"Put" in Its Place

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1. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched SPUTnik – the first satellite the human race ever managed to put into space. Their success marked the beginning of the Space Race, the one facet of the Cold War distinguished for spurring giant leaps for mankind. Humanity’s foray into space has lasted decades – but what was the fate of Sputnik 1? After three months in orbit, it burned up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. It is still orbiting the Earth to this day. It was destroyed in an accidental collision with Sputnik 2, killing the dog Laika. It was retrieved by cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on the very first spacewalk, and is now in a Moscow museum.

2. Few golfers would consider their set of clubs complete without a PUTter, a specialized club designed to hit the ball accurately over a short distance. How is an ordinary putter different from other clubs? Its shaft is always much longer. It has a long, flat head. Its shaft is always much shorter. It is invariably made of wood.

3. ComPUTers are an integral part of modern life – and modern trivia! Yet this word has not always meant what we think it means. Suppose you traveled back in time to the year 1895 and asked some random English speaker what a computer was. What might he or she say? A computer? Why, that’s a person who does mathematical calculations. It’s a woman, usually. It’s a wizard of some kind, I think – someone skilled in magic. No one uses that word these days, though. I think I saw that word in the latest Jules Verne novel. Yes, it was a kind of crystal that Captain Antifer used to find his way home. Computers are those new-fangled machines that use hydraulics to solve equations. They’re very clever, but quite useless.

4. Silly PUTty may be sold as a children’s toy, but it can be deadly serious. It was discovered during World War II, when scientists were researching rubber substitutes for military and civilian use, and since then it’s found uses in housecleaning, outer space and even physical therapy! How is Crayola Silly Putty sold? Inside a plastic container shaped like a car tire Inside a plastic container shaped like an egg In tubs the size of butter containers In large wooden barrels

5. Vladimir PUTin became Russia’s second president in the year 2000, but this was not his first government job. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, in what branch of the government did he work? Moscow State University The city government of Leningrad The KGB The Soviet Navy

6. “I’m never gonna care about my bad rePUTation,” this singer declares in a song that’s appeared in movies (“10 Things I Hate About You”), television shows (“Freaks and Geeks”), and even video games (“Rock Band 2”). After all, “it’s a new generation!” Try to identify the original performers of this 1981 release without “living in the past”. Peter, Paul and Mary Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

7. Watching the track and field portion of the Olympics or other championships, you may observe athletes attempting the shotPUT. Which of these is the best description of this event? The athlete attempts to throw a spear-like object as far as possible. The athlete attempts to throw a heavy metal ball as far as possible. The athlete runs a sprint with hurdles, moving “like a shot.” The athlete uses a pole to clear a high horizontal bar.

8. On November 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party launched their first bid for power in the Beer Hall PUTsch. The coup attempt failed, but shaped his future acts: he wrote "Mein Kampf" during his jail sentence for the putsch, and the failure of force inspired him to obey the letter of the law in his rise to power during the 1930s. Where did the Beer Hall Putsch take place? Vienna, Austria Munich, Germany Berlin, Germany Dresden, Germany

9. PUT is a syllable that can’t be stopped: it’s even shown up on Broadway! This one-act musical, centered on a school competition, opened on Broadway in 2005 and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical. It’s unusual in many ways, one of which is that the competitors in the contest are not just actors – a few of them are drawn from the audience every show! What is this musical, based on the play “C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E”? PUT Me In, Coach Rodney and the ComPUTer Contest PUTting It Together The 25th Annual PUTnam County Spelling Bee

10. "This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not PUT!" This indignant line is usually attributed to Winston Churchill in an anecdote about the absurdities of inflexible grammatical rules. To what rule was he (probably apocryphally) objecting? Every sentence must include an explicit subject. Never begin a sentence with "and" or "but." Never end a sentence with a preposition. Never split an infinitive.