An American in Puerto Vallarta -- Quiz Quilt 172 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Entertainment & Food	What star of the 1987 movie Throw Momma from the Train also directed it?
Geography & Nature	After Alaska, which U.S. state has the most area that is covered by water?
Literature & Arts	In Greek mythology, what woman did Hippomenes defeat in a race when she stopped to pick up three golden apples that he intentionally dropped to slow her down?
History & Government	What was the last Confederate state to rejoin the Union after the Civil War?
Math & Science	What mathematician created the Basis Theorem in 1888?
Sports & Games	What Italian soccer star helped the New York Cosmos win the Soccer Bowl in 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1982?

Double Sports - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) L.C. Greenwood. The 6'6" defensive end, whose initials apparently don't stand for anything (he wrote his full name as L.C. Henderson Greenwood) liked to joke about becoming an actor but ended up running an electrical and plumbing supply company after retiring from football.
• A2) J.D. Drew. David Jonathan Drew was known by his middle name Jon, so "J.D. Drew" effectively expands to the redundant "Jon Drew Drew".
• A3) M.L. Carr. Michael Leon Carr guided the Celtics to a 15-67 record in 1996-97 and a franchise-worst .293 (48-116) over two seasons before being kicked upstairs to become Director of Corporate Development.
• A4) B.J. Ryan. Robert Victor Ryan, Jr. (from "Bobby Junior") had saved 36 games and sported a 2.43 ERA with the Baltimore Orioles in 2005 before the Toronto Blue Jays offered the huge free agent bucks.
• A5) C.C. Sabathia. Lefty Carsten Charles Sabathia inked the deal with the New York Yankees, after winning the 2007 American League Cy Young Award and helping the Milwaukee Brewers win the 2008 National League Wild Card.
• A6) O.J. Simpson. Orenthal James Simpson notched a then-record 2,003 yards rushing in 1973, for a 14-game average of 143.1 yards. The four other 2,000-yard rushers each needed a 16-game season to reach the milestone.
• A7) Y.A. Tittle. Hall-of-Famer Yelberton Abraham Tittle was named MVP in both 1961 and 1963 with the New York Giants but retired after a disappointing 1964 season that included a concussion and a broken sternum.
• A8) C.J. Hunter. Cottrell James Hunter, III was married to Marion Jones at the time, and she was stripped of her three golds and two bronzes from those Olympics for taking performance-enhancing drugs.
• A9) A.J. Burnett. Allan James Burnett debuted with the Florida Marlins in 1999 and overcame 2003 Tommy John surgery.
• A10) A.C. Green. The power forward, whose initials don't stand for anything (he's actually A.C. Green, Jr.), played every regular season game from November 19, 1986 to April 18, 2001, a span of 1,192 consecutive games, and missed only three of 1,281 games in his career, which ended after a three-and-out in the 2000-01 postseason.
• A11) P.J. Carlesimo. Peter Joseph Carlesimo was head coach of the Golden State Warriors when the temperamental guard and forward lost his cool, eventually getting suspended for 68 games and getting traded to the New York Knicks.
• A12) A.J. Foyt. Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr. took the checkered flag at the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1977, the Daytona 500 in 1972, Le Mans in 1967 (with Dan Gurney), and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1983 (with Preston Henn, Bob Wollek, and Claude Ballot-Lena) and 1985 (with Wollek, Al Unser Sr., and Thierry Boutsen). The Texan is also the only driver to win Indy and Le Mans in the same year.

Double Sports - Random Trivia Questions

This second followup to the recent mystery quiz focuses just on athletes. Take a bonus point for each initial that you can expand correctly.

