Musings of a Dead Parrot

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. How many ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge during his fateful night in Dickens' A Christmas Carol? 4 - Marley plus ghosts of Xmas Past, Present and Future. We have had this before.
2. Which of Santa's eight reindeer shares his name with two failed TV sitcoms? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen?? I'll guess Cupid.
3. What city, and future industrial center, did Moravian settlers found on the banks of the Lehigh River on Christmas Eve, 1741? Lehigh River is in eastern PA. Given the season, I would guess Bethlehem.
4. What has a Nun, a Gimel, a Hei, and a Shin on its four sides? a dreidel
5. What Christmas carol is used to ironic effect in the Simon and Garfunkel song "7 O'Clock News"? a brilliant contrast between news of the Vietnam War and other conflicts (both domestic and foreign) and Silent Night
6. According to the New Testament, which of the substances brought by the Magi to the infant Jesus was also present at Jesus' crucifixion and burial? myrrh or frankincense. I'll guess frankincense because it sounds like incense.
7. What more specific distinction is shared by these holiday-set favorites? All That Heaven Allows, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, Christmas with the Kranks, Lethal Weapon, Surviving Christmas, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, When Harry Met Sally.

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What two co-stars in an upcoming film have hosted Saturday Night Live a record 29 times between them? I am not a 45-year-old woman, so it's not on my calendar, but I hear that It's Complicated opens in the U.S. this week. And it features SNL vets Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin fighting over Meryl Streep. (Baldwin and Martin will be hosting the Oscars this spring as well.) correct
2. What best-selling author calls his New Hampshire estate the "Isle of Langdonia"? Robert Langdon is the studious, poorly drawn protagonist of the bajillion-selling historical thrillers of Dan Brown. The same Entertainment Weekly piece from which I lifted this factoid calls Langdon "Ken Jennings with a shot of adrenaline." It's true, give me a little chemical stimulus and all I do is babble on about the mysteries of the Freemasons and crap like that. Shoot me up at a party and watch me go. I like to take my adrenaline right to the heart, like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
3. What country controls part of each of the world's two largest "divided islands"--that is, islands shared by two different nations? Borneo and Papua New Guinea both belong in part to Indonesia--but, as many pointed out, Borneo is divided among *three* nations, not between two. Everyone forgets Brunei! Poor Brunei. KJ means that *New Guinea* is part owned by Indonesia
4. A 27-foot red cube mounted in front of the Tycho Brahe Planetarium was the centerpiece of what recent news-making event? Even if you haven't seen the photos, you might have remembered that Brahe was a Danish scientist, and surmised that the cube was part of the recent Copenhagen climate conference (or Kopenhagen klimate konference, if you prefer the Krusty the Klown version). The cube represents the amount of carbon that an American generates driving a Hummer to Wal-Mart every weekend, or something. correct
5. What kind of body part takes its name from the same Greek root as a mythical monster who guarded an entrance? Your sphincter is named for the Sphinx! Both words come from a Greek word meaning "to choke." The Sphinx choked its victims, and your sphincters choke off, uh, whatever's trying to get out. nice question even if I got it wrong. But I do not think of the sphinx as a monster.
6. After all the attempts made on his life, what finally turned out to be Rasputin's official cause of death? The "Mad Monk" survived poison, multiple revolver shots, a beating, and an impromptu castration...only to die by drowning. Talk about an anticlimax. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these Beatles songs? "Baby's in Black," "Norwegian Wood," "She's Leaving Home," "This Boy," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and, to a lesser degree, "I Me Mine," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "A Taste of Honey." They were all in triple meter or triple time. I would have needed help from someone who knows music to get this.