Here is what I hope you will find a pleasant waste of your time: A pub quiz based around the theme of three of a kind. Google not and do your best. Answers after the jump. Please post scores and any comments/critiques at the end. Good luck.
1. Name Donald Duck’s 3 Nephews.
2. Name 3 of the 5 Marx Brothers of vaudeville and Hollywood fame.
3. Name 3 of the 5 oldest universities in the United States.
4. Name 3 of the Brady kids on the television show “The Brady Bunch”.
5. George Washington’s face is on the $1 bill and Abraham Lincoln’s is on the $5 bill. Name three other presidents whose faces appear on U.S. paper currency.
6. In Catholic theology, the four cardinal virtues are prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. What are the three heavenly graces?
7. In the popular children’s poem “Dutch lullaby”, who were the three sailors in a wooden shoe?
8. What U.S. state’s three most populous cities all begin with the letter “C” ?
9. Name 3 of the 5 countries that export the most oil to the United States.
10. Names three First Ladies of the United States from the first half of the 20th century.
ANSWERS
One point for each answer you get completely right (maximum score = 10). Take half a point if you judge your answer was pretty close to correct.
1. Huey, Dewey and Louie
2. Any 3 of Harpo, Zeppo, Gummo, Groucho, and Chico
3. Any 3 of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, William & Mary, and Penn
4. Any 3 of Bobby, Peter, Greg, Cindy, Jan and Marsha
5. Any 3 of Jefferson ($2), Jackson ($20), Grant ($50), McKinley ($500), Cleveland ($1000), Madison ($5000), and Wilson ($100,000).
6. Faith, Hope, and Charity
7. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
8. Ohio
9. Any 3 of Canada, Iraq, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Because of the recent ISIS violence, Iraq may drop out of this list by year’s end so Kuwait or Colombia instead are okay as answers.
10. Any 3 of Ida McKinley, Edith Roosevelt, Helen Taft, Ellen Wilson, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, Lou Henry Hoover, (Anna) Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bess Truman. If you answered something smart alecky like “Mrs. Truman, Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Taft” without giving first names, give yourself half a point for sheer chutzpah.
TheHersch says
Seven points.
I could only think of one Brady buncher. I smacked my forehead when I read the answer faith, hope, and charity, and did it again with Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. I couldn't think of either of those, but should have.
U.S. dollar notes in values greater than $100 exist rather theoretically. They haven't circulated in many decades, and I don't think they print them any more. I got the 2, 20, and 50 dollar presidents.
Here's a question: What work of 20th-century American literature tells you whose face is on the $5,000 bill?
EdWhitney says
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I thought of that the minute I saw that given as an answer to the quiz.
Keith_Humphreys says
IIRC, you always do well on these quizzes. Well done yet again.
Yes on the big bills, that was perhaps a bit unfair. I remember reading in the Guinness Book of World Records that the biggest note ever, the 100k, was never actually in circulation as all. It was just used in some select bank to bank transactions.
On your own question, I would think mid-century is the right general period, either a novel about high society or a crime novel, and probably the latter because describing a bill in detail would be crass for for an upper crust focused novel. I would say The Maltese Falcon because I recall a handover of cash toward the end, but I think that was I think a $1000 bill and not a $5000. So I don't know..Murder My Sweet or The Getaway?
TheHersch says
On the big bills, no, not really unfair, since you don't need them to come up with the required three, of which the only remotely difficult one is the $2, which isn't seen very often.
On the $5K note: You're very warm. "Murder My Sweet" was a film adaptation of "Farewell, My Lovely", a crime novel by _____
Keith_Humphreys says
The $2 is unappreciated, especially the back which is beautiful.
On the book, it is now my turn to slap my forehead, I can't believe I said Murder My Sweet was the book title rather than the film adaptation.. Anyway, thanks for the hint. I just revisited The Big Sleep so I know it isn't that. The Long Goodbye?
TheHersch says
Bingo!
"I see," he said. "But all that doesn't exactly tell me what I want to know."
I finished the gin and orange. I didn't like it. I grinned at him. "I left out one item, Mr. Spencer. I have a portrait of Madison in my pocket."
