Religion 101

Match The Belief With The Faith

I did fairly well, missing only a couple, getting one particular belief of Hinduism mixed up with Buddhism and another I hadn't a clue in regards to Catholicism.

Not bad for me, an "optimistic agnostic".

(or "heathen" to *some* religious fanatics folks)

Olive Tree Trivia

An olive tree can live over 2000 yrs.

That bit of trivia makes me hungry for some Tapenade.

Not sure that I'd want it every day for two centuries, though.

Thirsty for Videos

I wanted to watch a video hosted on Openload, but instead got this 404 message.

"Videos, videos everywhere, nor any link to click"

With all apologies.

The Oracle of Bacon

The Oracle of Bacon, one of my long-time favorite sites.

The object of the game is simple:  find the shortest route, via movies, from any actor to Kevin Bacon using other actors who were fellow cast mates in a particular movie, creating a chain of mutual movies.  For example, just the other day I saw a movie with the lovely actress Teri Polo in it.  I entered her name (spelling it wrong, but the site will offer up choices of actors if there's any doubt) and found that there were only two movies and one mutual fellow cast mate between Polo and Bacon:

The site uses the database of another of my favorite sites, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)  The results are cached on their server, so any new queries will appear quickly.  There's also a couple of other interesting features of the site, finding out the "Center of the Hollywood Universe" ranking of a particular actor as well as a useful one, finding actors with a certain letter of their last name.  (one of those "tip of the tongue" tools)

For you baseball fans, there's also an Oracle of Baseball which will link baseball players in the same manner as the Bacon Oracle, only using teams and mutual teammates.

Quiz For People Who Know Everything

From the archives:

---

(1) There's one "sport" in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. What is it?

(2) What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

(3) Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

(4) Name the only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball?

(5) What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

(6) In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

(7) Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw." They are all common. Name two of them.

(8) There are fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name half of them?

(9) Where are the lakes that are referred to in the "Los Angeles Lakers?"

(10) There are seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit. Taking a base on balls-a walk-is one way. Name the other six.

(11) It's the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh. What is it?

(12) Name six or more things that you can wear on your feet that begin with the letter "S."

---

Answers in comment section

thaumaturgy

thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\, noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.

---

Can't recall ever seeing this word in print and am postitive I've never heard it used...and doubt I ever will (hear it OR use it)

Then again....

It's certainly thaumaturgy that this blog has lasted this long, for sure.