The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Gavin Burns for You

You know, I realize I never got around to answering the tossed-off question I threw out last week: the answer, for those who care, is the Holy Roman Empire.

Today our frequent Guest Quizmaster Gavin, still daubed in the healing ashes of Burning Man, saves our bacon by offering a cortex-number of his own devising, to wit:

In the 1956 Miss America pageant, forty-six of the contestants represented U.S. States. What other four geographically-defined entities were represented?

According to Gavin, you don't need to get all four right in one comment. You may include up to four guesses in each comment.

The person judged by the Quizmaster to have been the mostest correctest the firstests will receive a small diorama, made by Gavin while coming down from his Burning Man "spirit quest", in which a collection of horned-toad skulls and discarded G.I. Joe figures has been re-worked into a Day of the Dead-style tableau depicting the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion by General Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee.

No Googling or piling into a car for a quick research trip to Atlantic City. Summer's over.

Comments

Resting assured that to raise a rhetorical eyebrow at the notion that Franz was the last Holy Roman Empire will merit a sleep-deprived dad's swat upside the head with the diaper bag, I move serenely to the business at hand:

Puerto Rico
Marshall Islands
Alaska
Hawaii

Posted by: Jonathan | September 8, 2006 01:02 PM

Emperor. I meant Emperor. Dammit.

Gavin will have to chime in about your guesses on this week's question -- I'm in the dark too.

Posted by: BT | September 8, 2006 01:06 PM

My guesses:

District of Columbia
Puerto Rico
Guam
Hawaii

Posted by: KF | September 8, 2006 01:21 PM

All sensible guesses!

Hawaii and the District of Columbia are correct; the rest are not.

Two to go.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 8, 2006 02:54 PM

The Dakotas
New York City
The Virgin Islands
Quebec

Posted by: Scraps | September 8, 2006 05:35 PM

Fine guesses, but not correct.

The second two geographical areas are much weirder than the two that have already been successfully guessed. (Weird in the sense of when I read the LIFE magazine article about this pageant a few weeks ago, I said "Huh? How did they get in there?")

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 8, 2006 05:39 PM

Okinawa
The Phillipines
Samoa (the American one)
Easter Island

(oops can we still guess 4?)

Posted by: art | September 8, 2006 06:18 PM

Panama Canal Zone
U.S. Military Bases
Perky Canada
Cuba

Posted by: Scraps | September 8, 2006 06:31 PM

Guessing four is still fine!

Canada is correct! (I love the utter daffiness of that: Miss America could have been Canadian.)

One geographic locale left: it is neither a state nor a country.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 8, 2006 07:55 PM

Iwo Jima
The Outer Banks
Algonquin State Park
The BQE

Posted by: Jonathan | September 8, 2006 08:20 PM

Hmmm:

Moscow
Juneau
North Pole
Bering Straits

Posted by: KF | September 9, 2006 01:59 AM

More of KF's guesses are in the correct category than Jonathan's.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 9, 2006 12:20 PM

Bermuda (is this a country?)
Berlin (the American quadrant)
Yokohama
Saipan

Posted by: art | September 9, 2006 09:37 PM

Equator
London
Mexico City
Williamsburg

Posted by: Jonathan | September 9, 2006 11:47 PM

Some fine guesses, but no.

Our fourth Miss America locale is wholly within the continental United States.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 10, 2006 12:53 AM

Disneyland
Yellowstone
Grand Canyon
Rocky Mountains

Posted by: art | September 10, 2006 08:30 AM

The South
New England
Brooklyn
Hollywood

Posted by: Scraps | September 10, 2006 11:04 AM

None of those, I'm afraid: it is a city, though.

If nobody's guessed it by the time I go to bed tonight, I'll flip over the last card.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 10, 2006 03:24 PM

Seattle
Portland
Anchorage
Deadwood

Posted by: KF | September 10, 2006 04:00 PM

what time do you go to bed?

Atlantic City
Las Vegas
Miami Beach
International Falls

Posted by: art | September 10, 2006 07:22 PM

Bedtime depends on whether I stay up working on an article tonight or not. Guess early and often!

The city remains unguessed; it is not on the East Coast.

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 10, 2006 09:00 PM

New Orleans
San Francisco
Chicago
Humptulips

Posted by: Scraps | September 10, 2006 10:06 PM

I assumed Humptulips was made up, but no, I see it's a town in Washington state. Did you grow up near there, Scraps?

At any rate, just under the self-imposed deadline of me going to sleep, we have our fourth locale: Chicago!

So to recap, the 1956 Miss America pageant had representatives for 46 of the 48 states, plus Miss Hawaii, Miss DC, Miss Canada (or "Miss Perky Canada"), and Miss Chicago. I have no idea how those four made it in--I just know what I read in vintage copies of Life.

Congrats to Scraps, Jonathan, and KF!

Posted by: gavinedwards | September 11, 2006 02:17 AM

Apparently there's a whole set of things in Perky Canada that are very close to things we understand. You know, American:

http://mapleleafstate.com/perky_canada.html

Posted by: james | September 11, 2006 04:04 PM

Thanks for a great quiz, Gavin. Is there no glory that Chicago has not tried, in its big-shouldered, meaty-pawed honest American way, to grab a hunk of for its own self? No! And we say, bully! Bully!

Next week, nothing will stand between the wombat and the quizmaster's chair -- wee've already got a brain-melter of a question lined up.

Posted by: lewombat | September 11, 2006 11:18 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: Gavin Burns for You

Comments

Post a comment