This year's challenging quiz is designed for the entire family. Split everyone into two teams, the bigger the better. No fair using computers, iPhones, tablets, or any other digital devices.

Hopefully these mental gymnastics will evoke some wonderful memories, lively discussions, peals of laughter and a short respite from the icy winds of change sweeping our country. 

"May the Force be with you!"

1.     Letter Lottery - (4 points for each correct answer)

   (Example:  KFC = Kentucky Fried Chicken)

a.      GELND

b.     TABPSSLCPOOASSB  (hint: the first "S" is for special)

c.      FSASYAOFBFOTCANNCILADTTPTAMACE

d.     IPATTFOTUSOAATTRFWISONUGIWLAJFA

e.      TTNBCAATTHNACWSNEAM

2.     Name the author (2 points) and decade (3 points) when this work was first published.

a.      "The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied."

b.     "Harry scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across his face as he saw all nine of the Weasleys waving furiously at him...Right in the middle of the picture was Ron, tall and gangling, with his pet rat, Scabbers, on his shoulder..."

c.      "Lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks."  - Don Vito Corleone

d.     "A huge head, bristling with red hair; between his shoulders an enormous hump, a counterpart perceptible in front; a system of thighs and legs so strangely astray that they could touch each other only at the knees, and, viewed from the front, resembled the crescents of two scythes joined by the handles; large feet, monstrous hands; and, with all this deformity, an indescribable and redoubtable air of vigor, agility, and courage,--strange exception to the eternal rule which wills that force as well as beauty shall be the result of harmony. Such was the pope whom the fools had just chosen for themselves."

e.      I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

3.     Name the player (2 points), team (1 point), and the year (3 points) of the NFL record.

a.      Most Touchdown Passes Thrown, Single Season

b.     Most Touchdown Passes Received, Single Season

c.      Most Touchdowns Rushing, Single Season

4.     Name the player (3 points) and year of the event (3 points) - MLB

a.      The pitcher that gave up George Brett's "Pine Tar" home run

b.     The pitcher that gave up Kirk Gibson's immortal "World Series Game 1" home run

c.      The pitcher that gave up Willie Mays's first home run

5.     What product do all these companies manufacture?  (7 points)

a.      SBIG, QSI, AIS, Starlight Xpress, FLI

6.     Medical Mysteries  (3 points for each correct answer)

a.      From a global perspective and on an annual basis, which non-viral infectious disease causes the greatest number of human deaths?

b.     How many bones are present in the normal adult human skeleton?

c.      Humans have three color vision pigments; how many does the mantis shrimp have?

d.     What is the most common cause of non-scarring madarosis in humans living on the Indian subcontinent?

e.      French impressionist Claude Monet, especially with his renditions of water lilies, showed the reversible vision loss of what condition?

7.     Where in the world?  (3 points for each correct answer)

a.      What is farther north, Denver, Co or Columbus, Ohio?

b.     What is father west, Tokyo, Japan or Darwin, Australia?

c.      What is farther south, Juneau, Alaska or Oslo, Norway?

d.     What is farther east, Berlin, Germany, or Naples, Italy?

8.     Name the actor (3 points), the movie character's name  (4 points), and the year of the movies' release (3 points)

a.      "Close your mouth please, Michael. We are not a codfish. Well, don't stand there staring. Best foot forward. Spit spot!"

b.     "You and I have a tendency towards corpulence. Corpulence makes a man reasonable, pleasant and phlegmatic. Have you noticed the nastiest of tyrants are invariably thin?"

c.      "What hump?"

d.     "We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men. Hell, we could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the lords of all creation. As for Andy - he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."

e.      "Never mind, Houston, never mind the story! Ah. It's starting to get hot in here. The way I see it, there are only two possible outcomes. Either I make it down there in one piece and I have one hell of a story to tell! Or I burn up in the next ten minutes. Either way, whichever way... no harm, no foul! Because either way, it's going to be one hell of a ride! I'm ready."

f.      Double Points: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."

g.     Double Points: "Where are his boots?"  "Put his boots on, Clute. And his gun belt, and his spurs."

9.     What is noteworthy about these Americans? (3 points for each correct answer)

a.    John Basilone

b.     John Singer Sargent

c.      Theodore Malman and Gordon Gould

d.     George Hincapie

e.      John Enders and Thomas Peebles

f.      Edwin Hubble

g.     Double Points: Irma S. Rombauer

h.     Double Points: Sam Rayburn

10.  Fill in this famous sentence  (7 points)  

__ ____ _____ _____ __ __ ____-_______, ____ ___ ___ are ______ _____, ____ ____ ___ ______ __ _____ ______ ____ ______ __________ _______, ____ _____ ____ ___ ___, _____, ___ the ______ __ _________.

11.   Cooking Fun:  (3 points for each correct definition.)

a.      aiguillette

b.     jaccart

c.      fond

d.     quadrille

e.      morel

f.      spatchcocking

12.  Lightening Round:  (3 points for each correct answer)

a.      Name the three authors of the Federalist Papers (3 point each)

b.     Who wrote "Goodnight Moon?

c.      What was the first name of Freud's daughter?

d.     What mental illness was portrayed in the movie, "A Beautiful Mind"?

e.      Who said, "In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield."?

f.      Claymores often featured a ricasso. What's a claymore? (3 points) What's a ricasso? (3 points)

g.     True or false. John Madden coached at San Jose State for three years.

h.     What is this organic chemical compound? C₆H₆

13.  Bonus Question  (10 points!)

What do theses men have in common?

Archimedes, Galileo, Leo Szilard, Omar Khayam, Tyco Brahe, Aristotle, George Hale, Gregor Mendel, Marco Polo, Julius Casear, and Nikola Tesla.

Answers here.

A special thanks to Dr. Janice, Dr. Bob, IMDB and Dr. Thomas Parker from the University of Arizona. Dr. Parker, you made ancient history so vibrant and alive for me, forty-two years ago.