Miscellaneous Madness VIII Trivia Quiz

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was known as the "Cowboy President" because he was a rancher in North Dakota from 1884 - 1886. He always retained his interest in cowboys and their way of life until the end.

Answer: Fat Tuesday

"Fat Tuesday" is a huge fun day. It is the last day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent... a somber period. Some think that New Orleans was the first to celebrate Mardi Gras with the parades, floats and the parties but it was actually Mobile, Alabama where it all started in the US. Mardi Gras origins may have come from an old Roman holiday called "Lupercalia" that was held at the same time of the year.

In England, "Fat Tuesday" is called "Shrove Tuesday".

Answer: Fred

Who could forget Cledus Snow wading into the pond to get Fred? Remember what they called a diner? "Choke & Puke". Baretta's cockatoo always seemed, to me, ready to bite.

Answer: Nosebleed

Epistaxis comes from the Greek work for "dripping". It can be quite frightening but pressure and some applied ice in a quiet room does wonders.

Answer: Lt. Philip Nolan

In the story, Lt. Nolan yells out---"Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" He got his wish and was sentenced to sail the seas on a Navy ship for the rest of his days without ever hearing his country's name again.

There really was a Philip Nolan but he was an adventurer and Hale used his background for the story. It is said that Hale later regretted using Philip Nolan's name and he wrote, as an apology to Nolan, "Philip Nolan's Friends" in 1876.

Answer: Mark Twain

In 1897, a reporter from the "New York Journal" was sent to see if Twain was either dead or living in poverty as the rumor stated. Twain, himself, answered the door and explained that his cousin had been seriously ill in London and that the reports of his illness grew out of the cousin's----and this is when the famous quip was delivered.

Answer: Sequoyah

Sequoyah was born about 1770, the son of a white trader named Nathaniel Gist. Following a hunting accident, Sequoyah began looking at the "talking leaves" or the writings of the white man. Over 12 years, he listened to the speech of his people and finally came up with all 86 sounds in the Cherokee language. He is credited with
making a whole tribe of people literate practically over night. Actually his alphabet formed the basis of many other Indian languages as well. For the rest of his life, he devoted himself to his
alphabet and even translated parts of the Bible to the Cherokee language. The sequoia tree of California is the largest and tallest living thing on earth and these giant trees are named for the Indian leader.

Answer: United States

Herbert Asbury writes in 1928 that the widely accepted theory is that it was the brainchild of a San Francisco dishwasher who was previously a cook in a gold mining camp. It is thought that "chop suey" comes from the Cantonese dialect "shap sui" which means "pieces of mixed bits".

Answer: Copper Color

80 metric tons of copper cover the statue and this copper came from Norway. Oxidation has turned the copper green and it has never been painted. The statue's metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel who also built the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The sculptor's mother was the model for the statue's face. Each fingernail is the size of a sheet of typing paper. The nose is 4.5 feet long.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

in 1905, there were so many injuries and deaths from football that President Theodore Roosevelt decided to take matters into his own hands and called for rule changes to make the game safer. Blocking with extended arms was make illegal and at this time the forward pass was legalized with the assistance of John Heisman. Roosevelt's second cousin, William Roosevelt had broken his leg while playing for Stanford in the first Rose Bowl in 1902.