# New Year's Eve Quiz challenge. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 31, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007 "2016-12-31T23:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/21 "2017-01-01T06:07:50Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Cite? [Here](http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1348155573657_9716902.png). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/22 "2017-01-01T06:40:37Z")
Autocorrect has a irritating habit of adding a 's. I try to catch the error but it sometimes slips by. I won’t turn it off because it saves a lot of typing on this terrible glass keyboard on my phone. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/23 "2017-01-01T07:06:57Z")
All 19. The river question I hesitated on, as I remember the Amazon and the Nile going back and forth as the longest, but I guessed the right one. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/24 "2017-01-01T07:13:46Z")
17/19. I forgot Nairobi was in Kenya, and so just picked the one city I didn’t know. And for some reason, I always get Lenin and Khrushchev mixed up. As in, I think there was a Lenin after Stalin. As for what I think an actual fifth grader would know, I’d not expect them to be taught about Hawking’s book. I also suspect most would not be taught the capitals of Africa, though I admit I was. (I went to a Montessori school, and we learned the countries and capitals of the world, along with the US and Australian states and the Canadian provinces and and the capitals of all of them.) I also would not be surprised if the end of World War I was only mentioned in passing, but I’d bet they could pick based on the general time frame. Edit: Surprised people weren’t sure about the Nile. That was one thing that they emphasized multiple times in my history and geography classes. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/25 "2017-01-01T07:16:22Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I find it hard to believe that “most adults” can’t ace this. Bullshit clickbait. That’s the point. They spread because the people who can do it want to brag. They don’t get spread if you didn’t do very well. I know that, if I’d gotten, say, 15/19, I’d have just not mentioned it here at all. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/26 "2017-01-01T07:18:43Z")
18 out of 19. I wasn’t sure if it was the Nile or the Amazon that was the longest river and guessed incorrectly. Otherwise, this was pretty darned easy. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/27 "2017-01-01T07:18:50Z")
I got all 19. The last one took a little thinking, but I figured it out. I always thought the Nile River was longest, but the Amazon carried a larger volume of water. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/28 "2017-01-01T07:51:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Edit: Surprised people weren’t sure about the Nile. That was one thing that they emphasized multiple times in my history and geography classes. While I did get it right, Google it and you’ll see the answer isn’t clear-cut. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/29 "2017-01-01T08:37:35Z")
Got 19/19. All were pretty easy except the last one. Had to use pen and paper to find the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/30 "2017-01-01T16:25:43Z")
I got two wrong, longest river and capital of Kenya. But for the most part, this was not a test of smarts, but of memorization of dull facts. Only the last one required actual thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/31 "2017-01-01T16:26:56Z")
I thought, ‘Oh come on, who wouldn’t know about Nixon and Watergate?’ It’s hard for me to realize that there’s a whole generation who thinks of Watergate the way I think of Teapot Dome. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/32 "2017-01-01T17:11:30Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > All 19. The river question I hesitated on, as I remember the Amazon and the Nile going back and forth as the longest, but I guessed the right one. That’s the one I missed, because the last I heard, it’s an ongoing debate. It sort of depends on how you measure, and whether you count the fact that the Nile is a tad longer when it has its yearly flood, but it doesn’t last; the Amazon is longer most of the year. I figured it would be a trick question-- they’d expect people to put Nile, so it’d be Amazon, and I picked Amazon, and I missed it. The last one took me a long time and paper and a pencil, though. Anyway, 18, for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/33 "2017-01-01T17:13:19Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I thought, ‘Oh come on, who wouldn’t know about Nixon and Watergate?’ > > It’s hard for me to realize that there’s a whole generation who thinks of Watergate the way I think of Teapot Dome. But if asked simply “What US president is associated with the Teapot Dome scandal?” you’d know the answer, right? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/34 "2017-01-01T17:49:29Z")
^ Well, Harding (I had to look it up) doesn’t have his own life-supporting head-tank on _Futurama_. Or…_does_ he? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/35 "2017-01-01T19:55:34Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > But if asked simply “What US president is associated with the Teapot Dome scandal?” you’d know the answer, right? Well sure I would, but others… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/36 "2017-01-01T20:10:48Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > ^ Well, Harding (I had to look it up) doesn’t have his own life-supporting head-tank on _Futurama_. > Or…_does_ he? [Yes, he does.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Presidents%27_Heads#Cultural_references) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/37 "2017-01-01T22:30:06Z")
18/19. I got the Nile/Amazon question wrong. The quiz seemed rather oriented to Americans. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/38 "2017-01-01T22:45:46Z")
19/19. I thought some of them weren’t exactly standard kid stuff. Why would even a middle schooler be expected to know the capitals of the less significant countries such as Kenya? Why is the author of “A Brief History of Time” basic information? And unscrambling words…really?? (I got that one because I thought, “there aren’t that many oceans, let me try them first” and having made that choice, it was obvious.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/39 "2017-01-01T22:51:17Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > 18/19. I got the Nile/Amazon question wrong. The quiz seemed rather oriented to Americans. I’ll grant that Watergate, the Statue of Liberty, and maybe\* Pearl ‘Harbour’ were U.S.-oriented. Other than those, they seemed to be pretty neutral. \*For Europe, obviously September 1, 1939 was more key than December 7, 1941. But the latter was still pretty important even from a European perspective, since it got the U.S. off the sidelines and into the war. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007/40 "2017-01-01T23:00:35Z")
18/19 here, stuffed up on the sound in space question. But I did also ponder a while on the Nile/Amazon comparison…picked Nile thinking it was worth a shot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-years-eve-quiz-challenge/776007.md?page=3)