Double Sports Questions

• Q1) What member of the NFL's Steel Curtain was nicknamed "Hollywood Bags"?
• Q2) What Florida State baseball player was the Golden Spikes Award winner, Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year, and Sporting News Player of the Year in 1997, eleven years before earning the MLB All-Star Game MVP award?
• Q3) What coach led the Boston Celtics to their worst season record ever?
• Q4) What Major League Baseball pitcher set a reliever record by signing a five-year, $47-million contract in November 2005?
• Q5) What Major League Baseball pitcher set a hurler record by signing a seven-year, $161-million contract in December 2008?
• Q6) What NFL running back rushed for the highest average yards per game in an NFL season?
• Q7) What NFL quarterback set the standard with 36 passing touchdowns in 1963?
• Q8) What U.S. shot putter qualified for the 2000 Olympic team but tested positive for Nandrolone before he could compete?
• Q9) What MLB pitcher was drafted by the New York Mets in 1995, threw a no-hitter in 2001, and led the American League in strikeouts in 2008?
• Q10) Who holds the NBA record for consecutive games played?
• Q11) What NBA coach did Latrell Sprewell attempt to choke during a 1997 practice?
• Q12) Who is the only driver to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the 24 Hours of Daytona?

African African Fly Fly -- Quiz Quilt 171 Solution

Category Answers:

Math & Science	PHLOGISTON	J.J. Becher dreamed up the theory in the late 17th century but Stahl popularized it while he was chair of medicine at the University of Halle.
Sports & Games	WILLIAMS	Billy Williams's record lasted until Steve Garvey became the new ironman on April 16, 1983.
History & Government	CARNEGIE	Immigrant Andrew Carnegie also worked as a telegraph operator.
Literature & Arts	HERACLITUS	The philosopher, who lived from 535 to 475 B.C., cried about the feebleness and foolishness of man. Democritus was called the Laughing Philosopher.
Entertainment & Food	MARSALIS	Wynton and Branford Marsalis also have a trombone-playing brother Delfeayo and a drum-playing brother Jason.
Geography & Nature	VANCOUVER	Vancouver, British Columbia is nicknamed Terminal City because the harbor town was selected as the western end of the transcontinental railway in 1885.

Quiz Quilt Answer: TSETSE (Eight letters)

The tsetse fly, also spelled Ski Dzki, is infamous for spreading diseases by biting healthy animals after picking up organisms from infected hosts.

African African Fly Fly -- Quiz Quilt 171 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Math & Science	What substance did German scientist George Stahl think combustion and rusting involved?
Sports & Games	What player ended his then-record National League consecutive game streak at 1,117 games on September 3, 1970?
History & Government	What famous American businessman was born in Scotland in 1835 and worked as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory?
Literature & Arts	What Greek was known as the Weeping Philosopher?
Entertainment & Food	What Louisiana-born brothers are jazz bandleaders who play the trumpet and saxophone respectively?
Geography & Nature	Which Canadian city was originally called Granville and is the home of Stanley Park?

Double Trouble - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) B.B. King. Although Riley B. King (the B.B. stands not for his first and middle names but "Beale Street Blues Boy") has gone through several guitars since then, he continues to name them Lucille to remind himself that it wasn't worth risking his life to save his instrument.
• A2) D.B. Cooper. The thief actually boarded as Dan Cooper, and the name D.B. was simply an error that occurred during reporting. Some of the money was discovered in 1980, but Cooper was never found.
• A3) T.E. Lawrence. Thomas Edward Lawrence had swerved to avoid two young bicyclists and was tossed over his handlebars, passing away less than a week later at age 46.
• A4) W.C. Fields. William Claude Dukenfield also played on his hatred of women, children, and animals in his act, but he did marry and have two sons (one with a girlfriend after his wife's death).
• A5) E.F. Hutton. Edward Francis Hutton also served as chairman of General Foods Corporation. The former E.F. Hutton company is now split between Citigroup and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
• A6) P.T. Barnum. Phineas Taylor Barnum is famous for claiming, "There's a sucker born every minute", but the true originator was probably David Hannum, a banker who was referring to Barnum's copying the Cardiff Giant and passing it off as the real thing (ironic, since the original was a hoax as well).
• A7) I.M. Pei. Ieoh Ming Pei also worked on dozens of other buildings, including Boston's John Hancock Tower (although he defers credit to Henry Cobb) and Manhattan's Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital.
• A8) M.C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher mused, "It is, for example, great fun deliberately to confuse two and three dimensions, the plane and space, or to poke fun at gravity".
• A9) W.C. Handy. William Christopher Handy (not B.B. King again, of course) learned to play guitar and secretly joined a band against the wishes of his pastor father in Alabama. Handy has a city park named after him on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
• A10) B.F. Skinner. Writer Jon Vitti was President of the Harvard Lampoon, and used the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, as inspiration for Principal W. Seymour Skinner.
• A11) D.W. Griffith. Director David [Llewelyn] Wark Griffith is famous for his camera work but almost equally infamous for denigrating blacks and supporting the Ku Klux Klan.
• A12) L.L. Bean. Leon Leonwood Bean obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders and mailed sales circulars to all of them.

