Tuesday, January 13, 2004

BOOMER QUIZ, MISCELLANEOUS, ANSWERS

(Spring Byington)

MISCELLANEOUS KNOWLEDGE

1. From what 60's source did the 80's band "Duran Duran" get their name? [The evil character Dr. Durand Durand in "Barbarella"]

2. Why was the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey named HAL? [It's the word IBM with each letter moved forward one space in the alphabet.]

3. What incident is being referred to in the song "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield which begins "Something's happening here / What it is ain't exactly clear / There's a man with a gun over there / Telling me I got to beware"? [The Sunset Strip Riots in the summer of 1966, when the Hollywood rock 'n' roll scene was being launched despite police harassment.]

4. Name three of the four members of The Mamas and the Papas. [Mama Cass Elliott, Denny Doherty, John Phillips, Michelle Phillips]

5. Hermann Hesse, a German-Swiss novelist, poet, and Nobel Prize winner, died in 1962. His writing had a heavy influence on the thinking and art of the 1960s. In particular, one of his books inspired the name of a very popular rock band and also shaped the lyrics of another extremely well-known rock song (not by the same group) that became the soundtrack for an Academy Award-winning movie in 1967. Name both rock groups, the song and the Hesse book. [The book was Steppenwolf; the rock groups were Simon and Garfunkel plus, of course, Steppenwolf; and the song was "The Sounds of Silence".]

6. What TV star managed to have strong TV roles from 1954 to 1983, eventually winning an Emmy, in eight very popular shows, including December Bride, Dragnet, and M*A*S*H*? For extra points, name two of his three characters. [Henry Morgan, who played Pete Porter, Colonel Potter, Officer Bill Gannon.]

7. What was the significance of the Tet Offensive? [Prior to that time, Americans had been assured by President Johnson and the military that the U.S. was "winning the war". The media images of the Tet Offensive made it clear that a third world nation was holding their own against a first world power, not just to Americans but around the world, and greatly fueled the anti-war/stay the course conflict in the U.S.]

8. How many of the Chicago Seven can you name? [Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale.]

Super-duper prestige points if you can answer any of the following:
(a) What December Bride co-star of the star mentioned in Question #6 is reported to have had a torrid affair with Marjorie Main? Spring Byington.
(b) Who was the father of Mama Cass's daughter Owen? Cass Elliott never revealed the name of the father.
(c) What's the difference between Jane Fonda, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush? Jane WENT to Vietnam. Hyuk, hyuk.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Escellent fun, as usual. I wasn't as good at these. I thought HAL was an acronym for Holistic Auditory Language. But I knew someone who tried out for the part. He didn't get it. But that kind of ages me, I guess.