The Just in Case You Were Wondering Quiz

Answer: Diamond Jim Brady

Dinner was his main meal after having polished off thousands of calories at breakfast and lunch. A typical dinner would include dozens of oysters, six or seven lobsters, a dozen crabs, steak, terrapin, green turtle soup, two canvasback ducks, pastries, orange juice and two pounds of chocolate for dessert.

But this wasn't all! After the theater, he had supper consisting of game birds, wild fowl and more orange juice. New York restaurateur, George Recto, said he was the "best 25 customers I ever had." After Brady's death, an autopsy showed that he had a stomach 6 times larger than the average person.

Answer: Manure and Farm Debris

Mushrooms are fungi and contain no chlorophyll. They are not dependent on the sun to grow and are called saprophytic, getting their nutrients from decomposing organic matter. But don't worry, the mushrooms you get at the market are perfectly safe, just don't go hunting mushrooms in the woods unless you are an expert in determining a mushroom from a (possibly) poisonous toadstool.

Answer: West Virginia

In most states it's illegal to carry your road kill home but not in West Virginia. There is a string attached though. They have to report it to the state within 12 hours (wonder why?). This law enacted in 1998 was supposed to save money as the state wouldn't have to pick up and dispose of the carcass.

Answer: Atlanta, Georgia

If you've never been to the Varsity in Atlanta, you just haven't lived. (There's one in Athens, Ga. too.) It's located across from Georgia Tech and when there is a home football game, the Varsity may serve over 30,000 customers in one day. The Varsity can accommodate 600 cars at one time. What do they serve? WONDERFUL chili dogs, GREAT fried onion rings and fries and SUPERIOR fried pies plus a very special orange drink.

The Varsity is known for serving more Coke in a year than any other single U.S. restaurant.

Answer: Pepperoni

Hands down - pepperoni comes out on top. It's ordered on about 36% of pizzas and Americans eat about 251,770,000 pounds of it in a year. Anchovies are the least preferred. In Pakistan, they like curry on their pizza. Costa Ricans go for coconut, the Chileans like their mussels and clams but Japanese like eels and squid on their pizza. Can't think of anything worse!

Answer: Cranberry

Of all the fruits that we can grow or buy in the grocery store, only three are native to North America----Concord grapes, the blueberry and cranberries. Cranberries are called bounceberries because they bounce when ripe This can be used to tell the ripe berries from the immature berries at harvest time.

Answer: no

Everyone seems to think so but it just "ain't true". Tempura was taken to Japan by the Jesuit missionaries in about 1585. The word "tempura" comes from a Portuguese word "temporras" which means "Friday"....the day that deep fried fish was eaten.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln made it official in 1863 to commemorate that first Thanksgiving in 1621. Thanksgiving was already being celebrated in 21 out of 30 states but it took Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of
Godey's Lady's Book who had been campaigning for a national Thanksgiving Day since 1846 to influence Lincoln and make it happen.

Answer: Hard Cider

Americans preferred domestically produced alcohols. Hard cider was made from apples but there were also pear and a peach versions. Cider was very popular because it was cheap and easy to make.

Answer: Lasagne

The Italian word "lasagne" comes from the Roman word "lasania" which meant cooking pot. Some historians took it further back to the Latin word for "lasania" which is "lasanum" and suggests this word means "chamber pot".