Here’s the fifth and last installment of the retro trivia series. I hope you’ve had as much fun with them as I had putting them together. The answers will be listed below. See how you do.
What craze included terms like “handglide” and backslide”?
Whose visit to South Korea in May, 1984, promoted the tightest security in that nations history?
What brand of sweetener did G.D. Searle & Company put on the market in 1983?
The U.S. mining of what nation’s harbors caused a congressional uproar in April, 1984?
What was the name of Jesse Jackson’s hoped for coalition?
What was the bug that caused havoc in California?
Who was shot and killed at the airport in Manila in 1983?
What group in 1981 was compensated $5,000.00 per person for their unusual stint overseas?
Seven people died after popping these cyanide-spiked pills?
In what nation did a Soviet submarine find itself beached in 1981?
BONUS QUESTION
What celebrated figures were married in St. Paul’s Cathedral?
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Answers
Breakdancing, Pope John Paul II, NutraSweet, Nicaragua, The Rainbow Coalition, Mediterranean Fruit Fly, Benigno Aguino, The Iranian Hostages, Extra Strength Tylenol, Sweden, BONUS-Prince Charles & Lady Diana Spencer,
Here is the fourth installment of retro trivia from the decade of the 1970’s. These questions should be a little easier than the last three decades. As always the answers are listed below.
Who was court-martialed in 1971 for atrocities committed in Southeast Asia?
What became the capital of the reunited North and South Vietnam?
What was the name of the Russian spacecraft that linked with an Apollo module in 1975?
In 1974 what building became the tallest in the world?
What woman won the Nobel Prize in 1979?
What nation tried “The Gang of Four”?
Name the senator that presided over the Watergate hearings?
Where was the Queen Elizabeth when it caught fire and sank in 1972?
Who was the first native American to be canonized by the Catholic church?
Name the war hero who quit the Israeli cabinet in 1979?
BONUS QUESTION
What caused Iceland and England to sever diplomatic relations in 1976?
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Answers
Lt. William Calley, Hanoi, Soyuz, The Sears Tower, Mother Teresa, China, Sam Ervin, Hong Kong, Mother Seton, Moshe Dayan, BONUS-Cod Fishing Rights
It’s time to end this series of posts about limericks. It’s been fun writing and researching all of these older limericks and I’ll continue to do so with periodic posts of this type. I became enamored with limericks as a ten year old boy listening at the door of a card game while my father and his friends were playing poker. One of them recited the following limerick and I’ve never forgotten it. It imbodies everything I like in poetry. It’s both a little funny and a little bawdy. Enjoy. . .
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There was a man from Cass
Whose balls were made of brass.
During inclement weather he’d rub them together
And lightning would shoot out of his ass.
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If you aren’t smiling at that one then limericks aren’t for you. Over the years I’ve written many myself and upset both friends and family because I lean to the bawdy side of things. The following ditty was written by me just a few days ago and it reminded just how much fun it is to create one. Here it is . . .
I’ve always been a huge fan of Asimov even before I learned he was a proficient writer of limericks. I’ve been reading his novels for many years and have always considered him to be fellow lover of science fiction. After reading some of his limericks I discovered his relationship with John Ciardi and their famous limerick wars. For those of you not familiar with Azimov and his works I’d recommend you read his greatest work, The Foundation Series. I love reading long and involved stories and I’d put Asimov right up there with J.R.R Tolkien and J. K Rowling. Here’s a few samples of his well constructed limericks.
While primarily known as a poet and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, he also wrote several volumes of children’s poetry and contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor. I could continue with all of his accomplishments but they are endless. In 1981 he co-authored a book, LIMERICKS, with his friend Isaac Asimov. It was called a “War of Words (limericks)” and makes for a great read. Two utterly famous men who absolutely loved writing limericks just for fun.
David McCord was a notable American author, best known for his contributions to children’s poetry and also serving as the executive director of the Harvard Fund Council for several decades. His limerick are still somewhat mild as seen in Mr. Lear’s contribution.
I’d like to introduce to you Mr. Edward Lear. He was a prolific writer of hundreds of limericks in the early days. They are much milder in content than what we are currently seeing. Enjoy!
I pride myself on having a huge and varied collection of limericks as you well know. Most of them are very old with the identity of the writers long forgotten. For the next two weeks I’ll be highlighting some of the more famous limerick writers with samples of their work. Most were well known poets, writers, and authors. Some of their limericks will be off-color and a bit sexual so I recommend that younger children be monitored. Over the next two weeks you’ll be introduced to some of histories best limerick authors. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
The first thing I’d like to do is give you a short history lesson on limericks because they’ve been around a lot longer than you might think. The first known limericks appeared in the early 18th century and they just happened to be written in French (and they weren’t called limericks then). Around that same time the Irish Brigade was serving in France (1691 to 1780). The short poems were eventually imported to Limerick, Ireland where their current name originated. Edward Lear 1812-1888, initially wrote many rather mild limericks. It wasn’t until the Victorian Era that the citizenry seized upon the limerick as a way to vent as many four-letter words as possible, much to the delight of young schoolboys. It seems that the bawdiest limericks of that time tended to be written by the British. A few samples of Lear’s tamer limericks will be featured in my next post in two days.
Here is a sample a moderately bawdy limerick of the era:
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Said a widow whose singular vice
Was to keep her dead husband on ice,
“It’s been hard since I lost him.
I’ll never defrost him,
Cold comfort, but cheap at the price.”
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My next post will be an introduction to Edward Lear who authored many limericks over many years.
Are you loving this GD cold weather and snow as much as I am. Trapped in my house patiently waiting for the oil delivery to arrive so I can shell out 400 more dollars to keep my water lines from freezing. Even my man-cave is suffering. No matter what I do it remains quite chilly and making typing this post a real chore. Here is a little sample of obscure Art related mish/mosh and now I can return upstairs to the warm rooms. Enjoy . . . .
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Before he became an artist Vincent van Gogh worked as an evangelist in Belgium.
American Gothic, the famous painting of a couple with a pitchfork, was done by Grant Wood in 1930. The couple that posed for the painting were his dentist and his sister.
The actual name of the famous painter El Greco was Domenikos Theotokopoulos.
Painter Paul Gauguin was once a stockbroker.
American painter Norman Rockwell became the art director of Boy’s Life magazine while he was still a teenager.
The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington DC on March 17, 1941.
Charles M. Shultz’s comic strip Peanuts debuted in October, 1950.
The deep red sunset seen in Norwegian Edward Munch’s The Scream is believed to reflect the intense sunsets seen throughout the world following the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s fresco, The Last Supper, is located in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
As some of you will remember, I search constantly to find and purchase old books. I recently received one of the strangest books I’ve ever seen. The book is titled BIZARRE BOOKS – A COMPENDIUM OF CLASSIC ODDITIES. As we all know almost anyone can write a book. Some become famous and sell millions of copies but then there are these others. This book is a collection of nothing but book titles going back hundreds of years and to say some are strange is an understatement as you will see. I’ll be posting on more of these titles in the future after I finish reading the book. Todays topic concerns 15 book titles containing blatant Double Entendre. Here goes northing . . .
everyuselessthing.com 