Simon Says (Part 4) Trivia Quiz

Answer: He is an economist

Herbert Alexander Simon (1916-2001) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978. And in 1975 he received the Turing Award, an honor given to individuals for their contributions "of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field". One of his career goals was to formulate a connection between economic theory and mathematics and statistics. He developed his interest in computer science and artificial intelligence in order to use computers to study philosophical problems of the nature of intelligence.

Answer: Simon Bolivar

Simón Bolívar was nicknamed The Liberator for his freeing Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru from the Spanish rule. He was inspired by the American and French Revolutions. The nation of Bolivia and its currency (the Bolivian boliviano - and for that matter, also and the Venezuelan bolívar), are both named after Bolívar.

Answer: Simon Stevin

Simon Gruber is a fictional character, played by actor Jeremy Irons, the villain in the movie "Die Hard with a Vengeance." Simon Adebisi was the fictional sadistic inmate from Nigeria in the Emmy-winning HBO prison drama "Oz." He was played by actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Simon Boccanegra is also a fictional character, a pirate in a Verdi opera called "Simon Boccanegra."

Simon Stevin was a mathematician, physicist and engineer who made important contributions to those fields. It was believed for some time that he invented the mathematical use of decimal fractions until some evidence emerged suggesting that decimals were used much earlier. He did indeed however invent a sort of yacht that traveled on land. His hydraulic engineering work helped improve the efficiency of windmills.

Answer: David Simon

Simon Adjei was a Swedish soccer player. Simon Farine was a Canadian basketball player. André Simon was a French racing car driver.

David Simon was born on the exact same day as I was in 1960. His work for the Baltimore Sun newspaper for twelve years no doubt informed his work in creating the lauded television show "The Wire" perhaps the best ever crime drama regular TV series. Before working on "The Wire" he was a writer on "Homicide: Life on the Street".

Answer: Simon the Zealot

Not much is known about Simon the Zealot; he was indeed one of the lesser known apostles of Jesus. Like the other Apostles, Simon is regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church. His name does not mean that he belonged to the party of Zealots, but simply that he had zeal for Jewish law.

Those other Simons listed didn't exist.

Answer: Paul Simon

The October 12, 1990 issue of the "International Herald Tribune" cites Mr. Simon with this pithy saying. Paul Simon we know as a guitarist and songwriter and singer, so what Academy Award was he nominated for? Of course it was a music-related category. He was nominated for Best Song with "Father and Daughter" from "The Wild Thornberrys Movie" in 2002.

Answer: Canada

The fossils were found in Canada's Rocky Mountains by a construction worker, and were brought to the attention of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1886. Almost a century later, in the 1970s, Simon Conway Morris and others studied the fossils. Their publications were popularized in author/scientist Stephen Jay Goulds' book "Wonderful Life."

Belarus, Moldova, and Gambia have virtually no mountains.

Answer: Neil Simon

All these gentlemen are writers, but only Neil Simon won Pulitzer Prize--it was for Drama in 1991 for "Lost in Yonkers." Mr. Simon has taken this advice in the past; Robert Redford says that Neil Simon took a chance in casting him for the Broadway play "Barefoot in the Park." And look how that turned out. In Mr. Simon's own writing career it has been noted that as he got older, he took a professional risk and abandoned crowd-pleasing comedies for deeper and somewhat darker dramatic theatre, and a Pulitzer.

Answer: hypothalamic structure

Simon LeVay's quote is from "Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality", 1996, Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 9. His findings, published in Science regarded "A difference in hypothalamic structure between heterosexual and homosexual men".

The article revealed that he found a difference in average size between the third Interstitial Nucleus of the Anterior Hypothalamus (INAH3) in the brains of heterosexual men and homosexual men. The average difference was significant: over twice as large in heterosexual men. Levay himself warned about misinterpreting his finding, saying that his finding did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or that he found a genetic cause for homosexuality. "I didn't show that gay men are born that way" he said, cautioning that that was the most common mistake people make. Nor did he locate a part of the brain responsible for homosexuality.

Answer: Psycho

It's a detailed speech the psychiatrist delivers at the end of "Psycho" explaining some of the things the audience witnessed. Hitchcock could've left it at that after that speech with Vera Miles and John Gavin exiting the police station and rolling the credits, but wisely, Hitchcock cuts instead to a close-up of norman Bates sitting in his jail cell. And very creepily we hear Bates' Mother's thoughts infiltrate Norman's head. Actress Virginia Gregg voiced the other character in the film's finale. Hitchcock thusly undercuts the psychiatrist's attempt to explain Norman's insanity in a nicely boxed up package.

Instead his madness is appropriately mystified.