Double Trouble - Random Trivia Questions

As a follow-up to last week's mystery quiz, can you name the following people who are best known by two initials? Take a bonus point for each initial that you can expand correctly.

Double Trouble Questions

• Q1) What musician named his guitar Lucille in 1949 after rescuing it from a kerosene fire started by two men fighting over a woman named Lucille?
• Q2) What criminal hijacked a Boeing 727 on the day before Thanksgiving in 1971 and parachuted out somewhere over southwest Washington with $200,000 in ransom money that he was given after landing once?
• Q3) What illegitimate son of Thomas Chapman and Sarah Junner survived the Battles of Aqaba and Maysaloun and helped capture Damascus in 1918 but was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after leaving the service?
• Q4) What comedian remarked, "A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her", "I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food", and "I drink therefore I am"?
• Q5) With his brother Franklyn in San Francisco in 1904, what Wall Street trader founded a brokerage firm that would eventually be acquired by Shearson Lehman Brothers 84 years later for a billion dollars?
• Q6) What showman created the first public aquarium in the U.S. as part of his American Museum three years after the London Zoo opened?
• Q7) What architect's public projects began with East Garden City, New York's Roosevelt Field Mall in 1951 and include Boston's Christian Science Center, JFK Airport's Sundrome, New York City's Javits Convention Center, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Charlotte's NASCAR Hall of Fame?
• Q8) What artist's reality-bending works include Tower of Babel, Metamorphosis I, Reptiles, Ascending and Descending, and Snakes?
• Q9) What blues musician's songs included "Ole Miss Rag", "Yellow Dog Blues", and "Beale Street Blues"?
• Q10) What Harvard psychology professor's name was given to a character on the Simpsons television show?
• Q11) What director helped usher in the era of feature films with "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915 and "Intolerance" in 1916?
• Q12) Who founded a mail order company in 1912, originally selling waterproof boots to hunters?

Shoe Guy or Black Eye -- Quiz Quilt 170 Solution

Category Answers:

Math & Science	EULER	Leonhard Euler, the coiner of the mathematical term "function", was the first person to apply calculus to physics.
History & Government	BALDRIGE	Malcolm Baldrige's sister Letitia has advised readers in twenty books over the last half century.
Literature & Arts	QUEEN	The historical fiction books appeared in 1976 and 1993.
Entertainment & Food	VERDI	Giuseppe Verdi's story of the Ethiopian princess-turned slave was originally intended to debut for the opening of the Suez Canal but was not ready in time.
Sports & Games	SMITH	Robyn Smith, the first woman to win a major stakes race, was 44 years younger than the dancing actor.
Geography & Nature	LAGOS	The capital was changed to Abuja because of Lagos's bad location and congestion.

Quiz Quilt Answer: SHINER (Last letters going up)

A shoeshine boy may polish your shoes, while a hit to the face may give you a shiner, or black eye.

