Can You Imagine These Places? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Metropolis

The Daily Planet in Metropolis was the newspaper for which Clark Kent worked. The editor of the newspaper, Perry White, was chronically exasperated with cub reporter, Jimmy Olsen. (The odd spelling of "Olsen" just begs to be incorporated into a quiz question, doesn't it?)

Answer: Oceania

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." With this sentence George Orwell began his disturbing tale that would ultimately lead Winston and Julia to face their fears and be broken in the infamous room 101. In Orwell's world there remained only three states: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.

The book was set in Oceania, which was composed of Britain and the Americas.

Answer: Mayberry

Unbelievably, until researching this quiz I had no idea that Ron Howard played Opie! This oversight might be partially due to the fact that I never watched a single episode of Happy Days. However, I have been aware of the fact that Otis, the drunk on the Andy Griffith show, was the voice for John Avery Whitaker of the "Odyssey" radio-drama.

Answer: Mudville

"Casey at the Bat" by John Thayer was not an instant hit when it first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in June of 1888. In August of 1888, an actor, De Wolf Hopper, recited the poem at a performance in New York that was attended by both the New York and Chicago baseball teams.

The poem's popularity soared following this. Hopper did not know who the author of the poem was at the time of the original performance. When Thayer became aware of Hopper's recitations of his poem, he attended one.

After hearing the performance, he allowed Hopper to perform the poem without royalties.

Answer: Peyton Place

Mark Twain once described a classic as "a book everyone wants to read but nobody has." In the 1950s, Peyton Place was an anti-classic, a book everyone seemed to read but nobody seemed to own (in either sense of the word "own").

Answer: Bedford Falls

James Stewart! Donna Reed! "Buffalo girl won't you come out tonight, and dance by the light of the moon." Need I say more? Bedford Falls, the imaginary setting of "It's a Wonderful Life" is said to have been patterned after Seneca Falls, NY. Surely everyone knows that Frostbite Falls, Minnesota is home to the moose, Bullwinkle, and his intrepid partner, Rocket J. Squirrel. Castle Rock is an imaginary setting Stephen King has created for several of his novels.

Answer: Gotham City

"Camp" was the word always applied to the Batman television series that debuted in 1966. I was a sometime fan of the show, with the result that I have never been able to take any of the later incarnations of the caped crusader the least bit seriously. I'm always waiting for the comic strip bubbles with "POW" or "WHAM" to appear.

Answer: West Egg

Gatsby lives in the less prosperous West Egg. The imaginary island is patterned after the real Island of Great Neck where F. Scott Fitzgerald resided in 1922 while writing the novel. Ash Heap was the area between West Egg and East Egg. (How many of you think I finished reading this book?)

Answer: Maycomb, Alabama

This scene from "To Kill a Mocking Bird" is strongly etched into my memory. It surely contributed to the American Film Institute naming Atticus Finch as the all-time top screen hero.

Answer: Lothlorien

There is a place that, for a few days each October, seems to rival the imaginary beauty of Lothorien in the spring. This locale bears the unlikely name of "Snag Lake" and is located in Lassen National Park, California, USA. In the first or second week of October a stand of Aspens on the southeast end of the lake will have shed, perhaps, half of their yellow leaves.

As you approach the area from the trail on the East side of the lake, you see crystalline blue water against a white sand beach. The beach reaches the stand of aspens, the shed leaves of which have carpeted a portion of the beach and the forest floor in gold.

The snow-white boles of the aspens, light against the darker furs behind, reach up into golden-clad boughs -- the boughs themselves framed in the green of the surrounding pine and fir trees.

As the trail passes through the Aspens and into the evergreen forest, bright yellow aspen leaves decorate the pine and fir like Christmas tree ornaments. I always look for elves as I pass by.