"A portrait of Madison? I'm afraid I don't-."
"A five-thousand-dollar bill," I said. "Always carry it. My lucky piece."
"Good God," he said in a hushed voice. "Isn't that terribly dangerous?"
"Who was it said that beyond a certain point all dangers are equal?"
"I think it was Walter Bagehot. He was talking about a steeplejack." Then he grinned. "Sorry, but I am a publisher. You're all right, Marlowe. I'll take a chance on you. If I didn't you would tell me to go to hell. Right?"
I grinned back at him. He called the waiter and ordered another pair of drinks.
As to my doing well on your pub quizzes, that's easy when I only submit an entry on the ones I do well on. Is that wrong?
Keith_Humphreys says
Most interesting. I never read that one, just saw the Altman film many years ago, which I didn't much care for. I can't remember if it carried this exchange over or not.
TheHersch says
I haven't read Chandler for a long time. I first encountered him when I was 21 or so. I read "Farewell, My Lovely" and was utterly smitten. Then I read everything else within the next year or so, and read everything again maybe 6 or 8 years later. If I had to choose one of his books as the best, it would be "The Long Goodbye", so if you like what you've read (as it appears you do), you should probably read it. I can't imagine, in my wildest dreams, that Robert Altman could possibly make a good film out of that book, notwithstanding his many fine pictures, so I've never seen it. Elliot Gould isn't my idea of Phillip Marlowe either, but then if I hadn't seen "Murder My Sweet" I'd never imagine Dick Powell in the role, and he was nearly perfect in it.
EdWhitney says
Farewell My Lovely had the typical degenerate wealthy client who meets Marlowe in his home and who:
… leaned over to sniff at the yellow rose, then opened a French enamel cigarette case and lit a long brown cigarette with a gold tip. I sat down on a pink chair and hoped I wouldn’t leave a mark on it. I lit a Camel, blew smoke through my nose and looked at a piece of shiny metal on a stand. It showed a full, smooth curve with a shallow fold in it and two protuberances on the curve. I stared at it, Marriott saw me staring at it.
“An interesting bit,” he said negligently. “I picked it up just the other day. Asta Dial’s Spirit of Dawn.”
“I thought it was Klopstein’s Two Warts on a Fanny,” I said.
Mr. Lindsay Marriott’s face looked as if he had swallowed a bee. He smoothed it out with an effort.
“You have a somewhat peculiar sense of humor,” he said.
“Not peculiar,” I said. “Just uninhibited.”
IIRC Chandler's favorite author was Jane Austen.
doncoffin64 says
15, which I was pleased by. Not being religious, I had no idea what the three cardinal virtues are. I live in Indiana and am embarrassed not to have known the 3-C-cities (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus). Only got one of the three oil countries. (Canada? Really?).
Keith_Humphreys says
How did you get 15 on a 10 question quiz with a maximum of one point per question?
On oil, geography is a great facilitator: Canada is easily our leading source http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_neti_a_epc0_…
Because of the ISIS takeover, Iraqi oil production has been dropping so it is possible that by the end of 2015 Colombia or Kuwait will have passed it on this list. So if those were your guesses, you could count them.
doncoffin64 says
P { MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px } I thought you meant 1 point for each, so a max of 3 points per question…
Keith_Humphreys says
I have amended the scoring instructions would could have been clearer. Maximum score is 10, so e.g., "Huey, Dewey and Louie" is worth one point and "Ohio" is worth one point.
doncoffin64 says
Following that scoring-5 right,
johnarkansawyer says
I got six clean (1-5, 8) and two half-points for two out of three on nine and ten. (Six and seven were clean losses, though you'd think a person might stumble onto six.) If I'd spent more time on nine and ten-or if I'd just known more about which Mrs. Wilson did what!-but that's a solid seven.
Keith_Humphreys says
Good score! At least among those who commented it seems that the two you missed were the biggest stumpers.
toby52 says
I think I did well to know there was two Mrs Wilsons but could not remember their first names.
5.5?
byomtov11 says
Six out of ten, plus Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman.