The Kitchen Sink -- "S" Trivia Quiz

Answer: serotonin

Serotonin is found in several plant and animal species and even in mushrooms, but in humans one of its main roles is as a neurotransmitter, relaying messages to the body. Serotonin also plays a part in sleep regulation, behavior, sexuality and many other functions.

An imbalance of serotonin is thought to be a probable cause of clinical depression, and there are several drugs on the market that try to correct the imbalance.

Answer: Jonathan Swift

Of course, as the piece was a satire, he wasn't serious. "A Modest Proposal" gained fame for lines such as this one: "[A] young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled..."

Jonathan Swift was an Irish cleric who was allegedly attempting to point out poor treatment of the Irish by the English. Plans to treat the poor as if they were property had angered him, and he wrote "A Modest Proposal" in rebuke. Swift is also famous for writing the book "Guilliver's Travels".

Answer: Seville orange

The Seville orange goes by many names including bigarade orange, sour orange, and bitter orange. It grows in the Mediterranean and is most often used to make marmalade. Its juice is often used in mixing drinks for its tart flavor.

Answer: sestina

The sestina is quite possibly one of the most complicated forms in poetry due to its restrictions. Only six different words may end the form's typical limit of thirty-nine lines.

It is often said that the challenge in writing a sestina is to come up with original lines. There is so much repetition in a sestina that poets struggle with creating a poem that doesn't sound redundant. Effective sestinas utilize verse, so the repetition is used as an advantage.

Answer: skateboarding

Much of skateboarding terminology, like most sports, comes from the slang that its participants use. The ollie (sometimes "Ollie") was invented by Alan "Ollie" Gelfand and includes jumping into the air with your skateboard without using your hands to lift the board. The kickflip is similar to an ollie, except you flip the board 360 degrees while you're in the air.

Answer: Skype

There are paid services that Skype Limited offer, but for the most part, their software is used free of charge. Free calls made from computers are bad for telecommunications companies, and there have been several legal actions levied against the company.

There have also been several criticisms against the software; some claim that it is unreliable and can use up a great deal of bandwidth.

Answer: Soylent Green

The full line is: "It's people. Soylent Green is made out of it people. They're making our food out of people."

The movie "Soylent Green" was based on the book "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison. In the future, the world was overpopulated and many of its people depended on a food source. The company, Soylent, claimed their product was made from plankton, but in truth, it was indeed made from dead humans.

Answer: sunflowers

Van Gogh worked on the Décoration for the Yellow House for several months in 1888. His first set of projects was a series of sunflowers, some depicted alive and well, some at the ends of their lives. It was around this time that he had his breakdown and suffered from bouts of paranoia.

Answer: salmon

Anadromous fish migrate from salt water to fresh water in order to breed. The most common example given of this phenomenon is the salmon. Sockeye salmon tend to live in the Pacific Ocean and are often found in the western U.S. as well as parts of Japan.

Answer: Spetsnaz

Russian Spetsnaz were originally run under organizations such as the KGB and the FSB, though they took on an official appellation known as OSNAZ. In recent times, the term "Spetsnaz" has come to be a general term for any elite unit of special forces.