Friday, Jan. 14 News Quiz of the Week: Royals, Gruyere

Sidney Poitier was the first African American and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. He died on Jan. 6, 2022, in Los Angeles. He was 94.

How long did it take for the second African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

It took seven years for James Earl Jones to become the second Black person to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1970. It took some extra three decades for Denzel Washington to win the category in 2001 (for “Training Day”), becoming the second African-American actor to receive the award for Best Actor. The same year saw the first time two African-American performers won Oscars in the same year, the other being Halle Berry, for “Monster’s Ball.” Berry is the first African-American actress to win Best Actress.

Screenshot: Bob Saget on YouTube

Bob Saget, best known as single dad Danny Tanner from “Full House,” was the original host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in the ’90s. His “Full House” partner Dave Coulier hosted America’s Funniest People around the same time. Saget died while on a stand-up tour on Jan. 9, 2022. He was 65.

On Feb. 6, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to reign for seven decades. Festivities marking the anniversary will peek in a four-day weekend beginning on Thursday, June 2, with the annual military parade that marks the queen’s 70th coronation anniversary, also known as her “official birthday.” The queen celebrated her 96th birthday.

Serving in Britain’s Royal Navy from 1978 to 2001, Prince Andrew was promoted to commander in 1999, two years before retiring from active service. Three years later, he was made an Honorary Captain. On his 50th birthday, in 2010, he was promoted to Rear Admiral. Five years later, he was promoted to Vice-Admiral – his final military rank. 

Why did Prince Andrew return his military affiliations?

Prince Andrew has returned his military affiliations and royal patronages to Queen Elizabeth II on Jan. 13, 2022, after his lawyers failed to convince a U.S. judge to dismiss a civil sexual abuse lawsuit. By Jan. 19, the Duke of Cambridge had also deleted all of his social media accounts. Prince Andrew had a close relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of five federal sex trafficking charges in Dec. 2021.

In a speech to mark the first anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, US President Joe Biden declared Donald Trump was “holding a dagger” at the throat of American democracy. Biden said that Trump “rallied the mob to attack,” then did nothing to stop the ensuing lethal violence. Watch the speech.

After hours of negotiations between the US Deputy Secretary of State and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister in Geneva on Jan. 10, 2022, Russia’s lead negotiator insisted that it was “absolutely mandatory” that Ukraine “never, never, ever” becomes a NATO member. His American counterpart argued that the US “will not allow anyone to slam closed NATO’s open-door policy.” As of January 2022, Russia has about 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border.

Flue effect, also known as stack effect or chimney effect, is when heated air rises in a shaft, like the one created by two open doors at the Jan. 10, 2022, Bronx fire. Seventeen people were killed from inhaling smoke pouring through a malfunctioning door and spreading up to the top of the 19-story building.

The Green Planet is a five-part series presented by the veteran naturalist David Attenborough about plants. The series started airing on the UK’s BBC One on Jan. 9, 2022.

About one in 10 people in the US, and 12% of the world population, suffer from kidney stones over their lifetime.

Are Kidney Stones Connected to the Climate Crisis?

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that the number of people suffering from kidney stones will increase between 2.2% and 3.9% by the end of the century because of rising temperatures due to the climate crisis – leading to a significant rise in health costs.

Gruyere cheese has been made in the Gruyere region of Switzerland since the early 12th century.

Can cheese made outside the region be called Gruyere?

In a decision made public on Jan. 6, 2022,  a US District judge ruled against a consortium of Swiss and French cheesemakers from Gruyeres, Switzerland. The judge ruled that shoppers in the United States understand Gruyere to be generic to a type of cheese without restriction on where it was produced. While similar trademark protections have been granted to Roquefort cheese and Cognac brandy, he determined the same case couldn’t be made for Gruyere.

American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes, is considered the “Mother of American modernism.”

Did a tarantula destroy an O’Keefe?

A water-damaged painting, likely caused by a tarantula tunneling through the roof at the artist’s 18th-century  home in Abiquiú, New Mexico, is displayed at the Santa Fe Georgia O’Keeffe Museum after conservators spent 1,250 hours and $145,000 restoring it. The piece, titled “Spring,” is displayed at the museum through Oct. 10, 2022, before traveling to the San Diego Museum of Art in 2023.

Helen Mirren portrays Israeli late Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv’s biopic revolving around the 1973 traumatic Yom Kippur war.

What is “Jewface”?

The film raised some discussion in the UK about the non-Jewish star portraying Israel’s first female PM, going as far as inciting the use of the word ‘Jewface’ –  a backlash to the assignment of a significant Jewish role to someone not from that minority background.

Andrew Garfield won the 2022 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical, or Comedy for his appearance in the Netflix biographical musical “tick, tick…BOOM!”, based on the autobiographical broadway musical created by “Rent” writer, Jonathan Larson. The movie is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s (“Hamilton”) feature directorial debut. “tick, tock…BOOM!” also earned Garfield a second Oscar nomination, following up 2017’s Hacksaw Ridge nod.

Was there a Golden Globe Awards ceremony in 2022?

The Golden Globe Awards were announced in a live-blog event for its 79th edition, Jan. 9, 2022 – without a telecast, nominees, a red carpet, a host, press, or live stream. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association came under fire in 2021 after a Los Angeles Times report revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity. There was not a single Black journalist in the 87-person group.

Kate Middleton, AKA Catherine, The Princess of Wales, was born on Jan. 9, 1982 – making her 41 in 2023.

How did the Princess celebrate?

The Royal Family’s official Twitter and Instagram accounts shared a post on Jan. 9, 2023, to celebrate Kate Middleton’s 41st birthday. “Wishing The Princess of Wales a very Happy Birthday today!” they wrote, along with a birthday cake emoji.

Last year, when she was still the Duchess of Cambridge, she released three new portraits of herself, taken by acclaimed fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, to mark her 40th birthday.