The Daily Teaser — 6-12-2013: TAXI!!!

Oh, now that’s sad … 

Overnight, Nelson Mandela*, former president, prisoner, and passionate political advocate for a free and new South Africa, has died.

That’s sad.    But Madiba, in death and life, he’s left his country … not necessarily better, but better than it was.

Hmmm … I think there’s I can say, there: except to point you at his obituary — here — and to offer my condolences to his family, and country.

And to tell you that, according to the BBC’s report on his death, the UN Security Council stood for a minutes silence, as a mark of respect.   That’s unheard of, to my knowledge.

Let’s move on, shall we?   Before we’re overwhelmed … 

~≈Â≈~

Yesterday’s teaser saw Debbi† putting in her answers: along with telling me to stay warm, she also bagged ten out of ten!

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?   Here they are, along with the ‘How To,’ License and video … 

Q1) 6th December, 1897, saw which British city become the first to have licensed taxis?

Q2) Traditionally, those taxis are what colour … ?

Q3) The taxis are also called Hackney Carriages, and named after what: a borough, district or parish … ?

Q4) As of 2013, that city’s taxis are made by Geely UK LTD: a subsidiary of a car company from which country … ?

Q5) What name is given to the knowledge that cabbies have of this particular city … ?

Q6) Training for that knowledge has been shown to increase which area of the brain: the occipital lobe, the hippocampus or the cerebral cortex?

Q7) What was the name of the seventh Carry On film … ?

Q8) In which film does Robert De Niro famously say “You talkin’ to me?”

Q9) The US series, Taxi, was set in which US city … ?

Q10) Finally … who released the 1993 album, Taxi … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 5th December saw the first recorded disappearance over the Bermuda Triangle… What was the name of the vanished squad of bombers: Flight 19, Flight 20 or Flight 21 … ?

A1) Flight 19.

Q2) More to the point, in which year of the 1940s was this … ?

A2) 1945.

Q3) What was the name of the writer who wrote the standard book about the Bermuda Triangle … ?

A3) Charles Berlitz.

Q4) More to the point, what was the name of the book … ?

A4) The Bermuda Triangle.

Q5) That same writer wrote ‘The Philadelphia Experiment’, about a vanishing what: tank, battleship or plane … ?

A5) Battleship.

Q6) Back to where we started, now: the northern-most point of the Bermuda Triangle is just off the coast of Bermuda.   Where’s it’s most southerly point: Cuba, Haiti or Puerto Rico … ?

A6) Puerto Rico.

Q7) Equally to the point, the Triangle’s most westerly point is on the coast of which US state … ?

A7) Florida.   (Just off the Florida Keys, if I’ve read the map correctly … )

Q8) In which bit of sea is the Bermuda Triangle: the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean … ?

A8) Atlantic Ocean.

Q9) According to the old Barry Manilow song, The Bermuda Triangle makes people  disappear.   Between 1976 and 1983, which South American country saw many people ‘disappear’ … ?

A9) Argentina.   (The usage comes from the Argentine Spanish phrase ‘los desaparecidos’, used by the ‘Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’ movement.)

Q10) And finally … The Bermuda Triangle is off Bermuda.   What’s the name of the equivalent, roughly 100 kilometers south of Tokyo … ?

A10) The Devil’s Sea.

I’ll leave you with this thought … 

“Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.”

George Burns.

And with a Joni Mitchell tune … 

Enjoy your day.

*        It’s often the case that someone will say “I can remember where I was, when so-and-so died.”   I was in bed when the tweets about Nelson Mandela starting ringing my phone.

†        Will do, Debbi!