MOVIE TRIVIA
Actor’s Name: Robert Downing Jr.
Movie Character’s Name: Tony Stark
Movie Title: “Iron Man”
Actor’s Name: Kim Cattrall
Movie Character’s Name: Samantha Jones
Movie Title: “Sex and the City”
Actor’s Name: Al Pacino
Movie Character’s Name: Dr. Jack Gramm
Movie Title: “88 Minutes”
SONG LYRICS
Song Title/Artist
1. Breathe (2 AM) - Anna Nalick
2. Handy Man - James Taylor
3. Let the River Run - Carly Simon/Michael Ball
LITERARY QUOTES
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens Ebenezer Scrooge
Moby Dick Herman Melville Ishmael
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett Aliena
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
1. Name the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne---the nine Muses of Greek mythology?
A: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpischore, Thalia, and Urania.
2. What mythological beast has the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail and feet of a dragon?
A: A manticore.
3. The diet of what mythical monster periodically included seven youths and seven maidens?
A: The Minotaur's.
4. In Greek mythology, who was the goddess of the rainbow?
A : Iris.
5. In ancient Athens, what tree was considered sacred -- with all its fruit belonging to the state, and death the penalty for anyone caught cutting one down?
A: The olive tree.
6. What legendary fire-breathing female monster had a lion's head, a goat's body and a dragon's tail?
A: The Chimera.
7. What famous structure in Greek mythology was built by a man named Epeius?
A: The Trojan Horse. According to the legend, Epeius was a skilled woodworker commissioned by Odysseus to build the huge gift horse.
8. According to legend, who fired the arrow that hit Achilles in the heel, his only vulnerable spot?
A: Paris.
9. What mythological god was portrayed as the Colossus of Rhodes, the more than 100-foot-high sculpture that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World?
A: Helios, the sun god. The statue was destroyed by an earthquake in 224.
10. In Greek mythology, who were Arges, Brontes and Steropes?
A: Cyclopes.
11. In Greek mythology, who was the queen of the underworld and wife of Hades?
A: Persephone.
12. Who was the ancient Greek god of dreams?
A: Morpheus. (Hypnus was the god of sleep.)
13. What bird was credited with saving Rome from attack y the Gauls in 390B.C.?
A: The goose. According to legend, the honking of geese alerted the Romans to a night raid by the Gauls.
14. According to classical mythology, who was the first mortal woman?
A: Pandora.
15. Janus--the ancient Roman god of good beginnings for whom January is named-- is pictured on early coins with two faces looking in opposite directions. What did the faces represent?
A: The future and the past.
16. What is the name of the imaginary city built in the air in The Birds, the comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes in 414B.C.?
A: Cloud-Cuckoo-Land-- or Nephelococcygia in Greek.
17. In Greek mythology, what were the names of Oedipus’s parents?
A: Laius, King of Thebes, and his queen, Jocasta.
18. According to legend, what is the color of the horn in the middle of the unicorn's forehead?
A: White at the base, black in the middle and red at the tip.
19. According to Norse legend, what animals pulled Thor's chariot across the sky?
A: Two goats. Thor was the god of thunder.
20. According to legend, what Hindu god died as Achilles did---from an arrow shot into his heel?
A: Krishna. A hunter who mistook him for a deer shot him. His heel was his only vulnerable spot.
OPERA TRIVIA
1. Così fan tutte (the tenor) and Il Trovatore (the faithful retainer of Count di Luna, and the character who opens the opera).
2. In Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, the heroine, Leonora, disguises herself as a man in order to gain access to the prison where her husband is a political prisoner.
3. In Il Barbiere di Siviglia Count Almaviva calls himself Lindoro, a poor student, in order to woo Rosina and to make sure that she's not a fortune-hunter.
4. In Rigoletto, the Duke of Mantua, poses as "Gualtier Maldé," yet another poor student, to woo Gilda, as he is a known rake and the employer of Gilda's father, Rigoletto.
5. Allegedly in a desert on the outskirts of New Orleans. (Bet you didn't know that the Mississippi delta was that dry.) Poor Puccini was stuck with the original novelist's rather confused sense of geography; the Abbé Antoine-François Prévost clearly lacked an atlas.
6. Verdi originally set this tale of political intrigue and regicide in the late 18th Century court of King Gustave III of Sweden. The threat of censorship, however, forced him to change the setting to Boston. The king became Riccardo, Royal Governor of Massachusetts, and the would-be assassins, Count Ribbing and Count Horn, became, respectively, Samuel and Tom. (Poor Adams and Jefferson!)
7. In Gianni Schicchi, the Donatis are hot for "i mulini di Signa," but of course Schicchi, posing as the dying Buoso, leaves them to himself in his "will."
8. Civitavecchia, a port city north of Rome. After Tosca makes her unpleasant deal with Scarpia -- Cavaradossi's life for her body -- Scarpia writes out a safe-conduct that she believes will allow her and her lover to leave the country. But nobody gets to Civitavecchia; it all ends in stabbing and shooting and jumping off a roof.
9. In Alfredo Catalani's La Wally, the hero, Hagenbach -- who has already survived being pushed off a mountain by his rival -- dies in an avalanche after his reunion with his beloved Wally at her mountaintop hut. Wally jumps after him. The end.
10. In La Gioconda, when urged to flee for his life, Enzo -- who was exiled from Venice and has now returned at the risk of death -- takes the rather extreme and unnecessary step of burning his own ship just to prove that he's not a coward. That'll show 'em!
11. The Rhine overflows its banks and Valhalla goes up in flames at the end of Götterdämmerung.
12. Madama Butterfly. In preparation for her marriage to Pinkerton, Cio-cio-san converts to Christianity, thus incurring the wrath of her uncle, the high priest Il Bonzo, and causing her family to desert her on her wedding day.
13. In Bellini's opera, the title character is a Druid priestess.
14. Elvira, the heroine of Bellini's I Puritani, is, surprise, surprise, a Puritan. Her lover Arturo is a Cavalier (i.e., plain old Anglican), and since Cromwell is in power, he's not in a good position to marry, or even to stay alive. He does, however, manage to get her father's consent, but ruins everything when he runs off with the disguised former Queen (from only the purest political motives). Elvira goes mad, Arturo returns, Arturo is arrested, Elvira regains her sanity, Arturo is pardoned, and they all live happily ever after.
15. In Suor Angelica, the heroine has retired to a convent after giving birth to an illegitimate child. When her aunt, in an effort to get Angelica to give up her inheritance in favor of her sister, pitilessly tells her that the child is dead, Angelica takes poison. As she dies, she sees a vision of the Blessed Mother with her child.
WORD PLAY
1. backstop shortstop stopwatch
2. blue cheese cheesecake cottage cheese
3. footstool foot powder football
4. big top topsoil tabletop
5. handmade handcuff left-hand
6. slow motion slowpoke slowdown
7. spotlight hotspot spot check
8. flashlight hot flash flashback
9. hardwood hard liquor hard luck
10. drop kick kickoff kickstand
MAGIC SQUARE
RIDDLE
A splinter.
GARBLED PROVERBS
1. Better late than never.
2. Faint heart never won fair lady.
3. Make hay while the sun shines.
4. Won't budge I took my ids covet.
5. Half a loaf is better than no bread.
6. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
7. To thine own heart be true.
8. It is not over till the fat lady sings.
9. In for a penny, in for a pound.
10. Dead men tell no tales.
OPTICAL ILLUSIONS
There is a hidden face.
They are circles, not a spiral.
WHAT WORDS OR PHRASES DO THESE REPRESENT?
Bad Influence
Play Shortstop
Take a Step Backwards
