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Return to regular viewThe 21st Annual Xmas Quiz answers
JON CARROLL
Thursday, December 26, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback
IF YOU DID not see yesterday's quiz, this column is not going to make a lot of sense. Zip on over to sfgate.com/columnists/carroll and check the archives, then read this column. Or read this one now and try to guess the questions; the choice is yours.
1. The reindeer is the domesticated caribou; there is no other difference. Both reindeer and caribou have teeth only on their bottom jaws.
2. Due north of Baghdad is the Armenian capital of Yerevan. (I'd also accept the Iranian city of Orumiyeh.) Due west of Baghdad is Damascus. Due south of Baghdad is a lot of nothing until you hit the coastal town of Aden. Due east is a lot of Iran, most notably the city of Esfahan. If you want to go a lot farther, Islamabad in Pakistan also counts. And I'll take Khorramabad and Golpayrgar in Iran, for you letter writers out there -- you know who you are.
3. Poor old punctured St. Sebastian is also the patron saint of pincushion- makers.
4. Dear old St. Blaise was killed when his body was torn to pieces by heretics wielding iron wool combs. Don't you hate that?
5. The male half of the Eurythmics was Dave Stewart, not to be confused with all the other Dave Stewarts.
6. The Everly Brothers were Don and Phil. The Neville Brothers are Arthur, Charles, Aaron and Cyril. The Righteous Brothers are Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (they are not brothers, duh). The Isley Brothers include Rudolph, Ronald, O'Kelly, Ernie, Marvin, Chris Jasper and, honorarily, Vernon, who died the year the group was formed.
7. It is most likely that the name came from the fabled Moroccan city Oujda (also spelled Oujida and Oudjda). The idea that "Ouija" is a combination of the French and German words for "yes" is a creation of master publicist William Fuld.
@in,2,e,22,,,'x' 8.THE LEVELING-ADJUSTMENT foot, the lock ring and the remote control are all parts of a slide projector. The bulkhead, the support leg crank, the stack pocket and the deck are all parts of a flatbed truck. The hinged pressure foot, the tension block and the spool pin are all parts of a sewing machine.
9. The other animal susceptible to leprosy is the armadillo. Don't you just love knowing that?
10. In the First World War, the British royalty decided that a name like Saxe-Coburg-Gotha might seem a bit unpatriotic, so they renamed themselves after one of their castles, Windsor. There was no "first Windsor"; it was just the spot where William the Conqueror decided to build his country place.
11. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand kicked 200,000 Jews out of Spain, one of the first acts of the Spanish Inquisition, which no one ever expects.
12. The world's longest railway tunnel is the Seikan Tunnel in Japan; it is more than two miles longer than the Chunnel under the English Channel. The longest underwater tunnel in North America is the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in New York. The longest vehicular tunnel in the United States is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel in Whittier, Alaska.
@in,2,e,22,,,'x' 13.CRUISERLINE VENTIPORTS WERE the official name of the three little holes on the side of ever so many Buick automobiles.
14. "Minolta" is a loose acronym for Machinery and INstruments OpticaL, created by Kazuo TAshima, the founder of the company. "Doritos" is a very rough translation of the Spanish for "little bits of gold." "Sanyo" means "three oceans" in Japanese, referring to the ambition of the founder, Toshio Iue, to sell his products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
15. The largest incorporated city in the United States is c) Sitka, Alaska, measuring 4,710 square miles, 2,894 of them on land.
16. The red-cockaded woodpecker is seen only in the southeastern United
States and is thus probably not outside your window.
OK, write the letters now. Call me a dimwit. I'm used to it.
Oh my dear, my darling, I've hungered for your jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.