Three of a Kind, Part 55 Trivia Quiz

Answer: horse

Cowgirl Dale Evans, the wife and co-star of Roy Rogers, rode a buckskin Quarter Horse named Buttermilk in many motion pictures and on "The Roy Rogers Show" (1951-1957). Buttermilk was foaled on 13 April 1941 and died on 7 October 1972. He paired well with Roy Rogers' palomino, Trigger. Buttermilk was rescued on his way to a slaughterhouse and became a beloved "cast member" in the Roy Rogers universe. Upon the Quarter Horse's death, his hide was preserved and stretched over a plastic model of his body. This was displayed in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri, until that museum and theatre went out of business in 2009.

There are numerous (nearly uncountable) versions of the card game poker. It is common for a tournament or friendly game to play just one of these versions in a sitting. In the alternative, players may agree on a rotation of five (or more) games, played one hand after another. This style of play is commonly called H.O.R.S.E. The rotation is typically Texas Hold 'Em (the H), Omaha Hi-Low Split-Eight or better (the O), Razz (the R), Seven-Card Stud (the S), and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Split-Eight or Better (the E). There are others. The World Series of Poker® added H.O.R.S.E. to its sanctioned games in 2002.

In Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), the main character, Ichabod Crane, rides a horse named Gunpowder, described by the author as a "broken-down plough-horse, that had outlived almost everything but its viciousness." Riding the horse home one night, after proposing to Katrina Van Tassel, the Headless Horseman appears, chases the schoolmaster, and throws its pumpkin head at him. After this, Crane is seen no more.

Answer: twelve

While the Western and Chinese zodiacs developed independently from one another, the commonality of twelve divisions of time is not a coincidence. People in many cultures have divided time into meaningful cycles. The number twelve is both practical and symbolic. It is divisible into halves, sixths, thirds, and quarters. It has symmetricality. It relates well to both solar and lunar cycles. It has traditional significance: the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 labours of Hercules, the 12 hours on an analogue clockface, the 12 disciples of Jesus, the 12 years it takes Jupiter to orbit the Sun, 12 cookies in a dozen, 12 gates of the New Jerusalem, 12 pence in a shilling. The Asian use of a 12-year cycle is called the Heavenly Branches (e.g. in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan).

Terry Gilliam directed Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt in 1995's "12 Monkeys." Some reviewers found it reminiscent of the 1962 French experimental short (28 minute) film "La Jetée." Gilliam admitted the inspiration; the opening credits of "12 Monkeys" acknowledge it, as well. Set in 2035, when a virus has devastated human civilisation, the feature-length motion picture involves time travel and offers a twist ending which left theatre audiences shouting. In 2015, the movie was adapted into a four-season television series.

In 1805, British Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort created a scale by which to compare wind speeds at sea. The strongest wind speed (Force 12) was defined as wind of such strength that "no canvas sails could withstand it." Modernly, Beaufort Force 12 describes the wind speed of a hurricane: 64 knots/73 mph/118 kmph. Equivalent indications include (a) waves larger than 46 feet/14 meters, (b) the surface of the sea completely white, (c) visibility reduced almost to zero, (d) widespread and very serious damage upon landfall. James S. Thayer wrote "Force 12," a novel about oceanic yacht racing, in 2015.

Answer: ace

An aviator who shoots down a certain number of enemy aircraft is deemed an "ace." The term appears to have risen during the multi-wing open-cockpit days of World War I. Five is a common threshold. The requirement of confirmation used to require an independent witness, but photographic and electronic recordation has changed that. One of the best known aces was Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) with 80 victories.

The serving tennis player has two opportunities to deliver a legal serve to the opponent. If the first serve is legal and the opponent is unable to return it, the point is deemed an "ace." Aces are more common on first serves than on second serves. This is because the possibility (insurance) of a second serve allows the server to take slightly greater risks. An ace serve is normally faster than usual and closer to the corners or lines of the service box. Professional players such as Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka have extraordinarily high ace percentages, especially on fast surfaces.

The premise of the British television series "Red Dwarf" is that crewmember Dave Lister is the only human aboard the spaceship, having been in stasis for three million years. His roommate was Arnold Judas Rimmer, who died but has been recreated by the computer as a hologram. There're also an evolved cat named Cat and a robot named Kryten. Rimmer is immature, officious, self-centred, and pedantic. His alter ego, Ace Rimmer, is all of the good things which holographic Rimmer is not: brave, bold, witty, dashing, heroic, and a test pilot in the Space Corps.

Answer: admiral

There are a number of species of butterfly within the genus Limenitis, many of which are commonly named admiral, e,g. White Admiral, Lorquin's Admiral, Weidemeyer's Admiral, Red Admiral. Pamela Storch wrote the "Red Admiral Butterfly Poem" found on her website, and Katherine Gallagher wrote "Red Admiral" (2020) found on the Australian Children's Poetry website.