Shoe Guy or Black Eye -- Quiz Quilt 170 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Math & Science	What Swiss mathematician wrote Theory of the Motions of Rigid Bodies and Mechanica?
History & Government	Who was Ronald Reagan's commerce secretary whose sister is an etiquette expert?
Literature & Arts	What maternal sequel did Alex Haley put out seventeen years after Roots?
Entertainment & Food	What Italian composed the opera Aida in 1871?
Sports & Games	What female jockey married Fred Astaire in 1980?
Geography & Nature	Which populous city in Nigeria was its capital until 1991?

Mystery Authors - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) E.M. Forster. Edward Morgan Forster's novels were originally published in 1924, 1908, 1971 (posthumously completed), 1905, and 1910.
• A2) G.K. Chesterton. Gilbert Keith Chesterton eventually featured the priestly prober in 52 short stories, eventually compiled into five books over two and half decades.
• A3) P.J. O'Rourke. Patrick Jake O'Rourke has used humor to great effect in fifteen books and countless articles. In 1994, he claimed in All the Trouble in the World, "Of course, the humans in Haiti have hope. They hope to leave."
• A4) P.L. Travers. Pamela Lyndon Travers created Mary Poppins in 1934 and penned seven sequels over the next 54 years.
• A5) H.G. Wells. Herbert George Wells had diabetes and may have died from it (or maybe from liver cancer).
• A6) A.A. Milne. Although Alan Alexander Milne was more famous for his children's stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, he was a more prolific playwright, authoring 25 plays between 1917 and 1951.
• A7) T.H. White. The books, collectively known as The Once and Future King, were published from 1938 to 1958, with the second installment originally titled The Witch in the Wood.
• A8) J.M. Barrie. James Matthew Barrie introduced Peter Pan in the play Peter Pan: or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up in 1904, seven years before he turned it into the novel Peter and Wendy.
• A9) C.S. Lewis. Clive Staples Lewis also penned numerous essays and letters about Christianity, to which he converted midway through his life.
• A10) P.G. Wodehouse. Pelham Grenville Wodehouse introduced Jeeves the valet (responsible for taking care of a person, not a house like a butler) in the 1916 short story "Jeeves Takes Charge". The search engine can now be found at the web site ask.com.
• A11) W.H. Auden. Wystan Hugh Auden also elegized another thematic author in "In Memory of W.B. Yeats".
• A12) T.S. Eliot. Thomas Stearns Eliot studied philosophy at Harvard University in the U.S., the University of Paris in France, and Oxford University in England, where he settled down and got married before returning to Harvard in his 40s.

As you have no doubt realized by now, all of this week's answers are best known by their first and middle initials.

Mystery Authors - Random Trivia Questions

Although at initial glance this quiz seems to be misnamed, as most of the questions aren't about mystery writers, you will soon realize that the mystery at hand is, "What's the connection?" It won't take much sleuthing to figure the answer out.

Mystery Authors Questions

• Q1) What author's novels were turned into the movies A Passage to India (1984), A Room with a View (1985), Maurice (1987), Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991), and Howards End (1992)?
• Q2) What author's fictional detective Father Brown debuted in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911?
• Q3) According to the television show 60 Minutes what living person has the most entries in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations?
• Q4) What novelist appeared as Titania in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and wrote I Go By Sea, I Go By Land, Gingerbread Shop, Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party, The Magic Compass, and Friend Monkey in addition to her most famous stories?
• Q5) What English author cofounded The Diabetic Association charity, now known as Diabetes UK, in 1934?
• Q6) What author adapted Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows into the play Toad of Toad Hall in 1929 and turned Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice into the play Miss Elizabeth Bennet in 1936?
• Q7) What author's most famous work was the tetralogy consisting of The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind?
• Q8) What Scottish novelist began his career with Auld Licht Idylls in 1888, and wrote Quality Street, The Admirable Crichton, and The Little White Bird in the years leading up to his most famous play?
• Q9) What novelist and essayist published poetry using the last name Hamilton, was known to his friends as Jack, and passed away on the same day as John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley?
• Q10) For what author's character was the Internet search engine Ask Jeeves named?
• Q11) What author's 400 poems include "Stop all the clocks" (a.k.a., "Funeral Blues"), "In Memory of Sigmund Freud", "The Fall of Rome", and "The Shield of Achilles"?
• Q12) What writer was more famous for his poetry but also created the plays The Rock, Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk, and The Elder Statesman from 1926 to 1958?

