News Quiz

No. 78: “Gag Rule”

No. 78: “Gag Rule”

By Randy Cohen

“You get used to it, but in the first few minutes it was a little nauseating even for me,” said Ron Gagliardo. Who is he, and what made him sick?

by noon p.m. ET Wednesday to e-mail your answer (newsquiz@slate.com).

Responses to Monday’s question (No. 77)–“Thoughtless in Xian”:

“In our culture we don’t think about it. Or we try not to,” President Clinton told his Chinese hosts. Think about what?

“Their culture.”–Patty Marx

“The possibility that Roy Rogers might die.”–Daniel Radosh

“Susan Lucci’s tragic failure to win a Daytime Emmy.”–Larry Amaros

“Who the hell Gen. Tso was and what kind of ungodly pagan relationship he had with his ‘chicken.’ “–Fred Graver

“Chlamydia. House pet poinsettia consumption. Where our toys come from. Freezer burn. The year 3000 computer bug. Whatever happened to Chazz Palminteri.”–Chris Kelly

“Our friendships with brutal, oppressive governments.”–Beth Sherman

“I can’t answer that. In our culture we don’t even think of it, much less speak of it.”–Dennis Levandoski

Click for more responses.

Randy’s Wrap-Up

There is that lovely moment in Manhattan when Woody Allen lists the things that make life worth living–Groucho Marx, Swedish movies, Louis Armstrong’s recording of “Potatohead Blues.” President Clinton seems to have a sort of parallel list of things that don’t bear thinking about–Lani Guinier, gays in the military, the bloated Pentagon budget, the widening chasm between rich and poor, the persistent carnage in the Balkans. Every adult has reasons to be grateful for the failures of memory, but not everyone assumes his personal list is a cultural constant. Isn’t that the difference between guilt and philosophy?

Answer, Where Is Thy Sting?

Death.

Viewing the excavation of the terra cotta warriors at Xian moved the president to contemplate his own mortality. For about two minutes.

Death Extra–Randy’s Bereave It or Not

When she died yesterday at the age of between 92 and 95, Kay Thompson, author of the arch and delightful Eloise books, was living–voluntarily–with Liza Minelli.

Obituaries of Roy Rogers, dead yesterday at 86, note that when his horse Trigger (“the best thing that ever happened to me”) died in 1965, Rogers declined a request to display the horse at the Smithsonian Institution. Trigger is currently on view at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, Calif.

Another dead horse available for viewing–Misty, of the beloved children’s classic Misty of Chincoteague.

Information was unavailable about Thompson’s final resting place.

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