Three of a Kind, Part 18 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sherman

Bobby Sherman (b. 1943) recorded dozens of hit records and performed for numerous audiences filled primarily with screaming teen-age girls in the late Sixties and early Seventies. His television acting role on "Here Come the Brides" (1968-1970) elevated his music career.

The M4 Sherman tank was the tank most deployed by the Allied forces in the Second World War. The US government "loaned" Sherman tanks to the British and Soviet armies because of their superiority to most German tanks.

Sherman McCoy, a self-described Master of the Universe, is one of the three central players in Wolfe's novel of the 1980s. The other two are Peter Fallow, an alcoholic British newspaperman and a Jewish assistant DA named Larry Kramer. The novel was published twice: once as a 27-part serial in "Rolling Stone" magazine in 1984 and, much revised, as a novel in 1987.

Answer: cheese

The derogatory term "Cheeseheads" was used to denigrate Dutch people (probably because of the excellent cheeses made in Holland), and later used to slander residents of the US state of Wisconsin (a dairy state which is a major cheese producer). Applied to the fans of the NFL Green Bay Packers, it is a term of pride which goes with a rather silly yellow tricorn hat made to look like a wedge of cheese.

In the world of "Sonic the Hedgehog," Cheese the Chao is the faithful companion of the naive Cream the Rabbit. Cheese is a blue chao and wears a red bow tie. Cheese defends Cream by crashing into those who oppose her.

Spencer Johnson is an MD who co-wrote the "One Minute Manager" book which was so popular with business managers in 1982. In 1998, he released "Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life." It is a fable about two mice (Sniff and Scurry) and two people (Hem and Haw) who must change themselves and their thinking in order to adjust to changes in their environment. One of the major teachings, inscribed on a wall, is "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct."

Answer: bottle

The British rock group The Police recorded "Message in a Bottle" for their second album "Reggatta de Blanc" in 1979. The group's lead singer, Sting, wrote it. "Just a castaway, an island lost at sea. Another lonely day, with no one here but me. More loneliness than any man could bear. Rescue me before I fall into despair."

What started as a private birthday party in 2000 grew into a major cultural event and festival in the Central Coast region of California called "Lightning in a Bottle." The events include musical performances, performance art, speakers, yoga instruction, meditation, and the like.

The reason that beer bottles are made of dark amber, brown or green glass is to interfere with the penetration of UV light which spoils some brews. Short glass beer bottles are called stubbies or steinies. Longneck bottles have long necks. Forties and growlers are larger still.

Answer: force

When a batter hits a ball, a runner at first base must vacate first base and run to second base to make room for the successful batter. If there is a runner already on second base, that runner must advance to third base to make room for the runner arriving at second. This called a force play. The base runner is the forced runner. The base to which the runner must advance is the forced base. An attempt to put out a forced runner is a force play.

The Impossible Mission Force is depicted in a television series "Mission: Impossible" (1966-1973) and in a revival of the same programme (1988-1990) and in a series of motion pictures starring Tom Cruise. Using duplicity, clever ruse, and highly-technical spy toys, they accomplish what no others would even attempt, such that the good guys always prevail. The recorded message "the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions" and the tape recorder that fizzes and sputters while destroying the tape became memes of the programme type.

Force Motors was founded in 1958 to build three-wheeled lightweight commercial vehicles. It grew to produce larger heavier four-wheeled commercial vehicles and, most recently, personal passenger cars. The headquarters are in Pune, India.

Answer: moon

The song "Moon River" won a treasure trove of prizes: the Oscar for Best Original Song (Audrey Hepburn singing in "Breakfast at Tiffany's") in 1961; the Grammy for Record of the Year (Henry Mancini) in 1962; the Grammy for Song of the Year (Mancini and Mercer) in 1962. Andy Williams recorded it in 1961 and it became his theme song. His autobiography is entitled "Moon River and Me."

In Fritz Lang's "Woman in the Moon," was written (and directed) by Fritz Lang from a novel written by his wife, Thea von Harbou. Much of the rocket technology is prescient: take off follows a count down, the rocket is multi-stage, the crew reclines in couches to absorb some of the G forces.

