Dark Bilious Vapors

One of the things that I earlier said we were going to do more of was provide more regular, recurring content. I'll let the schedule unfold itself naturally, but early in the week seems to me a good time to get trivial. I'll probably scale back on the number of the questions in future editions, but I've gone with ten tonight since I've not done this in a while (regular editions will probably be 5 questions, maybe with a bonus question if I'm feeling playful).

Answers either late Monday night, or "sometime Tuesday". I am vague about the timing because I'm composing the quiz on my home machine, and if I forget to FTP the answer file somewhere I can get it from my work machine I'll have to wait til I get home in order to post the answers.

1) The members of the neo-classical group the Planets were the parties defendant in (IMHO) one of the best lawsuits in musico-legal history. They entered into an out of court settlement in a suit involving one of their works, called "A One Minute Silence." Who was the plaintiff who sued them, and what was the nature of the lawsuit?

2) Over the recent holiday season, did anyone watch the Cartoon Network when they ran that classic animated Christmas special, A Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol? Nope, me neither (though I did see it the year before). So this one may be a bit difficult for you (unless you caught it when it aired the week before Christmas): in that show, what was Tiny Tim Cratchett's most favorite part of the Christmas feast?

3) In 1996, Sony produced a digital camera that worked superbly. Unfortunately, even though the Nightshot Handycam worked just about perfectly, Sony wound up taking it off the market. Why?

4) Ever had the urge to climb to the top of Mount Izaru in Costa Rica? You might consider it, because it's the only place in the Americas that you can do a particular thing. What is that?

5) What distinction did Russell B. Long of Louisiana achieve immediately upon election to the United States Senate in 1948?

6) How many men have won the Congressional Medal of Honor twice? Can you name them? (If you're really anal, like me, you can tell me their branch of service and the war(s) or action(s) they won them.)

7) Civil War General John Sedgwick spoke what I think are the best last words ever uttered by a human being. What were they?

8) On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin made history by becoming the first human being to fly into space (in Vostok 1). He also started a tradition in the Russian space program, one which has been followed by every cosmonaut or astronaut, of any nationality (including Americans) and of both sexes, who have gone into space in a Russian spacecraft. What is that tradition?

9) In the sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter, there was a somewhat annoying character named Arnold Horshack, played by Ron Palillo. In one episode, what did Horshack claim that "Horshack" meant in his ancestors' native tongue?

10) My absolute, all-time favorite movie is Citizen Kane. I'm probably not spoiling the movie to note here that "Rosebud" is the name of Kane's boyhood sled (before he is turned over to the guardianship of Walter Parks Thatcher). But Rosebud isn't the only sled that Kane owns in the movie. What is the name of the sled that Kane receives from Thatcher as a Christmas present later in the movie? (If you don't remember that, don't worry; it's a brief scene, and if you blinked you may have missed it.)

Len on 01.02.05 @ 09:59 PM CST