Clocks that Never Really Were, 1st Hour Quiz

Answer: 1984

Since most clocks which sound the hours follow twelve with one, the effect created by a clock striking thirteen in Orwell's "1984" is unnerving. The underlying sense is that, if one cannot rely upon the clock to tell the truth, probably no other authoritative source is reliable, either. Or there is the riddle recalled from childhood: "What time is it when the clock strikes thirteen?" The answer is "Time to get a new clock!"

Answer: A lightning bolt strikes the clock tower

The clock tower in Hill Valley, California, is crucial to Doc's plan to harness the energy from a lightning strike to provide the 1.21 gigawatts of power necessary to activate the flux capacitor in the DeLorean. This is not the last time that this clock tower figures importantly in the "Back to the Future" trilogy.

Answer: The Syncopated Clock

While Anderson was serving in the U.S. Army in 1945, Arthur Fiedler invited him to conduct the Boston Pops. Anderson composed a tune about a clock which ticked in syncopated rhythm and sent it to the maestro. Fiedler liked it so much, he copied it for the orchestra and Anderson conducted its premier.

It was picked up as the theme song for WCBS-TV's "The Late Show" where it was used for the next 25 years.

Answer: Stop All the Clocks

Auden's poem, formally titled "Funeral Blues" but well known as "Stop All the Clocks," is read aloud at the funeral in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" to poignant effect. The melancholy poem expresses well the desolation felt by the loving survivor: "For nothing now can ever come to any good."

Answer: The Beach Boys

Brian Wilson and Gary Usher wrote this song about a couple trying to be romantic interrupted by a cuckoo clock to waning effect. The frustrated young man finally disassembles the clock. The song was released on the Beach Boys' album "Surfin' Safari." The song was inspired by a mynah bird owned by Brian Wilson's father Murry.

Answer: Beat the Clock

The first "Beat that Clock" (1950-1961) starred Bud Collyer (1908-
1969) who had voiced Clark Kent/Superman on the radio. The second (1969-1974) was hosted by Jack Narz. A third (1979-1980) was hosted by Monty Hall. The latest (2002-2003) starred Ricki Lake. It was a silly programme which required contestants to complete tests/projects/stunts before a large count-down clock expired.

Answer: Agatha Christie

A woman enters the house as the cuckoo clock strikes three o'clock but four of the other clocks in the house at stopped at 4:13. Further explanation would spoil the pleasure of reading this Hercule Poirot story from Agatha Christie. The novel was adapted for British television with David Suchet playing the part of Poirot in 2010.

Answer: L'Horloge

"L'Horloge" (The Clock) is one of a hundred poems collected in "Les Fleurs du mal" (1857). It calls the clock "dieu sinistre, effrayant, impassible" -- a sinister god, frightening, impassive. Baudelaire says that the clock delivers only bad news. The poem itself is steeped in ennui.

Answer: a 10-hour clock to match the work day

Clocks (and other clockwork devices) are used throughout "Metropolis" to suggest monotony and a state in which the masses have themselves become parts of a machine. The regimented day of the underground workers includes a ten-hour shift. Lang was criticized for having so much empathy for the workers that his film promoted Communism.

Answer: the magic spell is broken and all returns to normal

Although there are many versions (folk tales, short stories, operas, movies, cartoons) of the Cinderella story, perhaps Disney's is best known and therefor become definitive. The Fairy Godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into horses, a tattered dress into a white ball gown, and Cinderella's shoes into glass slippers. All of these things revert to normal at the stroke of midnight and she flees the ball dressed in rags.