JON CARROLL
Thursday, December 25, 1997
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle
SO PERHAPS THIS is not quite your holiday, or maybe you celebrated it on Christmas Eve, or maybe it's the middle of the afternoon and you are nicely bloated and only a little bummed about not getting a motorcycle, and you're looking for some random amusement.
We aim to please, as always.
1. What do the following have in common: Palatine, Indian, Happy, Anger, Pharos.
2. Which countries does the equator pass through?
3. Anagram time: Can you form one word from NEW DOOR?
4. Who is Virginia Stephen?
5. Here are some people who contributed to 20th century art, history or/and science. Please rank them in order of their deaths, earliest first: Georges Braque, Agatha Christie, Colette, Albert Einstein, Dwight Eisenhower, E.M. Forster, Woody Guthrie.
6. Coronado -- the long sand spit near San Diego famous for the Hotel del Coronado: How did it get its name?
7. The brother of what famous American writer helped kill the notorious bank robber John Dillinger? What legend about John Dillinger persisted long after his exploits were forgotten?
8. What was the name of Dudley Do-Right's horse?
9. The rinceau, the splat, the cockleshell and the palmette are (a) types of boats, (b) parts of an armchair, (c) kinds of surgical instruments, (d) varieties of orchid, (e) names or nicknames of various guns used by the British in World War I or (e) devices used in stage lighting.
10. WHAT'S THE NEXT
number in this sequence: 100, 121, 144, 202. That may be too hard -- let me give you the answer: 244. Why?11. Early-music fans, here's one: Name three rock 'n' roll songs from the late '50s or early '60s in which that anachronistic teenage institution ``the candy store'' was mentioned.
12. OK, that's not really early, but this is: The rock at the summit of Mount Everest is (a) highly metamorphic granite, (b) uplifted igneous rock, (c) marine limestone or (d) mosaic conglomerate.
13. Name the titles of three or perhaps four Shakespearean plays in which the name of a woman appears.
14. I'll give you the cast; you give me the movie: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Andre Gregory, Butterfly McQueen, Martha Plimpton, Jason Alexander. Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godunov, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Mantegna. Audrey Hepburn, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Mickey Rooney, Martin Balsam, John McGiver.
15. WHERE IS THE crypt of Lieberkuhn? What is its historical significance?
16. Which French writer of fiction is the most widely translated into other languages?
17. We know about the Bill of Rights, which is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. We know about the First Amendment (free speech) and maybe the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), but what about the Seventh Amendment?
18. Some brothers: Julius, Arthur and Leonard. Phineas, Franklin and Freddie. Jesus, Mateo and Felipe. Last names please. For extra credit: Woodson and Alexander.
19. Statistically speaking, what is the ailment most likely to be suffered by someone newly arrived at the South Pole, assuming he is warmly ensconced at the U.S. base there?
Answers appear tomorrow, so please hang on to this paper so you'll be able to remember what the questions were. Special thanks to Tom Cole, Rich Flasson, Steve Morse, John Steele, Ed Alston and Stanley Wexler.
There's only one trick question and maybe two that will make you hate me.
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Page C20