Three of a Kind, Part 42 Trivia Quiz

Answer: planets

"The Planets" (Opus 32) is a suite in seven movements for orchestra, each reflecting the astrological nature of a particular heavenly body: Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. English classical composer Gustav Holst wrote these movements in 1914 and 1915.

Based originally on Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel "La Planète des singes" (1963), a series of motion pictures beginning with "Planet of the Apes" was made in 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973. Tim Burton remade the original in 2001.

Val Kilmer starred in 2000's "Red Planet" about a mission to Mars to study the lagging results of terraforming that planet. The scenes that were supposed to look like Mars were shot in the Wadi Rum in Southern Jordan and in the Australian outback.

Answer: drive

An automatic transmission transmits rotational energy from the engine to the wheels of a vehicle without requiring the use of a clutch. At one time, most cars had manual transmissions; most modern automobiles have automatic transmissions. The most common setting for forward motion with an automatic transmission is drive.

When an American football team puts together a series of plays (runs and passes) which results in a continuous movement toward the goal, the sum of them is called a drive. There is neither a specific number of plays nor a specific amount of time consumed by a drive. A drive ends with a score, a turnover or a missed attempt to score.

When a charitable organization sets out to collect money or goods for the benefit of others, their effort may be termed a drive. A typical drive is the collection of canned and staple goods, of used clothing, of books, of cars, or of cash donations.

Answer: India

Hindustan was the Persian name for India. It was widely used medievally and is still sometimes used to describe the Republic of India. The "Hindustan Times" is an English-language daily newspaper.

Some form of India ink has been made since the 3rd millennium BC. It is simply fine soot (lampblack) suspended in water, sometimes with another element (shellac or gelatin) intended to make it more durable. It was once more widely used than it is today.

India Allen (b. 1965) was the centerfold model for the December 1987 issue of Playboy Magazine. She acted in several films and produced several more. She testified as a prosecution witness in the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.

Answer: salmon

Lewis and Clark reached the Salmon River after crossing the Continental Divide in 1805. Based on a tentative attempt, they determined that the river was far too rough to be navigable. The 425-mile long river was declared a National Wild and Scenic River in 1980.

Gravlax is a Scandinavian dish made by curing thin-sliced salmon in sugar, salt and dill. Lomi lomi is a Hawaiian preparation of salted raw salmon mixed with tomatoes, Maui onions and green onion served very cold. Lox is a Jewish dish of brined salmon, often served with cream cheese on a bagel.

Benoît Salmon (b.1974) had a distinguished career as a professional bicyclist. He was active internationally from 1992 to 2006. He finished the Tour de France seven times; his highest finish was 16th.

Answer: mason

Stone masonry is an ancient art and science which comprises those who quarry rock from the earth, sawyers who cut stone into regular shapes and sizes, those who carve stone into required shapes, and fixers who put stones in place. Guilds of stonemasons were the pattern on which the masonic orders were built.

In 1858, John Landis Mason patented a molded glass jar intended for home canning and food preservation. The tops are closed by metal disks with rubber rings, held in place by screw bands, which make a hermetic seal. There are a variety of brands, most of which make both regular and wide mouth jars in convenient sizes.

James Mason (1909-1984) had a long career in motion pictures in both the U.K. and the U.S. He starred in "Odd Man Out" which won the BAFTA for best British picture in 1947. He won the Golden Globe for "A Star is Born" in 1955.

Answer: Friday

Robert A. Heinlein wrote a 1982 science fiction novel about an AP: an artificial person named Friday. Although APs excelled normal humans in pretty much every way, they were looked down upon and even despised. "Friday" was nominated for two major awards -- the 1982 Nebula Award for the Best Science Fiction Novel and the 1983 Hugo Award for the Best Science Fiction novel -- but won neither.

Harry Kemelman wrote a series of 12 novels about Rabbi David Small, the leader of a Conservative Jewish congregation in Massachusetts who solves crimes by using Talmudic methods. "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" was the first in the series.

Peter Berg directed the 2004 sports film dramatizing the season of a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. The motion picture, "Friday Night Lights," was based on H.G. Bissinger's book "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream" (1990). NBC attempted a television series based on the movie in 2006.

Answer: finger

A finger is the terminal digit of a hand. The thumb may or may not be classed as a finger; counting from it, the others are the index finger, the middle finger or fool's finger, the ring finger or leech finger or physic finger, and the little finger, ear finger or pinkie. The Modern English word finger is cognate with the Old English "fingor," the Old Saxon "fingar," the Old Frisian "finger," the Old Norse "fingr," the Dutch "vinger" and the Gothic "figgrs."

A finger pier juts out from the quay into the water, such that ships/boats berth with their bow or stern facing the shore. In larger docks, each finger pier has a transit shed running its length.

Although Bob Kane got all of the credit for Batman, Bill Finger (1914-1974) contributed significantly to the birth of Batman and his evolution over time. Finger has been described as a ghostwriter, co-architect, and contributor.

Answer: soap

Saponification is what happens when vegetable oils or animal fats are converted into soap by the application of heat and the addition of a strong base. The most common base in traditional soap making is lye. Humans have been making soap for about 3000 years.

"Getting on one's soapbox" is a colloquialism for making a speech. It derives from an earlier time when public speakers without a rostrum or podium stood on wooden crates to increase their visibility and audibility. Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London is perhaps the epitome of soapbox speaking.

The town of Soap Lake, Washington, was founded in 1919 on the shores of Soap Lake -- a meromictic soda lake with reputed healing properties. The water in Soap Lake is richer in minerals than any other lake in the world. Since prehistory, Native Americans have sought the medicinal value of bathing in its waters.

Answer: fire

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" rattles off allusions to 118 events occurring between 1949 and 1989. In three minutes, the song presents a sort of kaleidoscope of current events by naming a person or place or incident connected to each.

"Fire!" was a made-for-television movie starring Ernest Borgnine, Patty Duke Astin, Donna Mills and Erik Estrada. It descried a forest fire set by an escaped convict which threatened to destroy a mountain community.

The athletic teams of Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, are called the Fire. The team mascot was the Maniac but changed to Scorch in 2014. The school was founded in 1935 as the Alabama Shield of Faith Institute. It has had other names: the South-Eastern Bible Institute, the Beulah Heights Southeastern Bible Institute, the South-Eastern Bible College, the Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God, and Southeastern University.

Answer: machine

Computers do not speak English or French or any other language but the languages of numbers. At its lowest level, a computer responds to an off-on yes-no "language" down to which every communication with it must be reduced. This is called machine language.

A German engineer, Arthur Scherbius, invented the Enigma Machine near the end of the First World War and the German government used it extensively during the Second World War. The machine electro-mechanically encodes messages. Both the British and the US had some success in decoding these messages, despite Nazi belief that their codes were unbreakable.

Beginning in the late 17th century, inventors sought to replace the washing of laundry by hand with machines. Called variously a washing machine, a laundry machine or a washer, these machines became widely available in the 20th century. Compared to the washers of the 1940s and 1950s, more modern machines are an electronic marvel, using less power and less water, sensing the size of the load, and adjusting water temperature to suit the task.