All The Cool People Are Doing It Quiz

Answer: pet rocks

Dahl thought up the idea in a bar in April 1975. Who wouldn't want a pet that required no care? The naturally smooth, rounded rocks came from Rosarito Beach in Baja California. By the following spring, people were starting to figure out that their pets were difficult to train and, like most pets from the wild, could become dangerous if thrown.

The fad was over, but Dahl was a millionaire and invested the money in his own bar.

Answer: flagpole sitting

The pole generally had a small platform. Food, water, and other necessities were allowed. It was all about sitting. Kelly began the fad with 13 hours and 13 minutes atop a pole, but by 1930, imitators managed weeks. By then, though, interest was declining in such stunts, when people's endurance was tested standing in employment lines and bread lines.

Answer: Macarena

The happy song with its simple dance makes even awkward dancers look graceful. The song peaked during the 1996 Democratic convention in August, and C-span captured the delegates performing it. Miss Piggy sang her version in the film Muppets Most Wanted. Delegates and muppets--surely that's proof of a song hitting the big-time.

Answer: Jenny Lind

Swedish singer Jenny Lind (1820-1877) toured the U.S. in 1850-1852. Her tour was managed by P. T. Barnum--yes, THE Barnum--and he conducted it with so much hype that people started to believe she was really as good as he said she was, and her tour became a sensation. But it didn't end there. A fad of naming things after her began. You may have heard of Jenny Lind beds, but there's also:

--In Mammoth Cave, KY, a natural rock formation, "Jenny Lind's Armchair"
--A green-fleshed melon
--A building style in KY and WV, with no studs in the walls
--The town of Jenny Lind in Calaveras County, CA
--A stone tower built in North Truro, MA.
--A type of locomotive, the first one admittedly named before her U.S. tour, the rest afterward
--A ship, the Nightingale, named after her nickname Swedish Nightingale. The Boston owners offered an international race challenge in the 1850s, England to China and back, 10,000 pounds, with no takers
--Jenny Lind Polka, music as a tribute to her
--Lind-Bohannan neighborhood of St. Paul, MN, where she shares billing with a local develope.
--A steam ferry across San Francisco Bay, CA, which tragically exploded with great loss of life
--Jenny Lind potatoes, no longer of interest to gardeners
--Jenny Lind cake, a plain sort of white cake
--A song, "Jenny Lind Mania," itself cashing in on the mania, listed more things: bonnets, collars, sugar, cocoa, pipes, tobacco...
You get the idea.

Answer: dance

Dance marathons offered free meals and maybe a chance at a rigged prize to Depression era couples who didn't mind dragging themselves through endless dancing, plus sadistic races and other "games" in peak audience hours. Audiences enjoyed watching the contestants fail, but other groups complained about the danger to health and morals.

By the 1940s, Americans had a war to worry about, and the fad intensity of the entertainment ended.

Answer: Rubik's cube

The fascinating and frustrating puzzle had everyone rotating sides of a cube and learning algorithms on the way to matching all the colors, even that stubborn last one in the corner. The cube has come down from fad level, but still has many faithful fans, working for speed or other challenges.

Answer: the twist

Hank Ballard wrote "The Twist" in 1959 after seeing some Florida teenagers already twisting. Dick Clark, popular for "American Bandstand" and "The Dick Clark Show" on TV, saw potential but wanted a more wholesome artist. He got Chubby Checker to record it the same year, popularized it, and the rest is a few years of history.

The dance had two combined elements that made its popularity soar: It was easy to do (just swivel your hips) and it looked sexy enough to upset old fogies.

Answer: beanie with propeller on top

Ray Faraday Nelson of Cadillac, Michigan added a propeller to the top of a beanie as a science fiction symbol, while still in 10th grade. Science fiction fans and kids in general loved the idea of the hat that looked like it could fly away with them. Adding to its popularity, the puppet star on the popular TV show "Time for Beany" wore one. Ads sold them in the backs of magazines.

They were offered cheap at fairs and carnivals, and they continued to look cool into the 1950s. Then they didn't, and people moved on to other fads.

Answer: streaking

Supposedly, a reporter at a 1973 planned nude run by over 500 University of Maryland students said on air, "They are streaking past me right now," and a new meaning of the word "streak" was born. Ethel comes from Ray Stevens' song "The Streak," which appeared at the height of the worldwide fad, in the spring of 1974.

The idea was to run naked in a public location, a watching crowd and live TV coverage being ideal. Sporting events were most popular, though the Academy Awards had a streaker too. The shock value and novelty have faded, and in the US, public nudity comes with a risk of the lifelong stigma of a sex offense, though some places look the other way, like Ethel, and still let college students have fun with non-disruptive streaks.

Answer: telephone booths

Students in South Africa announced in the spring of 1959 that they had squeezed 25 young men into a phone booth. The challenge was on, and students from England to Canada to the US started planning their stuffing strategies and arguing over rules. Other items were used for stuffing too, most notably cars, and probably even some of the wrong choices above, but in 1959, phone booths were where people were at.