The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Tricycle

Barely alive, the Friday quiz is nevertheless still here -- this week, at least, for those of you who haven't already departed your usual deskular haunts in pursuit of extra-long weekend fun. The work-tethered Wombat is pleased to provide those still encubicled with a ray of trivial sunshine, with which to irradiate you with a tiny, if unhealthy dose of infotons.

In order to properly mark the occasion, a tripartite Quiz is here offered, with a devilish "final challenge" designed to make you delete your Wombat File bookmark for good and all. Here we go:

1. What professional group gathered at a temple in Haryana, India, in 2003, to protest a 1972 environmental law which -- although not largely aimed at them -- had wound up impacting their once-thriving livelihood?

2. After attempting to start a professional hockey career, joining the army, and selling insurance, this man became famous in a pursuit which was chronicled in a fictional form, in a film starring himself, Gene Kelley and Lauren Hutton. Who was he?

3. Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville is credited with introducing this pastime to America, when he returned to his native city from England, where he had learned it. It became characterized not by its English name, but a word in another language, meaning "toad." By what name do we know it?

A final challenge: correctly guess the word that connects the three questions. It is part of the answer to the first one, but only in the contextual background to the other two; the correct answer will identify the word from Question 1, a proper noun relating to Question 2, and a term of art relating to Question 3.

First correct answer to the whole shebang wins a slightly damaged copy of Wearing Crocs the Mario Batali Way. No Googling or meaning "toad" in any language whatsoever. Guess at any part of this exactly once per comment, but as usual comment and guess as often as your quiz- debilitated will allows.

Comments

Mind-busting!

1. Travel agents.
2. Busby Berkeley.
3. Hopskotch.

Posted by: art | May 23, 2008 09:13 AM

I got no magic word to tie those 3 together...

Posted by: art | May 23, 2008 09:14 AM

No worries about tying them together -- they're all wrong. Try again...

Posted by: BT | May 23, 2008 09:29 AM

1. The ivory pool cue league
2. Minnesota Fats
3. billiards

pool

Posted by: boxjam | May 23, 2008 10:04 AM

No. And I should stress that there is no connection other than that of a word in common between the three things. They're not related in the way that those three you mention are.

Posted by: BT | May 23, 2008 10:09 AM

1. the elephant leg umbrella stand makers local #438

Posted by: boxjam | May 23, 2008 10:55 AM

1. ivory harvesting
2. John Phillip Sousa
3. bacci

Keenan Ivory Wayans

Posted by: james | May 23, 2008 11:02 AM

Although still wrong, I could have spelled bocce better.

Posted by: james | May 23, 2008 11:16 AM

1. Sandalwood harvesting.
2. Woodie Guthrie.
3. Bukkake.
Is the magic word WOOD?

Posted by: bootsy3000 | May 23, 2008 11:24 AM

1. Snake Charmers
2. Errol Flynn
3. Chutes and Ladders

Posted by: hackly_fracture | May 23, 2008 12:48 PM

The magic word is petonque.

Posted by: gavinedwards | May 23, 2008 01:06 PM

1. Sin eaters
2. Charles Lindbergh
3. Croquet

The secret word is "duckling."

Posted by: gavinedwards | May 23, 2008 01:37 PM

Hackly gets #1! Well done, sir.

The answer to #2 died in 2007. The answer to #3, interestingly, involves a substance incorrectly guessed as part of the answer for #1.

Posted by: BT | May 23, 2008 02:21 PM

#3 Billiards/pool?

Posted by: gavinedwards | May 23, 2008 03:39 PM

Nope.

Posted by: BT | May 23, 2008 04:27 PM

3: Snooker

Posted by: Jonathan | May 23, 2008 05:27 PM

2. Merce Cunningham
3. Skittles.

Posted by: art | May 23, 2008 06:41 PM

Actually I saw that snake charmer story on the news, come to think about it. There are serious restrictions on animals being involved as actors in TV or movies as well. You are not allowed to show a person hitting a horse to make it go faster for example.

But I digress...

2. Studs Terkel
3. Chess

Posted by: art | May 23, 2008 06:46 PM

Still nothing on #2 or #3. Some of the guesses for #3 have been close. I'll add that the connection between #1 and #2 has to do with a geographical name that figures prominently in the life story of the answer to #2. And that the connection to #3 is a two-word phrase not only familiar to participants in the pastime in question, but also to serious aficianados of the 1980s version of the G.I. Joe toy figures.

Posted by: BT | May 24, 2008 09:57 AM

oh calcutta!
i'm swimming in clues.

if hackly is correct the magic word must be either snake or charmer...which gets me nowhere.

2. That guy from the Green Berets
3. craps

Posted by: art | May 25, 2008 02:37 AM

#3 is indeed craps! From the French "crapaud" meaning "toad", though the origins of the name are sketchy (players hunched over?) I trust the connecting two-word phrase will not be difficult to deduce, and may help shed some light on the answer to #2, who definitely did not join the Green Berets at any point, although he was briefly in the army, and apparently did some pole-vaulting while in the service, a sport that relates, in a kind of thematic way, to the activities that eventually made his name.

Posted by: BT | May 26, 2008 11:10 PM

Right. The 2 word phrase is "snake eyes" -- whoo hoo.

But that still doesn't give me the magic word -- unless it is snake (but that doesn't give an art term related to craps).

Unless I'm getting confused and the 2 word phrase isn't related to snake. Perhaps it is "throw down" (do they say that in craps) which makes #2 a wrestler. Anthony Quinn?

Posted by: art | May 27, 2008 06:08 AM

Ernest Borgnine?

Posted by: art | May 27, 2008 06:09 AM

OK, for any players still dedicated enough to follow my as-usual-misbegotten-idea through, perhaps I need to clarify the initial concept. The idea, besides coming up with the correct answers to each part, is to identify the connective thread between #1, #2, and #3.

2/3 of this has been accomplished with the simple connection of "snake" (from #1) with "snake eyes" (from #3). Neither the answer --nor, naturally, the point of connection -- has been determined for #2.

I can now see that it's confusing to have "snake" be part of the actual answer to the first one, but only be a tangential element of the answer to the other two. This would have been better-crafted had the three answers all been linked by a concept equally tangential to all three.

Posted by: BT | May 27, 2008 08:15 PM

i'm feeling rather tangential myself...

perhaps I don't know the person in #2?

Evel Knievel?

Posted by: art | May 28, 2008 05:47 AM

Did he jump the Snake River or something? (He did die last year, I think). All I can hear is the Didjits song now.

Posted by: art | May 28, 2008 05:49 AM

**fireworks**

Yes, the late Evel Knievel did attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-1.

So, the throughline was snake (charmer)/Snake River canyon (Evel Knievel)/snake eyes (craps).

I think we have to credit Art with the overall win, with a strong assist from Hackly.

Would everyone hate me if we did a similar format again?

[ducks]

Posted by: BT | May 28, 2008 12:48 PM

I have no life...or....persistence pays off. Not sure which.

Bring it on, BT!

Posted by: art | May 29, 2008 05:31 AM

Persistence is the soul of victory...look for a new three-part groaner tomorrow.

Posted by: BT | May 29, 2008 09:42 AM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

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

The Friday Quiz: Tricycle

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