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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In the movie "The Sound of Music", the von Trapp children sang a musical farewell to party guests in the song "So Long, Farewell". Each chorus includes those words, along with other terms for goodbye, followed by a child's solo line. Which of the children added "I'd like to stay and taste my first champagne"?

Answer: Liesl

It was Liesl ("Sixteen, Going on Seventeen") who wanted to try some champagne. Marta hated 'to go, and leave this pretty sight'; Brigitta sang that she was 'glad to go, I cannot tell a lie'; Gretl told us that 'the sun has gone to bed and so must I' just before the last of the children climbed the stairs.

2. The female member of a famous Western television couple had a signature tune that started with the words "Happy trails to you, until we meet again". Who wrote and sang this song, performed as a farewell to the audience at the end of every show?

Answer: Dale Evans

The opening announcement welcomed us to "'The Roy Rogers Show,' starring Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys; Trigger, his golden palomino; and Dale Evans, Queen of the West; with Pat Brady, his comical sidekick; and Roy's wonder dog, Bullet." At the end of each episode, Roy and Dale faced the cameras on horseback waving goodbye as Dale sang:

"Happy Trails to you, until we meet again
Happy Trails to you, keep smilin' until then...
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy Trails to you, until we meet again..."

3. Poems have also been used as a means of saying goodbye. One humorous poem ends with the following lines: "Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros, I'll stare at something less prepoceros". Who wrote this poem, titled (unsurprisingly) "The Rhinoceros"?

Answer: Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash is known for his short witty poems, often with somewhat tortured rhymes, and this is a nice example. The text of the full poem is:

"The rhino is a homely beast,
For human eyes he's not a feast.
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
I'll stare at something less prepoceros."

The rhino appears again in Nash's poem "The Elephant", part of a suite of poems designed to accompany "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens. The poem finishes "If you think the elephant preposterous,
You've probably never seen a rhinosterous".

4. Which American poet (from Amherst, MA) wrote that "Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell"?

Answer: Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's poem "My life closed twice before its close" finishes with these lines. Like many of her poems, it is usually referred to by its first line. It can be found as poem 96 in "Complete Poems Part I: Life" published in 1924. She didn't take the parting well.

5. Some of us are more sanguine about major separations than others of us. In what Charles Dickens novel does a character depart for another country with a speech that starts, "Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together"?

Answer: Great Expectations

Abel Magwitch, was an escaped convict who became Pip's secret benefactor in "Great Expectations". He says goodbye to Pip, the novel's central character, with a lengthy speech that starts as in the question, and ends with, "I'm awful dull, but I hope I've beat out something nigh the rights of this at last. And so GOD bless you, dear old Pip, old chap, GOD bless you!"

6. In its final season, the long-running television show "Seinfeld" used a recently-released song to farewell its audience. The chorus of the song goes "It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life". What band originally recorded this song?

Answer: Green Day

The song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was released on Green Day's 1997 album "Nimrod". Billie Joe Armstrong had written it in 1994, following the end of a relationship with a girl who moved to Ecuador. It is often referred to as "Time of Your Life", but the irony of the full title is irresistible in context!

7. What 20th Century American general said goodbye to his military career with a speech that included the phrase "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away"?

Answer: Douglas MacArthur

General Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 - April 5, 1964) played a significant role in the Pacific theater during World War II, for which he received the Medal of Honor. He was controversially dismissed from his post in 1951 by President Truman, following public disagreement about official military policy in the Korean War.

At his farewell speech to Congress, he said, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away... And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away - an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye."

8. One of the most famous farewell scenes in cinema history includes the line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Yes, it's "Gone With the Wind", and Rhett Butler delivers the line to Scarlett O'Hara at the end of the movie. Does this exact line occur in the original book?

Answer: No

In Margaret Mitchell's novel, the scene is much less dramatic, as they are talking quietly in a room, not having a histrionic scene as he storms out the door. In response to Scarlett's question about what she is to do if he leaves her, Rhett just says, "My dear, I don't give a damn".

9. Dying quotations are a way in which people say goodbye to their life and loved ones. What famous composer is supposed to have said "Friends applaud, the comedy is over" and "I shall hear in Heaven"?

Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven

All four of these composers were hearing-impaired, but it was Beethoven who is reported to have made these two dying statements. They are actually probably apocryphal, although you can find them widely attributed to him. As he was bedridden for the final three months of his life, there was plenty of time to collect (or create) deathbed quotations. According to Beethoven's biographer, A. W. Thayer, his last words were "Pity, pity - too late!" when he was informed of the arrival of a gift of a dozen bottles of wine.

10. During his final illness, an author known for his quotable quotes is supposed to have said, "Either that wallpaper goes or I do". (Variants on this sentence are also reported, including "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go.") Who is reputed to have made this parting sally?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

While some variant of this statement is often given as being the dying words of Oscar Wilde, the statement was made a month before his actual death. His actual death was less cheeky. According to a description by his close friend Robert Ross, Wilde was received into the Catholic Church in his final moments; he was conscious but incapable of speech when a priest was called to administer Baptism and Extreme Unction.

Source: Author looney_tunes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Exit10 before going online.
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Goodbye Trivia Quiz

This quiz is part of kyleisalive's challenge to "spice up the site". The Spice Girls recorded "Goodbye" as a musical farewell to Geri Halliwell, the first member of the group to leave. How many of these other famous 'goodbyes' can you identify?

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