Stop! Hammer Time! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Star-hammer mole

There is a star-nosed mole and a short-faced mole, but not a star-hammer mole. The hammer-headed bat is an interesting fellow. It has been suggested that the bat looks just like the devil, however his diet is primarily fruit rather than human souls. The hammer-headed bat does carry ebola though, so it is best to stay away! As for the yellowhammer bird, there are actually two different species of yellowhammers, one European and one American.

The American version is a woodpecker and the males pound their beaks into trees to attract mates rather than sing.

Answer: Anvil

The answer is an ANVIL (obAN VILage) which is what a blacksmith would use to shape metal with a hammer to make a sword. Oban is a small town in Scotland, in the council of Argyll and Bute. Historically it was primarily a fishing and trade town, but in 1794 the Oban distillery opened for business. Oban is known for making a 14 year-old single malt scotch.

Answer: M.C. Hammer

M.C. Hammer, also known as Stanley Burrell, has been a businessman from the beginning of his career as a rap artist. M.C Hammer has had a long list of jobs over the years, but his dance moves were what landed him a job as a batboy for the Oakland Athletics as a teen.

The "Hammer" part of Stanley's nickname was given to him by Reggie Jackson who thought the young Burrell looked like Hank "The Hammer" Aaron. After his music really became successful, M.C. Hammer became a Christian preacher. Originally the M.C. part of his name stood for "Master of Ceremonies", however after devoting his life to Christianity he has said the M.C. now stands for "Man of Christ".

Answer: Iron Man

Iron Man, also known as Tony Stark, used the combination of inherited wealth and his brilliant mind to further his father's company Stark Industries, a powerful military weapons manufacturer. As is typically the case in the Marvel world, for every powerful hero, there has to be a powerful villain in opposition. Like Stark, Justin Hammer is also wealthy, and Hammer chooses to use his wealth to help fund multiple rouge operations to thwart Iron Man.

In the end, Justin Hammer's final moment of comic book life was within a frozen block of ice orbiting the Earth. But, as is the norm with Marvel, it is only a matter of time before a supervillain finds a way to bring Justin back from his frozen state.

Answer: Hit plastic moles who pop out of holes on the gameboard.

"Whac-A-Mole" was invented in 1976 by Aaron Fechter. The idea behind the game is to use the foam mallet to hit one of nine possible plastic moles which pop up on the game board. A player would only have a few seconds to hit the mole before it would hide back in its hole.

As the game progresses, more moles pop up at one time and are quicker to drop back down making it more difficult. Usually, the reward for the game is tickets that can be collected and traded in for prizes.

Answer: Bicycle

There are over 100 parts that commonly could make up a bicycle, however, a hammer is not one of them. There actually is a bike manufacturing company called Hammer, which makes high-end bikes, but even they do not use a hammer as a part. The piano uses hammers to strike the strings and grandfather clocks use hammers to strike the chimes to announce the hour.

Answer: London

Alan Rickman was born and spent his early years in the district of Hammersmith, London. Rickman had a long acting career with two of his memorable roles being the Sheriff of Nottingham and, of course, as Severus Snape. The poet, John Milton, spent a few years with his family living in Hammersmith where he wrote some of his poetry. Also, Charles Dickens, in his work "Great Expectations", has Pip's tutor Matthew Pocket residing in Hammersmith.

Answer: Swords were not effective against plate armour.

As plate armour began to be used more often, it was quickly discovered that swords could not penetrate the armour, and thus caused little damage against a full plate suit. However, a blunt weapon like a war hammer was very effective at causing injury. War hammers were commonly used in Europe and the Middle East.

A typical design resembled an ice axe or pickaxe. On the hammer end of the weapon, there would be the flat hammer part on one side with a spike part on the opposite side. So, the hammer part would get the enemy on the ground, and then the spike part would finish the job.

The war hammer probably could serve to bang out the dents of the plate armour after the battle, but the hammer's primary use was as a weapon.

Answer: Miniature figurine armies lined up for battle in a tabletop game.

Rick Priestley created and released the tabletop "Warhammer" game in 1983. Two or more players would line up the figurines in combat units with rules that governed how they could move and how far they could move each round. Some fantasy elements were incorporated in the game including mythical beasts, like dragons. Dice were used to determine the outcome of a round of battle.

While a stronger army would have an advantage, there was always an element of luck involved. Figurines could be bought at gaming shops and were then painted by players. Often, preparations and set up took longer than the game itself did!

Answer: To drive in nails

According to "The Prose Edda", a literary work from 13th century Iceland, the hammer of Thor was a sacred object designed to bless. Mjolnir was also used by Thor in battle to smite his enemies. However, when not employed to kill, the hammer was a symbol much like the cross is for Christianity. "The Prose Edda" also tells how Mjolnir was created by the dwarves of Svartalfheim as part of a wager with Loki who taunted the dwarves that they could not build anything so mighty. Loki lost the wager and gifted Thor with the hammer to make up for mischief he had created beforehand.

Answer: Mike Hammer

Spillane's character, Mike Hammer, started out as the first-person protagonist in several novels but was also quickly portrayed in film and television. Hammer is portrayed as an angry man who likes to bring the bad guys to justice. His first title "I, the Jury" was released in 1947 and was originally going to be a comic book.

