I Was Just Waving to the Man I Hit Last Week! Quiz

Answer: The toe of the back foot cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched the ground

This is known as the 'toe and heel' rule. It is virtually impossible to watch this with the naked eye, as the toe can leave the ground for a milli-second before the heel is put down. If there is doubt as to whether or not a walker has done this, it has to be watched back on high-speed film. Expert walkers can average one mile in under seven minutes!

In the early nineteenth century, a Scotsman named Robert Barclay Allardice, became famous for his incredible walking feat of walking one mile, every hour, for 1,000 consecutive hours. It took him a total of forty-two days and nights; and his times for each mile ranged from around 14 minutes in the early stages of his walk, to 21 minutes near the end. This amazing accomplishment earned him the nickname "The Celebrated Pedestrian".

Quote about pedestrians: "Ah...so many pedestrians, so little time..." - Robin Williams

Answer: Mark Twain

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American author who wrote "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Before using the pen name Mark Twain, he wrote several pieces under the name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass! Apparently, on the night he was born (November 30 1835) and on the night he died (April 21 1910), Haley's Comet was visible in the sky.

Quote about Mark Twain: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn." All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
- Ernest Hemingway

Answer: Cows with Guns

One of my favorite songs - the wonderful "Cows With Guns" is a song written by Dana Lyons about "bovine freedom". It tells the story of the cow 'guru' who inspired all the other cows to fight for their freedom:

"He mooed "we must fight, escape or we'll die,"
Cows gathered around, cause the steaks were so high...
Bad cow pun"

Toward the end of the song, the cows are surrounded by thousands of police officers, waiting to shoot them all. Lyons wanted a happy ending to the story, but wondered how he could do it without being 'cheesy'. Eventually, with the help of his friend, they came up with the great last verse:

"The order was given to turn cows into whoppers
Enforced by the might of ten thousand coppers;
But on the horizon, surrounding the shoppers
Came the deafening roar of...
chickens...
in choppers!"

Quote about cows: "Who was the first guy that looked at a cow and said, "I think that I'll drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?" " ~Bill Watterson

Answer: The Beatles

The album cover for "Abbey Road" is one of the most famous album covers in the world. Photographer Iain Macmillian was given about ten minutes to take the photo of the band walking across a pedestrian crossing outside the recording studio on Abbey Road.

The four 'Beatles' are simply walking across the crossing, but the photo gave much weight to the rumor that had been circling for a few years, that Paul McCartney was dead. This rumor began in 1966, and some people were convinced that Paul had died, and been replaced with a look-a-like. People felt that the news of McCartney's death would be too upsetting, and so a replacement had been found. Theories abounded, and some felt that the cover of "Abbey Road" depicted a funeral procession: Ringo Starr was in a black 'mourning' suit; John Lennon was in a white suit which would depict a clergyman; George Harrison was in denim jeans which was thought to be symbolic of a gravedigger; and Paul McCartney (or his look-a-like!) was barefoot and not walking in step with the others, as, presumably, a dead person would do... Phew, that's some imagination!

Quote about impersonations: "It's funny - if you impersonate somebody, they have no idea it's them." - Tracey Ullman

Answer: Rachel

In the "Friends" episode "The One Where Phoebe Runs", Rachel asks Phoebe to come running with her. But to her dismay, she finds that Phoebe runs, well, like Phoebe. Arms and legs waving around hideously, Phoebe explains that it's the only possible way to enjoy running. Eventually, Rachel joins in and discovers that Phoebe is right; and even though she flies into a police-mounted horse, she is undeterred, and the two continue running about in the same deranged manner.

Quote about friends: "You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job." - Laurence J. Peter

Answer: Stevie Smith

"Not Waving but Drowning" was poet Stevie Smith's most well-known poem. There have been different opinions regarding the meaning of the poem. Some suggest that Smith, who had been treated for psychological problems in her life, had written the poem about herself, suggesting that she had spent her life "Not Waving but Drowning". Others feel that the light-hearted tone of the poem would negate this theory. Author and critic Clive James, says of Smith "Her poems, if they were pills to cure Melancholy, did not work for (Smith). The best of them, however, worked like charms for everyone else."

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Quote about drowning: "When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me.' You just scream." - John Lennon

Answer: Mike Tyson

The world wasn't expecting the fight they saw on February 10 1990. Hitherto undefeated World Heavyweight Champion, Mike Tyson, was fighting James 'Buster' Douglas, and only one betting venue in Vegas was courageous enough to put any odds on this fight, at 42-1. People were anticipating the fight to last a couple of rounds at most; but during Round Ten, Douglas knocked Tyson down. The image of Tyson trying to get up whilst trying to put his gum shield back in, was shocking to all. The commentators observed: "This makes Cinderella look like a sad story." and "What 'Buster' Douglas has done here tonight, let's go ahead and call it the Biggest Upset in the history of Heavyweight Championship fights."

It seemed that Tyson and his entourage were totally unprepared for the fight Douglas would bring. Half-way through the match, Tyson's trainer was holding what appeared to be a prophylactic filled with water, against Tyson's eye.

Whilst Douglas was thought of as the under-dog of the fight, he was also battling with troubles in his private life. At the time of the fight, his wife was in hospital with reported renal problems; and his own mother had died just a couple of weeks before the fight.

Quote about boxing: "Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it." - George Foreman

Answer: Simon and Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song" (aka "Feelin' Groovy") is a short song - less than two minutes long - with its meaning in the first line: "Slow down, you move too fast".

The Dustin Hoffman 1967 film "The Graduate" featured Simon and Garfunkel songs almost exclusively, winning them a Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture.

Quote about slowing down: "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials." - Lin Yutang

Answer: Pavement

'Pavement' is a thriller written by Charles Hansen, about a man (Robert Patrick) who is searching for his sister's killer with the help of a police investigator (Lauren Holly). Despite being tagged as a thriller, the general consensus for this film is that it was more for people who enjoy solving a mystery, as opposed to enjoying the scary, on-the-edge-of-your-seat thrillers like "Halloween".

As a footnote, 'pavement' is the British word for 'sidewalk' in America.

Quote about pavements: "On pavements, and the bark of trees, I have found whole worlds." - Mark Tobey

Answer: Hood

The written word, and the pronunciation of words, can vary widely between American English and British English. When written, the differences are not necessarily that wide. The British spelling of 'flavour' and 'colour' for example, are simply spelled without the 'u' in America. With regards to pronunciation (apart from the obvious difference in accents) some typical examples are that of words such as 'herb' - spoken without the 'H' in American English, but with it in British English; 'Caribbean' pronounced 'Ca-RIB-eun' in America, and 'Carra-BE-un' in Britain.

But some words are simply quite different and bear no relevance to each other. In the answer choices above for example, in America the 'trunk' is the 'boot' of a British car. Americans use 'gas', 'apartment', 'tub' and 'cookie', as opposed to the British 'petrol', flat', bath' and 'biscuit' respectively.

In 1928 Noah Webster was the person to publish the first dictionary that showed Americans and Britons had a different language. It was called the "American Dictionary of the English Language", and contained 70,000 entries.

Quote about British people: "All British people have plain names, and that works pretty well over there." - Paris Hilton. Hmm.