Essential Weekend Quiz: Art, Death, and Awards

The 2021 Super Bowl championship was played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Feb. 7.

The Golden Globe Awards ceremony was replaced in 2008 with a press conference due to writers’ threats of picketing the event as part of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike that year. That was the only year in which the Hollywood Foreign Press association canceled the ceremony. In 2020 Ricky Gervais hosted the show in an empty Beverly Hilton auditorium.

New fact:

Feb. 28, 2021, ceremony was the first to be held bicoastally, with Amy Pohler hosting in Beverly Hills and Tina Fey hosting from New York’s Rainbow Room. The 2021 Golden Globe Awards marks the duo’s fourth time hosting the show, after hosting it regularly between 2013 and 2015.

• Watch Fey & Poehler in the hysterical Sisters (2015).

In July 1995, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon as an online bookstore. It began selling music and videos in 1998. On February 2, 2021, Amazon announced that Bezos would be stepping down as CEO to become Executive Chair of Amazon’s board in Q3 of 2021. Andy Jassy, who is currently CEO of Amazon Web Services, will replace Bezos as CEO of the company. Bezos, who is the company’s biggest shareholder, will still have broad influence over Amazon. 

• Read or listen to Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos in print, audiobook, or Kindle (FREE with Kindle Unlimited).

Pop Star Rihanna tweeted a link to a CNN news report on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, about India blocking internet services at farmers’ protest sites. The singer asked, “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” drawing attention to the massive farmer protests that have gripped India for more than two months.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been protesting new agricultural laws to modernize Indian farming, which they say will leave them more deprived and at corporations’ mercy.

In response, Bollywood entertainers and sports stars used hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether, echoing the government’s stand on the agriculture laws and asking people outside India to refrain from meddling with their country’s affairs. “No one is talking about it because they are not farmers. They are terrorists who are trying to divide India,” wrote Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut.

The year-old Space Force is responsible for operating and defending military satellites and providing and protecting the world’s GPS (Global Positioning System). It is also responsible for the detection of missile launches and tracking space debris.

Bonus Facts

The US Space Command is responsible for planning military operations in outer space, NASA supports the International Space Station, and the NSA monitors the collection and processing of information globally for intelligence.

Amanda Gorman’s reading of the inaugural poem on Jan. 20, 2021, made her a household name. Two of her books, which are only available from September 2021, the picture story “The Change We Sing” and a poetry collection featuring “The Hill We Climb,” already occupied the top two spots on Amazon.com. She signed an endorsement deal with IMG Models, whose other clients include Kate Moss.

Anything Else?

She also appeared at the Feb. 7 Super Bowl event in Tampa, Florida.

R.I.P Dustin Diamond, best known as Screech on the hit ’90s sitcom “Saved by the Bell.” Diamond was hospitalized in January 2021 and died Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, after a three-week fight with carcinoma. He was 44.

Screenshot: Saved by the Bell

Winston Churchill was a keen amateur artist who completed some 500 paintings. Still, the Moroccan landscape “Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” is the only painting that Britain’s World War II leader completed during the 1939-45 conflict. Christie’s auction house said Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, that the painting — once a gift from Churchill to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — is being sold by Angelina Jolie at an estimated price of $2.1 million to $3.4 million.

In 2021 Ben & Jerry’s started marketing Doggie Desserts in two flavors: Pontch’s Mix made with peanut butter and pretzel pieces, and Rosie’s batch is a pumpkin-flavored frozen dessert with mini cookies. Even humans like it.

Kaja Kallas is the newly elected 43-year-old Prime Minister of Estonia. As of Jan. 26, 2021, she is the first woman in this position. Kallas is the leader of the liberal Reform Party in Estonia.