The Baby Boomer Quiz

there are 30 questions total. some are easy; some are not. good luck!

What is the claim to fame of Ned Morgan of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Judith Owens of Schenectady, New York?

What was the name of Joe Namath’s bar in NYC which Pete Rozelle forced him to sell his interest in?

What was Joe Namath’s signing bonus with the Jets? What was John Huarte’s signing bonus the same year?

Who played the Joker, Penguin and Riddler on the original Batman series?

Who was the original host of Jeopardy?

In the original Hollywood Squares, who was the most common celebrity in the center square? Who mostly sat in the lower left square? What was his real name?

Who were Dick Van Dyke’s fellow staff writers on The Dick Van Dyke Show? What was the name of the star of the show they wrote for? Who played him?

In one famous episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Dick dreamed that Earth was invaded by aliens who had eyes in the back of their head. What famous comedian played the alien?

Who had a sore throat when the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show?

What was the name of the two-part episode of Star Trek which was the series’ original pilot?

Who should have won the Heisman Trophy the year Archie Griffin won his second award?

How do you really pronounce Joe Theisman’s name? Why did he change it?

Who was George McGovern’s original running mate in 1972? Why was he removed from the ticket? Who replaced him?

Who was the other Yankee slugger named Roger who hit lots of homers when he first arrived on the team, then faded just like Kevin Maas, Steve Balboni, and others too numerous to mention?

Paul Hewson is to David Evans as Gordon Sumner is to whom?

What famous rock star originally titled one of his albums Ol’ Pink Eyes is Back?

There are two famous rock stars named David Jones. One was a Monkee. Who is the other?

What iconic movie role was originally played by Buddy Ebsen? Why did he quit the role? Who replaced him?

Several decades later Buddy Ebsen played the sidekick of a legendary American in a tv series. Who was that legend? Who played him?

What Beatle song did Chicago regularly play as one of their encores in the 1970s? (Think about it; it’s a very logical choice)

We are back from a week of camping near the shore. We were two families spread over three campsites, with a revolving cast of 7 to 12 people there at various times. We combined camping activities with relaxation during the week:
• lots of swimming in the campground pool
• nightly campfires with toasted marshmallows and s'mores
• walking
• cooking, sometimes over the campfire while other times we went to restaurants
• visited Atlantic City for gambling and a long walk on the boardwalk
• spent a day at Long Beach Island, including visiting the lighthouse
• reading
• played games and a group crossword puzzle

Now we have two weeks left in summer vacation to finish our chores (some of them put off much of the summer) and prepare for the start of school after Labor Day.

After I eat breakfast, I usually start my day with a 30 minute walk followed by checking the computer for email and Facebook messages. Then I go to several regular blogs and websites to see if anything interesting was posted. While this cuts into my morning work (when I should be researching and writing two books and a novelette), it is really enjoyable interacting with other people online. I can state without doubt that my social life is much more active because of the internet than it ever was previously. While blogging and posting comments on FB is time-consuming, I would not give them up for anything.

However, I will not be posting here for another two weeks since we are leaving Tuesday for another week of camping. In July we went north to Lake George, but this time we are going south to LBI (that’s Long Beach Island for you non-Jerseyans ☺) with our same friends Alan and Denise. However, this time our families will be joining us for various parts of the week, so we could have as many as 14 people at the campground at some point during the week. The last time both our families camped together was in New Orleans 15 years ago, so this should be fun.

I seem to have two aftereffects of the movie Julie/Julia. First, since I really loved the book Heat which was about cooking Italian food and the life of chef Mario Batali, I want to read My Life in France which is an autobiography of Julia Child during her formative years learning to cook. I think it might be fascinating.

Second, while I have no interest in French cooking, I do love Italian cooking and have more than a few Italian cookbooks. I have made dozens of Italian recipes during the decades, many of them inherited from my mother, but there are many which I have never made. For example–and I am ashamed to admit this–I have never made homemade pasta, even though I have my mother’s old hand-cranked pasta machine. So before this summer ends, perhaps as soon as this weekend, I intend to do so. I am sure I will report on it right here!

How can a movie about a cookbook possibly be emotional? Well, Julie and Julia certainly was. It had two parallel storylines. In the much better one, the fabulous Meryl Streep played French chef Julia Child wonderfully in the story of the years she spent living in Europe in the early 1950s (in various locations as her diplomat husband kept getting shifted from country to country) writing her famous cookbook. These segments were cute, funny, and heartwarming, climaxing in the sale of her cookbook.

The other storyline told of a self-centered Staten Island woman Julie who in 2002 decided to make every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook during a one-year period while blogging about it. The excerpts of Julie’s blog were shallow and self-centered, yet her storyline ended with her blog becoming famous, resulting in an article in The New York Times which led to a book offer and, eventually, the movie

I loved both Meryl Streep and Julia Child, and I was very emotional when she finally sold her cookbook. I disliked the self-centered blogger who did not deserve fame and book publication and I became angry when she achieved it. But, admittedly, there is probably some envy in my reaction to both storylines, so likely somebody else who is not a writer who has experienced many rejections would find the movie lighter and less emotional. In any case, I do recommend it.

Thursday was another birthday, which does not excite me since it serves as a reminder than I am getting older. Thanks to all the people who sent me congratulations either on Facebook or via email.

Have I mentioned how little work I have gotten done so far this summer? It is not from lack of trying, but chores and family activities seem to erode most of my time. Yesterday was a typical example. I spent much of the day driving around shopping and cleaning the popup trailer (which does look brand new now!). Since I spend most of the school year awaiting summer vacation so I will have time to accomplish things, it is very frustrating when that does not happen.

There are two events taking place this weekend which I would like to attend (but will not). One is the Sussex County Fair which Jean and I used to visit every year when our friend spent a day there at the quilting booth. The other is the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, which many people I know will be attending. I stopped going to worldcons after Boston in 1981 because Jean, not being an sf fan, was bored the entire weekend. Oh, well...

Last night Jean and I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have seen most of the Harry Potter movies and they are always enjoyable, if a bit thin on actual plot. I read the first novel in the series many years ago, and while it was worthwhile reading, it did not inspire me to read the rest of the series, especially since there are so many other books I would rather be reading. So I’ll probably stick with the movies.

Currently reading: I have enjoyed Peter Beagle’s short fiction for years, but I have never read any of his novels, including his classic The Last Unicorn. So I have decided to rectify that fault by reading The Innkeeper’s Song, which is more appealing to me than a book about unicorns. So far so good.

Currently listening: I am a big fan of symphonic progressive rock, a sub-genre of rock and roll which is probably best epitomized by 1970s Yes. Thus I am listening to their first live cd Yessongs, which contains much of their best material done in rousing style. Highly-recommended.

So there I was, happily reading the novel Omega by Jack McDevitt, one of my favorite writers, when I came across the following quote:

Collingdale had always found mathematicians dull, methodical, and unimaginative. Why anybody would marry one, he could not understand. He’d wondered why evolutionary forces hadn’t wiped the breed out.

I’m not sure if that is a joke on McDevitt’s part, or his repressed opinion of math. Every math teacher I know, when they tell somebody what their profession is, invariably gets the reply, “I could never do math.” Great, huh? So I’m a teacher (which is looked down upon to a large extent in this country) who reads and writes science fiction (which is considered juvenile trash by many people) with training in mathematics (ugh! math?).

It’s a good thing I get R-E-S-P-E-C-T from my students, since the rest of the world doesn’t seem too fond of me, haha.