When Spillane could not find a publisher, he reworked Mike Hammer into a detective novel. In this first novel, Hammer is determined to kill his friend's killer in the exact same painful manner that his friend was murdered.

Answer: Misery

"Misery" is a film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. In the story, Misery Chastain is actually the name of the main character in stranded author Paul Sheldon's romance series. After his car crashes off the road in a snowstorm, Paul has the misfortune of being found and taken to Annie Wilkes' remote house. Paul soon realizes Annie is crazy, dangerous, and obsessed with him.

The sledgehammer scene is one of the most gruesome scenes on the silver screen. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes in "Misery".

Answer: Peter Gabriel

"Sledgehammer" was the first release on Peter Gabriel's fifth album "So". The song is also Peter Gabriel's only number one Billboard hit, probably helped in large part by the video. The music video is usually on the greatest of all-time lists of music videos for its creativity and fun. Phil Collins had a popular claymation video with "Land of Confusion" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is also considered one of the best of all time.

Answer: Edward I

Edward I was formidable in every sense of the word. He was very tall and intelligent. Edward I was also decisive and an excellent leader. Edward I obtained his nickname, "Hammer of the Scots", due to his heavy-handedness with the Scots during a time of vulnerability with the succession to Scotland's throne.

While Edward I at first was invited to arbitrate, he quickly asserted himself as an overlord and treated the Scots as a vassal state. The Scottish nobility soon revolted and war broke out.

Answer: Hanukkah

Hanukkah, of course, is well associated with the lighting of the Menorah and the legend that at a time of great need, there was only one day's worth of oil for the lamps which lasted eight days. The victory of the three Maccabee brothers was pretty spectacular and a true David-overcoming-Goliath story. The Seleucids were the Greek descendants of Alexander the Great's conquest. As such, the Seleucids had filled the Hebrew Temple with Greek gods, which among other things, triggered the Maccabees to revolt. December 14th, 164 BCE is commemorated as the date Judah and his brothers were able to purify the Temple of the Lord. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the three Maccabee brothers were also able to secure an agreement with Rome and effectively establish Jewish independence and freedom to worship for a time. Of course, being in a relationship with Rome came with its own challenges.

Historically, the word "Maccabee" has been translated as "hammer" or "sledgehammer"; however, it has also been proposed to be an acronym for the battle cry "Who among the gods is like you, O Adonai?"

Answer: They amplify sound.

The three tiny ear bones, also known as ossicles, actually amplify sound vibrations about 20 times from the force of the wave on the eardrum to the force of the stirrup on the oval window of the cochlea. As molecules move in a wave pattern, they cause the eardrum to vibrate.

The hammer is attached to the inside of the eardrum and is connected in series to the anvil and stirrup. The stirrup is connected to the oval window of the cochlea and in response to the hammer and anvil, it vibrates more forcibly against the oval window than soundwave vibrations could do alone.

This amplification is necessary since sound waves are usually not powerful enough to move the fluid-filled cochlea. The pitch of the sound transmitted to the cochlea is correlated with one of the thousands of nerve cells within the cochlea which then triggers the firing of the nerve cells connected to the auditory cortex of the brain.

Answer: Scotland

Throwing heavy objects has been a sport in the British Isles for thousands of years. The modern version of the hammer throw, with a heavy ball attached to a chain, originated with the Scottish Highland Games which precede the modern Olympic Games. In the year 2000 women were first allowed to compete for a gold medal for the hammer throw.

Answer: This Old House

"This Old House" first aired in February of 1979 as a 13 episode mini-series. However, the success of the show was so great that it soon became one of the flagship shows on PBS. Over the years, several different approaches have been used, from buying a few broken-down homes and fixing them up, to partnering with a homeowner to help fix up their home in exchange for a little sweat equity. Several shows have been spun off from "This Old House" including "The New Yankee Workshop" and "This Old House Ventures".

Many other home improvement shows have followed the successful formula for teaching home improvement.

Answer: Donkey Kong

"Donkey Kong" was a huge success for Nintendo and several even more successful titles were to come with the iconic Mario Brothers characters. Dozens of Mario games were released, though the damsel in distress changed to Princes Peach and the villain changed to a fire breathing turtle named Bowser. Donkey Kong also became a hero in several games of his own. Usually, Donkey Kong was on a mission to rescue bananas or rid his home of bad guys.

Answer: Vulcan, the god of fire

James Church, the son of founder Austin Church, brought over his logo from his Vulcan Spice Mills company. Some have speculated that Vulcan is an appropriate name for a company that pounds ingredients to make spices, so the Arm-and-Hammer is a logical logo for a spice mill.

It is also worth noting that in the 1800s the Arm-and-Hammer was a common symbol for socialism and labor movements as it represented the tool of the ordinary factory worker. Incidentally, the hammer was also adopted by the Soviet Union to represent the common working person as well.

In 1867 American society, the Arm-and-Hammer were still popular symbols, and James Church wanted to portray that their baking soda used honest working-class methods. Later, the company would add their motto to the logo to include "the standard of purity" which was very important at the time since the "Pure Food and Drug Act" was not passed until 1906. Before this time, the purity of products was often in question.