Joanna241's Innovative Common Bond Quiz

Answer: Navy

Yes, both were Naval Aviators. Cruise was weapons training at Mirimar, California, in "Top Gun" (1985) and Gere at Pensacola, Florida, in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982). Both their characters were following in their fathers' footsteps!

Answer: crumpled raincoat

Sherlock Holmes often wore a deerstalker hat (even when not stalking deer), while Thomas Magnum showed his - and actor Tom Selleck's - lifelong love of the Tigers. The white lab coat is popular in TV crime, seen on "Quincy, ME," "Diagnosis Murder" and, of course, both versions of "CSI."

To find out more information than you'll ever need to know about Columbo's battered macintosh, look no further than http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/raincoat.htm.

Answer: bicycle

Herr Senft is also known among the world's cycling fraternity as "Didi the Devil" for dressing up in a red devil's suit - complete with horns - and following the races round the circuit. You can see him and his creations at: http://www.recordholders.org/en/records/didi.html

Answer: tyres

Although you might not consider them as such, tyres are one of the most important safety features of your car. Nicks, tears and under-inflation can affect your steering, braking and acceleration. The UK Ministry of Defence estimates that a drop of just 10 per cent in pressure on car tyres can increase your fuel consumption by 2.75 per cent.

More info: http://www.mod.uk/mdp/roadsafety/tyre_safety.htm

Note: Although it may look odd to US readers, "tyres" is the correct UK spelling of "tires"!

Answer: telephone

Nancy Wilson of Heart has produced the score for three movies made by her husband, Oscar-winning writer/director, Cameron Crowe. The movies are "Jerry Maguire", "Almost Famous" and "Vanilla Sky." Heart re-formed as a band in 2003, ten years after their last album together.

Answer: golf

The phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, etc) is used in the military, in aviation and in amateur radio to ensure that the listener does not confuse letters, eg, the letters B and D or N and M.
Full list: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/MAEL/ag/phonetic.htm

Answer: penicillin

While codeine, aspirin and ibuprofen (Advil) might be useful in treating a hangover, they would not help you in the event of an anthrax attack. According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), anthrax should be treated with one of four antibiotics: amoxacillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline or penicillin. All four of these drugs are also used in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases!

Answer: whisky

"Manhattan": Angostura Bitters, Canadian whisky, sweet vermouth and ice. "Rusty Nail": Scotch whisky with Drambuie over ice. "Blood and Sand": Scotch whisky, cherry liqueur, sweet vermouth and fresh orange juice. "New Yorker": 2-3 ice cubes, Scotch whisky, lime juice, caster sugar and lemon rind.

Answer: "Hello, Dolly!"

"Hello, Dolly!" opened at the St. James Theatre on 16 January 1964 with Carol Channing in the lead role as Dolly Levi. The 1969 film version starred Barbra Streisand.

Answer: Scotland

Yes, all these inventions and innovations were brought to you from Scotland! Are you surprised to know that there's more to us than just haggis, bagpipes and tartan? In any tourist shop, you can buy a tea-towel or a poster exclaiming "Wha's Like Us?" which details Scotland's inventive heritage (you can read the text at: http://thecapitalscot.com/pastfeatures/likeus.html).

The father of the US Navy (Q1) is John Paul Jones, born plain old John Paul in Kirkcudbright (pronounced cur-coo-bray!) in July 1747.

Scottish scientists are responsible for a number of great inventions. Glasgow chemist, John Macintosh, invented the process by which cloth is made waterproof and the macintosh coat (Q2) bears his name to this day. Sir Alexander Fleming from Ayr first discovered the wonder drug penicillin (Q7) in 1929 and won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. Most recently, scientists at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute (http://www.roslin.ac.uk/) announced the world's first successfully cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep (Q9), in February 1997. "Nature" magazine announced her death in February 2003 with the headline: "Celebrity clone dies of drug overdose." Don't worry, ewe can still see Dolly by visiting either London's Museum of Science (which displays a jumper made from her wool) or the National Museum of Scotland where she has been stuffed and given her own exhibit.
It's unlikely you'd be able to ride your bicycle (Q3) without the ingenuity of the Scots. According the the BBC History site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/), Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Dumfriesshire blacksmith, invented the first pedal bike in 1839, but didn't have the foresight to patent it. The ride was made infinitely more comfortable by the invention of the pneumatic tyre by John Boyd Dunlop (Q4), a vet from Dreghorn in Fife, in 1888.

Fife also gave birth to the modern game of golf (Q6) in the 15th century. Players would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club.

The world's first telephone call (Q5) was made by Edinburgh-born Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, Thomas Watson, on 10 March 1876. For the record, he said "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you."

Perhaps they all toasted their successes with a shot of fine malt whisky (Q8)!