Tangled up in Blue Trivia Quiz

Answer: Blues and Twos

The term 'Blues and Twos' originally came about because of the flashing blue lights on emergency vehicles, and the two-tone siren sound that they make (hence the multiple-choice option of 'Nee Nah Nee Nah' - an imitation of the sound of the sirens that children often make). Many emergency vehicles have different sounds now, but some still use the old fashioned siren. We also call our police officers "the boys in blue."

A British documentary called "Blues and Twos" highlighted the work of the emergency services throughout Britain. It was a fascinating documentary, showing the hard work and amazing courage of police officers, ambulance workers and the fire brigade.

911 CALL:
Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What's your emergency?
Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.
Dispatcher: Is this her first child?
Caller: No, you idiot. This is her husband!

Answer: Charles Manson

Sandra Good was nicknamed 'Blue' by Charles Manson, apparently because she had blue eyes. Good was a member of the Manson 'family' - a group of 'followers' of Manson, some of whom carried out the murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folgeron, Steven Parent, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, on Manson's orders.

Sandra Good was not a participant in the murders, but was quoted as saying that she respected the people who were. One of the 'family's' attorney's - Ronald Hughs - went missing during the trial of the Manson 'family' members. His body was found on the day of the verdicts. It has not been proven who murdered him, but Sandra Good had said that he was "the first of the retaliation murders."

Manson, and the murderers of these people, had their original death sentences reduced to life sentences, after The Supreme Court of California abolished the death penalty.

Answer: Indecent / Risque

There is no definitive answer as to why an indecent movie is labelled 'blue'. There are a few theories. One such theory is that during the 1980s, indecent movies were sealed in their cassettes with blue tape. Another is a reference to the blue lines that were put over the actors' faces on screen, so that they couldn't be identified. Another is that it was due to the blue-y tint in the earliest 'blue' movies, which were black and white, and the screen appeared blue because the film had been developed cheaply and quickly. And yet another theory suggests that as some strip-tease acts used blue spotlights, the term 'blue movie' came from that.

The first official record of something indecent being referred to as 'blue', was in Scotland in 1824. A writer named John MacTaggart wrote in "The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia": a "Thread o' Blue" as "any little smutty touch in song-singing, chatting, or piece of writing".

A QUOTE ABOUT BLUE: "The sky is blue. So we know where to stop mowing." - Harold T. Stone

Answer: Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue

"Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue" was a hit worldwide. Crystal Gayle won a Grammy for this song, and it is the song she is most known for. In an interview with 'Country Music television', Gayle said that Richard Leigh (who had written the song in 1977) was inspired to write it by his dog, who had one blue eye, and one brown eye. It was Gayle's older sister, Loretta Lynn, who gave her her stage name of 'Crystal Gayle' (who had been born Brenda Gail Webb). In January 2007, a fugitive called Christopher Gay, stole Gayle's tour bus, and drove it from Whites Bay, Tennessee, all the way to Daytona Beach, Florida. Gay was eventually arrested, and the bus returned to Gayle.

JOKE ABOUT EYES: What do you call a fish with 8 eyes? Fiiiiiiiish

Answer: A blue screen or a green screen

The blue screen was developed in the 1930s. It was originally developed for film, making certain special effects more possible. For example, the flying scenes in the "Harry Potter" films, would be shot in front of a blue or green screen. It is done so that the actors can be separated from the blue/green background, and then put onto a different background. So in "Harry Potter", the 'Quidditch' flying scenes are filmed in front of the blue/green screen, and then in the edit, the actors are placed in the 'Quidditch' field background that was filmed entirely separately. The reason the colors blue and green are chosen, is because these colors are considered least like our skin colors. Consequently, if a blue screen is used, the actors cannot wear any blue; ditto with green. The choice between blue or green is dependent on what is being shot. If the actor has to be in green - if they are in Army fatigues for example - then a blue screen would be the choice. There are other technical elements to be taken into consideration also.

Regarding weather forecasters, the presenter stands in front of the blue screen, and then the appropriate weather shots are added as the presenter speaks. On October 15 1987, Michael Fish, a weatherman for the BBC in Britain, began his forecast with: "Earlier on today, apparently a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't". That night, South East England experienced a storm that was it's worst one since 1703. It wreaked havoc, and was called 'The Great Storm of 1987".

