The One and Only Trivia Quiz

Answer: British Guiana

The British Guiana one cent black on magenta is a tiny piece of octagonal paper measuring about an inch square, showing a ship and the motto "We give and expect in return" printed in black ink on magenta-colored paper. It was issued in 1856. It was discovered by a Scottish schoolboy named Vernon Vaughan in 1873; he sold it to a neighbor for six shillings.

It has been sold many times since, each time for a higher price. There are many stamps of which a single copy is known to exist, but none has the charisma of this one.

A four cent stamp on magenta paper, and another four cent stamp on blue paper, are known to have been printed about the same time, but not a single copy of those stamps has ever been found. Before you start digging through those old letters in the attic, you should be aware that most stamps, even those over 100 years old, are only worth a few cents.

Answer: USS Constitution

The USS Constitution was launched 1797, and is still in commission as an active U.S. Navy ship, with a full-time crew of six officers and 46 enlisted men. Her renewable energy source is the wind, which still fills her sails when she gets underway. Although the British ship, the HMS Victory, is older than Constitution, Victory is no longer seaworthy and is in dry-dock. Constitution can still sail under her own power with ease.

Constitution saw action in the Quasi War with France, the First Barbary War, and the War of 1812. Her most famous action came in the latter conflict, when she engaged and defeated the HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812. The two ships were fairly evenly matched, but Constitution defeated her opponent with ease. The Guerriere's defeat stunned the British, who were used to trouncing the French Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. It was this engagement that earned Constitution the nickname "Old Ironsides," because the British shot seemed to bounce off her sides. She engaged and defeated four more British warships during the conflict, as well as capturing numerous merchant vessels.

Answer: Highlander

"Highlander" is an interesting film about a race of beings called Immortals, who can only die if their heads are cut off. They can sense each other's presence, and hunt each other until only one is left. Eventually it gets down to the good Immortal, Connor MacLeod, versus the bad Immortal, Victor Kruger. As they kill each other, they say, "There can be only one!"

Most of the movie sequels were not very good, but the television series, starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, was quite successful. One thing I could never understand about the original movie is why they cast a French actor, Christopher Lambert, as a Scotsman - were there no Scots actors available? Well, there was Sean Connery, but they cast him as a Spaniard.

Answer: Jack Chesbro

In 1904, Jack Chesbro of the New York Highlanders (who would later become the New York Yankees) started 51 games, pitched 48 complete games, and won 41 of them! These still stand as American League records in all three categories. The "modern era" of Major League baseball is usually assumed to have started in 1901. Prior to this, several pitchers won more than 40 games in a season; Hoss Radbourn of the Providence Grays won 59 in 1884. But Chesbro remains the only pitcher to win more than 40 games in the modern era.

It is unlikely that any pitcher will ever approach Chesbro's records unless radical rule changes come into play. Modern teams use a five-man starting pitcher rotation, and starters who play an entire season seldom get more than 35 starts. The last pitcher to win as many as 30 games in a season was Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers in 1968.

Answer: Rocky Marciano

Born Rocco Francis Marchegiano on September 1, 1923 in Brockton, Massachusetts, Rocky Marciano was boxing's World Heavyweight Champion from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. He retired with a record of 49-0. 43 of his wins were by way of knockout. In all his fights, the closest he ever came to losing was a controversial split decision against Roland La Starza on March 24, 1950; Marciano would fight La Starza again in 1953 and knock him out in the 11th round. Marciano was killed in a plane crash the day before his 46th birthday.

Despite his great record, Marciano gets little respect from some boxing fans, who claim that he fought mostly inferior opponents. He is sometimes not even included on lists of the greatest Heavyweight Champions. But during the 20th century, he was the only man who won them all when stepping into the ring.

There have been several boxers at lighter weights who have retired undefeated. And even Marciano's record wasn't entirely unblemished. He lost an amateur fight in a 1948 Golden Gloves tournament.

