The Questions…
1. A famous artist once said, “I hate flowers. I only paint them because they’re cheaper than models, and they don’t move.” Who was the artist?
2. In the 1990 film Dances With Wolves, much of the dialogue is in the Lakota language. When native Lakotans see the film, they always laugh when Kevin Costner speaks. Why?
3. Americans consume vast quantities of food on Thanksgiving — more chow than on any other day of the year. What day ranks second highest in food consumption?
4. The superhero is a common stock character. The gold standard of the genre, Superman, debuted in 1938. However, the first superhero in American fiction appeared a full century earlier. Who was it?
5. In the 1940s and 1950s, Raytheon engineer Jack Ryan helped design the Hawk and Sparrow missile systems for the Army and Navy, respectively. Ryan then went to work for another corporate giant, where he was instrumental in the design of two more highly successful products. Where did he go, and what were the products?
The Answers…
1. Georgia O’Keeffe, icon of American Modernism, known for her large, sensuous paintings of flowers.
2. They laugh because Costner is speaking the female-gendered version of the language.
3. Super Bowl Sunday.
4. “The Gray Champion,” a mysterious, ghostlike figure who stood alone against advancing British forces in Boston, inspiring the colonists to rise up and kick butt. He appeared in an 1835 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
5. Ryan went to Mattel, Inc., where he helped design the Barbie and Chatty Cathy dolls.
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