Ghosts! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lions

The Tsavo man-eaters (so named because the railroad workers were trying to build a bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya) were eventually killed by Engr. Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson (who wrote the book), but it took him almost a year to finally track and shoot the lions.

Answer: Ghost in the Machine

'Ghost in the Machine' originally came from Gilbert Ryle in his critique of Descartes' idea that the mind and the body are separate things (the mind being the 'ghost' in the 'machine' of the body). But it's just such a cool phrase that it's become ubiquitous in pop culture.

Answer: A professional writer

A ghostwriter does the actual work, and the celebrity signs his or her name to the book. John Kennedy's books were rumored to have been ghostwritten, as was Reagan's autobiography. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft was a ghost for famous escape artist Harry Houdini, and William Shatner used a ghost for his Trek novels.

Answer: Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is the guy with the flaming skull who rides the fiery motorcycle. In 2007, Nicolas Cage played Johnny Blaze in the "Ghost Rider" movie, co-starring with Eva Mendes and (as Mephistopheles) Peter Fonda.

Answer: Casper

Casper first appeared on screen in 1945 in Paramount's "The Friendly Ghost", and has been successful on television, in comic books and in movies ever since. In 1995 he starred alongside Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Dan Aykroyd, Cathy Moriarty and Ben Stein in a live-action version of "Casper", which debuted at number one in the US and grossed over $100 million.

Answer: Noisy ghost

The German 'poltern' means 'noisy'. Poltergeists generally move things around, make strange sounds and mess with electricity. They became really famous in the Spielberg/Hooper film from 1982.

Answer: London

The Compter is supposedly the cellar of a long-gone debtors prison. Groveland Court has a ghost who disappears into the walls. Finally, St. Mary-le-Bow has seen several murders and fatal catastrophes in its long history. London Ghost Walks are remarkably popular.

Answer: Michael Jackson

I was thrilled myself to find a trivia answer that had the words 'history' and 'ghosts' together. The song "Ghosts" was a hit in the United Kingdom, but never climbed the charts in America.

Answer: Boo Berry

Boo Berry was the third of General Mills' monster-themed brands (the first two being Count Chocula and Franken Berry). Later came Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy, but those didn't have the legs that the originals did and were discontinued. The mascot (a cute little blue ghost) was voiced in commercials by Paul Frees in imitation of actor Peter Lorre.

Answer: The Ghost of Hamlet's Father

There's a tradition that William Shakespeare himself played the Ghost. Other actors who have assayed the role have been Laurence Olivier (who recorded his lines as the Ghost, then played them back at a slower speed) in the 1948 movie, Brian Blessed (in the 1996 version directed by Kenneth Branagh) and Paul Scofield (in Mel Gibson's 1990 film).

Answer: Henry James

"Screw" has been turned into an opera and multiple television and movie adaptations. Actresses who've played the role of the governess are Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr, Lynn Redgrave, Amy Irving and Valerie Bertinelli. There has been fierce debate over the last century as to whether the mysterious figures are truly ghosts or whether the governess was insane and imagining them.

Answer: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

"Ghost Dog" stars the fascinating Forrest Whitaker as a samurai hit man working for the Mafia, but there's nothing supernatural about the movie (which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1999). The other three movies do indeed feature ghosts.

Answer: Ghostbusters

Ray Parker Jr.'s theme song for the movie "Ghostbusters" hit number one on Billboard in August of '84 and stayed number one for three weeks. The video featured cameos from a galaxy of stars, including John Candy, Al Franken, Peter Falk and George Wendt.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

The Netherlands' Queen Wilhelmina also claimed to see Lincoln's ghost, at which point she fainted dead away. And the Reagans' dog wouldn't go into the Lincoln bedroom.

Answer: Scotland

The earliest mention of this prayer is 1926 (in "The Cornish and West Country Litany"), but it's probably much older than that. "And Things That Go Bump in the Night" is the title of a 1964 drama by American playwright Terrence McNally.

Answer: Spectrology

According to "-Ologies and -Isms", other words for this particular field of study are 'phantasmology' and 'spookology'. Oology is the study of eggs, mixology is the study of cocktails and mixed drinks (I'm a mixologist!) and ontology is the study of the nature of being.

Answer: Red Grange

Harold Edward Grange was an original member of both the College Hall of Fame and the Professional Hall of Fame. He led Illinois to a national championship in 1923 and the Bears to championships in '32 and '33. His nickname came from sportswriter Warren Brown.

Answer: Ghost Whisperer

In Poland, a translation of the show's title is "The Ghost Charmer" and in Thailand it's "A Whisperer From Another Dimension". By 2009, Hewitt had won three awards from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for Best Actress on Television (in '06, '07 and '08).

Answer: Stinky

Inky was the blue one, Blinky was the red one, Pinky was the (of course) pink one, and Clyde was the orange one. "Pac-Man" premiered in Japan in May of 1980 and became a worldwide phenomenon. The next year, Buckner & Garcia recorded the cult classic "Pac-Man Fever", which rose all the way to #9 on the Billboard chart.

Answer: Fooled the Germans after D-Day

The Ghost Army was a team of artists and other creative types who, with the help of fake inflatable tanks, dummy airfields, phony radio broadcasts and giant speakers with recorded sounds of battle, misled and confused the German troops. They set up fake airstrips so as to draw fire away from the real ones, they used trickery and misdirection to convince the enemy that their forces were bigger than they actually were, and they faked Morse Code broadcasts so that the Germans would think troops were in different places than they really were.