The Ampersand Connection Trivia Quiz

Answer: Abelard & Heloise

I started with Abelard and Heloise because their passionate love affair and tragic separation make them one of the most celebrated couples of all time. Theirs is the story of the nine hundred year old love affair between the theologian Peter Abelard and his student Heloise d'Argenteuil.

Their letters and the details of their physical and spiritual relationship, i.e., their forbidden love, scandalized their community with its intellectual and sexual freedom; the tale will live on long after "Fifty Shades of Grey" is gone and forgotten. Antony and Cleopatra's love was in the B.C. era. Dante lived in the 13th century, and Petrarch in the 14th century.

Answer: Penn & Teller

Penn Gilette and Raymond Teller's act is that rare combination of comedy and magic. Penn is the tall, talkative one; Teller is the short, silent partner. They performed their first show together in Minnesota in August, 1975. (If you have to be in Minnesota, August is the time!).

They started out as a trio with Wier Chrisimer as the third member but, in 1981, Chrisimer quit, leaving the twosome. They have performed shows both on and off-Broadway; they have appeared on a great many TV shows, including the Emmy winning PBS special "Penn and Teller Go Public". Strangely enough, they credit their success to never having been close friends.

Answer: Clarence Thomas & Anita Hill

Anyone still remember Clarence Thomas quoted as saying "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke"? It came to light in 1991 when Thomas was nominated by George Bush I for the supreme court, despite Thomas' extremely short tenure as a judge. An FBI interview with attorney and academic Anita Hill was leaked to the press.

It seems, in 1981, Hill became adviser to Thomas who was working as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. He then became Chairman of the EEOC in 1982 and took Hill with him. Hill later publicly testified that he had sexually harassed her; there were back-up witnesses, but we know how this story ended.

Answer: Huntley & Brinkley

The "Huntley-Brinkley Report" featured Chet Huntley in New York City and David Brinkley in Washington. The news show succeeded newscaster John Cameron Swayze (who "took a lickin'", but couldn't keep on tickin', per his Timex ads), and was shown opposite the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite ("the most trusted man in America"). Chet and David didn't communicate with one another on the show except to say "Goodnight, Chet" and "Goodnight David", but the show did well and led them to anchoring the national political conventions. On February 16, 1970, Huntley announced his retirement, and signed off with "Good luck, David, and good night, for NBC News".

Answer: Penelope

We have read of the trials and tribulations of Odysseus, the Greek King of Ithaca, aka Ulysses, through Homer's epic poems "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad". We learn of the abduction of Helen, Menelaus and the Trojan War, the story of the Trojan horse and Odysseus' ten year perilous journey back home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. Before he was united with his family, he had to face such obstacles as the Cyclops Polyphemous, Circe and Her Sirens, the Lotus-Eaters, the Laestrygonians and Scylla and Charybdis.

When he finally got home, the disguised Odysseus faced yet another challenge, to win back his wife. Whew!

Answer: Meriwether and William

On March 6, 1801 Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was asked by President Jefferson to be his secretary-aide. Two years later he was selected to command an expedition, the 'Corps of Discovery'; he asked William Clark (1770-1838) to join him. On July 4, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was announced.

In 1804 the expedition began and, along the way, they met many tribes of indigenous people, and encountered the Shoshone woman called Sacagawea. They traveled over 8,000 miles in a year and a half and wound up in St. Louis, Missouri in 1806.

They were treated as national heroes. In 1809 Lewis committed suicide; in 1838 Clark died at the home of his son.

Answer: Marie and Pierre

Pierre Curie (1859-1906) was a French physicist who met and married his Polish physicist wife Marie Sklodowska (1867-1934) in the year 1895. Pierre and Marie were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903 for their pioneering work in radioactive studies. The curie, a unit of radioactivity, was named for Pierre. Marie won a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, a remarkable achievement.

She discovered radium and named Polonium after her homeland in Poland. Unfortunately, her work with radioactivity caused her untimely death.

The Curies had two daughters, Irene Joliot-Curie and Eve Curie. Marie said "Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood".

Answer: Currier & Ives

Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824-1895) began their partnership in 1857. The firm described itself as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Prints". They selected famous artists of the era, e.g., Buttersworth, Parsons and Nast, to create the original drawings from which Currier and Ives would produce hand-colored lithographs.

The pictures portrayed every aspect of American life, with small works selling for from five to twenty cents each, and larger works for $1 to $3 apiece. Nowadays, just an appraisal of a Currier and Ives print would cost at least $225 an hour, with the original prints going for anywhere from $400 to $15,000.

Answer: Sid & Nancy

The British group, The Sex Pistols, were a punk rock band formed in 1975. The members of the band included lead singer John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), Steve Jones, Paul Cook and bass guitarist Sid Vicious (from 1977-1978). When bassist Sid Vicious (1957-1979), born John Simon Ritchie, and Nancy Spungen (1958-1978) hooked up, their turbulent relationship negatively affected others, including band-mate Johnny Rotten and manager Malcolm McLaren. Sid and Nancy's co-dependent drug fueled lives were on a collision course with death, i.e., "Love Kills".

In 1986, an English biopic called (appropriately) "Sid and Nancy" was released.

Answer: Smith & Wesson

Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson founded their company, Smith and Wesson, in 1852. The company was headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, and produced firearms, ammunition and law enforcement goods. Smith and Wesson pistols and revolvers became the weapon of choice for both the police and the armed forces, and were a favorite of sharp-shooters as well.

Their guns have been featured in many Hollywood movies, most notably "Dirty Harry" in 1971. As far as the other pairs: Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson were the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Young and Rubicam is a large advertising firm with headquarters in NYC. Springfield and Winchester are rifle brands.