First Installment

[ironman]

sirs - there has been so little traffic on this board i am moved to compassion. here follows the First Installment of the Ad Hoc Obscure Cultural Reference Quiz. See if you can pass--

1. What does Desmond have?
2. The Assyrian came down like what?
3. What is the Siege Perilous?
4. Peloponnese is:
a) a Bosnian dialect
b) a recipe for anchovies
c) a Greek peninsula
5. Who said: "Get from here, you pigs."
6. The only american to press 500lbs is _____?
7. Schubert died of:
a) cholera
b) syphilis
c) obamanomics
8. Name the three stars in Orion's belt
9. Whom did Shakespeare say this about: "..she makes hungry, where most she satisfies?"
10. Romulus killed Remus when the latter stepped over what?

must get six correct to pass (barely); c'mon boys, no googling, take yer best shots.

[paulgill]

I'll take a stab:
1. Desmond has Lucy uin the sky with diamonds
2. a ton of bricks
3.Siege Perilous= Caesar at AAchen
4. Pelopponese= Greece peninsula
5. Circe (she turned Oddyseus' men into swine)
6. Paul Anderson
7. b. syphilis
8. 3 stars in Orion's belt= betalgeuese, deneb, ariadne
9. Lady MacBeth
10. Remus stepped over a line drawn in the sand by Romulus

Paul

[ironman]

paul -

a courageous attempt at solving the quiz

unfortunately you only got three right, not bad for a specialist like yourself

oddly, you missed the one poetic reference which i was sure you would get, took a very good guess at the pig reference however it was totally wrong; i can't list the ones you got right, since it would skew any subsequent attempts by the Flabonians; but i was surprised you knew the ones you did, and were close on yet another--good try

feel free to take the test again, remember the old saying: if at first you don't succed, try the outfield

[edfitzpatrick]

Okay, you rang some bells in my head but perhaps not 6 of them so here goes
1) Desmond in the Beatles song O Bla De O Bla Da Life Goes On begins having a band then a market.
2) The Assyrian you reference may have come down in a heap at the hand of Alexander.
3) The Siege Perilous is the vacant chair at King Arthur's Round Table left for the Knight who would find the Holy Grail. I think Indiana Jones ended up sitting there.
4) The answer is "C" a Greek Peninsula
5) Ulysses
6) I would have guessed Paul Anderson also but I think it was actually Hugo LaBra
7)Schubert died of Typhus which you may equate to Cholera
8)Betelguesse, Rigel and Bellasomething
9) Desdimona
10) A ditch At first I thought it was the Rubicon but then remembered that it was Cesaer who did that.

[ironman]

eddie fitz -- very good, i count five correct answers, giving you some latitude on two.

you have set the bar high for the rest of the Flabidonians to hit. we are all so goddam well rounded.

i have three college grads in this house who could not pass this test.

college ain't what it used to be, a recurring theme on this website.

are we all slouching together towards gomorrah???

is a bear a catholic? does the pope crap in the woods?

[edfitzpatrick]

Mr. Rennaisance Man,

Since we are discussing history, a subject that is looked upon, I fear, with disdain by pre college graduate students, I thought to throw out a challenge of a sort. What movie did the following monologue come from, what charcter said it and who is the actor?

"This man is black. We can all see that. But, can we also see as easily, that which is equally true? That he is the only true hero in this room. Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion."
[tears papers in half]

[monk]

That's easy. The movie was Animal House.

Monk

[ironman]

good one; i can say i probably did not see the movie you reference because the speech does not ring a bell; but since it is historical, let me take some guesses; first, i don't think it's animal house. second, it sounds like an educated and empowered white man defending some blacks, not an unusual occurence throughout history. typically, it s civil war vintage. an abolitionist perhaps.

but i think not, not with the references to the declaration of independence, which makes me think it is earlier, revolutionary war maybe. which means its one of the founding fathers, most of whom were slave holders.

so maybe its not one that was, and there i am a bit stuck. i don't recall who were trafficking in human flesh and who weren't. i know washington and jefferson definitely had slaves, because they were southern plantation owners.

so there's a clue; it might be a yankee, who would not have a plantation to worry about. so it could be adams or monroe or one of the northerners. as for the actor, i am clueless.

[paulgill]

Kent:

Tell me in an email which questions I got right. I will worry the ones I got wrong like a bulldog gnawing on a stewbone until I get them.

Paul

[edfitzpatrick]

Second part of the dialogue.

"Well, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South and with our President, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is instead - and I know this is a controversial area - freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man,woman or child will go to retain it once taken. He will ...break loose his chains. He will ...decimate his enemies. He will ... try and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home."