Cool Zooms, Part XXX Trivia Quiz

Answer: Russia

Lasting almost 19 months in 1904 and 1905, the Russo-Japanese war was fought between the Russian Empire under Nicholas II and the Empire of Japan led by Meiji. Major theatres of operation were Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula.

With the Port of Vladivostok only available during summertime, Russia was seeking a year-round Pacific port. Japan was prepared to allow Russian dominance in Manchuria if they could control the Korean Peninsula. Instead, the Russians demanded part of the Peninsula as a buffer between Japan and themselves. When negotiations broke down in 1904, Japan surprised Russia by opening hostilities.

The result of the war was a Japanese victory. Total casualties were estimated between one and two hundred thousand persons. The Treaty of Portsmouth negotiated by President Theodore Roosevelt saw the end of the war. Russian humiliation and losses were contributing factors to that country's 1905 Revolution.

In researching this question for the quiz, Phoenix Rising's psnz could not help but reflect on philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell's thought that "War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

Answer: Bundy

The crude, rude and, at times, disturbing Bundy family, from "Married... With Children" burst onto our screens in 1987 and ran for 11 seasons. The family is led by Al (Ed O'Neill), a former star college athlete who has fallen to being a ladies' shoe salesperson (no disrespect meant ladies' shoes salespeople), is married to the lazy Peggy (Katey Sagal) and between them they have two children; the ditzy but very popular Kelly (Christina Applegate) and their clever, but horny and misguided son Bud (David Faustino). The show was mainly aimed at the male market and was filled with lewd jokes about sex and masturbation and featured a lead actor with a penchant for pornographic magazines. Little wonder it drew its fair share of criticism and became labelled the "crudest comedy on prime time television".

Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 shouldered opposition aside to be first to claim this question before realising it wasn't about Bundy (Bundaberg) Rum and was bitterly disappointed.

Answer: Chef

Toque comes from the Breton word for hat. Toque blanche is the tall white hat historically worn by chefs. It is thought that French chef Marie-Antoine Careme (1784-1833) took a stocking mesh head covering called a casque a meche worn by kitchen staff, and stiffened it with cardboard. Originally the casque a meche were colour coded according to rank, but the personal chef to Talleyrand, a French statesman, insisted on them all being white for cleanliness.

Red toques are worn by German judges, Black toques are related to the British mortarboard worn by university graduates.

Phoenix Rising member smpdit knows that you have to get a hat to get ahead, or you need to get a head to get a hat.

Answer: ... 25 was the speed limit, motorcycles not allowed in it...'

In 1973, Ike & Tina Turner released the single, "Nutbush City Limits", one of the duo's last hits. Tina Turner wrote this song about her hometown in rural Tennessee.

Technically, Nutbush is an unincorporated community, and not an actual city, but it does work for the song!

mike32768, itinerant member of "Phoenix Rising", sadly, has only passed through the great state of Tennessee on his way to somewhere else. He'll be sure to avoid riding his motorcycle there.

Answer: Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal in 1985. He played his junior soccer at Sporting CP and was promoted to the senior team at the age of 16, thus starting one of the most fabled soccer (football) careers of all time. Up until the COVID-induced break in 2020, Ronaldo had only played for 4 teams - Sporting CP (2002-03), Manchester United (2003-09), Real Madrid (2009-18) and Juventus (2018-21). A powerfully built striker, Ronaldo has been at the pinnacle of soccer's elite forwards for nearly 20 years. His various titles include 5 Ballon d'Or awards as the world's best player and 4 European Golden Shoe awards as the best player in Europe. His teams have won a large number of league and international titles. Again, up until the COVID-break, he has represented Portugal 121 times scoring 84 goals (this doesn't include a large number of 'friendly' games and goals against rival nations). An international goal tally of 50 goals is often considered 'elite'. The only major title that has eluded Ronaldo has been World Cup success.

This question was booted into the quiz by MikeMaster99 with hopefully a touch of the finesse displayed by the magical Ronaldo.

Answer: Match

There's a good chance you thought a matchstick was used to start fires... sorry it's the matchhead that does the burning, the matchstick is the stem of the match. These are generally stored in matchboxes. A matchmaker is a meddler... no, that's not true, it's a person who arranges marriages or initiates romantic relationships between two people. Matchplay (or match play) is a scoring system in golf where individuals keep score of each separate hole in which they outscore their opponent. This can be a little confusing because for years I thought that a score in match play of 7-6 was a close tussle. In fact, it was a thrashing. It meant that one player was seven holes ahead and there were only six left to play.

This question was put forth by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who hopes that your answer matched his.

Answer: four

A forest animal native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the okapi is very shy and rather elusive. It was mostly unknown to the outside world until the late nineteenth century. It is a four-legged mammal with a chocolate to reddish-brown coat and striking white stripes on the legs. While its limb markings resemble zebra patterns, the okapi is the only living relative of the giraffe. Like the giraffe, it has a long neck, ossicones, and a long black tongue.

In case you were wondering, Phoenix Rising member JCSon has two pretty unremarkable legs.

