Variety Pack 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

London and Calgary are both close to the latitude of 52 degrees North. San Francisco and Athens are both much farther South at 38 degrees North, while Helsinki is farther North at 60 degrees North.

Answer: Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombecks's column, 'At Wit's End', debuted in a Ohio newspaper in 1964, when Erma was 37. She was paid {$3} a column. By the following year her column had become widely popular, and it was nationally syndicated, running twice weekly in some 500 newspapers. Erma died of kidney failure in 1996, at the age of 69.

Answer: Coronado

Coronado was a Spanish explorer who explored the American Southwest from 1540 to 1542, based on reports of such cities, particularly the report in 1539 from Marcos de Niza, a Spanish missionary priest, who claimed to have seen a golden city, Cibola, among the Zuni Indians in the region.

Answer: Mars

Answer: let the buyer beware

While a healthy skepticism is always a good way to approach a deal that sounds too good to be true, consumer protection laws in place in most U.S. states now give the unwary buyer at least some protection against unscrupulous dealers.

Answer: curling

Curling aficionados claim it is actually more like chess on ice, because of the finesse and strategy involved. The origin of the sport is a bit obscure, but it was probably started in 16th-century Scotland, and brought to North America by Scottish soldiers during the French and Indian War.

Answer: California gold miners

Strauss came to the U.S. at age eighteen, and went to San Francisco two years later during the California gold rush of 1849. His pants were enormously successful and came to be known as 'Levis'.

Answer: tin

From the Latin stannum.

Answer: rugby

Rugby football originated in the United Kingdom in the 1800's, and is now played worldwide. It is a fast contact sport in which each team tries to get the ball over the opponent's goal line. A scrum restarts play after one of the teams has committed a minor violation, such as a forward pass.

In a scrum, the two opposing sets of forwards link themselves together tightly, bending forward from the waist to form a tunnellike formation. The halfback from the team not responsible for the violation 'feeds' the ball into the tunnel.

The two sets of forwards push from opposite sides as soon as the ball enters the scrum. Each side attempts to move the scrum into a position that allows its hooker to heel the ball back through his own team scrum to gain possession.

Answer: South Africa

'Cry, the Beloved Country' is a passionate tale of racial injustice in South Africa, and was responsible for bringing worldwide attention to the apartheid system in place in South Africa. None of Paton's later books was as popular as his first one, but he became politically active by starting the Liberal Party in 1953, and headed it until it was outlawed by the government in 1968.

Answer: historian

Known as the 'father of history', Herodotus lived in the fifth century B.C.

Answer: the Rock of Gibraltar

Tokyo and the Rock of Gibraltar both have a latitude of 36 degrees North. Bern lies at 47, Rome at 42, and Paris at 49.

Answer: the die has been cast

The Rubicon was the boundary between ancient Italy and the province of Cisalpine Gaul. When Julius Caesar crossed it in 49 B.C. he passed beyond the limits of his province of Cisalpine Gaul and became an invader in Italy, thus starting a war with Pompey and the Senate of Rome. The terms 'the die has been cast', or 'crossing the Rubicon' have come to mean 'there is no turning back now'.

Answer: 10

There are 5 times 4 times 3 equal 60 ways (permutations) if order matters. But if order does not matter, then we have to divide by six (3 times 2 times 1, the permutations of the three) to get the answer of 10, the number of 'combinations' of '5 things taken 3 at a time'.

Answer: Don McLean

Don McLean's classic song 'American Pie' remains an enduring favorite, and can still be heard on the radio. When asked if he ever got tired of singing it, McLean responded, 'No, why should I? That song has made me a millionaire'. To me this is a refreshing attitude, in contrast to many singers who let their own current preferences take precedence over what the audience came to hear. Ricky Nelson once had such a serious clash in this regard at a concert at Madison Square Garden that he wrote a song 'Garden Party' about the incident, saying 'You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself instead'.