A to D -- Quiz Quilt 169 Solution

Category Answers:

History & Government	HUGHES	Howard Hughes's 150-ton Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat, which traveled 3,000 feet in its only flight on November 2, 1947, was actually mostly constructed from birch.
Math & Science	WHITE	The compound is the most commonly used white pigment in the world.
Entertainment & Food	MYERS	Comedian Mike Myers portrayed both the groovy title character and his unhip nemesis Dr. Evil in the spoof and its two sequels.
Literature & Arts	RERUN	The Linus look-alike debuted on March 26, 1973.
Geography & Nature	YUKON	The region was part of the Northwest Territories until 1898, when the Canadian government split it off to install a local government to deal with the Klondike Gold Rush.
Sports & Games	BUFFER	Booming baritone Michael Buffer began announcing boxing matches in the 1980s.

Quiz Quilt Answer: FOURTH (Fourth letters going up)

In music, the interval from an A to a D, five half-steps, is called a fourth.

A to D -- Quiz Quilt 169 Puzzle

Category Questions:

History & Government	What American built the flying boat The Spruce Goose for $40 million?
Math & Science	What color is titanium dioxide?
Entertainment & Food	What Saturday Night Live cast member wrote and starred in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997?
Literature & Arts	Who is Linus and Lucy Van Pelt's younger brother in the Peanuts comic strip?
Geography & Nature	Which present-day province or territory, directly east of Alaska, did Canada acquire from the Hudson Bay Company in 1870?
Sports & Games	What sports announcer is famous for his "Let's get ready to rumble!" call?

Horoscope Horror - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) F. Tyler (1790), Idle (1943), Frazier (1945), Bailey (1918), and McCarthy (1916) were all rams born on March 29.
• A2) K. Grant (1822), Klugman (1922), Gervin (1952), Frehley (1951), and Kasem (1932) were all bulls born on April 27.
• A3) E. Kennedy (1917), Hope (1903), Anthony (1984), Etheridge (1961), and Hinckley (1955) were all twins born on May 29.
• A4) A. Ford (1913), Fox (1966), Hudson (1975), Taboo (1975), and Bergman (1918) were all crabs born on July 14.
• A5) C. Hoover (1874), Arquette (1959), Bowe (1967), Fisher (1928), and Brunson (1933) were all lions born on August 10.
• A6) G. Johnson (1908), Herman (1952), Thome (1970), Mario (1986), and Brown (1959) were all virgins born on August 27.
• A7) D. Carter (1924), Andrews (1935), McGwire (1963), Verlinden (1997), and Margolis (1965) were all scales born on October 1.
• A8) J. Roosevelt (1858), Cleese (1939), Quinn (1984), Le Bon (1958), and Plath (1932) were all scorpions born on October 27.
• A9) L. Taylor (1784), Heigl (1978), Robertson (1938), Best (1941), and Bundy (1946) were all archers born on November 24.
• A10) H. Nixon (1913), Denver (1935), Ocho Cinco (1978), Page (1944), and Enberg (1935) were all goats born on January 9.
• A11) I. Reagan (1911), Gabor (1917), Ruth (1895), Astley (1966), and Brokaw (1940) were all water carriers born on February 6.
• A12) B. Cleveland (1837), Graves (1926), Blair (1964), Latifah (1970), and Updike (1932) were all fish born on March 18.

Horoscope Horror - Random Trivia Questions

Who's a ram, and who's a crab? Who's the salt of the earth, and who's on fire? Can you match up each set of five famous people (second column) with their western astrological sign (first column) for one point each?

