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Reading:
Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer
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7 February 2002: Answers
(It's still Wednesday, but I thought today was the seventh. Speaking
of Wednesday, I was really surprised to find out that Anthony Soprano
Jr. is not played by the same actor who played Pugsley in "The Addams
Family Movie.")
Wheee! You can edit a quiz. I removed 35 fake addresses, leaving
Septum for PLT's attempt and Jonny Cash for RDC's. Actually, I should
credit RDC for inspiring PLT to think of Septum. RDC did this test because
I asked him but did so as Jonny Cash because, well, RDC is RDC. I actually
once kind of liked Johnny Cash, though I haven't listened to him since
I lived with my father. In "Blow," someone sings a snippet of
whatever that song is, "It Ain't Me You're Looking for, Babe,"
which RDC confused with Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" until
I laughingly set him straight. Maybe that's why he spelled "Jonny"
as he did. And I removed my sister's lower score. So now the overall numbers
make more sense, but the individual statistics are all messed up: I looked
up my sister's 90% to see which question she'd got wrong, and she had
eight wrong and two right. I looked up others' scores, but seldom do the
scores and the right answers match up. Whatever.
- Which of my stuffed animals is not named for a fictional character?
- Booboo (3)
- Hamlet (2)
- Morse (3)
- Pantalaimon (4)
- Monty (5)
I guess Yogi Bear and Booboo
aren't as prominent in everyone's memory as I think. And I suppose
that Hamlet
might be based on some actual Danish prince, but that's a tad
literal, is it not? Not that I ever am. Pantalaimon
I thought was obvious, because what actual critter was ever named
Pantalaimon? More people need to read Philp Pullman. Monty
might have been a trick question, because her full name is Ms. Manuel
Murphy Montgomery Moose, for "Fawlty Towers" and a (real-life)
friend of my sister's and Monty Python and Captain Kangaroo's friend
Mr. Moose, and I only just recently decided she was female because
she's a "laying moose" and because I need more females in
the house. But Morse
is named for my grandmother, whose nickname is Dot.
- What is my favorite place in the whole wide world?
- Aspen, CO (0)
- Uncas Lake, Nehantic SF, CT (5)
- Provincetown, MA (6)
- Griswold Point, Old Lyme, CT (5)
- Formigny, France (3)
Was this really so hard? Provincetown ahead of Uncas? Do y'all know
how cold the water is up there?
- What is my dream job?
- Professor of English lit in a wee liberal arts school (5)
- Children's librarian in a small rural town (8)
- Researcher in a quasi-governmental organization (5)
- Veterinarian (0)
- this one's a giveaway. I mean really (1)
See the fifth option. Small rural town, children's librarian? As
many people guessed something approximating my actual field (I'm not
a vet, either) as professor.
- Which is my favorite book?
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (4)
- Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of
Solitude (1)
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (5)
- Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (6)
- Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon (2)
My sister and Nisou both guessed Wrinkle and RPR Harold.
RDC said no fair because I talk about all of them all the time.
I asked him which title he'd bought for me in a handsome hardover
to replace the tatty pulp copy I had, and then he was fine, since
Watership Down isn't on this list.
- What am I going to name my first dog?
- Ponyboy (1)
- Phoebe (10)
- Shadow Junior (5)
- Whatever its astrological sign is, like Sagi
(2)
- After another Romantic poet, like Percy
and Blake (1)
Last year, when I was seriously considering a dog, Ponyboy suggested
itself to me as the most perfect name. RDC long ago conceded that
the first dog can be a female black lab (instead of the male German
Shepherd he wants next), but he put his foot down about Ponyboy, not
having reading The Outsiders nine bazillion times. Seeing the
movie just isn't enough to enamor someone of the name. So when I thought
of Phoebe, after my hometown library, well, that was wonderful. Clearly
superior, I thought, and unobjectionable, he thought. Phoebe it is.
- Which have the marauding squirrels NOT eaten out of my garden?
- Nectarines (5)
- Pears (2)
- Plums (0)
- Eggplants (2)
- Zucchini (7)
Squirrels have good taste. They left me plenty of the weed vegetable,
which I will not be planting five hills of this year.
- I have my hair long because
- I want to annoy my sister (1)
- I think it's flattering this way (8)
- I want to be Tasha Tudor (5)
- Rich makes me (4)
- I'm going for a Guinness Record (1)
I wanted to say a Duff record, but not everyone watches "The
Simpsons." Flattering? Y'all are either on crack or just not
paying attention. Tasha Tudor illustrated the one acceptable edition
of The Secret Garden and lots of other nature-oriented picture
books. If she's still alive, she's well into her 90s and lives on
a farm in Vermont on the Connecticut river keeping goats and dogs
and parrots and growing vegetables and fruit and probably keeping
an apiary, or maybe that's just wishful thinking. She is chief among
the old women with long white hair in a braided bun whom I emulate.
- Which movie would I not watch over n over n over n over n over?
- The Philadelphia Story (1)
- Harold and Maude (1)
- Jaws (9)
- Shakespeare in Love (1)
- Children of a Lesser God (3)
"Jaws" was a red herring for anyone who doesn't know. But
I do love it, especially after the incident of question 9. Lots of
guesses for "Harold and Maude," which I attribute to a widespread,
very tragic ignorance of this best of all movies. "Harold and
Maude" is wonderful, speaking of old women with long hair. I
don't know if I've ever told the "Children of a Lesser God"
story in full here.
- What did I famously think was a shark?
- A shark, and I narrowly escaped chomping (3)
- A ray, which has no fins (6)
- A dolphin. Stupid dorsal fin (7)
- Two kids snorkeling with a fake fin (3)
- Do you understand why "Jaws" is a favorite movie? (0)
I am sure I have told the not-a-shark story. Hmm. Looks like
I haven't.
- What is my favorite band or musical artist?
- Kate Bush (1)
- Peter Gabriel (2)
- Cowboy Junkies (9)
- Sarah McLachlan (6)
- U2 (1)
I forgive anyone guessing Peter Gabriel; even RDC said that was the
hardest question. ABW
guessed U2, and I wonder if she was either bored by this point or
remembering that in the first year we knew each other, I went to my
fifth U2 show and was only just learning about the Cowboy Junkies--I
heard The Trinity Session for the first time at her house.
For next time, then, the shark story and the "Children of a Lesser
God" story.
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