The Brackets!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

The Monday Quiz LXXXIV

The 1910s in the United States of America

...with the usual apologies to those readers who do not happen to live in the United States of America. This one might be kind of tough, so it's six-to-make-five again.


1. What's this hit song about?



2. These guys work in a factory that has just implemented a big innovation in industrial technology. Who is their employer?


3. In the 1920s, this guy would become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In the 1910s, though, he was already quite well known. Who is he?



4. Keeping in mind that the Titanic went down without much in the way of smoke and flames, what is going on in this period artist's reconstruction?


5. Why do these gentlemen have a poor reputation?


6. OK, the kid is carrying a paper labelled "statehood appeal" and his big lizard is labelled "Judiciary Recall." The well-dressed man, who might look vaguely familiar, is saying "You'll have to abandon your pet, Sonny." You don't have to be well-versed in the local politics of the day to realize that the kid represents ___________.

Submit your answers in the comments.

22 comments:

  1. 1. American troops going over to Europe to fight in World War I.
    2. Henry Ford
    3. Hmmm...I'm thinking this is the president who later became Supreme Court Justice - Taft?
    4. The sinking of the Lusitania by a German UBoat (1915, I believe).
    5. These are the Chicago White Sox (1919?), better known as the Black Sox because eight of them conspired to throw the World Series after being paid off by gamblers. Those eight received lifetime bans from baseball, which still prevents the most famous of their number, Shoeless Joe Jackson, from being elected to the Hall of Fame (Jackson did admit taking money, but he also had a stellar offensive series, so it is unclear if he actually tried to lose or not). Eight Men Out is, of course, the famous movie about the scandal (can you tell I'm a baseball fan?).
    6. Hmm... obviously it has to be a southwestern state relatively late to the union - the options seem to be Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Let's go with New Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming! ...and we won't come back til it's over Over There. World War 1, at the time styled "The War to End All Wars." sigh
    2. Hmm. I was going to say the assembly line (Henry Ford's innovation)...but it seems late-ish. However, it's still my best guess.
    3. President William Howard Taft (from Ohio, Mother of Presidents)
    4. Oops! I told you not to smoke! No, instead let's say it is the sinking of the _Lusitania_
    5. Chicago "Black Sox"...eight members were suspended after throwing the World Series. Opinions still differ as to the relative guilt of the various players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson.
    6. Except for this one, I predict a high rate of correct answers on your quiz! Taft is remonstrating with ? Arizona?

    Great collection!

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1. "Oh the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming" to join in WWI just in time to get in on the win.

    2. Henry Ford and his production line

    3. He was known as the fattest president ever. Selected, then humiliated by his "friend" TR. William Howard Taft

    4. Lusitania, secretly carrying weapons, sunk by German U-Boat.

    5. The "Black Sox" scandal. Chicago White Sox fixed the World Series. Say it ain't so, Joe!

    6. Could be New Mexico, but I'll go with Arizona.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. U.S. troops going to fight in WWI
    2. Henry Ford
    3. Wm. Howard Taft
    4. Lusitania
    5. Black Sox scandal, fixing the World Series
    6. Hmm. New Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1. WWI
    2. Ford
    3. Taft
    4. U boat sinking...
    5. They threw the world series
    6. Arizona, granted statehood in 1914, although it could be New Mexico as a territory they were together...

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1 ww1
    2 henry ford
    3 william h taft
    4 the sinking of the luisitania. i don't know how to spell luisitania.
    5 the black sox threw the world series.
    6 i really have no idea. taft is pres, so it has to be one of the western states. utah?

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1. U.S. troops joining the fight in WWI.

    2. Ford Motor Company.

    3. Grover Cleveland.

    4. The Lusitania. (Thanks for the not-the-Titanic tip.)

    5. The Black Sox... many team members conspired with gamblers to throw the 1918 World Series (or maybe 1919.)

    6. Huh.... Arizona?

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1 going off to Europe to fight in
    the Great War, or whatever they were calling WWI at the time. My grandma had a lot of piano music from this era about kicking the Kaiser's ass, etc.
    2 Ford
    3 um, Taft?
    4 I'm guessing that's the sinking of the Lusitania
    5 They were fixing games. Chicagoans, I think, so it seemed natural.
    6 um, like, Nevada?

    ReplyDelete
  9. 1-US troops joining in on the WWI fun
    2-Ford
    3-ni idea
    4-sinking of the Lusitania
    5-they are baseball players
    6-New Mexico, que no?

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1. WWI
    2. Henry Ford
    3. President Taft
    4. Sinking of the Lusitania
    5. Point shaving
    6. That's Taft telling Arizona to talk to the veto hand.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. US troops going over for the final inning of WWI
    2. Henry Ford, assembly line production
    3. William Howard Taft, most noted for having to have a special big bathtub installed in the White House because of his girth.
    4. Sinking of the Lusitania
    5. The Chicago White (aka, "Black" Sox, infamous for throwing the World Series to make some extra bucks from gamblers. See the great John Sayles movie "Eight Men Out" if you haven't.)
    6. New Mexico

    ReplyDelete
  12. This has nothing to do with the quiz, but perhaps it will help the next tomato go down more smoothly....

