Trivia Answers

My plan today was to write a post of a recent "Thanks, why don't you twist the knife again" experience, but Mrs. Guy and I spent the day travelling, spending time with her grandparents, and are now in Blowing Rock, NC after a full meal and a couple of glasses of wine. I'm too tired to relate the whole thing now (maybe tomorrow), so instead I will just post answers to last weeks trivia questions.

1. What is the largest (known, and not underwater) cave system in the world (hint, it's here in the United States)? That would be the Mammoth Cave sytem in Kentucky, whic is still not classified as fully explored. It's big. It's huge. It's ... Mammoth.

2. What city hosted the last "World's Fair" (or more properly, "World's Exposition") that was held in the United States? I posted this one a little bit as a trap for my friends who live in Knoxville, since the 1982 version was held there. However, the last one held in the US was held in New Orleans two years later in 1984.

3. What did the "J. R. R." stand for in J. R. R. Tolkien's name? John Ronald Ruell Tolkien was his full name. Most of his friends apparently called him "John Ronald".

4. If you were to spend 18 minutes and 20 seconds listening to a folk singer's song about "The Draft", what song would you be listening to? Arlo Guthrie spent an awfully long time talking about Alice's Restaurant and his subsequent experience at the Draft Board in his nost well-known song's recorded verision (the seminal "Alice's Restaurant"). I've heard that in his live performances he sometimes stretched out the tale to over 45 minutes.

5. Who was the famous (perhaps infamous) American businessman who went to Northern Ireland to start his own ill-fated automobile manufacturing company? John DeLorean had a lovely idea with his DMC-12 automobile, but it just didn't catch on like he'd wished (I'm sure the cocaine-related legal charges didn't help any). The DMC-12 always caught my imagination, but the only person I've ever known that owned one died related to injuries sustained in it during a traffic accident a few years ago. A sad tale, to be certain (and I won't saddle you with it here).

Bonus question: Name the fathers of any three of Tolkein's characters from The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and Isildur doesn't count). So many to choose from. Many I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'd have looked them up if I'd needed to based on your answers (I didn't need to though - most answers were ones I already knew). Some examples? Gimli was son of Gloin, Aragorn was son of Arathorn, Legolas was son of Thranduil, Arwen was daughter of Elrond, Frodo was son of Drogo, Eomer son of Eomund, Samwise son of Hamfast (or "The Gaffer"), Boromir and Faramir sons of Denethor, et cetera, et cetera.

Points will likely update tomorrow. Thank you, and good night.