Answer: Alferd G. Packer

Alferd or Alfred Packer (he used both spellings of his name) was born in Pennsylvania in 1842. In November 1873, Packer joined a group of 21 men who set out to go gold prospecting in Colorado. In January 1874, most of the men decided to postpone the expedition until spring, having been warned by friendly Indians of the dangerous conditions in the mountains during the winter. But Packer and five others journeyed on.

In April 1874, Packer showed up at the Los Pinos Indian Agency - alone. He later encountered some other members of the original group who inquired about his companions. Packer claimed that he had been out hunting, and returned to find that one of the men, Shannon Bell, had killed the others and was roasting human flesh over their campfire. He said that Bell then attacked him, and he shot and killed Bell in self-defense.

Packer's story was not believed, and after escaping from the local jail, he was eventually captured and sentenced to death. His sentence was later changed to 40 years in prison, and he was eventually paroled in 1901. Packer died in 1907. There is still some doubt about whether Packer was actually guilty of murder and cannibalism. Packer signed three confessions, all of which give different versions of the events.

Because of his notorious reputation, Packer's name still occasionally makes news, usually in connection with an establishment's poor food. In 1968, students at the University of Colorado at Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the "Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill." There is also a plaque in Packer's memory at the bar of the National Press Club in Washington D.C., which serves an "Alferd Packer Burger".

Answer: Khufu

Of the choices, only Khufu is an Old Kingdom pharaoh; the others ruled during the New Kingdom. Khufu is famous for building the Great Pyramid at Giza, the only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. For thousands of years it was the tallest building on earth. But the only three-dimensional depiction of the pharaoh that has survived is a little three-inch high ivory statuette that was found at Abydos, hundreds of miles from Giza, in 1903. Although the statuette is damaged, it is reasonably intact. Only fragments of other statues have been found.

It is a mystery why no other statues of Khufu have survived. They must have existed, and then have been destroyed for some unknown reason after his death.

Answer: Luxembourg

At one time there were grand duchies all over Europe, but Luxembourg is the only one that has survived as an independent political entity. A small, landlocked country with a population of less than a million, Luxembourg was created as a grand duchy following the Napoleonic Wars, and was originally under control of the Netherlands.

It became fully independent in 1890. The country is a representative democracy, but retains a monarch whose full title is: His Royal Highness Henri, by the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of Sayn, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Merenberg, Limburg and Eppstein. That's quite a mouthful. The Grand Duke has little power, and his functions are mainly ceremonial.

Answer: John J. Pershing

The rank of General of the Armies of the United States has only been held by two people: John J. Pershing and George Washington. Of the two, Pershing was the only one to hold it during his lifetime. Pershing received his rank on September 3, 1919, and held it until his death in 1948. General of the Armies of the United States was a higher rank than the five-star General of the Army or Fleet Admiral. In 1978, Congress passed a law promoting George Washington to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, the appointment being retroactive to July 4, 1976.

During WWII, there was talk of promoting General Douglas MacArthur to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States in advance of the proposed invasion of Japan, but the idea was dropped after Japan's surrender.

Answer: The Terror of Tiny Town

I have seen this film, and "The Terror of Tiny Town" is definitely a unique motion picture experience. It was not a cheaply-made movie; it had a respectable budget of $100,000, which was higher than most Westerns at the time. It was a typical Western in most respects, with a hero who wore white, sang, and strummed a guitar, and a villain who wore black. There were fist fights, gun fights, cattle rustling, a stagecoach robbery, and dance hall girls. The only difference between it and your typical Western is that the entire cast was composed of little people.

What gives this film a surreal quality is that while some concessions were made for the actors' diminutive size - they rode ponies instead of full-size horses, for example - the sets and props used were clearly built for people of normal proportions.

The movie stars Billy Curtis as the hero, Buck Lawson; Yvonne Moray as the heroine, Nancy Preston; and Little Billy Rhodes as the evil villain, Bat Haines. Most of the cast were members of two acting troupes, "Jed Buell's Midgets" and "Singer's Midgets," and returned to the big screen to play Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz" the following year.

Although I found this film to be oddly entertaining, it has always been panned by the critics, and was included in the book, "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time."