Old Trivia Answers

Not much time tonight for a post. MG flew in from Philly this afternoon and left for Kingsport just after dinner, leaving me with errands to run for her. So instead of thinking up a post, I'll just catch up on a couple of old quiz sets I never got around to answering before.

Trivia Answers for 12/28/06

This was the slogan quiz.

1. Crisp and Clean and No Caffeine. Sprite put out this one way back. I can still hear the guy's deep booming voice on this one.

2. Mmmm Mmmm Good. Remember Andy Warhol's famous soup can? It was Campbell's.

3. Must See TV. NBC came up with this promotion at about the same time I stopped watching much TV, especially the major networks. So, no, it wasn't really "Must See" for me at all.

4. We Don't Make the Products You Buy; We Make the Products You Buy Better. I'm still trying to figure out why BASF decided to spend all that money to promote themselves when the only final product under their label I knew them for was cassette tapes, and they weren't even featured in the ads. Go figure.

5. All the News That's Fit to Print. The New York Times owns this little catch phrase. I'm not sure what they consider unfit to print, though.

Bonus: All the News That Fits. Rolling Stone did the Times one better with their little truncation.

Trivia Answers for 12/21/06

1. What terrestrial feature causes the winter and summer solstices? Quite simply, it's the tilt of the earth. During the winter solstice the earth's north pole is pointed away from the sun, so anything north of the Tropic of Cancer at that time is going to have less exposure to the sun. Anything north of the Arctic Circle gets no sun at all on the solstice.

2. Who created Winnie the Pooh? Scottish-born Alan Alexander (A.A.) Milne created the stories centered around his son, Christopher Robin Milne, and his stuffed animals. However, 'Winnie-the-Pooh' was originally the name given to a Canadian black bear by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Regiment (Winnipeg -> "Winnie"). The bear was left at the London Zoo after WWI, which is where Milne saw it and later used the name.

3. Who invented the game of basketball? Dr. James Naismith was looking for a indoor fitness regimen for students at what is now Springfield College (in Massachusetts) to keep his students fit during the long New England winters. The game evolved a good bit since he first introduced it (e.g., we no longer use a peach basket for a goal, et cetera).

4. In “Casino Royale”, Bond orders a drink with gin, vodka, and Lillet Blanc. What does he name it? Bond names it after his love interest, Vesper (Lynd)

5. “Beefeaters” is a brand of gin. Where are the original Beefeaters employed? The Beefeaters guard the Tower of London, though a lot of their time is now spent leading tours.