Three of a Kind, Part 14 Trivia Quiz

Answer: pioneers

The Sons of the Pioneers is one of the oldest Country-Western singing groups in the United States, beginning in 1933 and continuing as a successor group today. Roy Rogers was one of the early members of the act. They appeared in 87 movies, several theatrical shorts and a television series. They were the first Country and Western group to sing at Carnegie Hall.

Pioneer Seamount is a mountain in the Pacific Ocean. Its summit is 6332 feet above the surrounding seafloor and 2690 feet under the surface. It is a volcano which once rose above the sea. Pioneer Seamount was named after the first United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ship, Pioneer, which operated in the Pacific from 1922 to 1941.

Territorial Governor John Evans founded the Colorado Seminary as a Methodist institution in 1864 in an attempt to civilise the city of Denver. The school's name was changed to the University of Denver in 1880. The earliest sports teams were called either the Ministers or the Fighting Parsons. In 1925, the team name was officially changed to the Denver Pioneers. Their most successful sports team is the ski team.

Answer: barber

"Tonsorial" is a sesquipedalian way of referring to barbers or barbering, in general, or to shaving, more specifically. It derives from the Latin. "Barber" is the more common English word, deriving from the Old French barbeor, which relates to both French and Latin words meaning "beard."

Frances Barber (b. 1958) is an English actress, frequently appearing with Ian McKellen on stage, in movies and on television. She has taken television roles on "Red Dwarf" and "Doctor Who" as well as more serious stage challenges in Chekhov and Shakespeare.

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was triple-gifted in piano, composition and voice. While he is perhaps best known for his "Adagio for Strings," he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962) and his opera "Vanessa" (1956-7). He was partnered with Gian Carlo Menotti, also a gifted musician, for life.

Answer: skunk

Mephitis mephitis is a polygamous omnivore mammal which ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico. Its name, in French Canadian, is enfant du diable; its name in English is the striped skunk. It has been trapped, farmed and even kept as a pet. Offspring (kits) are born blind.

As Thumper the rabbit introduces the young Bambi to the other creatures of the forest, a young skunk appears among some flowers. Bambi has just learned the word "flower" and assumes that this includes the skunk. This character does not appear in Felix Salten's "Bambi: A Life in the Woods" (1923).

Sometimes called a shutout or a walkover, an individual or team which so defeats the opponent that they cannot score is said to have "skunked" the other. An inanimate object may also occasionally be said to skunk a human, as in "I cast flies all day but the river skunked me."

Answer: gorilla

Taxonomically speaking, the Great Apes include Pongo (orangutans), Gorilla, Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos), and Homo (humans and Neanderthal). There are a variety of ancestors which have become extinct.

A recurring segment of the Children's Television Workshop's "The Electric Company" (1971-1977), was "Jennifer of the Jungle" starring Judy Graubart as a sort of female George of the Jungle. Her frequent companion was Paul, a gorilla, played by Jim Boyd (1933-2013) and mischievously named after the show's chief writer Paul Dooley.

Richard "Dick" Severin Fuld, Jr. (b. 1946) ran Lehman Brothers through the financial crisis of 2007-2009. He was named by Condé Nast Portfolio as the worst American CEO in history while Time Magazine named him one of twenty five people to blame for the financial crisis. In the financial community, he earned the name "Gorilla" for his competitiveness.

Answer: Zero

Zero Moustafa is played by two actors in this outstanding Wes Anderson movie: Tony Revolori as the Young Zero and F. Murray Abraham as the Old Zero. The film won four Academy Awards and the Golden Globe for the Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical.

The most common fighter airplane used by the Japanese in World War II was the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. It was called "zero" because it was introduced to the carrier fleet in 1940 which was the Imperial Year 2600. At the beginning of the war, it was the best fighter aircraft in the Pacific Theatre; by the end of the war, it was being used for kamikaze operations.

