Three of a Kind, Part 40 Trivia Quiz

Answer: twelve

In the Western Christian calendar, there are twelve days in the Season of Christmas. It begins on 25 December and ends of 5 January. It spans the period between the observance of the birth of Christ and the arrival of the Magi (the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January). The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is built upon the days of this liturgical season.

Under the old British monetary system, there were twelve pence to a shilling. Because there were twenty shillings to a pound, there were 240 pence to a pound, although no one said it that way often. Slang for a shilling was a bob; slang for a penny was a copper. This system was used around the world in many former British colonies. From 1066 until 1971, this system served England well, but was decimalized anyway.

In American football jargon, the fans of a team are collectively known as "the twelfth man" regardless of gender. There are eleven men on the field at any one time; the twelfth refers to the person in the stands (or in front of the television) cheering for the team. The term has been used by American college football teams, e.g. the University of Minnesota, Baylor, Dartmouth, and Texas A&M, as well as in marketing for professional football teams, e.g. the Seattle SeaHawks and the Buffalo Bills.

Answer: skipper

The English term "skipper" derives from the Middle Dutch "scipper" which means the master of a ship. The meaning was transferred to the leader of an athletic team in 1800s. It is now used for the captain of an association football or cricket team, as well as for the manager of an American baseball team.

The United States Navy developed and deployed the AGM-123 Skipper II short-range laser-guided missile. The original design was as an anti-ship weapon carried by A-6E Intruder aircraft as well as the A-7 Corsair II and the F/A-18. It was used to sink the Iranian frigate Sahand during Operation Praying Mantis in 1988. The unit is a Mark 83 bomb driven by two Mk 78 solid-propellant rockets, guided by Raytheon's Pathway laser-guidance system.

In the series of animated motion pictures (and a television programme), Skipper is an Adélie penguin who leads his penguin compatriots out of a New York zoo in search of their natural habitat in Antarctica. They end up in Madagascar and their adventures thereafter are the subject of four films.

Answer: thunder

The hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder, lightning, oak trees and fertility is named Thor. He is known by a variety of similar names in Germanic mythology; all of them pertain to thunder. His hammer is named Mjölnir; it was not until the movies and comics made modernly by Marvel that it conferred the ability to fly through the air. The English word Thursday for the fifth day of the week derives from Thor.

The movie "Thunder Road" depicted a man who returns from the Korean War and drives a souped-up car to deliver his father's moonshine to distributors. Fighting the federal revenue agents on the one side and a Mafia-like gangster trying to muscle into the business on the other, Robert Mitchum stars, co-wrote the script and co-wrote (and sings) the theme song "The Ballad of Thunder Road." The movie enjoyed long-lasting popularity, particularly in the American South.

Brontophobia is an unnatural and irrational fear of thunder, as is tonitrophobia. The abnormal fear of thunder and lightning (together) is astraphobia, also called keraunophobia. Both humans and other animals suffer from it. It is irrational in that the knowledge that neither thunder nor lightning will likely hurt a person fails to allay the fear. Symptoms include an elevated heart rate, a sense of anxiety, trembling (with fear), crying, and urinary incontinence. Drugs are sometimes used to treat the condition but repeated exposure to thunder and lightning, especially in the company of confident non-anxious others, leads toward immunity. Breath control can also help to alleviate symptoms.

Answer: gorilla

The National Basketball Association Phoenix Suns did without a mascot from 1968 to 1980. Then Henry Rojas was dispatched to Veterans Memorial Coliseum dressed in a gorilla suit to deliver a singing telegram for a company called Eastern Onion. The Suns' previous effort to create a mascot called "The Sun" in a sunflower suit did not play well with the fans; the guy in the gorilla suit did. So the Suns hired him away from Eastern Onion and he stayed until 1988 after which he was replaced by several others sequentially.

"The Gorilla" was the last Ritz Brothers movie made by 20th Century Fox. It co-starred Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi and Ed Norris. Patsy Kelly plays a new maid who was to quit because she is frightened by the butler played by Lugosi. The movie was based on Ralph Spence's stage play. It involves a serial killer who calls himself "the gorilla" and a real gorilla escaped from the zoo.