The Admiral Theatre has been located at 3940 W Lawrence Ave in Chicago, Illinois, since 1927. It first functioned as a vaudeville house, adding motion pictures as the demand for vaudeville diminished. It closed in the 1950s and remained dark until 1969, when it reopened as a film-cartoon-only venue, which made insufficient money and led to a prompt closure. A few months later, it reopened as an adults-only movie theatre showing pornographic films. A renovation in 1987 supported a change to a "gentleman's club" offering nude live entertainment. This is not to be confused with the Admiral Theatre in the West Seattle neighbourhood of Seattle, Washington. It was built in 1919.

Virginia Holton Admiral (1915-2000) was born in Oregon. She aspired to be a painter and met Robert De Niro Sr. in a painting class in Provincetown, Massachusetts. They moved to Greenwich Village. married in December of 1942, and gave birth to Robert De Niro Jr. Young Robert went on to become an actor and director. At one time, Virginia wrote erotica for Anais Nin. Later in life, she wrote for "True Crimes" magazine.

Answer: hope

Entertainer Miley Ray Cyrus was born to Billy Ray Cyrus and Leticia "Tish" Jean Cyrus (née Finley) on 23 November 1992. Her birth name was Destiny Hope Cyrus. Her given name was chosen to reflect her parents' belief that she would accomplish great things. Because she was a happy child, they nicknamed her Smiley. In 2008, she legally changed her name by dropping Destiny and Hope and by adding Miley (a shortened form of Smiley) and Ray from her grandfather, Ronald Ray Cyrus.

There are three books in Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each book is divided into "cantos" (like chapters). In the third canto of "Inferno," the protagonist (who is Dante himself) is led by the ghost of the Roman poet Virgil to the Gates of Hell. Over them is written "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", which may be translated into English as "Abandon all hope, ye who here enter."

Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) is lured onto a national television talk show by the promise of a complete makeover gratis. Instead, she is ambushed by the disclosure that her husband Bill (Michael Paré) is having an affair with her best friend Connie (Rosanna Arquette). She and her daughter leave their Chicago home and move to a small town in Texas. Eventually, Birdee finds a new love, Justin (Harry Connick Jr). As the film ends, Bullock's voiceover concludes, "when you find yourself at a new beginning, just give hope a chance to float up". This explains the movie's title "Hope Floats" (1998).

Answer: thunder

The United States Air Force and the United States Navy cooperated in a combined bombing campaign over North Vietnam (2 March 1965 - 2 November 1968) called Operation Rolling Thunder. The U.S. forces lost over a thousand air crew and just under a thousand aircraft. The sustained bombardment was conducted by the 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF). North Vietnam responded not only with its own air power but also with the assistance of the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union. Rolling Thunder achieved little success.

In the pantheon of gods in Hawai'i, the two connected to thunder and lightning are Haikili and Kanehekili. These names derive from two Hawaiian words: "hai" meaning the sound of thunder and "kili" meaning to strike or to hit. It is Hawaiian custom to remain silent during a thunderstorm. There are two stones in the cave of Ke'ana at Kahuku on Oahu. Legend has it that these are the ossified bodies of two boys told by their mother to keep silence during a thunderstorm ... and didn't. Haikili is sometimes used as a male first name, suggesting great power.

John D. Voelker (writing as Robert Traver) set his 1958 novel "Anatomy of a Murder" in the fictional city of Altoona, located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Voelker based the fictional Altoona on the real town of Big Bay, also in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. When filmmaker Otto Preminger adapted Voelker's novel to the screen in 1959, he changed the name of the location to Thunder Bay, which he depicted as a lakeside resort community. Preminger was committed to shooting on location. There was already an actual town called Altoona in Blair County, Pennsylvania. Many of the events in the actual 1952 murder and trial on which "Anatomy" was based occurred in Ishpeming, but that was too hard to pronounce. On the other side of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Canada, there is a city named Thunder Bay, the westernmost Canadian port on the Great Lakes. The film's renamed town carried with it tones of emotional clashes, shocking moments, lightning exposing dark events, moral turbulence, and a mood common to "film noir." Scenes in the film were shot in Ishpeming, Michigamme, and Big Bay.

Answer: gorillas

In "The Ernie Kovacs Show" (1952-1962), a recurrent comedy skit was a musical number played by The Nairobi Trio. Kovacs was always a member of the group. His wife, Edie Adams, was another. The third spot rotated between guests of many sorts: Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Lauher, Jolene Brand, and Barbara Loden. All of the members were costumed as gorillas wearing hats, long coats and white gloves. Kovacs, the leader, smoked a cigar and conducted with a baton or a banana. The trio played only one song, "Solfeggio," by harpist and songwriter Robert Maxwell. And the skit always involved the percussionist gorilla thumping the Kovacs gorilla on the head with timpani mallets.

Gorilla glue is an American brand of polyurethane adhesive. In 1994, Mark Singer observed teak furniture being put together with a Danish polyurethane glue. He began to market the stick-um in the U.S. as "Gorilla Glue" the same year. It rather remarkably cements together wood, stone, foam, metal, ceramic, glass, and other materials. It also cements skin to skin, and its vapours irritate eyes, nostrils, and throats.

