1. T.S. Eliot’s 1935 poetic drama, Murder in the Cathedral, was inspired by a real-life slaying that took place in:
a. Grace Cathedral
b. St. Mary’s Cathedral
c. Canterbury Cathedral
2. Clad in a smart black Nehru jacket and slacks, this hirsute former Beatle gamboled about the footlights at AT&T ballpark in July, harking back to his group’s last SF appearance, in 1966. His name?
3. True or false? George Orwell had SF’s Tenderloin district in mind when he wrote: “It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs —and well, here are the dogs. . . .”
4. Known as Red Hill during the Vietnam War years, this neighborhood attracted anti-war activists who shared households among the working-class families:
a. Potrero Hill
b. The Excelsior district
c. Bernal Heights
5. This Bay Area resident wears several hats: family therapist, creativity coach, and popularizer of the writing life in Paris and San Francisco—over cups of steaming coffee, of course.
a. Dr. Andrew Weil
b. Dr. Eric Maisel
c. Dr, Melina B. Jampolis
6. “I say again and again that I am a poet, that I am not a fighter by nature. I would give everything to be one with my surroundings. I love my fellow beings, and I prize their love.” Name this 1913 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who visited SF while on a lecture tour in America:
a. Mahatma Gandhi
b. Jawaharlal Nehru
c. Rabindranath Tagore
7. AT&T ballpark seats about the same number of fans as Wrigley Field in Chicago, or Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts?
8. The SF Giants record holder for the most consecutive hits is:
a. Buster Posey
b. Willie McCovey
c. Joe DiMaggio
9. Text messaging, going to the gym, good coffee, yoga, playing guitar, Italian food, knitting, Puerto Rican food and sushi, telling jokes, reading Popular Science—these are a sampling of interests of:
a. Singapore Airlines flight attendants polled
at SFO
b. USF summer session students
c. 2010 Merola Opera Artists
10. “Gifts helped forge bonds and served as tokens of love and adoration. The value of the gift was extremely important, and the beneficiary typically gave a reciprocal gift of equal value.” So reads a lavish display of porcelain from Meissen,
Germany, at the international terminal of SFO that focuses on:
a. dining among royalty in the 1700s
b. artifacts from the House of Wedgwood
c. fine bone china used at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Answers
1. c
2. Sir Paul McCartney
3. False. (Orwell’s book was Down and Out in London and Paris, 1935)
4. c
5. b
6. c
7. Wrigley Field (41,160), AT&T (41,915), Fenway Park (37,000)
8. b (McCovey had a twenty-two-game hitting streak)
9. c. (The Merola grand finale was held at the Opera House August 21)
10. a
Victor Turks grew up in San Francisco and lives in the Richmond with his wife, Michiko, their three boys, a pug, a cat, and a tankful of goldfish. He teaches English at City College.
