Quiz Time

Today's guest author is the one and only Donna Kiebawls. She has provided the quiz Q & A.

This is a quiz for people who think they know everything!

These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers

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

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

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own forseveral growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted everyyear. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pearinside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle isgenuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside thebottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw'and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There a re 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name atleast half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned,processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

Answers To Quiz:
1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends . Boxing. Is "dating" a sport?

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward. Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it everyminute..). The Chicago Cubs would also qualify.

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own forseveral growing seasons . . Asparagus and rhubarb . Personally, I don't believe rhubarb actually exists.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside thebottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and arewired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entiregrowing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.) This explains why there is no watermelon brandy.

6. Three English words beginning with dw Dwarf, dwell and dwindle . Isn't "dweeb" a word, and what about "dwunk"?

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, questionmark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces,and ellipses. I propose that smiley faces and "..." be added.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed,cooked, or in any other form but fresh Lettuce.

Donna Kiebawls, a grateful blog community salutes you.

Econ Lesson

There's no doubt, things are really screwed up, econ-wise. Some basic definitions are interesting, though not necessarily helpful. Kind of like watching people explain the stimulus plan.

Question 1: what's a recession?

Answer: A recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. In other words, when the GDP, the total value of economic goods and services, declines for six months, that's a recession. There could be no growth, or negative movement, for a longer period of time, but until it triggers the magic two quarters measurement, it's not technically a recession.

Question 2; what's a depression?

Answer: there's two answers. One answer is three years of economic downturn. Another answer is a sustained recession during which the populace has to dispose of assets to pay for everyday living.

We are in the 17th recessionary month. People are selling stuff to pay living expenses. So maybe we're in a depression.

Question 3: what happened in The Great Depression?

Answer: from 1929 to 1932 the economy shrank 27%, unemployment hit 25% and the stock market lost 90% of its value. Unemployment today is around 8% and the market is down about 50%. The guys who work on stuff like this are working on calculating how much the economy has shrunk.

Question 4: why is this information valuable?

Answer: it isn't. Like a lot of these data, this is all rear view mirror stuff. You gotta live through it, look back at it and evaluate it in order to figure out if the definitions have been satisfied. It's like reading an autopsy: might be interesting, but the subject is still dead.

The media are screaming all the bad news, as often and as loud as we'll have it. People who have no idea of what composes the Dow track the number daily and seem to obcess about it.

So what really matters?

When the bad stuff happens to you, or me, or someone we know. Like now.

But we still have kids to raise, birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate, games to play...lots of living to do. Start now, time's wastin'.

On Break

Neveradullmoment is on a break today.
My other child was supposed to write today, he didn't. Maybe the excuse will be worth seeing.
Maybe not.

Slumdog Celebrities

The cast of Slumdog Millionaire went out and did a bunch of touristy things in the days following their triumphant Oscar night, and well they should. Their vacation films were almost as good as the movie. While they returned to Mumbai to a deserved heroes' welcome, their time here looked a little weird.

The little guys who played the parts of the young brothers are cuter than can be, especially the one boy, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, who plays young Jamal. This kid is the real star of the movie, and he was great fun to watch afterward. He won some carny prizes on Santa Monica pier and the cameras followed as he yelped and jumped and celebrated and had a great time.


Madhur Mittal, who plays the older Salim, was photographed post-Oscar mostly whipping his sunglasses on and off and looking into the distance, kind of like an Indian James Dean. Looks like a bit of a mope, but he's probably doing great with the ladies back in Mumbai.



Anil Kapoor plays Prem Kumar, the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in Slumdog. In the film, Prem is rather, shall we say, a dick. The clips that I caught of Anil's jaunts around L.A. suggest that the the character wasn't a real stretch for him. In fairness, the man is a 30+ year veteran of the film industry in his native country, so one can see where he'd expect a bit of deference from the press and public, and film clips can certainly be misleading and slanted. I thought he was just a curiousity.

In the end, outside the film, that's how they'll all be (vaguely) remembered in the USA. Just a curiousity.

Marriage Questions from a Divorce Lawyer

I ran across a story in which a divorce lawyer put together a few questions that should be posed to prospective mates. Looking over the list, it's evident that the questions have been culled from his years of experience and on their face, the questions are logical and well thought out. Marriage, on the other hand, is hardly logical and predictable. Here are his questions, with some thoughts.

1. How do you believe we should spend our money and on what?
If this is young people considering the question, it's usually pointless, as they have no money. If it's older folks with kids, it's pointless, as they usually have no money. If it's anybody in the last year, it's pointless, 'cause the whole country has no money. My wife and I...the answer is get a little money and then argue about it.

2. What are your thoughts about starting a family?
This question makes perfect sense, as the two partners ought to be on the same wavelength. It doesn't make as much sense if the family has already been started and the partners are looking at how to react. In some places in our culture, the question is irrelevant, leading to the creation of the terms "baby momma" and "baby daddy".

3. If I get sick, how will you take care of me?
The narrative in the story says this is intended to get an understanding of the partners' long term view. I don't think that this question is consistent with the notion of falling in love and building a life together. It is one of those "shit happens" circumstances that we all hope doesn't happen to us. It does pose the question "What would Jennifer Aniston do?"

4. Do you envision us growing old together?
This one, I think this one is important. This is why you get to meet each other's families. Prospective partners are going to be like their parents, a little or lot, and if you gag when you spend time with the parents, well... By the way, the other person will be looking at your parents. How's that working for you?

5. Do you ever think about your ex?
I assume this was intended to include "...in a manner that does not portray that person as borne from the bowels of hell." If you're a youngster and you're dreaming about what might have been, either act on it or close the book. Life's not usually loaded up with second chances.

6. Has your mate ever told you they scared a former mate in any way?
What psychopath in their wacky state is going to 'fess up to this? Sweetheart...did I ever tell you about the time I chased Edwin down the alley at 2 a.m. with the hedge clippers screaming about what a no good son a bitch he is? It was all such a silly misunderstanding!

7. Is your mate good at problem solving?
Ah, is he/she resourceful!? If you're not, you need a partner who is, and then you need to trust them, which could mean you get scah-rood, or maybe you still need mommy to take care of you, in which case you will eventually end up scah-rood and you're shouldn't go screwing up some unsuspecting other person's life making promises you're incapable of keeping. Life's problems and challenges are not easily anticipated, nor are they customarily something for which you can rehearse. We make up the answers as we go. Most people do.

8. How does my mate deal with a "screwup?"
One must infer meaning here. If screwup means an error in judgement, discuss it, at low volume, with the intention of finding resolution, not assessing blame. If screwup is how you customarily refer to your prospective marriage partner, slam on the brakes and head the other way.

For young people, I have one point that I believe needs to be pounded into their brains: there is little correlation between "wedding" and "marriage". The first is a party (anybody can throw one) and the second is a voyage (with an unsure destination).

I have one divorce and one successful marriage. Neither can be attributed entirely to me. Neveradullmoment!