People, Places, and Things Named Clyde Quiz / Test

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The River Clyde can be found in what European country?

Answer: Scotland

The River Clyde is the third longest river in Scotland, traveling 109 miles in its course. The major city it passes through is Glasgow. The river helped make Glasgow into a major shipbuilding and trade center before and during World War II.

2. Bonnie and Clyde were notorious criminals in the 1930s. What was Clyde's last name?

Answer: Barrow

Clyde Barrow was born in Texas in 1910. He turned to criminal activity at a young age. Besides the roughly dozen bank robberies for which he and the Barrow Gang, including Bonnie Parker, became famous for, Clyde committed dozens more robberies, car thefts, and most dramatically, murders.

The story of Bonnie and Clyde was romanticized in movies and books, most notably the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

3. There was a cartoon Clyde! What was the name of the failure-prone scientist in the animated series "The Alvin Show"?

Answer: Clyde Crashcup

Voiced by Shepard Menken, Clyde Crashcup was a scientist who continually tried to "invent" things that had already been invented. Even so, his creations inevitably headed for failure until his lab assistant saved them. Dozens of episodes of "The Alvin Show" in which Clyde Crashcup was featured aired in the 1960s and in repackaged form in the 1970s. And yes, the "Alvin" in "The Alvin Show" was Alvin of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

4. HMS Clyde was the first ship to be completely built at the U.K.'s Portsmouth Naval Base in the 21st century. Her assigned role is to patrol what U.K. territory in the south Atlantic Ocean?

Answer: Falkland Islands

The current HMS Clyde is the ninth or tenth (depending on source) ship of the Royal Navy to hold that name. The first was a 38 gun frigate launched in 1796. Other earlier HMS Clydes have been a gunboat, minesweeper, even a submarine. The 2006 HMS Clyde, P257 (Royal Navy pennant number 257), is a "River Class" patrol boat, designed to engage in patrol duty in the Atlantic Ocean at the Falkland Islands. After being "accepted into the fleet" in 2007, she took up station at those Islands.

5. Ten-time National Basketball Association All-Star Clyde Drexler had a great nickname. What was it?

Answer: Clyde The Glide

Clyde "The Glide" Drexler played pro basketball for 15 years with the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets. He was voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, played on the (U.S. basketball team) "Dream Team" at the 1992 Olympic Games, and was selected as one of the top 50 N.B.A. players of all time.

6. The "Clyde" in the movie "Every Which Way But Loose," starring Clint Eastwood, was a chimpanzee.

Answer: False

"Clyde" was an orangutan. Clint Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a truck driver easily provoked to fighting. Clyde was his pet orangutan. Orangutans are typically arboreal apes, with reddish hair, and generally very intelligent. Clyde's role in the movie has been parodied and referred to frequently in American popular culture since the film's release in 1978.

7. Clyde, Ohio is a small, unpretentious town, but it does have at least one claim to fame. What is it?

Answer: Basis for the setting of Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio"

Sherwood Anderson in fact was a resident of Clyde, Ohio, and drew on the setting for his 1919 classic "Winesburg, Ohio," a collection of short stories about small-town America. Clyde itself is a small town in Sandusky County, in northern Ohio. Incidentally, there is a Clyde, Kansas, which is named for Clyde, Ohio--a rather unusual distinction for such a small town!

8. There is a "ghost" or monster named Clyde! What classic video game features four ghosts or monsters, one of which is named Clyde?

Answer: Pac-Man

"Pac-Man", one of the most popular arcade games of all time, was released in 1980 and soon became immensely popular. In the U.S. version, the four monsters (which became known as ghosts) were Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and...Clyde. Clyde's "character trait" was "Pokey." It might seem surprising that the developers threw in the name Clyde along with the different type of words Blinky, Pinky, and Inky.

However, and this is just a personal observation, in the U.S. in years past "Clyde" has sometimes been used as a reference to a "stupid, inept, or boorish person" (see Dictionary.com for example), so they may have been building on that connotation.

9. Clyde Tombaugh was a celebrated astronomer and discoverer of many asteroids. What was his most famous discovery, an achievement that was mildly diminished in 2006?

Answer: The former planet and now dwarf planet Pluto

One of Tombaugh's assignments at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona was to search for the predicted "Planet X." He succeeded in discovering one such object in 1930, and subsequently it was named Pluto and classified as a planet. He did not live to see it downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006, but he had fought against prior attempts. Tombaugh had a distinguished career as an astronomer, being credited with the discovery of 14 asteroids and one comet. Oddly enough, he was a believer in UFOs and claimed to have seen such objects himself.

10. Ending in the same country that we began in, we note the existence of the Firth of Clyde. What is a "firth"?

Answer: A coastal bay, estuary or inlet

A "firth" is the Scottish term used for coastal waters. It can take the form of a large bay or a small inlet, or it can be the estuary related to a river. It is somewhat analogous to the term "fjord" in Scandinavia. Firths are usually the result of glaciers during an ice age.

The Firth of Clyde is an important body of water on Scotland's Atlantic Coast, and was, much like the River Clyde, an active center for shipping and shipbuilding. The Firth has one of Northern Europe's deepest channels, enhancing its value for shipping.

There is also an active tourism industry there. The River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde are geographically related of course.

Source: Author ArlingtonVA

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Pagiedamon before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

People, Places, and Things Named Clyde Quiz

The name "Clyde" is less and less common as a given name, so someone has to do something to put it back in the public eye. Thus, this is a quiz about a few people, some places, and some objects with the name "Clyde."

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>