Three of a Kind, Part 36 Trivia Quiz

Answer: magic

"Magic Johnson" was so known because of his outstanding skills as a professional basketball player. He played point guard for the L.A. Lakers and was named Most Valuable Player in the NBA Finals his rookie year (which the Lakers won). His retirement in 1991 was a result of his diagnosis of HIV infection. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame twice: once for his individual accomplishments and once for playing on the Gold Medal "Dream Team" for the United States in the 1992 Olympic Games.

Ed McConnell (1882-1954) hosted "Smilin' Ed's Gang" on American radio and early television. The show was sponsored by Buster Brown Shoes and later became known as the Buster Brown Program. He created Froggy the Gremlin. Smilin' Ed would say "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" and the frog would appear in a puff of smoke and say "Hiya, Kids! Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!" The Magic Gremlin never revealed what his "magic twanger" was. Andy Devine took over the show following Smilin' Ed's death and the frog remained a central part of the programme.

In pharmacology, a "magic bullet" is a perfect drug: it completely and directly cures the disease for which it is prescribed and it creates no ill effects in any other part of the body. The term was first defined by medical researcher Dr. Paul Ehrlich who was seeking a cure for syphilis. Edward G. Robinson played Ehrlich in a motion picture about his career called "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" (1940).

Answer: bell

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) may not have invented the first telephone but he patented the first practical working model in 1876. He founded AT&T in 1885, but his heart was most deeply committed to the invention of devices to assist the deaf; both his wife and mother were hearing impaired. He was a British subject until he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1882.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) wrote "The Bell Jar" in an autobiographical way, leaving many to consider it her parting message, as she committed suicide a month after its publication in the United Kingdom. The story certainly follows her career as a collegian, an intern at a prestigious New York magazine, and mental-health patient. The enduring popularity of the work probably has something to do with the protagonist Esther Greenwood's efforts to find her authentic self apart from the expectations projected upon her ... a timeless pursuit.

"The Miracle of the Bells" (1948) stars Fred MacMurray, Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb. It is the story of a community observing the death of a young actress who finds success and dies prematurely. The script was written by Ben Hecht which prevented the film's release in Britain, which was boycotting his films because of his vocal opposition to the British presence in Palestine. Sinatra as a Roman Catholic priest is a difficult sell.

Answer: pedal

Pedal pushers were invented because the cuffs of floppy-legged trousers catch too easily in the chain of a bicycle. Pants which ended just below the knee, also known as clam diggers, solved this problem. They became a fashion in the 1950s and, as most fashions eventually will, have returned in the 2010s. Sheb Wooley recorded a song entitled "Skin Tight, Pin Striped, Purple Pedal Pushers" to immortalize the fad. Florist shops are (too often) named Petal Pushers.

Typical modern grand pianos have three pedals, the central of which is the sostenuto or sustained pedal. Depressing it with the foot causes those notes struck while it is depressed to continue to sound beyond their normal value. It is not to be confused with the sustain pedal -- the one on the right -- which removes all dampers from all of the strings and allows their sound to expire naturally.

Composer Fred Fisher and lyricist Ada Benson wrote "Your Feet's Too Big" and heard it recorded by numerous artists including the Ink Spots (1938) and Fats Waller (1939). The lyrics include the following: "Your pedal extremities are colossal. To me you look just like a fossil. You got me walkin', talkin' and squawkin', 'cause your feet's too big." The Leon Redbone recording is heard in the motion picture "Harry and the Hendersons" (1987).

Answer: pistol

"Pistol" Pete Maravich (1947-1988) played college basketball at Louisiana State University and on three different NBA teams before forced into retirement by injury. He was one of the youngest players ever enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

"Pistol" Pete Sampras (b. 1971) was born in the US of Greek parentage. His right-handed power serve earned him the nickname pistol. His professional career spanned 1988 to 2002; he was voted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.

The athletic teams of New Mexico State University are called the Aggies (because of the agricultural-college origins of the school). The mascot, however, is Pistol Pete -- a student dressed up as an Old West cowboy with a ten-gallon hat, chaps and a pair of fancy pistols which he twirls. This mascot is "shared" with Oklahoma State University which sued NMSU for copyright infringement and won.

Answer: drone

Any unmanned aerial vehicle can be called a drone. While these were first in the news for their military and black-ops exploits, they have now found numerous peaceful civilian uses, especially in photography and surveillance. There is also a large hobby component to the UAV market. While most are radio-controlled from a ground station, drones are becoming more and more independent, using on-board computers to determine their actions.

Any persistent sound can be called a drone. The most common uses of the term refer to any sustained recurring sound, such as bees buzzing or an electrical device humming or a speaker without affect talking on and on. Drone has a more specific use in music where it refers to a single note or chord which recurs throughout the piece. Perhaps the most famous drone in classical music is in the Prelude to Wagner's "Das Rheingold" (1854) where low-pitched instruments sound an E-flat throughout.

