Three of a Kind, Part 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Clement

Clement Richard Attlee (1883-1967) served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. He was the long-time leader of the Labour Party and served under Winston Churchill during World War II.

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) taught Greek at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City. His poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" is one of the best-known poems in the English language. There are quibbles over its authorship but none worth recounting.

Clement I of Rome was either the second or the fourth pope (ca. 88-98). One source says he immediately followed Saint Peter. Another says he followed Linus and Anacletus. There is one genuine epistle (1 Clement, to the Corinthians) and a number of apocryphal documents connected with his name.

Answer: topaz

As it had been with the Ford Fairmont and the Mercury Zephyr, the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz were twins. The two cars signaled Ford's attempt to scale down and become fuel efficient in order to compete with Japanese cars. They were replaced in 1995 with the Ford Contour, Mercury Mystique, Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.

Topaz is a semi-precious gemstone which forms in large perfect crystals. It is relatively easy to cut and therefore popular in jewelry-making. It is found especially in Brazil, but also in the United States in Utah. Clear specimens are sometimes heat treated or irradiated to make them turn blue.

Formally known as the Central Utah Relocation Center, the Topaz War Relocation Center was near Delta, Utah. During World War II, the camp housed as many as 8000 persons of Japanese descent, removed from the Pacific Coast.

Answer: ruby

There is remarkable disagreement among the Rolling Stones over who deserves writing credit for the words and/or the music of "Ruby Tuesday." This 1967 rock song climbed to number one on the U.S. Billboard Top 100. There is also debate about who might have inspired the song: "Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day. Still I'm gonna miss you."

Ruby is the extremely hard gemstone composed of corundum (aluminum oxide) and is normally red to pink in colour. It is the gemstone traditional to the month of July. Burma has been the source of the most and the largest rubies in the world; as the ice shelf covering Greenland melts, it has exposed large deposits of rubies there.

Jack Leon Ruby (1911-1967) was seen on television fatally shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin believed to have killed President John F. Kennedy. Ruby was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, but his conviction was reversed and he died of lung cancer before he could be retried.

Answer: boxer

Ferrari produced the Berlinetta Boxer for twelve years, between the Daytona and the Testarossa. The BB featured a mid-mounted engine. The designer was Leonardo Fioravanti.

A pugilist is a boxer, someone who competes in boxing events. The term derives from the Latin pugnus, meaning fist, and pugil, meaning fist fighter. Used in English since the 18th Century, it has never displaced "boxer" in popular parlance.

Irish director Jim Sheridan worked twice with Daniel Day-Lewis before filming "The Boxer" about a IRA member sent to prison for his youthful terrorist activity. Wishing to start anew, he founds a boxing academy but comes into conflict with IRA members who wish him to rejoin them.

Answer: bear

Ursa Minor is Latin for "little bear" and describes a small constellation well-known to stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere. The seven stars of Ursa Minor have been associated with the seven daughters of Atlas whose duty it was to guard Hera's Temple.

In John Irving's fifth novel, "The Hotel New Hampshire," a Viennese Jew named Freud has a bear named State O' Maine which performs. The bear is very intelligent. It becomes a sort of story-within-the-story of the novel.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declined to shoot an American black bear which had been run down by hounds and tied up so he could "succeed" in a hunt in Mississippi. The sportsmanlike president declined and, from that story, toy manufacturers began to produce plush versions of "Teddy's bear."

Answer: molly

A mule is the result of breeding a female horse to a male donkey. The result of breeding a female donkey to a male horse is called a hinny and is uncommon. A female mule, especially one that is fertile, is called a molly.

Margaret Brown (1867-1932) was born in humble circumstances but prospered in later life. She utilized her notoriety as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic to open doors for her various campaigns. A 1960 Broadway musical and 1964 movie version solidified her place in Americana as "the Unsinkable Molly Brown."

In "Ulysses," Leopold is married to Marion Bloom who is called Molly. She is a thirty-three year old woman, attractive, not well educated but clever. The marriage is difficult.

Answer: Simon

Now a division of CBS, Simon & Schuster was formed in 1924 to publish books of crossword puzzles. Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln ("Max") Schuster built it into a major publishing house. It is one of the five largest US book publishers today (2016).

The sin of selling ecclesiastical offices and titles is called simony. It derives this name from the story of Simon Magus told in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9-25. Simon sought to buy from the apostles the power to touch people and make them speak in other languages. They declined the sale.

Robert David "Bob" Simon (1941-2015) was an American TV correspondent for CBS News. He survived being beaten by a crowd in Belfast, Ireland, and being imprisoned and tortured for 40 days in Baghdad, only to be killed by a Mercedes Benz at a stoplight in New York City.

Answer: white

Vanna White (b. 1957) was hired as the hostess of American TV's "Wheel of Fortune" in 1982. She was not the first to turn the letters. She wrote a memoir, "Vanna Speaks," in 1987. Weird Al Yankovic wrote and performed the song "Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White."

The White King appears in Lewis Carroll's novel "Through the Looking Glass" (1871), as a fictional character based on the chess piece. "The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never never forget!" "You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."

David Coverdale recorded a solo album called "White Snake" in 1977 and then converted the traveling back-up band for that album into the group "Whitesnake" in 1978. They went on to remarkable success as an English rock band and released an album entitled "Whitesnake" in 1987.

Answer: hang

"Hang 'Em High" (1968) is the story of a man who survived lynching and became a U.S. marshal (Clint Eastwood). The production company, the Malpaso Company, was founded and owned by Mr. Eastwood, as well. Inger Stevens makes a fetching love interest.

To "hang out a shingle" is to start a business, especially a doctor's or lawyer's office. The shingle refers to a diploma or license to practice. This has been part of American slang since about 1830.

In surfing, to "hang ten" is to stand on the extreme front end of the board (with ten toes hanging over the end) while the back of the board is caught in the wave. The same can be said of a parallel maneuver on a skateboard.

Answer: trigger

Trigger (1934-1965) was a palomino grade horse ridden by the cowboy star Roy Rogers. Trigger was originally named Golden Cloud. When Trigger died, he was subjected to taxidermy and displayed in several museums.

Trigger finger happens when a finger's flexor tendon catches leaving the finger immobile and locked in a "cocked" position. One suggestion for the non-technical name of the condition is that, when it corrects itself, the involved finger pops back into place rather violently, as if released by the trigger of a gun.

Herman "Trigger" Alpert (1916-2013) was an American jazz bassist, both upright and electric. He traveled with Alvino Rey before joining the Glenn Miller Orchestra and appearing in "Sun Valley Serenade" (1941). He formed his own band and made his own recordings until settling into the CBS Orchestra.