Simon Says (Part 2) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Simon Gray

This joke of Simon Gray's is cited in "The Friars Club Encyclopedia of Jokes: Revised and Updated! Over 2,000 One-Liners, Straight Lines, Stories, Gags, Roasts, Ribs, and Put-Downs" a collection of 2000 jokes from members of the famous Friar's Club of comedians.
That line comes from Mr. Gray's 1975 play "Otherwise Engaged" spoken by a character also named Simon. Among Mr. Gray's other notable plays were "Butley" (1971), and "Close of Play" (1979), plays in which the characters were mostly upper middle classes. Simon Gray was great friends with Harold Pinter who championed Mr. Gray's work.

Answer: Bob Simon

Simon Abkarian is a French actor, born in 1962. Simon Weston, a British war veteran suffered burn injuries in the Falklands War and afterward became known for his charitable work. Barry Simon is an American physicist an author of over 400 publications in physics. Bob Simon was known for his overseas exploits in dangerous parts of the world where crises were breaking out.

He was in Vietnam during the American troop withdrawal, he was at Tiananmen Square during the student protests in China, and during the Persian Gulf War, he and his camera crew were captured and held prisoner for 40 days.

But it was a driver whose license had been suspended 11 times that finally did Mr. Simon in.

Answer: Simon Dach

The original poem is called "Anke von Tharau." Simon Dach was appointed professor of poetry at Königsberg in 1639. "Anke von Tharau" is one of his most famous works; he wrote it in 1637 to honor his friend's marriage.
Simon bar Kokhba was the Jewish leader of a revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Diederik Simon was a gold medal winner in rowing for The Netherlands at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Ingo Simon was an English singer and actor, and just like Geena Davis, also an entertainer who was an accomplished archer!

Answer: "You're So Vain"

For decades, Carly Simon has been coy about who was the subject of her 1972 hit "You're So Vain." At various times, she's ruled out some of the candidates, i.e. saying that it definitely wasn't about Mick Jagger (he sang uncredited backup vocals on the song).

She also ruled out James Taylor, whom she married shortly before "You're So Vain" hit #1 on the charts. In 2003, at a charity auction she raised $50,000 by offering to reveal the identity of the mystery man of the song. The TV executive Dick Ebersol took the bait, but on the condition that he wasn't allowed to tell the public.

But then, just a few years ago, Carly Simon herself revealed that the song is about three different men; she got specific about the second verse ("you had me several years ago, when I was still quite naïve"), admitting that was about Warren Beatty.

Answer: "what their rent is."

According to NBC-TV news, New York City rent reached an all-time in November of 2019. Home prices however, actually dropped in Manhattan during that same time period. Hoggart did admit though to having a fondness for New York having spent a lot of time there.

He once wrote, "Living in New York is like being at some terrible late-night party. You're tired, you've had a headache since you arrived, but you can't leave because then you'd miss the party."

Answer: Simon Wiesenthal

Siôn Simon is a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament. Josef Simon was a German philosopher of metaphysics and epistemology and a professor at the University of Bonn. Simon Baron-Cohen is a British psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology who came up with the mind-blindness theory and fetal sex steroid theory of autism. Simon Wiesenthal survived the Nazi death camps, and thereafter dedicated his life to documenting their crimes and to hunting down those still at large. Wiesenthal said, "When history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it." Wiesenthal's work and the Wiesenthal Center serve as a reminder and a warning for future generations.

Answer: "an osteopath"

Winner of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2001 at the Classic Brit Awards, Simon Rattle first achieved international renown in the 1980s as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 he was appointed Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Answer: "Cat People"

After an initially disappointing career in Holywood, Simone Simon returned to France, Simon returned to France, and acted in 1938's "La Bête Humaine" (The Human Beast) by Jean Renoir. But when World War II erupted, she returned to Hollywood and found success with RKO Radio Pictures where she achieved her greatest success with the Val Lewton produced horror films Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944). Simon's character is a fashion illustrator from Serbia, living in New York City and she believes that she is descended from a race of cat people who transform into panthers when they become sexually aroused.

Answer: history and fiction

Simon Schama, a professor of European history at Harvard University, wrote "Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations" is both history and literature. In it Schama reconstructs two deaths of actual people from history: General James Wolfe's demise at the battle of Quebec in 1759, and the 1849 murder of George Parkman, an eccentric Bostonian murdered by a Harvard professor. Schama was inspired to write his story after reading an article about General Wolfe in which what had become a nearly mythological reputation of Wolfe collided with the historical Wolfe. George Parkman was Schama's uncle, murdered by John Webster, a Harvard chemistry professor who owed Parkman $483. Schama said he chose to write "not an anti-narrative, but something where all the accidents and contingencies that go into the making of an historical narrative could be shown."

Answer: "The Big Bang Theory"

Born and raised in Los Angeles by his actor father Sandy Helberg and his mother Harriet B. Helberg, a casting director, it took until his teens for Simon to discover his interest in acting. He studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company. He became a popular comedy sketch comedian, and eventually, in 2007 he was cast as Howard Wolowitz in the mega-hit sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."