The first recording of "Moonglow" by Joe Venuti and his Orchestra in 1933 was not well known, but the 1934 recording by Benny Goodman became a standard. Goodman recorded it again in 1936 with the other members of his quartet: Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton, the rendition of which is immortal.

Answer: honor

The Medal of Honor was created by the US Navy in 1861, by the US Army in 1862 and by the US Air Force in 1965. Members of the US Marine Corps and the US Coast Guard receive the Navy version. No higher military award for valor exists in the United States. The award is normally presented by the President of the United States on behalf of a grateful nation.

In the Boy Scouts of America (and many other scouting organizations around the world), a court of honor is held at which to mark the promotion of Scouts from one rank to another and for Scouts to receive their merit badges and other recognitions. Often, a special court of honor will be held for the promotion of a Scout to the highest rank of Eagle.

Academic institutions grade their students in varying ways (including no grades at all). In those using a 4.0 system (or its equivalent) certain levels of grade-point average are often fixed for recognition, e.g. 3.2 for the honor roll, 3.5 for the dean's list and 3.8 for the president's list. Grade inflation has eroded the value of honor rolls.

Answer: Simon

Francesca Isabella Simon (b. 1955) created Horrid Henry (and his little brother, Perfect Peter) as a series of books for children beginning in 1994. Since that time, the franchise has expanded to include books, audio books, joke books, gift books, a radio programme, a television series, a movie, and even a video game. Henry gets in trouble in all of them by being a naughty prankster who bullies his brother and breaks all the rules.

Saint Peter was known as Simon (Shim'on bar Yona) before Jesus changed it to Peter (Matthew 16:13-19). There was another Simon among the Disciples called Simon the Zealot about whom almost nothing is known.

Milton Bradley introduced the hand-held electronic game of Simon in 1978. The idea was to reproduce the sequence of flashing lights and sounds produced by an on-board computer. The package said: "Simon's a computer, Simon has a brain, you either do what Simon says or else go down the drain"

Answer: Turkey

Turkey is the home of Istanbul/Constantinople, of Sufi whirling dervishes, of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, of Suleiman the Magnificent and of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, of Seljuks and Ottomans. And it is located partly in Europe and partly in Asia.

The domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is larger than a chicken, duck or pheasant, and produces a remarkable amount of meat with little feed. The flesh of turkeys is a popular food because it is inexpensive, healthy (lower in fat) and available in a variety of forms (e.g. whole, butchered parts, sliced and ground).

In "The Turkey" (which was also named "The Capture" and "An Afternoon in the Woods"), an eleven-year-old boy named Ruller captures a wounded fowl for his family and goes through all manner of theological ploys to bend God to his will to have this bird.

Answer: peanuts

The peanut is a native of South America which has been transplanted to most of the tropics and subtropics around the world. It is commercially useful as a food crop, an animal feed, a source of chemicals and as a nitrogen-fixer for soil in rotation. Technically not a nut, it is actually a legume like peas and beans.

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham works with a variety of characters: Walter (a grumpy old man), Peanut (a woozle from Micronesia), and Achmed the Dead Terrorist (a skeleton of an incompetent bomber). All of his humour is politically incorrect. He builds his own dummies.

Foam peanuts are a packing material which interlocks when compressed and flows when loose. They are extremely light-weight, extremely inexpensive, reusable and recyclable. The first patent was granted in 1965.

Answer: yellow

Yellow fever is a serious disease caused by a virus carried by certain female mosquitoes. It originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas on slave ships. Like Ebola, Lassa and Marburg, it is a hemorrhagic fever. Vaccination is a successful control as is elimination of disease-carrying mosquito populations. In the second stage of the infection, decreased liver function produces yellow skin.

John Ford directed three "cavalry films": "Fort Apache" (1948), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949) and "Rio Grande" (1950). The title is a reference to a song sung by drilling soldiers to count cadence. The film won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1950.

The term "Yellow Dog Democrat" emerged in the 19th century to describe a person who would sooner vote for a yellow dog than for any Republican. Its use is somewhat peculiar to the Southern United States. Abraham Lincoln used it in a speech in 1848.