FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about The Wit and Wisdom of PJ ORourke
Quiz about The Wit and Wisdom of PJ ORourke

The Wit and Wisdom of P.J. O'Rourke Quiz


A quiz about the writings, wit, and wisdom of journalist, humorist, and political commentator P.J. O'Rourke.

A multiple-choice quiz by skylarb. Estimated time: 4 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Authors L-P
  8. »
  9. O

Author
skylarb
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
125,214
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
274
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. In which book did O'Rourke attempt to explain the complex operations of the United States Government? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In which book does P.J. O'Rourke tackle ecological issues such as overpopulation, plague, and natural disasters?

Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. O'Rourke's book "Eat the Rich" focuses on this subject. Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. This book covers O'Rourke's travels to Kuwait, Africa, Berlin, Moscow, Ulster, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Jordan, and Eastern Saudi Arabia, among other places. Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. In "Eat the Rich," O'Rourke says that Hemingway's widow donated Hemingway's house to the government, headed by Castro. He then quips: "And ___ donated ___ to ___."

Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. In his book "Give War a Chance," O'Rourke speaks of a parlor game he calls D-U-M, which he plays with a book called "Everything to Gain." The goal of the game is to win points by succeeding in picking out the dumbest sentences in the book. Who wrote this book? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. When O'Rourke first began his journalistic career, he was far from being a "Republican Party Reptile." He wrote for a paper that was "opposed to war and capitalism." What was this paper called? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In "Eat the Rich," O'Rourke writes that socialism "is inherently _____ in philosophy." Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In "All the Trouble in the World," P.J. O'Rourke points out that when DDT spraying was stopped in response to environmental concerns, the number of cases of malaria in Sri Lanka jumped from 17 to _______. Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. In "All the Trouble in the World," O'Rourke talks about how there is much social discomfort and fumbling in a Black World Studies class. People are not sure whether to call people "black" or "African-American." O'Rourke quips, "How much better if we just called each other _______" Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In which book did O'Rourke attempt to explain the complex operations of the United States Government?

Answer: Parliament of Whores

"Age and Guile," which is subtitled "Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut," consists of a collection of writings produced by O'Rourke beginning from the 1970's through the 90's. The other three books you will learn about in this quiz.
2. In which book does P.J. O'Rourke tackle ecological issues such as overpopulation, plague, and natural disasters?

Answer: All the Trouble in the World

The subtitle of the book is: "The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Hatred, Plague, and Poverty." The volume includes such poignant sections as, "If Meat is Murder, Are Eggs Rape?"
3. O'Rourke's book "Eat the Rich" focuses on this subject.

Answer: Economics

Subtitled "A Treatise on Economics," this book explores real life examples of bad socialism, good socialism, bad capitalism, and good capitalism.
4. This book covers O'Rourke's travels to Kuwait, Africa, Berlin, Moscow, Ulster, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Jordan, and Eastern Saudi Arabia, among other places.

Answer: Give War a Chance

The book takes a comic look at the causes and effects of war, victory, and defeat. In one of his more serious moments, however, O'Rourke speaks of visiting the crumbling Berlin wall, and of seeing the hand of East German border guard reach out for a souvenir chunk of the wall. "The hand of that border guard," writes O'Rourke, "that disembodied, palm-up, begging hand . . . I looked at that and I began to cry." Until then, he says, he did not comprehend that democracy had won, that "[t]he fight against life-hating, soul-denying, slavish communism--which has shaped the world's politics this whole wretched century--was over." Of course he then immediately blows apart the solemnity by referring to the snot of victory running down his face.
5. In "Eat the Rich," O'Rourke says that Hemingway's widow donated Hemingway's house to the government, headed by Castro. He then quips: "And ___ donated ___ to ___."

Answer: Britain / Hong Kong / China

This comes from the chapter on "Bad Socialism," which uses Cuba as its primary example.
6. In his book "Give War a Chance," O'Rourke speaks of a parlor game he calls D-U-M, which he plays with a book called "Everything to Gain." The goal of the game is to win points by succeeding in picking out the dumbest sentences in the book. Who wrote this book?

Answer: Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter

One of the high scoring sentences included this one by Rosalyn: "I have worked with the problems of the mentally afflicted for years, ever since I first became aware of the needs while campaigning for Jimmy for Governor."
7. When O'Rourke first began his journalistic career, he was far from being a "Republican Party Reptile." He wrote for a paper that was "opposed to war and capitalism." What was this paper called?

Answer: Harry

His works for this paper included such gems as "Why I Invaded Cambodia" and "The Boxer Shorts Rebellion," which can be found in the book "Age and Guile."
8. In "Eat the Rich," O'Rourke writes that socialism "is inherently _____ in philosophy."

Answer: Totalitarian

He writes that "no intimate detail" of a citizen's personal life "can be pulled free from the purview of socialism. Witness Sweden's Minister for Consumer, Religious, Youth and Sport Affairs." Thus, he considers socialism to be de facto totalitarian, though different governments exercise varying "degree[s] of self restraint."
9. In "All the Trouble in the World," P.J. O'Rourke points out that when DDT spraying was stopped in response to environmental concerns, the number of cases of malaria in Sri Lanka jumped from 17 to _______.

Answer: 1,000,000

He cites zoology professor Dixy Lee Ray's book "Trashing the Planet" for these statistics. The UN puts the figure somewhat lower, at 500,000, but agrees that while DDT spraying was in effect, the cases were fewer than 20.
10. In "All the Trouble in the World," O'Rourke talks about how there is much social discomfort and fumbling in a Black World Studies class. People are not sure whether to call people "black" or "African-American." O'Rourke quips, "How much better if we just called each other _______"

Answer: By our names

This comes from the chapter entitled, "Multiculturalism: Going from Bad to Diverse."
Source: Author skylarb

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Literature from 1900 - 2019:

My quizzes on literature written after 1900.

  1. Remembering Elie Wiesel Average
  2. The Books of Elie Wiesel Average
  3. Jasper Fforde--"Lost in a Good Book" Average
  4. Huxley's "Brave New World" Average
  5. C.S. Lewis Books Tough
  6. Evelyn Waugh Average
  7. The Wit and Wisdom of P.J. O'Rourke Average
  8. Stephen King's Dark Tower Series Average
  9. Works of Herman Wouk Average
  10. Conviction: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice Average

3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us