Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Five Questions from Last Night's Pub Quiz

Hi there. Did you miss me? I missed you, too — no, really. The blog organizes my day in a way I am not always willing to admit. It is a sort of throat-clearing for the rest of the day, and I suspect I'm more productive when I'm blogging. Between now and the end of the month I'll probably put up a couple more posts, and I'll be back full-time on September 1. Still haven't decided on the new theme, but it will be music-related, since that's something I haven't done yet. I'd say "stay tuned," but that would be an unfortunate pun.

Anyway, last night I served as guest host at The Liberal Cup's weekly Tuesday trivia. It was fun for me, and it seemed to go pretty well — despite the young man who dared, at the first break, to suggest that I speed things up (although that break had come considerably earlier than the break usually does with the regular emcee). None of my regular readers are guilty of this, I feel certain — but men, if you find yourself wanting to coach a woman you don't know, stop yourself and ask whether you'd give similar unsolicited advice to a man. I believe I frightened that young man. At least, I hope so.

If you missed it, here are five of last night's questions. Answers are in the comments section.

1. General Motors is about to return to the ranks of publicly-traded companies, emerging from bankruptcy. The company was founded in 1908 as a holding company for the manufacturer of what make of car, still in production today?

2. What cocktail is made with orange juice, vodka, and Galliano liqueur?

3. According to a recent study of traffic fatalities in New York City, are pedestrians more likely to be hit by male drivers or female drivers?

4. The state of California has reported an epidemic this summer of what childhood illness, which most people think they're immunized against?

5. The official list of hurricane names goes from Alex to Walter, but excludes what two letters from the alphabet in between?

2 comments:

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

1. Buick, the New Class of World Class. (Second brand: Oldsmobile, phased out in 2004.)

2. A Harvey Wallbanger. Orange juice and licorice is not a combination I'd seek out, but there you go.

3. Male drivers, by a lot, and not just because they're the cab drivers. In a study of 7,000 pedestrian vs. auto crashes between 2002 and 2006, 80% of the drivers responsible were men.

4. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough. I know at least one person who's had it this summer. Turns out that the immunization wears off. Ask your doctor about it.

5. Q — for obvious reasons — and U. I'm a little sorry that we'll never have a Hurricane Ulysses.

Thomas Hogglestock said...

RE: my recent blog post. I didn't know anything about A Little Princess but then I stumbled upon a recent review of it on one of the blogs that I follow.

http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2010/08/little-princess-by-frances-hodgson.html

I read The Secret Garden as an adult and loved it so I would probably like ALP as well. FHB's adult fiction is also very enjoyable.