    Ode to Tomatoes, by Pablo Neruda
    (translated by Margaret Sayers Peden)

    The street
    filled with tomatoes
    midday,
    summer,
    light is
    halved
    like
    a
    tomato,
    its juice
    runs
    through the streets.
    In December,
    unabated,
    the tomato
    invades
    the kitchen,
    it enters at lunchtime,
    takes
    its ease
    on countertops,
    among glasses,
    butter dishes,
    blue saltcellars.
    It sheds
    its own light,
    benign majesty.
    Unfortunately, we must
    murder it:
    the knife
    sinks
    into living flesh,
    red
    viscera,
    a cool
    sun,
    profound,
    inexhausible,
    populates the salads
    of Chile,
    happily, it is wed
    to the clear onion,
    and to celebrate the union
    we
    pour
    oil,
    essential
    child of the olive,
    onto its halved hemispheres,
    pepper
    adds
    its fragrance,
    salt, its magnetism;
    it is the wedding
    of the day,
    parsley
    hoists
    its flag,
    potatoes
    bubble vigorously,
    the aroma
    of the roast
    knocks
    at the door,
    it's time!
    come on!
    and, on
    the table, at the midpoint
    of summer,
    the tomato,
    star of earth,
    recurrent
    and fertile
    star,
    displays
    its convolutions,
    its canals,
    its remarkable amplitude
    and abundance,
    no pit,
    no husk,
    no leaves or thorns,
    the tomato offers
    its gift
    of fiery color
    and cool completeness.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I always think that thinking of food and murder in the same breath helps it go down so well, don't you?

    (Nice poem, DrSchnell!)

    ReplyDelete
  14. This explains the rash of murder mystery/cookery/fine dining authors...
    Oh, and I just checked out the new novel _Tomato Rhapsody_! Stay tuned for the review.
    I know, I know--we're off topic. Dr. Schnell started it. Great poem!

    ReplyDelete
  15. 1. U.S. World War I troops in Europe?
    2. Henry Ford
    3. McKinley?
    4. The sinking of the Lucitania (not sure how that's spelled)
    5. These are the black sox who threw games (the World Series?)
    6. Is that the man in #3 above? Does the boy represent Texas?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well, lessee:

    1. "Over There" is about American troops entering World War I.

    2. They work for Ford.

    3. That's Taft, who was President from 1909 to 1913.

    4. The Lusitania has just been downed by a U-Boat.

    5. They have conspired to throw the World Series.

    6. The kid represents Arizona, the 48th state.

    ReplyDelete
  17. So, I guess this wasn't quite as brutally difficult as I thought, as most takers knocked this one out of the park. Well-deserved EPs go out to PB, Elaine, Carto, la gringa, Calico, d, mhwitt, the Mrs., CritBill, Drs, and, telecommuting in from over on Facebook, Megan S., who thus becomes the 72nd human to win a Monday Quiz Exclamation Point!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Not only do I not live in the United States, but I didn't check the site on the proper date to do the quiz. I will not, however, be deterred. I reserve the right to make up loopy answers to your quizzes before or after the deadline.

    1. US troops in Europe, fighting the Great War.

    2. The Ford Motor Co.

    3. Great moustache. I'm going with Thomas P. Eaglebottom

    4. Sinking of the Luisitania.

    5. Scabs during the great baseball strike of 1913.

    6. Texas.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Eaglebottom? You should get points for the most creative wrong answer! No shame, since several US citizens who should know better (HS student, one of them!) got it wrong.

    WAS there a baseball strike way back then?

    Folks, let's remember that Texas is NOT the only "western" state, just the loudest and most self-promoting. (I live in a state where pick-ups, ranches, oil wells, rodeos and livestock auctions are part of daily life....but I'll bet you no one thinks of those things in connection with Darkest Arkansas! which actually shares a border with Texas and Oklahoma among others...)

    I am sure M5000 will break it gently that you did not get an EP this time....

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  20. Elaine, thanks for staying up to chat with the girl who's late to the party. Most of my answers were guesses, because guessing is fun. I didn't even know there were baseball strikes, other than the "strike three" variety, and that's about all I know about baseball. I guessed Texas because of the armadillo/lizard/alligator thing, and because Texas has such a reputation for independence I thought there was a chance it joined as late as the 20th century. And I saw a video once in high school that featured an interview with an American straight out of a Cold War satire movie, and his name was Lawrence Eagleburger. I don't remember what he had to say, but I'm not making up that name.

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  21. I knew it was Arizona! I knew it!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Aviatrix,
    I am SO old that I know who Lawrence Eagleburger was. That's sad! Still, quite a name. (Wait, though--wouldn't an "eagleburger" be a felony?)
    Weird Eagle name department: How about Egil Krogh? (Yes, it's a real name....connected to a national scandal.)
    Oh, we've had at least one baseball season ruined by a strike! (I lived in Cincinnati for 9 years during The Big Red Machine days-- a halcyon time that included a World Series title. Before that I had no clue about major league ball, but if you must live in Ohio you may as well give up and learn the game. That made the 14 years in Cleveland go faster, at least...despite the Indians' record.)

    ReplyDelete

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