In the film "Drones" (2010), an office worker slowly discovers that his fellow workers are all aliens from an unknown galaxy, here to decide whether or not to wipe out the Earth [sort of like in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) (2008)]. This was the first feature film directed by the team of Amber Benson and Adam Busch. Benson and Busch were both cast members in the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Answer: compass

Now largely replaced by CAD (computer-assisted drafting), a compass is a simple tool used to scribe arcs and circles on drawings. It is a simple hinged device with two legs, one to steady the tool on a center and the other to draw with pencil or pen. It can also be used to measure distances (e.g. on charts) and is often so used in old-school navigation.

The Compass Group based in Great Britain is the world's largest food service and facilities management provider. From its HQ in Surrey, it operates in over fifty other nations. Its food-service arm provides meals for colleges and universities, factories, sports venues and prisons.

Lady Antebellum sang "So let your heart, sweetheart, be your compass when you're lost" in 2013. The song, written by Stargate, appears on Antebellum's fifth studio album "Golden." Matt Bjorke of "Roughstock" said the song has a "melodic melody." One wonders what other sorts there are.

Answer: flag

When sedimentary rock (especially sandstone) settles into beds, it may be split into flat stones useful as floors, pavements, fences and even roofing. These are called flagstones from the Middle English word flagge meaning turf. Flagstones occur in a variety of colours, the most common being red, blue (in Pennsylvania) and light tan.

Racing flags come in all sorts -- yellow flag for caution, red to suspend the race and clear the track, black to disqualify a particular racer -- used to communicate with racers. They are used in auto racing, in particular, but also in motorcycle and go-kart racing. A black-and-white checkered flag has been used to signal the end of the race (and identify the winner). Myths about the origin of the checker-board pattern abound.

A merchant ship shows the colours of its flag state -- the country in which it is registered and to which it owes legal compliance with applicable safety and pollution laws. The ship may never make port in the flag state; roughly a quarter of the ocean-going ships of the world are registered in Panama, which is considered a "flag of convenience."

Answer: Ford

Henry Ford (1863-1947) founded the Ford Motor Company, championed assembly-line methods of mass production, promoted high wages and low prices, and became one of the richest men in the world.
The Model T and Model A automobiles made cars available to ordinary working-class people. He believed that the interdependence of consumerism was an adequate basis for world peace.

G. M. Ford (b. 1945) wrote nine novels about Seattle-based detective Leo Waterman, six novels about another detective Frank Corso, and several "stand-alone" novels. The title to his first novel, "Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?" (1995) is a play on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is a saltwater passage north of Seattle.

Henry Ford produced the Ford Trimotor in the 1920s and 1930s. It was utilized all-metal construction which, while not novel, was cutting edge for the time. 199 of the airplanes, dubbed "The Tin Goose," were produced and flown, mostly in civil aviation but a few in military service. In the Second World War, Ford produced thousands of B-24 Liberator bombers in his Michigan plant.

Answer: pack

Many members of the biological family Canidae tend to aggregate in groups organized around an alpha pair of one male and one female. The functions of the pack often have to do with cooperation in hunting and the raising of young. There are at least as many exceptions as there are generalizations about pack behaviour, however.

Cub Scouts are the youngest of the three branches of the Boy Scouts of America (Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing -- formerly Explorers). They are organized into dens of six to eight boys who usually meet weekly, which dens are then organized into a pack which usually meets monthly.

Woodrow Landfair (b. 1982) is also known as "Pack." He played baseball for Miami of Florida when they won the College World Series in 2005. His baseball career was cut short by successive back injuries. He bought a motorcycle and decided to tour the 48 continental United States. Out of this experience, a lecture tour and a novel, "Land of the Free" (2014), arose.

Answer: potato

The original Mister Potato Head (1952) was sold by Hasbro without a head -- the purchaser was to supply their own potato into which to stick the plastic body parts. This led to consumer complaints arising from eventually rotting potatoes. The new Mister Potato Head sets (1964) were sold with plastic bodies, but they were not nearly as much fun as stabbing body parts into real potatoes. Mister Potato Head, voiced by Don Rickles, had parts in "Toy Story" (1995), "Toy Story 2" (1999), "Toy Story 3" (2010), and perhaps in "Toy Story 4" (2019) 'tho voiced by a different actor.

The starch extracted from potatoes is a high-quality binder or thickener, imparting minimal flavour, containing no protein or fat, inexpensive and easy to manipulate. Potato starch is commonly used in the kitchen to thicken sauces and in processed foods where a thickened texture is required.

The movie "One Potato, Two Potato" (1964) was shot in black-and-white about a black and white couple. It was highly controversial for its time. Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton played a mixed-race couple who had to fight prejudice in their own families, in society and in the legal system. The screenplay by Orville H. Hampton and Raphael Hayes lost the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay to "Father Goose."