Three of a Kind, Part 50 Trivia Quiz

Answer: hair

The hair of mammals grows from follicles in their skin. It is made of protein, particularly alpha-keratin. Human hair is of two sorts: the thick terminal hair and the fine vellus hair. Hair is of two parts: the stuff within the follicle beneath the skin and the exposed shafts of hair. A fine coating of lipids makes the hair water-repellent and shiny.

A hair-pin turn is a curve in a roadway creating an acute inner angle, essentially turning the direction of travel around and going back the way one came. Another name for this sort of turn is switchback. The name hair-pin comes from metal hair pins which are bent 180°.

The goal of the British reality television programme "Hair" was to demonstrate success as a hairstylist. Amateurs competed from episode to episode to show off their abilities. The first season ran on BBC in 2014 and the second and last in 2015.

Answer: diesel

Diesel engines differ from other internal combustion engines in that they use the increased temperature of the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder caused by compression rather than a spark plug to ignite the mixture. The diesel engine was named after its inventor Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913).

The American actor, producer, director and voice artist Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair (b. 1967). He is best known as an action-adventure actor through such series as "Fast & Furious" and "The Chronicles of Riddick."

The Italian retail clothing company Diesel sells primarily denim under three brands: Diesel, Diesel Black Gold and Diesel Kid. From its beginnings, the company has produced surreal advertising campaigns, many of which appear to have nothing to do with clothing. They are also deeply invested in supporting the arts and young artists of all sorts.

Answer: ghosts

In Charles Dickens' 1843 novel "A Christmas Carol," Jacob Marley is Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner in life. He returns as a ghost to inform Scrooge of what awaits him, if he does not amend his ways.

Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Carmen Miranda (in her last role), and Dorothy Malone team in 1953's "Scared Stiff": a musical comedy about a haunted mansion in Cuba, ghosts, zombies, and other assorted scary persons. The motion picture adapted the play "The Ghost Breaker" written by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard in 1909.

Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde are ghosts in the video game franchise "Pac-Man." Blinky struggles with English grammar. Inky has a hard time staying on point. Pinky is rather fond of Pac-Man. Clyde has a good heart but bad technique.

Answer: oasis

The rock band Oasis comprised Liam Gallagher, his elder brother Noel Gallagher, Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan, and Tony McCarroll. Their second album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (1995) was an international success.

On the Illinois Tollway, there are commercial rest areas located in the right-of-way thereby affording easy access without leaving the highway proper. They afford restaurants, rest rooms, gasoline and snack-type groceries. The originals, called "tollway oases," were built in 1958.

American author Mary McCarthy based her 1949 novella "The Oasis" on her own experience with a group of intellectuals called the European-American Group. It describes an attempt to withdraw from society and form an ideals-community somewhere in the mountains of New England. The novel can be read as a critique of the incapacity of intellectuals to effect social change.

Answer: Monday

"Manic Monday" describes a woman reluctantly waking up on a Monday morning wishing that it were Sunday so she would not have to go to work. "It's just another manic Monday / I wish it was Sunday / 'Cause that's my fun day / My I don't have to run day."

"Monday Night Football" was first broadcast in 1970 bringing National Football League games to fans the night after the weekend. It is one of the longest-running prime-time programmes in television history.

The Monday next after the Feast of the Pentecost (which is always a Sunday) is called variously Whit Monday, Pentecost Monday, and the Monday of the Holy Spirit. It is not on a fixed calendar date because the date of Pentecost differs every year. "Whit Monday" is a particularly English usage, as is "Whitsunday" for Pentecost itself.

Answer: frog

On the underside of a horse's hoof, there is a soft fleshy pad which comes in contact with the ground. This triangular patch of flesh is called the frog. Evolutionarily, it is the remnant of two toes.

