Mixed Baggage Trivia Quiz

Answer: earthshine

For a few days before and after New Moon this doubly reflected earthshine is powerful enough to make the entire moon visible.

Answer: Eddie Eagan

His full name was Edward Patrick Francis Eagan. He was born in 1897 in Denver, Colorado and died in 1967. His father died in a railroad accident when Eddie was only one year old; so he was raised by his mother who earned a meager income by teaching foreign languages.

Answer: back swimmer

This relatively small insect occurs worldwide. It is protected naturally by countershading- its light-coloured back blends with the water and the sky when seen from below, and the rest of its body is dark and when seen from above blends with the bottom of the body of water in which it lives.

Answer: broomcorn

Broomcorn does not have "ears or cobs" like corn does and is actually in the sorghum family. Several small areas in the United States have been important broomcorn production areas in the past up until the mid 1970's. One of these areas was along the Washita River in Oklahoma from Pauls Valley, Oklahoma to Chickasha, Oklahoma. Harvesting the crop is labor-intensive.

It became unprofitable to produce the crop in the U.S. around the mid 1970's because of importation of large amounts of broomcorn from Mexico where labor is very cheap. Also an increase in synthetic (plastic) brooms took its toll.

The quiz author was raised on a farm near Lindsay, Oklahoma where broomcorn was an important cash crop.

Answer: republic

Unfortunately in the U.S. a majority of individuals in the news media and in government usually refer to the United States as a democracy which is incorrect. In the pledge to the U.S. flag one says "and to the republic for which it stands". Our founding fathers were adamant that they did not want to found a democracy.

Indeed they had a strong dread of democracies. James Madison, the fourth U.S. President and father of the U.S. Constitution said, "...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."

Answer: Refraction of sunlight by the atmosphere

The earth's atmosphere refracts or "bends" sunlight as it passes through causing the blue light rays to be visible causing the sky to look blue to the observer. This same process causes a blue-eyed person to have blue eyes. Their eye is really transparent but the the cornea of the eye refracts light causing the eye to look blue.

Answer: iris

There is also a flower named the iris. In studying human genetics one finds that brown eyes are dominant and blue eyes are recessive; so if a person has one gene for brown and one gene for blue he will have brown eyes but is capable of having offspring with blue eyes, although the odds are against it.

Answer: Eli Whitney

Whitney was very mechanically inclined and was a manufacturer. His gin could separate cotton fiber from the cotton seed as quickly as 25 people doing the work by hand. Whitney also introduced the concept of interchangeable parts and used assembly line procedures in his firearms factory.

Answer: Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton was born in 1757 in the British West Indies and did not arrive in the mainland colonies until 1772. He was a trusted aide to George Washington for much of the Revolutionary War. He wrote brilliant essays to urge ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

These were published along with essays by James Madison and John Jay in book form as "The Federalist". Hamilton died as a result of wounds in a duel with political opponent, Aaron Burr.

Answer: Francis Scott Key

Key wrote the song in 1814, but it didn't become the national anthem of the United States until 1931, 88 years after the author's death. Key had gone to the British fleet in 1814 while it was in the Chesapeake Bay in an attempt to obtain the release of a friend who had been captured by the British.

The fleet launched the well-known attack on Fort McHenry while Key was aboard a British ship, and he was detained until it was over. His fears for the United States during the night of bombardment accounts for his joy at morning to see the Stars and Stripes still flying over Fort McHenry.

This was the inspiration for his song.