Horoscope Horror Questions

Sign	People
Q1) Aries (March 21-April 19)	A) President: Gerald Ford, Actor: Matthew Fox, Athlete: Tim Hudson, Musician: Taboo, Other: Ingmar Bergman
Q2) Taurus (April 20-May 20)	B) President: Grover Cleveland, Actor: Peter Graves, Athlete: Bonnie Blair, Musician: Queen Latifah, Other: John Updike
Q3) Gemini (May 21-June 20)	C) President: Herbert Hoover, Actor: Rosanna Arquette, Athlete: Riddick Bowe, Musician: Eddie Fisher, Other: Doyle Brunson
Q4) Cancer (June 21-July 22)	D) President: Jimmy Carter, Actor: Julie Andrews, Athlete: Mark McGwire, Musician: Sam Verlinden, Other: Cindy Margolis
Q5) Leo (July 23-August 22)	E) President: John F. Kennedy, Actor: Bob Hope, Athlete: Carmelo Anthony, Musician: Melissa Etheridge, Other: John Hinckley, Jr.
Q6) Virgo (August 23-September 22)	F) President: John Tyler, Actor: Eric Idle, Athlete: Walt Frazier, Musician: Pearl Bailey, Other: Eugene McCarthy
Q7) Libra (September 23-October 22)	G) President: Lyndon Johnson, Actor: Pee-wee Herman, Athlete: Jim Thome, Musician: Mario [Dewar Barrett], Other: Downtown Julie Brown
Q8) Scorpio (October 23-November 21)	H) President: Richard Nixon, Actor: Bob Denver, Athlete: Chad Ocho Cinco, Musician: Jimmy Page, Other: Dick Enberg
Q9) Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)	I) President: Ronald Reagan, Actor: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Athlete: Babe Ruth, Musician: Rick Astley, Other: Tom Brokaw
Q10) Capricorn (December 22-January 19)	J) President: Theodore Roosevelt, Actor: John Cleese, Athlete: Brady Quinn, Musician: Simon Le Bon, Other: Sylvia Plath
Q11) Aquarius (January 20-February 19)	K) President: Ulysses Grant, Actor: Jack Klugman, Athlete: George Gervin, Musician: Ace Frehley, Other: Casey Kasem
Q12) Pisces (February 20-March 20)	L) President: Zachary Taylor, Actor: Katherine Heigl, Athlete: Oscar Robertson, Musician: Pete Best, Other: Ted Bundy

Japan in Japan -- Quiz Quilt 168 Solution

Category Answers:

Literature & Arts	KIPLING	Rudyard Kipling, the youngest Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, was born as Joseph Kipling on December 30, 1865 but is known by his middle name.
History & Government	DUNKIRK	Over 300,000 soldiers escaped on 900 boats over nine days.
Entertainment & Food	PEOPLE	The 22-year-old included the title track, from her movie Funny Girl, and various standards and show tunes.
Sports & Games	RIPKEN	Cal Ripken, Jr. replaced the Bambino, meaning "little child", one of Babe Ruth's nicknames.
Geography & Nature	POPPY	The unripe seed pods of the opium poppy are used as a narcotic.
Math & Science	NICKEL	Silicon is the only other element present in significant quantities.

Quiz Quilt Answer: NIPPON (Diagonally from top right to bottom left corner)

The Japanese refer to their own country as Nippon, for example, on their postage stamps.

Japan in Japan -- Quiz Quilt 168 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Literature & Arts	What writer lived for five years in the 1890s in Brattleboro, Vermont, playing snow golf with red golf balls?
History & Government	What city did the British and French evacuate in Operation Dynamo beginning on May 27, 1940?
Entertainment & Food	What Barbra Streisand album was #1 for five weeks in the fall of 1964?
Sports & Games	In 1999, what Major League Baseball player did the Babe Ruth League rename its Bambino division in honor of?
Geography & Nature	What flower, a symbol of sleep and the dead, is distributed by the Royal Canadian Legion for Remembrance Day?
Math & Science	What is the main chemical element in the Earth's core besides iron?