An individual, company or organization which is so large and powerful that it makes its own rules is called "an 800-pound gorilla." This name derives from a riddle. "Q: Where does an 800-pound gorilla sit? A: Anywhere he wants." Microsoft, the New York Yankees, Manchester United, Amazon, the Red Cross and the Roman Catholic Church have all been referred to as 800-pound gorillas.

Answer: morning

"Oklahoma" begins with the character Curly McLain singing "Oh, what a beautiful mornin'. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feelin'. Everything's goin' my way." It was the first result of the long collaboration of Hammerstein on lyrics and Rodgers on music. The song was covered by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, James Taylor, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, Nelson Eddy, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Morning clothes or morning dress is appropriate to daytime formal wear. For men, this consists of a cutaway coat, waistcoat and striped trousers. Grey is the most common colour. It is suitable for weddings, horse races, political events, church services, and events of fraternal orders and gentlemen's clubs. "Morning" in this context means any event which begins prior to 6 p.m. A more accurate description would have been "daytime formal wear."

Chip Taylor wrote "Angel of the Morning" in 1966 and it was offered to Connie Francis to record but she declined because the lyrics defended a one-night stand. Neither of the first two recordings made was successful but Merrilee Rush's recording in 1968 climbed steadily up the charts in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It was later used on the soundtrack of the motion picture "Girl, Interrupted" (1999).

Answer: roll

A drummer may manipulate drumsticks rapidly so that the sound produced seems like one on-going sound. Whether on a snare drum (commonly), timpani or other drum, this technique is called a drum roll. A drum roll creates tension and is often used to heighten anticipation. In modern notation, drum rolls are frequently indicated by a single note with slashes through the note stem, as a sort of tremolo, the more slashes the more strokes per note.

Woody Guthrie was hired by the Bonneville Power Administration to write 26 songs to glorify the hydroelectric projects of Bonneville and Grand Coulee and the electrification of the rural Pacific Northwest. "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" (1941) was one of these. The song describes the mighty Columbia River, finding its way from Northwest Canada to the Pacific Ocean and mentions its major tributaries: the Yakima, the Snake, the Klickitat, the Sandy, the Willamette, and the Hood. In 1987, it was adopted as the official folk song of the State of Washington.

Coming originally from Northern Europe, the cinnamon roll (or cinnamon bun or cinnamon snail) is Scandinavian. A sheet of yeast dough is rolled up with layers of butter, sugar and cinnamon. True Swedish versions often include cardamom. The rolls are then sliced into buns and baked. They may be served with melted butter, or with cream cheese, or topped with a white sugar frosting. Serious arguments may arise over the propriety of including raisins in cinnamon rolls. Since 1999, 4 October has been kept as "kanelbullens dag" (Cinnamon Roll Day) in Sweden.

Answer: guard

Public officials, celebrities and CEOs all employ bodyguards to protect them from assault, kidnapping, harassment and the like. The United States Secret Service provides these services to the President and Vice President. The Pope is protected by the Pontifical Swiss Guard. Akira Kurosawa's motion picture "Yojimbo" (1961) is about a Japanese bodyguard. Denzel Washington plays a bodyguard in the film "Man on Fire" (2004). On British television, the series "Bodyguards" depicted a Close Protection Group in the 1990s.

In military history, it was important for members of an army to rally around their flags and banners in order to maintain battlefield formations. A "colour guard" of the finest soldiers was established to display and protect these flags during combat. In the modern military, colour guards present, display and retreat the colours, meaning the flags and banners of their country and military unit, in formal and ceremonial settings.