Smilin' Ed McConnell created the character Froggy the Gremlin for his 1940s radio programme. McConnell took Froggy with him onto television, where Andy Devine took over the show after McConnell's death. Froggy appeared in a puff of smoke and sparks; mayhem followed. Froggy's first line was always "Hiya, kids! Hiya hiya hiya hiya!" If the host wanted Froggy to magically make a segment of the show begin, he would say "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"

In the CB-radio language of truckers, everyone has a "handle" which they use in place of their real name. When Bandit (Bert Reynolds) picked-up runaway bride Carrie, still in her wedding dress (Sally Field), he gave her the handle Frog. He says it fits "because you're always hoppin' around and kinda you're cute, like a frog."

Answer: crystal

One of the most famous pairs of shoes in all literature are the crystal slippers created by her Fairy Godmother for Cinderella to wear to the royal ball. These appear for the first time in the 1950 motion picture, not in the prior written versions of the story.

The name doesn't sound Japanese but Crystal Cruise lines was created by the Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha. It was sold to the Genteng Hong Kong in 2015 and went out of business in 2022, ostensibly due to Covid-19.

Quartz is a common mineral which occurs naturally in a variety of forms. The silicone dioxide of quartz arranges itself in crystalline structures. The crystals inside a geode are mainly quartz. More often, one sees them used in quartz-controlled clocks and watches.

Answer: daddy

Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice renewed her career with the radio role of Baby Snooks. She played the part of a precocious child opposite her frustrated father, played first by Alan Reed and then by Hanley Stafford. "Baby Snooks and Daddy" was immensely popular from 1944 through 1951. Brice died of a cerebral hemorrhage two days after it went off the air.

When corporate executives Charlie Hinton (Eddie Murphy) and Phil Ryerson (Jeff Garlin) lose their high-paying jobs, they open a service business called "Daddy Day Care." The 2003 motion picture was not particularly funny and did not do well at the box-office. The sequel did worse: "Daddy Day Camp" (2007) won the Razzie for "Worst Prequel or Sequel."

The American poet Sylvia Plath led a deeply troubled life, which she attributed in large part to the destructive role of her father Otto Plath (who died when she was eight years old). Her poem "Daddy" was written 12 October 1962, just four months before her death. She uses disgusting, appalling metaphors to describe their relationship and his influence.

Answer: nod

American poet Eugene Field wrote the poem "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" in 1889. The title describes the three characters -- Dutch children who sail among the stars in a wooden shoe. It was intended to be a sort of spoken lullaby. "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night / sailed off in a wooden shoe / Sailed on a river of crystal light, / into a sea of dew."

"The Land of Nod" is used as a fictional place of sleep in such works as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses." This usage was probably derived from the mention of the Land of Nod in Genesis 4:16. A more modern usage is in the lyrics of Morning Glory's song "Gimme."

When heroin or another opiate is taken, especially if consumed with alcohol or benzodiazepines, the result is often a sleepy state called "nodding out." In it, the affected person slips into and out of consciousness, like an overtired person struggling to stay awake. It is clinically difficult to awaken someone who has nodded out. A too-common result of this sedation is coma followed by death.

Answer: Alice

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" together with its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass" are among the best-known works of children's literature. They follow the adventures of a young English girl named Alice in a nonsensical world. The character Alice may be based, at least in part, on Alice Liddell, one of the Liddell Sisters to whom Carroll first told the stories aloud. In the definitive illustrations of John Tenniel, she wears a white pinafore over a blue dress.

"Tiny Alice" refers to the widow Miss Alice who uses her wealth to persuade the Roman Catholic archdiocese to accede to her wishes. Edward Albee's three-act play opened at the Billy Rose Theatre on Broadway in 1964. Even John Gielgud, who starred, could not satisfactorily explain what the play was about. It was nonetheless nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, Best Producer and Best Author. Only Irene Worth won for her acting. Also, Andy Warhol liked it.

Vincent Damon Furnier (b. 1948) became successful as a song-writer, singer, performer, actor and restaurateur under the stage name Alice Cooper. He began in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, and developed a shock style which included fireworks, horror effects, guillotined dolls, live reptiles and other shocking props. He played the part of King Herod in the live-television-concert version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" on Easter Sunday in 2018. His likeness and music are featured in a pinball machine produced in 2018 called Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. His restaurant, Alice Cooper'stown, in downtown Phoenix, closed after 18 years in business.