Since Bill Quit Blogging . . .

I'll pick up the Ken Trivia, posting of my guesses before googling for the right answers, post (like this one).

I'm certain on precisely 2.5 of these questions (from Tuesday Trivia XXXII) without the aid of using the search engine/wiki of choice.

If you don't like trivia, first, what's wrong with you, second, you shouldn't let that stop you from subscribing to Ken's weekly challenge. It's interesting tidbits of info presented in a mostly humorous manner. What's not to like? If you don't subscribe the following will be gibberish, if you do subscribe, you'll laugh at my ignorance, or marvel at my mastery of trivium, your choice.

Don't follow the links if you don't want to know the answers (in other words **spoilers warning**). Post wiki perusing musings in red.


1) An ornately woven fabric originally named diaper whose name is the same as an Asian capital? This should be easy, and yet I'm blanking. Doh!, I knew this, just trying to think of it was the hard part.

2) OK, now Ken is just making stuff up, Sister named Minga? Dog named Nopey? Doh! again, I had bendable figurines of this fella (and his red companion) back in the day. Dammit! (obvious YouTube choice at link)

3) Oh boy, a penal question! Another one that should spring to mind, but don't know for which country Robben Island was a Penal Colony, which makes it harder to educate my guess (sans google/wiki of course). As soon as I knew for which country this place incarcerated folks, then the is obvious.

4) The easy one is the over-exposed ex-Steeler one, but the second one probably isn't that hard either come to think of it since he was a back-up to a hall of famer for years on a great team and spent a few years as the 'man' himself (and also deservedly inducted into the hall of fame). Oops, after checking the wiki, a certain hall of fame back up to a hall of famer missed by a ring, instead it's the hall of famer (the anti-Grossman, zero picks in all his Superbowl appearances) who was being backed up by the future hall of famer who managed to collect all that jewelry (the 80s are so long ago, yet the 70s are fresher in my Superbowl memories, I lived football in elementary school, and always watched those NFL Films shows on Saturdays if I was home). Should have easily gotten this right, but I tricked myself into thinking it was a trick question.

5) Ohhh, this one I know, mainly cause of all the jokes about it in the culture at the time (and those old CBS "In the News" breaks between cartoons on Saturdays). Surprising results (at least to me, if you search YouTube for this term.

6) This seems transcendentally easy, but maybe that's just me. Also, all the aging hippies who taught in schools and colleges while I attended ram this crap down your throat at a very early age. This might have been harder for someone to know in the 40s or 50s, but anyone who's grown up since the 70s would be well versed in this ur-Hippie text.

7) These are the bread and butter of these quizzes, built to be 'google proof', the 7th question each week is a tester. This one is no exception, and it's beyond a test, it's utterly impenetrable as far as I can tell as to what possibly could be the connection. Hopefully Ken won't mind if I reprint the question in full, "What unusual distinction is shared by all these pinnacles of Western civilization? The sewing machine, Wagner's prelude to Das Rheingold, St. Patrick's ministry to Ireland, the Beatles' "Yesterday," Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the discovery of neurotransmitters, Jasper Johns' flag paintings, and James Cameron's The Terminator?"

Guesses? Anyone? One of John's flag paintings holds the record for most money at auction for a living artist, No doubt Yesterday is one of the most played songs, Frankenstein might be one of the most published books (outside of the bible, that is), but St. Patrick? Wagner? Terminator?

Maybe it's all stuff that sounds real funny if recited or sung by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (in the case of the sewing machine, watching him operate one, and in the case of discovering neurotransmitters, maybe he was in on that, he's a remarkable man, our Governor).

After that bit of searching it seems like this should have been a 6 of 7 week for me. All information that resides somewhere between my ears, just the access routines were faulty in the given time allotted.