This Brainbuster originally ran on Sept. 17, 2010. 1. Who pays the highest taxes in the world? French; Swedes; Americans; Brits; Canadians; Danish?
2. In the movie “Clue” (1985), just after Mr. Boddy was found dead, someone speculated that maybe he was poisoned. Mrs. Peacock, who had just sipped from Mr. Boddy’s glass, began screaming hysterically. Which character ushered her to a seat, and then slapped her, and what room where they in?
3. The Catholics celebrate April 25 as the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist, author of one of the Gospels. Some say he brought Christianity to a new land and was martyred there. How and where is St. Mark alleged to have met his demise? He was dragged by horses in the streets of Alexandria; stoned to death in Jerusalem; crucified upside-down in Rome; flayed in Albania.
4. Which bank served as the sponsor of the Baltimore Ravens’ home stadium in 2008? BB&T; M&T Bank; Northern Trust; Fifth Third Bank
5. Which video games first feature a character called Coco Bandicoot? Crash; Dance Dance Revolution; Grand Theft Auto; Doom
6. Which computer system uses an application called Cocoa? Sun System; Microsoft; Apple; Linux
7. If I were a carpenter, would you still love me? He may have been a black-sheep boy, but which Woodstock 1969 headliner had reasons to believe? Tim Hardin; Pat Sky; Bob Dylan; Johnny Cash.
ANSWERS:
1. The Danish, whose income tax rate is 38-59 percent of total income. Swedes pay 0-57 percent; French 5-40 percent; Brits 0-40 percent. Americans and Canadians income tax rates are 10-35 percent and 15-29 percent respectively!
2. Mr. Green, and they were in the study. Mrs. Peacock was played by Eileen Brennan, Mr. Green was played by Michael McKean, and Mr. Boddy was played by Lee Ving.
3. He was dragged by horses in the streets of Alexandria. The Book of Acts says that John Mark began his ministry by accompanying Saul and Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 12:25). In the course of his work, St. Mark ended up in Alexandria, Egypt, where he founded a church. Stories indicate that while there, he was executed, and his remains stayed in that city for 750 years, when two Venetians stole them, packing them in salt pork to discourage Muslim customs inspectors and using them to found the famous Basilica di San Marco. In the same era. St. Peter was crucified upside-down in Rome; Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem, as described in the Book of Acts; and Bartholomew was flayed, or skinned, in Albania, and then crucified just to make sure.
4. M&T Bank.
5. Crash. Coco was the sister of the main hero Crash Bandicoot.
6. Apple Inc says: “Cocoa is Apple’s name for the collection of frameworks, APIs, and accompanying runtimes that make up the development layer of Mac OS X. By developing with the Cocoa frameworks you will be writing applications the same way that Mac OS X itself is written, with complete access to the full power of the operating system, including the signature Mac look and feel.” [http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/]
7. Tim Hardin, who was born in Eugene, Oregon, on December 23, 1940 and died in LA on December 29, 1980. He was known for penning “If I Were A Carpenter”, which was widely recorded by Bobby Darin in 1966. “Reason To Believe” was also a hit song, most notably by Rod Stewart. “Black Sheep Boy” was another Hardin composition.