The XYZ Affair Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alvin York

Alvin York's early years were quite boisterous until he became a Christian. During World War I he registered as a conscientious objector but was persuaded to serve anyway. His heroism in France made him a national here. The film "Sergeant York" (1941) won Gary Cooper an Academy Award and received nine other nominations, although York himself objected to the filming.

Answer: Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, film/record producer, satirist, and author. His humorous songs parody and satirize popular culture and contemporary musical acts. He often redoes these songs in polka style with himself on the accordion. Here is his version of Michael Jackson's "Beat It":

"How come you're always such a fussy young man
Don't want no Cap'n Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran
Well don't you know that other kids are starvin' in Japan
So eat it, just eat it
Don't want to argue, I don't want to debate
Don't want to hear about what kinds of foods you hate
You won't get no dessert 'till you clean off your plate
So eat it".

Answer: Alan Young

Alan Young was British born but later had citizenship both in Canada and the United States. He is most remembered as Wilbur Post, the mild mannered straight man for Mr. Ed, the talking horse. He was also an on-camera star on early television and hosted his own variety/talk show for which he won two Emmys.

Answer: Xerxes

Xerxes I was the Persian king best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont that included the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenian Empire. He was assassinated.

Answer: Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa was a musician whose interest was expanding the world of music through his band "The Mothers of Invention". He experimented with several genres including rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète and issued over sixty albums. Trivia fans remark on the names chosen for his children: Dweezil Zappa (son), Moon Unit Zappa (daughter), Ahmet Zappa (son), and Diva Zappa (daughter).

Answer: Loretta Young

At the age of four, she made her first appearance as an actress and continued to appear in silent films, the sound era, and eventually television. She was equally comfortable in drama or comedy. She won an Academy award for her performance in "The Farmer's Daughter"(1947) as a woman in politics and a nomination for her role in "Come to the Stable" (1949) as a nun. Later she hosted a television dramatic anthology and a fairy tale series. Loretta Young sat in the desk in front of me in the third grade. I resisted the temptation to dunk her curls in my inkwell.-:)

Answer: William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats published his first volume of poetry in 1889. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Answer: Cale Yarborough

Cale Yarborough is one of the finest drivers in NASCAR history. Among his achievements were winning three consecutive championships, winning the Daytona 500 four times, and a three time winner of the Driver of the year award. After retirement he was briefly a car owner. He is sometimes confused with LeeRoy Yarbrough, another NASCAR driver, but they are close friends.

Answer: Robin Yount

Robin Yount played his twenty year career with the Milwaukee Brewers from 1974-93. He came up as a heralded shortstop but switched to centerfield in the latter part of his career. Voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was a All-Star (1980, 1982, 1983), Twice AL MVP (1982, 1989), Gold Glove Award (1982), and three time Silver Slugger Award (1980, 1982, and 1989).

Answer: Malcolm X

Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X as the X represented his unknown African heritage. After a disrupted youth, he eventually ended up in prison for larceny and breaking and entering. There he converted to Islam and rose to be minister in the militant Nation of Islam.

However, after a tour of Africa, he learned that the so-called nation of Islam was a far cry from the Islam practised in other parts of the world. Returning, he tried to divert black activists into a new direction thus causing dissonance in that community.

He was assassinated on February 19, 1965 by a group from Nation of Islam in a ritual slaying. Autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.

Answer: Neil Young

Neil Young is a very independent singer and songwriter. For awhile he was attached to the 'super' group of "Crosby, Stills & Nash". My two older sons were great fans of Neil Young and replayed his records over and over. I did notice a trend. If they were ever peeved with me they played "Old Man".

"Old man look at my life
I'm a lot like you were
Old man look at my life
I'm a lot like you were"

Answer: Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin was a Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation (1991 to 1999). Initially, a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev he emerged under perestroika as one of Gorbachev's political opponents. In the 1980s, Yeltsin rejected membership in the Politburo, and was the first person to do so. Yeltsin reportedly was a great lover of vodka.

He once tried to hail a cab in his underwear to order a pizza. Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure on 23 April 2007, aged 76.

Answer: Chuck Yeager

Charles "Chuck" Elwood Yeager will forever be remembered as the first man to break the sound barrier in an airplane. On October 14, 1947, he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet and exceeded the speed of sound. Yeager had a distinguished career also as a military flyer for the United States Air Force in World War II, the Cold War, and Vietnam.

His list of medals is extensive and many of his flying achievements still stand.

Answer: Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Babe Didrikson Zaharias is not arguably the greatest female athlete as no one can come up with a competitor. This is not based on a single sport but completive or dominance in many sports. Rather than try to list all her accomplishments, here are a few of her diverse achievements:

=== Didrikson won two gold medals and one silver medal for track and field in the 1932 Olympics. She set two world records -- 11.7 seconds in the 80m hurdles and 43.69m in the javelin throw. She finished second in the high jump with 1.7m after a jump-off.
=== Zaharias won 47 tournaments as a professional golfer, 10 of which are considered major tournaments.
=== After being diagnosed with cancer, she entered the US Women's Open after undergoing surgery in 1954 while wearing a colostomy bag.
=== Pitched against major league professional baseball players in exhibition games and held her own. She also organized a traveling basketball team.
=== Although not exactly a sport, won the sewing championship at the 1931 State Fair of Texas.
=== At an AAU track and field meet representing Employers' Casualty Insurance Company, she competed in 8 out of 10 events, winning 5 outright, tying for 1st in a 6th . Didrikson's performances were enough to win the team championship. She was the only member of the team.

Answer: Henny Youngman

Henny Youngman specialized in one-liners. Most of the jokes were not related to the one before. He carried a violin as a prop. Here are a few Henny Youngman jokes:

=== Getting on a plane, I told the ticket lady, "Send one of my bags to New York, send one to Los Angeles, and send one to Miami." She said, "We can't do that!" I told her, "You did it last week!"
=== A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.
=== Another drunk goes up to a parking meter, puts in a quarter, the dial goes to 60. The drunk says, "Huh. I lost 100 pounds!"
=== There was a girl knocking on my hotel room door all night! Finally, I let her out
===She's been married so many times she has rice marks on her face.
===A Polish man had his vasectomy done at Sears. Now when he makes love, the garage door goes up.