pre-Christmas

[calimac]

1. Rainy day in California. And a typical one by our standards. Instead of a storm moving briskly in and out, it sneaks in overnight and then everything is just wet and soggy all day.

2. Nevertheless we ventured out to the annual caroling, as usual inside and toasty. Had a flutist for a while, but she flit. Sang "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie" in honor of absent friends. B. led a rousing rendition of "Carol of the Bells" in cat language. Sang "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen." Man, that Praetorius really knew how to arrange four-part harmony. Sang a Czech carol, but in English. ("I'd rather sing in German than in Czech / Yes, I would / If I only could / I surely would." People get a little punch-drunk after lots of caroling.)

3. It's the annual Chronicle geography quiz. Answers are on the lower half of the second online page. Of the 50 questions, I didn't know nos. 2, 26, 31, 43, 44, 46, 47, or 48, should have known 5, 8, 11, 34, and 37, got close on 7, 18, and 50, part right on 25, guessed wrong on 41, guessed right on 9 and 16, and the other thirty were all easy.

Comments

[seattle-janice.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting the link to the geography quiz. It was fun.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

You're a bit ahead of me. I got twenty-eight outright, and half credit on 25 and 39.

chorale and I aren't carolers, but we have been going about singing "Christmas time is here, by golly,/Disapproval would be folly" to each other.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

We're pretty far from carolers, but we've been known to burst into song. While shopping this afternoon, Julie said something about "blocks of white cheddar" which caused me to sing "blocks of white cheddar/next to the gruyere/" and a couple more lines, to the tune of "Knights in White Satin."

[jane-dennis.livejournal.com]

You can come caroling at our house any time!

The quiz was fun. I guessed wrong on 16 between Yellowstone and New Zealand, missed 26 & 27 (Scott got 27, I guessed MS because of the town named Hot Coffee, silly me), stupidly got Panama longer than Suez, had no clue about 41, got 1/2 on 42, and missed 46, 47, and 48. 23's a bit of a problem. Equatorial Guinea is also most surely named for being on the equator. So it seems that ought to count, but their answer is Ecuador. We seemed to have completely blanked on poor Ecuador today, both missed it on 42 as well.

[jane-dennis.livejournal.com]

Those were teh Ghey knights, were they? [ducking]

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You are quite correct to note Equatorial Guinea, and I see that a couple people in the article's comment section noted it as well.

Name two movies (one of them based on a rather famous novel of the same title) named for lines of latitude that aren't the Equator.

[jane-dennis.livejournal.com]

I'm bad at movies, but I believe they made a movie of Tropic of Cancer. Miller also wrote Tropic of Capricorn, but I don't know if there was a movie. Hmmm. They could have made a movie called Roaring Forties, I suppose. Or 54 40' or Fight (sorry, can't do degree on iPad)... Without googling, that's all I got at the moment.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I specified movies because I didn't want to allow saying Tropic of Capricorn after naming Tropic of Cancer. That would be too easy. The other movie I had in mind - there could be more, admittedly - is 49th Parallel, which I know because Vaughan Williams wrote its music.

[(Anonymous)]

I got 36 of 50 correct on the geography quiz, if Equatorial Guinea indeed counts. I got the country but not the city for the mountain in #7, knew which canal was older but not longer in #25, and named one of two states for #39 and one of two countries for #42. I got #18, 26, 28, 29, 34, 41, 43, 44, 46, and 47 completely wrong. About several of those I'm kicking myself. (You say you were close on naming the port city of #18. I was 900 miles off and landlocked!)

To keep track of southern European vs. midwest American latitudes, I remember that Cleveland is just south of Rome.

As for 49th Parallel, I'd forgotten that Vaughan Williams wrote the music, but for some reason can name most movies by the filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, often referred to as "The Archers".

-MTD/neb