Wednesday, May 16, 2012
     
 
 

There are only nine questions.

This is a quiz for people who know everything!

I found out in a hurry that I didn't.

These are not trick questions.

They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

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JIM:

"Sicko" is the title of Michael Moore's 2007 documentary about the flaws in America's health care system. My wife and I have always been blessed with good health insurance plans through our employers. Consequently, five years ago I didn't pay too much attention to Moore's film. What a difference five years can make!

JIM:

When I was a youngster, growing up in Jim Thorpe, my family always had a favorite game that got played nearly every night after dinner. Parcheesi was the hot ticket for a long time. Later, we graduated to card games: 500 Rummy, then Pinochle. Video games, of course, didn't exist.

JIM:

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered

I don't have a friend who feels at ease

I don't know a dream that's not been shattered

or driven to its knees

But it's all right, it's all right

We've lived so well so long

Still, when I think of the road

we're traveling on

I wonder what went wrong

I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong

- Paul Simon,

"American Tune" (1975)

JIM:

Maybe it's that my folks had kids relatively late in life, after the Great Depression and WWII were behind them and when they were already in their forties. Or maybe it just came naturally to me. Whatever the reason, I was a sissy when I was a kid - and the Fifties was no decade for sissies. This was the Cold War at its most frigid. Nuclear war often seemed just a push of the button away. We kids did "duck-and-cover" drills at school, while our parents priced fallout shelters.