Answer: Great Britain

In 1840, Englishman Rowland Hill came up with the concept of pre-paying for postage, and invented the adhesive postage stamp. The first issue was known as the Penny Black. (Coincidentally, it cost one penny, and it was black!) Because it was the first of its kind, it was felt unnecessary to include the country of origin in its design. That tradition continues to this day.
Swiss stamps and currency all carry the name of Helvetia, derived from the name of a historical race from 2000 years ago.
Poland uses the name Polska, and Irish stamps are labelled Eire.

Phoenix Rising member, ozzz2002, posted this question.

Answer: Charon

Charon is the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. Because Charon's mass is half that of Pluto and the distance between them is relatively small, the pair are sometimes called a dwarf planet binary system. The two are also mutually tidally locked, which means they always show the same face to each other. Charon was first discovered in 1978, by astronomer James Christie and it was this discovery that eventually lead to Pluto's relegation from planet to dwarf planet. Before it was determined that Charon was a moon and therefore a separate body, the mass and light of the two together was thought to be Pluto alone.

Hydra and Styx are two more of Pluto's moons, but Phobos is one of the moons of Mars.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 who used to think the moon was called Sharon, circled around this question before adding it to the quiz.

Answer: Sound effects

A Foley artist is a noisemaker- someone who recreates sounds to be dubbed onto a movie track. When movies first became talkies, the microphones had trouble picking up any sound that was not spoken dialogue and the movie seemed unnatural and quiet. Jack Foley came up with the idea of recreating sounds (footsteps, doors closing, creaking and others) and dubbing them in synchrony with the picture and dialogue. A Foley studio is a quiet room with a large screen to allow the artist to recreate a sound at the exact moment it's needed. Different shoes and flooring are used for different types of footsteps, while guns loading and water pouring are made the same way you expect them to. But many sounds are made by a surprising variety of items. Most people think of using coconut shells for the sound of horses hooves, but they can sound too tinny and light to be realistic. Rocks hitting grass or ground give a sense of the weight of the animal behind the noise. Celery being broken or walnuts dropped onto a wooden floor can sound like bones breaking. A frozen lettuce can imitate a head injury or the sounds of the monsters' ears opening from "A Quiet Place". With the use of computers, sounds can now be augmented, slowed down or sped up to create the exact noise needed for the film.

Leith90 loves listening to the happy sounds of her cat purring, but when the purring stops, disaster inevitably follows.

Answer: A line following the lowest part of a valley

A geomorphological term, a 'thalweg' is an imaginary line connecting all the lowest points down a valley, which often means down the water course (e.g. river) flowing down the valley floor. Within waterways, the thalweg is the deepest part of each river cross-section. The word is German in origin from thal meaning 'valley' and weg meaning 'way', hence literally 'valley way'. From a legal perspective, state and national boundaries associated with rivers are often demarcated along the thalweg.

Some deep pondering on this question by PR member MikeMaster99 who often measures biogeochemical processes occurring along the stream thalweg as part of his role as an environmental scientist.

Answer: False

The Yalu River (Chinese name) is called the Amrok or Amnok River by the Koreans. It is a river which forms in part the border between North Korea and China. Tumen River, a tributary to its east also comprises a portion of the boundary.

The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge crosses the river to connect the cities of Dandong in China and Sinuiju of North Korea. Both by railway and road use the bridge but pedestrian crossing is not permitted. The bridge is one of only a few ways to enter or depart North Korea. It was constructed by the Imperial Japanese Army between April 1937 and May 1943 when it occupied Korea.
The "Bridge of No Return" crosses the Demarcation Line between North and South Korea. It was used for prisoner exchanges after the Korean War 'ended' in 1953. Prisoners were permitted to stay in the country of their confinement or cross the bridge to return home. However, once they chose to cross the bridge, they were never permitted to return.

This question was submitted by 1nn1 who has been known to cross a bridge or three but prefers those where you can walk over the bridge in both directions.

Answer: The Falklands War (1982)

The quote is about the Falklands War (1982). This undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom was over the British territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict lasted 74 days before a British victory.

The Irish Civil War (1922-1923) was fought between the Irish Provisional Government and the Irish Republican Army over the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. The war was won by the Provisional Government who supported the Treaty and who became the Irish Free State.

The so-called War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748) took place in the Caribbean between Britain and Spain. The conflict is named after Robert Jenkins, a British merchant captain whose ear was severed when his ship was boarded by the Spanish during peacetime.

The Ragamuffin War (1835-1845) was one of several wars of succession in the Brazilian Empire which won the conflict and saw the reincorporation of the Riograndense Republic.

"The clash was like two bald men fighting over a comb" is an expression describing a futile conflict. It was used in relation to the Falklands War by Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, although the quote has a far longer heritage. Similar expressions date back to Roman times and fables about it have appeared in eighteenth century French literature. Russian author Leo Tolstoy also included it in an 1874 text.

Phoenix Rising's psnz was pleased to research this history question for the quiz and agrees with Stephen Hawking's thought: "We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let's face it, is mostly the history of stupidity."

