Trivial Mixed Nuts Trivia Quiz

Answer: sugar and vegetable oil

I hate to break the bad news to all you Nutella fans out there, but Nutella is not a nutritious breakfast food. It's really a dessert, and a nutritionally questionable one at that. Leading the Wikipedia entry is the following definition: "Nutella is a brand of sweetened palm oil spread, flavored with hazelnut and cocoa solids..." More than 50% of it is sugar and oil, with about 13% being hazelnuts and somewhat less than that being cocoa solids and skim milk.

The ingredients may vary somewhat depending on the country where it's marketed.

Despite these facts, Nutella remains popular throughout the world as a creamy, tasty, chocolate-flavored nutty spread. It was formulated and first introduced in Italy in the early 1960s. The manufacturer is an Italian company, Ferraro SpA, now the second largest confectionery and chocolate producer in the world.

The company was founded in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero, who was a confectioner and local pastry maker in Alba, Piedmont.

Answer: insects, nuts, and seeds

Nuthatches are a genus of small, passerine birds belonging to the Sittidae family. All the several species weigh less than one ounce. Passerines are a large and varied order of birds characterized by feet which allow them to perch on thin branches. Given their size, they couldn't possibly kill mammals and have no interest in roadkill. Very few birds are true, strict vegetarians. Even most largely plant-based bird diets are supplemented with insects.

The nuthatch gets its name from its feeding behavior.

It will take a seed, wedge it into a crevice in the bark of a tree or the crotch of a branch, and 'hatchet' it open with its sharp beak. These birds can be observed hopping up and down trees, pecking into breaks in the bark, looking for insects.

Answer: Battle of the Bulge

Anthony Clement McAuliffe earned renown, promotion, and his fitting nickname as the result of his role in resisting a key German offensive in December of 1944. A German surprise attack had caught the Allies off guard in the Ardennes Forest region of eastern Belgium.

The commander of the 101st Airborne and attached troops, Gen Maxwell Taylor, was on conference in the USA, so McAuliffe was in charge as acting commander. His forces were outnumbered and surrounded in the city of Bastogne. When a German delegation arrived with a surrender demand giving him two hours to think it over, he literally said "nuts" as he crumpled the missive and threw it in the wastebasket.

In trying to craft a response, his advisors suggested sending a return note bearing this exact succinct message.

When it was delivered to the Germans by US Colonel Joseph Harper, they weren't sure what it meant, so Harper translated. "In plain English? 'Go to hell.'" The 101st stubbornly held off the German forces until the 4th Armored Division arrived with reinforcements several days later. Casualties were heavy on both sides, but the ultimate failure of the German army to crush the Allied forces in this battle signaled the beginning of the end for them. El Alamein and Midway were two other WWII battles.

The "battle" of Wounded Knee was more accurately a massacre of Lakota Indians by a US Cavalry regiment, which occurred on a reservation in South Dakota in 1890.

Answer: Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was an English author, scientist and conservationist best known for the twenty three children's stories about animals which she wrote and illustrated herself. "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" was published in 1903, following up the hugely popular "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," which had cemented Potter's reputation.

When she was young, owing to her family's comfortable circumstances, Potter was able to spend extended periods on holidays out in nature and tending to the many small animals she was allowed to keep and care for as pets.

She observed keenly and drew extensively, becoming more expert over time as evidenced by the extraordinary illustrations in her books. I can still remember being a very small child, thrilling to the intensity of these tales, read to me with gusto by my father, as the animals faced perilous giant humans and potentially lethal predators.

In the case of Squirrel Nutkin, his annoying impertinence almost got him skinned alive by an owl named Old Brown. Let that be a lesson to you, as dad used to say.

Answer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This two act ballet, now so popular and ubiquitous around Christmas time, debuted in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1892. The original production met a lukewarm reception, but the 20 minute "suite" which Tchaikovsky pulled from the ballet was a hit. He died less than one year later, never knowing his opera would become a huge international success.

The libretto is based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffman entitled "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." The book is darker and edgier than the upbeat ballet, which has been beguiling holiday audiences for over a century.

Answer: hoosegow

'Hoosegow' is a slang term for a jail. It comes from the Mexican Spanish word 'juzgao' (same meaning) and is itself derived from 'juzgado' which means 'court of justice.' The terms date from the early 20th century. Many smaller municipalities in Mexico located the courtroom and the jail in the same building.

Like many other subjects which tend to make people uncomfortable--out of control drinking or sex, for example--mental illness and its treatment has given rise to lots of slang terms which can be humorous, but may also be hurtful and damaging. We tend to ridicule that which is different or misunderstood; and misunderstanding born of ignorance has frequently led to brutal stigmatization and cruel warehousing of the mentally ill in abusive institutions. 'Nut' as a colloquial term for 'head' dates back to the 1800s, so someone who seemed not right in the head was 'off their nut' or simply 'nuts.'

Answer: Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis directed, co-wrote, and starred in the 1963 original about a nerdy chemistry professor who discovers a formula which transforms him into a suave, arrogant lounge singer. His new personality allows him amorous interaction with one of his students to whom he is secretly attracted.

The movie is an obvious bow to the Jekyll and Hyde story. It's an endearingly humorous adaptation, mixing corn-ball comedy with real-life lessons about the value of self-acceptance. This is Jerry Lewis at his finest, if he's your cup of tea; slapstick and nuttiness in every sense of the word. Stella Stevens stars as the professor's love interest.

Answer: B. Bumble and the Stingers

"Nut Rocker" is a catchy instrumental recorded by a group of studio musicians at the Rendezvous Records studio in Los Angeles. The tune was based on the music from Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker." Some of the players were members of the "Wrecking Crew," a loosely affiliated coterie of skilled professionals who played on literally thousands of the pop tunes heard on the radio in the 1960s and 1970s, while remaining largely unknown to the general public. "Nut Rocker" rose to number 23 on the US Billboard Top 100, and actually made number one in Great Britain. Squirrel Nut Zippers formed in 1993; the B-52 were formed in 1976; Sting, stage name of Gordon Sumner and founder of the rock group The Police, was born in 1951.

Answer: torque

Torque describes a twisting force which tends to produce rotation. Leverage is a means of maximizing force in an area by applying it from a different area (often, but not necessarily with the aid of a lever pivoting on a fixed bar). Think of lifting a person of near equal weight off the ground rather easily when on a seesaw. Gravity could also be of use in increasing torque, for instance one might use one's weight by jumping on the lug wrench to increase torque. Gravity by itself is a relatively weak force.

As for WD-40, it's not a force per se, but it is an amazing substance which loosens rusted parts and has many other uses.

Answer: filbert

What is a nut? That's a simple question which has a less simple answer. Peanuts are a ground crop, classified as legumes, similar to beans and peas. Although cashews grow on trees like true nuts, they are more accurately classified as seeds because of pod structure and formation.

The fruit of the almond tree is technically a drupe, not a nut. So that leaves the hazelnut, or filbert, as our true nut. A nut is a fruit--that is a seed bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a plant--which develops a hard outer shell at maturity.

This shell does not crack open by itself, and it encases an inner seed which is generally edible. It's worth noting that the culinary definition most people use includes peanuts, almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts and many other seeds, so no nut police are coming for you if you choose not to make the botanical distinction. True nuts include acorns, sweet chestnut, beech, pecans and alder nuts, along with the aforementioned filbert.