The British children's television series "Tugs," was originally broadcast in 1988 and has been rebroadcast in various formats since. It is set in Bigg City Port. Captain Star leads the "good" boats, the Star Fleet, including Ten Cents, Big Mac, O.J., Top Hat, Warrior, Hercules and Sunshine. The leader of the "bad" boats, the Z-Stacks, is Captain Zero, which fleet includes Zorran, Zebedee, Zak, Zug and Zip.

Answer: beam

In wooden construction, a long, heavy piece of wood which is stiff and used to carry the weight of a structure, is called a beam. Recall J.D. Salinger's short story "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters." Recall also Jesus in Matthew 7:3 (KJV) "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

Jim Beam bourbon whiskey is produced in Clermont, Kentucky. The firm was founded in around 1795. It is modernly owned by Suntory Holdings of Japan, which also bought Maker's Mark, Teacher's Highland Cream and Laphroaig distillery Scotch whiskies.

On "Star Trek," starships, space stations and ground bases are equipped with Transporters. These subspace devices move a person or object from one place to another by dematerializing, transmitting and reassembling the person or object. The process was known as "beaming" hence the famous phrase "Beam me up, Scotty."

Answer: roll

In institutions which use grades to standardize levels of achievement, it is common to set a cut-off (e.g. 3.2) of the averaged grades as a mark of honour. This is often called the honour roll, the president's list, the dean's list or some such distinction.

The early rock-and-roll song "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was written by Jesse Stone using his nom de disque Charles E. Calhoun. It was first recorded by Big Joe Turner and then highly revised and recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets, both in 1954. Elvis Presley later (1956) covered it.

Tootsie Rolls have been marketed in the United States since 1908. They are mass produced by Tootsie Roll Industries of Chicago, Illinois. And they are kosher!

Answer: captain

Bob Keeshan first appeared on children's television as Clarabell the Clown on "The Howdy Doody Show" on NBC. He created "Captain Kangaroo" and played the part from 1955 through 1984. Bill Cosby was a regular on the show for three years as was Dr. Joyce Brothers for three other years. The show is mentioned in the lyrics of the Statler Brothers' song "Flowers on the Wall" (1965).

"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (1994) is a World War II story set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during its occupation by Italy and Germany. A good part of the larger events is historical. The novel was adapted into a radio play (2007), a motion picture (2001), and a stage play (2011).

Captain William Kidd (1645-1701) was convicted of piracy although he may have done no more than serve as a privateer. The belief that he buried much treasure on his way back to England for trial has led to numerous hunts for Captain Kidd's gold.

Answer: bolt

A bolt is a threaded shaft onto which a threaded nut is screwed. Most are of metal but they may be made of plastic, wood and many other things. "Bolt" can be used as a verb as in "to bolt together" or "to bolt down."

Robert Oxton Bolt (1924-1995) was a British playwright and screenwriter best known for his play "A Man for All Seasons" (1960) which was made into a film using his screenplay in 1966. The play centers on Sir Thomas More's difficulty with King Henry VIII over the divorce of Catherine of Aragon. Bolt also wrote the screenplays for "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) and "Ryan's Daughter" (1970).

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the musical score for a three-act ballet, "The Bolt," in 1930 and 1931. The story involves a Soviet factory where a lazy worker and an anti-Communist priest plot to sabotage the machinery by dropping a bolt in it. The ballet premiered in 1931 at the state theatre in Leningrad. Shostakovich was denounced in 1936 but regained favour after World War II.

Answer: Linus

Damon played Linus Caldwell, a young and unsophisticated pickpocket who is the child of professional criminals. Damon repeated this role in the sequels "Ocean's Twelve" (2004) and "Ocean's Thirteen" (2007).

Apollo sired Linus with either the Muse Calliope or the Muse Terpsichore (depending upon who is telling the story). Linus is remembered as the god who invented melody and rhythm. The association of Orpheus (Linus' brother) with music is explained by Linus teaching music to his brother.

Linus Yale, Sr. (1797-1858) was an American who opened a lock shop in Newport, New York in the 1840s and specialized in one-of-a-kind bank vault locks. One of his sons, Linus Yale, Jr. (1821-1868), joined him in the lock business, invented several locking devices and opened the lock manufacturing business.