the quiz.

Answer: Running Bear

"Running Bear" is a song written by The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson) made a hit by Johnny Preston in 1959. It reached number one and stayed there for three weeks in January 1960 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It also reached number one in the UK Singles Chart and New Zealand.

The song is the story of Running Bear, a "young Indian brave", and Little White Dove, who lives on the other side of the river and there is a small matter of the two respective tribes were at war with one another. ("Their tribes fought with each other / So their love could never be"). The two ill-fated lovers, desperate to be together, but with poor risk management strategies, dived into the river from opposite sides - they met in a middle and shared a passionate kiss, but were pulled down by the current and both drowned. The lyrics document their fate: "Now they'll always be together / In their happy hunting ground."

This song evoked strong memories from Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1 who remembers the song as a toddler when his parents played it on high rotation on their gramophone.

Answer: Geelong

The Geelong Football Club (also known as the Geelong Cats) was established in what is now the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1859. This makes it the second oldest AFL club, behind the Melbourne Football Club (1858), and one of the oldest sporting clubs in the world.

Ford Australia, a subsidiary of the US based Ford Motor Company, was established in Geelong, Victoria in 1925. It immediately got behind the local football team by providing stable employment for its players. This seemed to work as 1925 was also the year the club won its first premiership. Ford grew to be a major sponsor of the club and, in 2015, signed another extension to their partnership that would see the club through to 2020. This would mark 95 years of sponsorship and one of the longest club/sponsor associations in the world.

As a footnote to the above, in 2013 Ford announced that it would withdraw from its Australian production of motor vehicles. The Geelong plant produced the last of its engines on September 26, 2016.

This question was sponsored by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19, who has (((shudder))) driven a Ford but never owned one.

Answer: Ireland

Lucan in Redwood County, Minnesota covers the grand total of around one square kilometre of land and had a population of around 100-250 people at each decennial Census count during the 20th century. It was incorporated in 1904 and originally developed around a stop on the Chicago and North Western Railway. It shares its name with a suburban town around seven miles from the centre of Ireland's capital city, Dublin.

The Irish Lucan is associated with the somewhat notorious title of Earl of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland. The third Earl of Lucan was one of the military commanders responsible for ordering the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War and the seventh Earl of Lucan went missing in 1974 and was subsequently convicted of murdering his children's nanny.

Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81 took charge of getting this question into the quiz and then promptly disappeared to avoid having to write another one.

Answer: Mars

Mars has many similarities to Earth. It experiences seasons because it also has an axial tilt, but the seasons are not all the same length like those on Earth. Mars also has polar ice caps, though these are composed of frozen carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice, instead of water.

It is felt that because of Mars' lower density, the iron deposited in the Big Bang, was not dragged to a central core, but was distributed more evenly over the surface crust. The presence of water and carbon dioxide allow the iron to form oxides, also known as rust. These iron oxide compounds are what give Mars its characteristic red colouration.

smpdit has often spent time stargazing and admiring Mars' red glow. She wouldn't want to live there though.

Answer: Basket

The basket press was widely used during the Middle Ages and is still in use today. It is a modification of earlier presses used during Roman times and produced a higher yield compared to older methods such as foot treading. The basket press has a slatted basket that is filled with grapes. Pressure is then applied by means of a heavy plate from above. As the grapes are crushed juice flows out through the gaps in the basket. Old-fashioned basket presses were made of wood while modern designs are typically of stainless steel. The basket press method of extracting juice is considered a gentler method of juice extraction as it causes less damage than other types of presses to the skin and seeds of the fruit, which may impart undesirable flavours to the resulting wine. However, because it is gentler there is less yield from the pressing compared to other modern methods; therefore, there is a trade-off between yield and quality.

This question was pressed out of the quiz basket by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Emma Stone

Emma Stone is an extremely talented actress. By the time she'd turned thirty she'd already received Oscar nominations for her performances in "Birdman" (2014) and "The Favourite" (2018) and earned her first Oscar (as Best Actress) for her work on "La La Land" (2016). However, when it comes to media attention, she is reticent and shies away from it. This is her way, in part, of trying to live a "normal" life. She commenced seeing comedian David McCary in 2017 and their relationship blossomed. They became engaged in 2019 and married in 2020.

This question was easy a for Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Peace

Early Christians were the first to associate the dove and olive branch with peace. After the Great Flood in the story of Noah, a dove returning to the Ark with an olive branch was the first sign that the waters had abated. This story of salvation was seen reflected in the baptism of Christ, when a dove representing the Spirit of God descended upon the Savior (also known as "The Prince of Peace"). Eventually (as early as the 15th century), the secular world adopted the dove and olive branch as symbols of peace. The dove became especially prominent when in 1949, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union began promoting peace campaigns in opposition to American "warmongering", and Pablo Picasso's lithograph, "La Colombe" (The Dove), was featured at the World Peace Council in Paris.

The 'V' sign is a hand gesture formed by holding up the index and middle fingers. It is commonly seen as a symbol of peace when the palm faces out to the observer. The other way around (palm facing away from the observer) is considered insulting in many cultures.

This question was drafted by Phoenix Rising's JCSon, who once got a kick out of finding canned peas and hominy side-by-side in a grocery store.

Answer: Sabines

After the founding of Rome, the Sabine peoples split into two groups - one group moved to Rome and assimilated with the Romans; the other group remained in the mountains and warred against Rome. They were eventually defeated in 468 BC. There are no traces remaining of the Sabine language although the legend of the 'Rape of the Sabine Women' has provided great works of art including paintings by Rubens and da Cortona (and several others) and sculpture by Giambologna. All of these pieces were created nearly two millennia after the legendary event which involved Rome realizing there was a large gender imbalance in their population so they invited the Sabines to Rome and then kidnapped the women.

This question was carefully extracted from the vaults of history by MikeMaster99 who marveled at the art and stories behind these magnificent pieces during a wonderful pre-COVID trip to Italy.

Answer: Console

The word 'console' can mean 'to offer solace, encourage or comfort' (from Latin via Old French) or 'a small, freestanding cabinet'. The latter most likely stems from the Middle French 'consolateur' being applied to carved human figures that supported cornices, shelves or rails in choir stalls; the other possible etymology is that is comes from the Latin 'consolidare' which means 'to make solid'. In this case it evolved to mean the casing for an organ, a radio cabinet or cupboard for a TV or stereo.

VegemiteKid from Phoenix Rising is consoled by the fact that though this quiz is over, there will be one next week!