In American and Canadian gridiron football, an offensive five-man line comprises the center, flanked by two guards, flanked by two tackles. It is redundant to say "offensive guard" as there is no guard position when the team is on defense. The right and left guards are responsible for preventing opposing players from reaching the quarterback and for opening holes in the defensive line through which running backs may advance the ball. Occasionally a guard may "pull" by backing out of his initial assignment and advancing beyond the line of scrimmage to block for a runner. The Green Bay Packers reduced this to an artform in the 1960s with Fuzzy Thurston at left guard and Jerry Farmer at the right.

Answer: captain

Bob Clampett created the animated "Beany and Cecil" for ABC based on his televised puppet series called "Time for Beany." Stan Freberg voiced Beany in the first series but did not continue on the cartoon. Beany and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent traveled the world on a ship called The Leakin' Lena, the captain of which was Horatio Huffenpuff, referred to by Beany as "Uncle Captain." He was not courageous and often hid from danger in a box which bore the label "Capt. Huffenpuff's Hiding Box." Rather like "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends," the show satirized current events, politics, and people in the news, creating a subtext enjoyable by adult viewers.

Derek Jeter (b. 1974) played shortstop for the New York Yankees for twenty years before becoming the CEO and part-owner of the Miami Marlins. He was a five-time World Series winner and played some of his best ball in the postseason, earning him the nicknames "Captain Clutch" and "Mister November."

James T (Tiberius) Kirk was the captain of the Starship Enterprise in the original television series and subsequent motion pictures. In later versions, he became an admiral. Canadian actor William Shatner played the role on television and in the films. He won the Saturn Award for Best Actor in 1982 for the movie "The Wrath of Khan." There is a crater on Charon, the moon of Pluto, named Kirk after this character ... seriously.

Answer: sage

Saint Matthew is the only New Testament source of information about the visit of the unnumbered magi or wise men or kings or sages to the Baby Jesus and his family (2:1-12). These men were not kings, in the political sense, but more like scholars and diviners of wisdom who studied astrology. Matthew calls them, in Greek, "mágoi" or wise men. That term comes from an older Persian word meaning one of the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. Charles H. Spurgeon preached a sermon on Christmas Day of 1870 entitled "The Sages, the Star and the Savior" in which he quoted his own poem: "The sages saw His star, But rested not content, The way was rough, the distance far, Yet on that way they went."

Simon and Garfunkel had a hit with "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (1966). Neither the words nor the tune was original to Paul Simon. The ballad was centuries old, most versions including the verses "Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; Remember me to one who lives there, For she was once a true love of mine." The song gained even greater prominence when it was used on the soundtrack of "The Graduate" in 1968. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are a typical combination in British mixed herbs.

Sage is a grey-green colour which is said to look like the colour of the dried leaves of salvia officinalis (common sage, garden sage, culinary sage). It grows throughout Europe and is used in medicine as well as in cooking. The hex RGB colour value is BCB88A. Decorators find it (the colour) to be soothing, tranquil and softening.

Answer: box

The modern sport of boxing descends from a combat skill. Hand-to-hand combat has existed as long as there have been humans prepared to act violently on their disagreements. Boxing grew out of the need to train for such combat. There is evidence of boxing in 3rd and 2nd millennia BC in China, as well as in the Olympic Games of 688 BC. In 1867, the promulgation of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules regularized boxing (somewhat) in English-speaking nations. Two combatants wearing gloves punch one another inside a ring for rounds of equal length until one cannot proceed or resigns (throws in the towel) or is declared the winner by judges after the number of rounds appointed has elapsed.

Used mostly in North America, the term "boxcar" describes a fully-enclosed railroad car with doors on the sides or, less commonly, on the end. They are used to ship freight which needs to be covered. In the UK, they are called goods vans or covered wagons. Hoboes used boxcars to travel unlawfully; Boxcar Willy (Lucil Travis Martin, 1931-1999) sang their songs for modern audiences.

Earlier connections of household wiring left bare exposed wires which could be the source of house fires and a potential electrocution hazard, as well. Modern wiring codes require that electrical connections be "housed" inside a junction box: a metal or plastic enclosure affixed to the interior of a wall. Where wires are run through conduit (metal tubing), the conduit affixes to the junction box.