Magilla Gorilla was the star of his own Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series in the 1960s. King Kong was a giant gorilla who first frightened audiences in 1933 and pretty much every decade thereafter. Mighty Joe Young, another big gorilla, starred in the eponymous motion pictures in 1949 and 1998. Donkey Kong is a gorilla who first appeared in many video games, then jumped to television cartoon stardom, motion pictures, and his own theme parks. Amy is the gorilla who can communicate with humans in Michael Crichton's "Congo." See also: "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" (1952), "George of the Jungle" (1967-1970) with a gorilla named Ape, and Gorilla Grodd in DC Comics.

Answer: eleventh

In Matthew 20:16, Jesus tells the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. In it, a landowner hires successive groups of men throughout the work day: early, midmorning, noon, afternoon and just before closing time (described in the King James Version as "about the eleventh hour"). The phrase "the eleventh hour" became a meme meaning "at the last possible moment before it is too late." It carries with it the sense of a narrow window of opportunity, an impetus of urgency, and the avoidance of disaster. The first episode of the fifth series of the BBC's "Doctor Who" (2010) is titled "The Eleventh Hour." Leonardo DiCaprio wrote and starred in a 2007 documentary about global warming titled "The 11th Hour."

In 1690, the troops of Protestant King William of Orange defeated the troops of Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne. This event turned the course of Ulster history in the direction of the Protestant faith. The night before the Twelfth of July (the day of the victory), Protestants in Northern Ireland celebrate Eleventh Night by building immense bonfires, marching with bands, and dancing in the streets.

According to Jeffrey Archer's novel "The Eleventh Commandment" (1998), a rule in addition to the biblical ten is "Thou shalt not get caught." The novel is the story of CIA assassin Connor Fitzgerald. In order to protect herself from implication in several international assassinations which she ordered and Fitzgerald carried out, CIA chief Helen Dexter sets out to kill (or have killed) her hired killer. It turns out that there is no more dangerous adversary than one's own employer in the business of "eliminating" people.

Answer: Horace

The eminent Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC-8 BC) is known in English as Horace. He was a frequent speaker at court. Much of his poetry is autobiographical, and he (mostly) takes himself lightly. He studied in both Athens and Rome. He spoke Latin, Greek and the patois of his village of birth. His work on "epistles" was innovative as it blended poetry with letter writing.

"Washington [D.C.] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting, and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country." Horace Greeley (1811-1872), the founder and editor of the New-York Daily Tribune, wrote this on 13 July 1865. Greeley supported, in addition to other popular causes, Manifest Destiny. He championed workers' rights, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, scientific farming, and the distribution of federal government-owned lands to pioneer citizens. He was a major figure in the early Republican Party and ran for President of the United States (unsuccessfully) in 1872.

19th-century French author George Sand wrote the novel "Horace." From the perspective of Théophile, a medical student and friend of Horace, as well as of Eugénie and Marthe. The setting is a tumultuous Paris in 1832, destabilised by student unrest against the bourgeois king, Louis-Philippe. Horace is a law and medicine student: charming, self-destructive, ambitious, flawed. The 1839 novel explores themes of ambition, the desire for glory, laziness, responsibility, hypocrisy, gender roles, and the power of social norms. Sand was a radical proponent of gender equality and class equality; her novels were therefore controversial.

Answer: Venus

Because Venus is roughly the same size and mass as Earth, it is deemed a "terrestrial" planet. Those two comparisons are pretty much the end of similarities between the two planets. The surface is a rocky mess of volcanoes and lava flows. The atmosphere is thick and toxic, containing carbon dioxide (96.5%) and clouds of sulfuric acid. This creates a sort of greenhouse effect, trapping solar heat, producing an average surface temperature of 460°C / 860°F. [Solder melts at 460°C!] Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. While Mercury is closer to the Sun, it has almost no atmosphere and thus loses all its heat daily and quickly.

The Greek goddess Aphrodite is the counterpart of the Roman goddess Venus. Venus is the goddess of love, passion, desire, pleasure, sexuality, fertility, beauty, connection, prosperity, and victory. Her backstory is that Saturn (Cronus) castrated his father, Uranus, whose blood mixed with seawater, and Venus was born of the sea foam. Italian painter Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" is the definitive depiction of the event. In it, the fully-adult Venus appears nude on a seashell, next to the shore. She is often seen in art as a symbol of feminine power. Venus married the god of fire, Vulcan, but enjoyed love affairs with other gods as well as with mortals.

Ed Marshall wrote the popular song "Venus." Francis Thomas Avallone (b. 1940), using his stage name Frankie Avalon, recorded "Venus" in 1959. It quickly rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for five weeks. The lyrics are a prayer addressed to the Roman goddess Venus by a boy pleading for a girl to love. His petition is "Venus, if you will / Please send a little girl for me to thrill." In a grateful return, he vows, "Venus, if you do / I promise that I always will be true / I'll give her all the love I have to give / As long as we both shall live." While not exactly Elizabeth Barrett Browning, these lyrics expressed the adolescent angst which made it popular among teenagers.