QUOTE ABOUT WEATHER: "The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it, and wrong too often for us to rely on it." - Patrick Young

Answer: A blue beard

Apparently, wearing a blue beard wards off evil, especially from witches. The film "Rasputin - the Mad Monk", starring Christopher Lee as 'Rasputin', had a promotional gimmick by where blue beards were given to audiences to wear whilst watching the film, to protect themselves from Rasputin's evil. A blue bead is also thought to have the same effect.

Another 'blue' superstition is: "Touch blue, and your wish will come true". Also, it is supposed to be unlucky for an actor to wear blue whilst on stage. The origin of this is because the color blue used to be very difficult and expensive to create in a dye, and therefore, any production spending a lot of money on something like this, was sure to fail.

LIMERICK ABOUR BEARDS:
"There was an old man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!
Two owls and a hen,
Four larks and a wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard."

Answer: Blue Harvest

Throughout the filming of "Return of the Jedi" the fake title of "Blue Harvest" was used for a number of reasons. Firstly, it allowed production some privacy when they were filming on location. If members of the public saw a sign saying "Return of the Jedi", it would have attracted vast crowds; but a title of "Blue Harvest" wasn't particularly interesting to anybody, and so kept crowds at bay. Secondly, George Lucas had commented that whilst filming "The Empire Strikes Back", many services charged them exorbitant prices on the presumption that they had a huge budget; but this didn't happen when they told people they were filming something called "Blue Harvest".

The production company went the full monty with this title - anything and everything was emblazoned with the title "Blue Harvest", including, t-shirts, mugs, stationery, the 'clapper' board, and invoices. Steven Spielberg can be seen wearing a "Blue Harvest" cap on a behind-the-scenes documentary of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".

GEORGE LUCAS QUOTE: "If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office."

Answer: $1

Some Vegas casinos use other colors for their $1 chips, but most of them are partially or wholly blue, for example 'Ballys', 'Bellagio', 'California Hotel', 'Excalibur', 'Flamingo', 'Golden Gate', 'Golden Nugget', 'Harrahs', 'MGM Grand', and 'The Venetian', to name a few. Many casinos produce 'Limited Edition' chips, with special colors and artwork on them. This is in the hope that people will take one home as a souvenir, and not cash them in, thereby making more profit for the casinos.

CHEAP VEGAS PUN: "It 'slots' of fun." (Oh come ON!)

Answer: Blue Nun

Immensely popular throughout the 1980s, sales of Blue Nun went into decline in the 1990s, and began to be thought of as out-dated and cheap. In the UK comedy "I'm Alan Partridge", the shallow and ignorant character of Alan Partridge confirms this image of the drink by stating that it is his favorite wine. However, in 2009, a new brand of 'Blue Nun' was launched called 'Blue Nun Gold', and is apparently laced with "flakes of 22-carat gold"! It is hoped that this new look will appeal to young women, and give a better name to the wine that made my mouth feel like it was growing fur in it the next morning.

The term 'Blue Nun' can also refer to 'María de Agreda', a 17 Century, Spanish nun, who was visited by religious visions throughout her life; and also the album 'Blue Nun' by Carlene Carter.

A QUOTE ABOUT RELIGION: "That's the great thing about Catholicism - it's very vague and no-one knows what its really all about." - From "Father Ted"

Answer: Blue Man Group

To be fair, I appear to be the only person in the world who did not 'get' Blue Man Group. If I painted myself an unbecoming hue, and ate cereal loudly into a microphone, would I, too, make millions of dollars? If I filled a drum with paint and banged it hard enough, would not the said paint fly out at all angles and cover the stage? But when all the toilet paper flooded out onto the entire audience at the end of the show, at least I had something thoroughly absorbent to hand, when the 'Blue Nun' made a comeback later on. Every cloud...

Despite my miserable grumblings, 'Blue Man Group' is phenomenally successful, and as of 2009, can be seen in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Berlin, and Tokyo. The official 'Blue Man Group Website' says that 'Blue Man Group' is "dedicated to creating exciting and innovative work in a wide variety of media". It does, indeed, have very spectacular visual and audio effects, and if you're even 1% more jovial than me, you should enjoy it!

QUOTE ABOUT BLUE MAN GROUP: "It's just a rip-off of "The Smurfs"" - Homer Simpson