Musings of a Dead Parrot

THIS WEEK'S QUIZ
1. Where do fulgurites come from? are these like stalagtites and stalagmites? they sound mineralogic, so I'll guess that they come from meteors or meteorites
2. What city is divided into Thracian and Anatolian sides? Anatolia is in Turkey, so I guess Istanbul.
3. In 1984, Ray Parker, Jr. lamented, "There aren't that many words that rhyme with" what word? Ghostbusters!
4. Who's the only player in the Baseball Hall of Fame whose last name is the first name of another Baseball Hall of Fame player? this came to me late last night - Waite Hoyt and Hoyt Wilhelm
5. In September 1995, a broken laser pointer became the first object ever to do what? the date is important so you have to think what was going on then. My guess - first object ever to be auctioned on eBay
6. Who used her maiden name, Duarte, when she starred in films like !Segundos Afuera! and La Cabalgata del Circo? Evita Peron
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these people? George Carlin, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Loretta Lynn, Groucho Marx, Bill Murray, Jim Nabors, and Juliet Prowse?

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What lost its pink (representing sexuality) in 1978, and its turquoise (representing magic) in 1979? The iconic rainbow flag of LGBT pride used to be two whole colors gayer. It may be iconic, but I did not recognize what it was.
2. What word, meaning "swift thief," was coined by scientists in 1924, though it didn't become popularly known until the 1990s? The velociraptor had been around for almost seventy years before Spielberg made him a star. Sort of like the seventy years Harrison Ford had to wait for Spielberg to make Indy IV. cool question
3. On what part of your body would you wear a homburg? It's a hat, so that would be your head. correct
4. Who was the only writer to have three separate works adapted into Alfred Hitchcock movies? Daphne du Maurier wrote Rebecca, sure, but she also wrote "The Birds" and Jamaica Inn. I guess Du Maurier would be the only writer whose work I recognize as being the basis for any Hitchcock movie. That is pretty darn obscure.
5. Who was the only one of the original seven Mercury astronauts never to fly a Mercury mission? A heart condition grounded Deke Slayton for a decade, though he finally flew an Apollo mission in 1975. I thought that Slayton was the answer to a different question and that Alan Shepard was the answer to this one. I need to get my astronauts straight.
6. What song title was a U.S. #1 for Rihanna, though it didn't even crack the Top Ten for ABBA? "S.O.S." (Two different songs, of course.) I guessed the wrong ABBA song.
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these world cities (and no others that I'm aware of, but I may be missing some)? Amman, Jordan; Atchison, Kansas; Delhi and Indore, India; Istanbul, Turkey; Oranjestad, Aruba; St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles; Tenerife, Spain; Thermal, California; Tirana, Albania. A toughie: all these cities are served by airports named for women. (Amelia Earhart, Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, various queens, etc. You can look 'em up.)

# posted by The O'Brien's Team @ 5:43 PM