Southpaws
Color Books
School Supplies
Aviation
They'll Make a Holiday for Anything
Potpourri
Songs of Ellie Greenwich
100
This singer, born Frances Gumm and star of the Wizard of Oz, was a leftie. But she held her microphone in her right hand.
Who is Judy Garland?
100
This color-titled book is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was made into a movie in 1985 and a Broadway musical in 2005.
What is The Color Purple?
100
This school supply is only featured on the Crayola crayon boxes of 64 crayons or larger.
What is a sharpener?
100
This aviator was the first person to be chosen as Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1928. He made the first person to successfully fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean in his plane called The Spirit of St Louis
Who is Charles Lindbergh?
100
This annual event in various countries that became more widely celebrated in the 2000s. It is most often observed on the first Friday in May and involves publicly wearing only undergarments on the lower part of the body, not nudity.
What is No Pants Day?
100
This TV show, birthplace of Oscar The Grouch, won an Emmy in 1970 for outstanding achievement in children's programming
What is Sesame Street?
100
Ellie Greenwich was a songwriter for "Hanky Panky", Do Wah Ditty Ditty, and this song with a nonsense title, the first line of which is
"I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still..."
What is "Da Doo Ron Ron"?
200
Matt Groenig left-handedly drew his most famous cartoon, which features a family of 5 and has been running since 1989. This eldest son of the family is also left-handed.
Who is Bart Simpson?
200
This color-titled book is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhounds for hunting. It's a work of autobiographical fiction based on Rawls' childhood in the Ozarks.
What is Where the Red Fern Grows?
200
The first licensed character to be featured on one of these was Mickey Mouse in 1935. The first square metal one featured Hoppalong Cassidy, and the final one pictured Sylvester Stallone as Rambo.
(The material composition was changed to plastic in 1985, because of the potential for children using them as weapons.)
What is a lunchbox?
200
The Wright Brothers were known for their flights taking off in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. But they were born in Dayton, in this state, so it was named The Birthplace of Aviation in 2003.
What is Ohio?
200
Originated by Al Capp's L'il Abner comic strip, this character, the mayor's daughter grew frantic waiting for suitors until she reached age 35 and was still a "spinster". Desperate to marry off his daughter, her father declared a day in her honor. More modern events use this premise to arrange a "girls ask the guys" date or dance.
Who is Sadie Hawkins?
200
The British fashion designer Mary Quant is actually credited with popularizing this item of 1960s women's apparel, not just a scarcity of textiles.
What is the miniskirt?
200
The songwriting team of Ms Greenwich and spouse, Jeff Barry, wrote a peppy tune called "That Boy John" in 1963, but it didn't get a lot of airplay after the assassination of this U.S. president that year.
Who is John F. Kennedy?
300
The Little Tramp, always held his violin in his right hand and bowed with his left, as southpaws often do, suggesting that this pioneer of silent cinema who created him was a leftie too.
Who is Charlie Chaplin?
300
Subtitled "Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America" this color-titled book written in 2003 is historical non-fiction by Erik Larson presented in a novelistic style. It tells the story of America's first serial killer, HH Holmes as he wreaked havoc at the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair.
What is The Devil in the White City?
300
This M word, a predecessor to the photocopier found in the school office was a low-cost duplicating machine that worked by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. They were mostly phased out by photocopiers by the mid-1970s.
What is a mimeograph?
300
Dirigibles have an engine but no wings and come in 3 types: rigid, like the Hindenburg, semi-rigid like a Zeppelin or this type, often flown by Goodyear Tire Company over football games.
What is a blimp?
300
On May 12, the birthday of Edward Lear who popularized the form, we celebrate 5-line poems like this one:
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!
What is Limerick Day?
300
Although Turkey changed the name of its capitol city in 1923, it wasn't until 1930 that mail addressed to Constantinople addresses became undeliverable, cementing the change to this modern city name.
What is Istanbul?
300
The Greenwich tune "I Can Hear Music" was recorded by the Ronettes in 1966, but likely reached a wider audience when this California surf-culture vocal group released their version in 1969.
What is The Beach Boys?
400
The heir apparent to the British throne, this current Prince of Wales signs autographs and documents with his left. His son George is also a leftie.
Who is Prince William?
400
This book by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.
What is The Scarlet Letter?
400
In the song Wonderful World, Sam Cooke sings about lots of things he doesn't know much about, trig, algebra, French, etc. The only school supply he mentions is this hand-operated mechanical calculator where the numbers are spaced using a special logarithmic formula, closer together on one side than the other.
What is a slide-rule?
400
This aviator was the first African-American woman and first Native American to get her pilot's license. She was famous for performing aerial tricks but unfortunately died at age 34 when her plane flipped over while she was riding without her seatbelt.
Who is Bessie Coleman?
400
Many believe birth order plays a pivotal role in the personalities of children. The firstborn is often seen as the leader and the role-player, the youngest one earns the title of the baby family. All the pesky Jan Bradys out there remain undefined, but they get this holiday all to themselves. Oft overlooked, it was yesterday (Aug. 12)
What is Middle Child Day?
400
Under the Roman calendar, the year was divided into only ten months, with New Years Day occurring in this inauspicious (for Julius Caesar!) month.
What is March?
400
Ellie Greenwich grew up in Leavittown, New York, and began composing her own songs as a teen on this cumbersome instrument.
What is the accordion?
500
This Microsoft founder is known to be a lefty, as was Steve Jobs, which helps bolster the arguments of scientists that there is a connection between being left-handed and possessing superior language skills and creativity.
Who is Bill Gates?
500
This book, written by Fannie Flagg, weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman who lives in a nursing home. Every week Evelyn visits Ninny, who recounts stories of her youth in Whistle Stop, Alabama, where her sister-in-law, Idgie, and her friend , Ruth, ran a café.
What is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe?
500
This semicircular geometry tool divided into 180 equal parts, each measuring 1°. It is used for drawing angles of known measurements and finding angles of unknown measurements. Its is usually made of transparent plastic, glass, steel, or wood.
What is a protractor?
500
This aircraft, a B-29 Superfortress (named after its pilot's mother) dropped the first atomic bomb used against civilian populations during World War II.
What is Enola Gay?
500
On December 12, we celebrate International Dalek Remembrance Day. Daleks are depicted as emotionless robots determined to exterminate all other creatures across the universe. We celebrate their first appearance on this long-running time-travel TV show in 1963.
What is Doctor Who?
500
There are more pain receptors in this part of the body than all others.
What are the fingertips?
500
The Ellie Greenwich holiday song "__________ (Baby Please Come Home)" was first recorded by Darlene Love, but the singer claims her favorite versions of the song are by Mariah Carey and the rock band U2.
What is Christmas?