Answer: Table tennis

There are three common grips for holding a table tennis bat. Shakehand, where you hold the bat like you were shaking someone's hand, gives good balance and adaptability, and is mainly focused on hitting the ball forehand. Penhold grip is when the bat is held like you would hold a pen. This hold is favoured mainly by Asian players. It can be deceptive and gives good flexibility enabling both forehand and backhand play. Other grips include Japan/Korean grip, V-grip and also Pistol Grip - but a specially designed bat is required for this.

smpdit generally uses a table for dining upon, rather than playing tennis.

Answer: Fox

"Zorro" was first written by Johnston McCulley in 1919, who had his story serialised in a magazine called "All-Story Weekly". The story was based on 19th-century outlaw called Joaquin Murrieta, who was involved in cattle-rustling, robberies, kidnappings and murders at the time of the California Gold Rush 1848-1853. 'Zorro', the Spanish word for fox, is the alter ego of the Don Diego Vega, a bland character who cannot win over Senorita Lolita. Zorro is a swashbuckling masked man and with Tornado, his ultra-intelligent horse, he defends a family in danger, gets the girl and, in the book's final pages, reveals his true identity to the amazement of all around him.
McCulley's book caught the eye of Douglas Fairbanks Sr, who was the production impetus behind the first movie version in 1920. He changed the title from McCulley's original, "The Curse of Capistrano", to "The Mark of Zorro" and this was the start of a successful movie franchise.

Question written by 1nn1 who also wears a mask but for a very different reason.

Answer: Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, known for leading the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule by the employment of nonviolent resistance.

Although this saying is often attributed to him, there is doubt. The Yale Book of Quotations says: "'An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind' is frequently attributed to M. K. Gandhi. The Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence states that the Gandhi family believes it is an authentic Gandhi quotation, but no example of its use by the Indian leader has ever been discovered."

The concept of nonviolence has a long history in Indian religious thought, but Gandhi was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale. Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating and he was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse.

This question was passively placed into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member lg549 with no resistance whatsoever.

Answer: Maiden

In cricket, when an over is bowled without runs being scored off the bat from it, it is called a 'maiden over'. As leg byes and byes are not scored off the bat, maiden overs may include runs scored in this way. If the bowler also takes a wicket (gets someone out) during the over, the bowler is credited with a 'wicket maiden'.

In horse racing, a horse who has never won a race is known as a maiden. While 'breaking his/her maiden' is usually done in a maiden race, it can also be achieved in a claiming, allowance, or stakes race. A maiden claiming race is the lowest class of horse racing and are generally run by animals that aren't considered good enough to run in a higher class.

This question was given a sporting chance by Phoenix Rising cricket fanatic VegemiteKid.

Answer: 1

Old Kent Road is the only property south of the Thames. Many people visiting London choose to tour the city using the Monopoly board as a guide. They start with Old Kent Road then head north and over the Thames via Tower Bridge and up to Whitechapel Road as the second stop - and so on. Old Kent Road is one of Britain's oldest roads, whose history stretches back more than 2,000 years. It was known to the Anglo-Saxons as Watling Street, and in the medieval period was famous as being part of the pilgrimage route to Canterbury made famous by Geoffrey Chaucer.

It later became an important part of the industrial revolution, associated with the South Metropolitan Gasworks. Docks and the railway were also located there and it was a critical thoroughfare which led in and out of London. With the coming of the Grand Surrey Canal, it started to be subsumed as part of the Greater London area.

This question was brought to you by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid, who was fortunate to walk the streets of London in 2018.

Answer: 104

There are several options, but the highest-scoring option involved placing the 'X' on a Double Letter Score. This would be scored thusly -
3 + 4 + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1 + (8x2) = 27
Double word score = 54
Bingo bonus = 50
54 + 50 = 104
In Scrabble, the player going first scores a Double Word Score, by playing across the pink star square in the centre of the board. Also, by playing all seven tiles (known as a 'bingo' or 'bonus'), a player earns an extra 50 points on top of their regular score.

Question submitted by ozzz2002, who has been playing tournament Scrabble for many years.

Answer: Jezebel

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are two of the most notorious figures in the Hebrew Scriptures. After the rule of David and Solomon, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. David's descendants ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah, while the northern kingdom of Israel was ruled by a series of wicked kings. At the time of his reign, Ahab was named the worst of the lot. His marriage to the Phoenician princess Jezebel did nothing to redeem him. Jezebel sought to eradicate the monotheistic religious tradition of Israel, executing hundreds of its prophets, and replace it with worship of Baal and Ashteroth. The prophet Elijah famously challenged Jezebel and the prophets of Baal and prophesied that she would be torn apart by the dogs of Jezreel (1 Kings 21:23).

And so it came to pass that some fourteen years after Ahab was killed in battle, a captain of Israel's army named Jehu would bring about the fulfillment of that prophecy. As he rode up to Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself in finery and stood in her window defiantly. Jehu called up and several of her eunuchs threw her from the window. When shortly thereafter, Jehu instructed his men to give her a burial befitting her station as queen, they reported that the dogs of Jezreel had left very little behind.

The deaths of the witch of Endor and Salome are not described in the Bible. Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Phoenix Rising member JCSon did you the kindness of not sharing all of the grisly details following Jezebel's defenestration.