News Quiz

No. 5—“Not Now”

No. 5–“Not Now”

By Randy Cohen

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declared that “this is not the time for …” something. What?

by 5 p.m. ET on Sunday to e-mail your answer (NewsQuiz@slate.com).

Responses to Wednesday’s Question (No. 4)–“Cranky?”:

According to research at the University of Washington, what does this list indicate: criticism, defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling?

(Hint: nothing to do with inscriptions at Nixon library.)

“This was, of course, the Southern strategy in the Civil War. (P.S. Also the four horsemen of the apocalypse for a marriage.)”–Evan Allen

“First four words of the jingle for The New Laverne and Shirley, replacing ” ‘shlemiel, shlemazel.’ “–Greg Diamond

“That you are about to get unbelievably high approval ratings from polls of the American public.”–Frederick H. Bartlett

“According to the marketing people at Mattel, this list includes the ‘fantasy play qualities’ that little girls might employ when playing with the new ‘PMS Barbie.’ “–Meg Wolitzer

“They’re signs of a failing marriage and, coincidentally, Miss February’s biggest turn-ons.”–Beth Sherman

“Excerpt from a personal ad written by Kenneth Starr.”–Patty Marx (Jon Hotchkiss, Gary Knapp, and David C. De Matte had similar answers.)

“Bulleted items under the ‘Strengths’ category on Sidney Blumenthal’s résumé.”–Lou Relleno

“Drinks with someone who works for Condé Nast.”–Chris Kelly

“Corporate response to any attempt to remove the Internet Explorer icon from the Win 95 desktop.”–Brett Porter (similarly, Fred Graver)

“Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ four stages of corporate management (up Strom Thurmond’s ***).”–David Rakoff

“Managing the New York Yankees, 1973-present.”–Andrew Milner

“Toddlerhood.”–Nicholas Rosen

“The real names of the Spice Girls.”–Larry Amaros (similarly, William Torrey)

“The Book of Revelations was right about Henny Youngman–we can see that. So up pops this list now, seeming to foretell of the next big event before Armageddon: the death of Don Rickles.”–Bill Franzen

Randy’s Wrap-Up:

Many of you recognized the signs of a failing marriage. But of course the ability to recognize something (like a stolen 27-inch color-TV set) does not mean that a person has any direct connection to the thing (like a crumbling marriage, which would probably be much happier if there were a decent television in the house).

No new question until Monday, but in the interim, a practice question. Which of these four does not belong: “Living on Polka Time,” “Charles Kurault’s Spring,” “Blue Moon Swamp,” “Run for the Dog Board”? See answer below.*

“Cranky?” Peer-Reviewed, Fully Tenured Answer:

They are indicators of divorce.

Psychologist Dr. John Gottman and his colleagues tracked 130 newlyweds for six years. The successful unions had just one thing in common: “We found that only those newlywed men who are accepting of influence from their wives are winding up in happy, stable marriages,” Gottman told Reuters.

(*Practice Answer. The first three are Grammy-winning albums. The fourth is what former Republican Rep. Bill Paxon listed in his retirement speech as one of the things he will never do.)

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