WEDNESDAY QUIZ 99
Do-Gooders
This quiz was originally scheduled to run a couple weeks ago, just before Easter, but I couldn't get my act together. The idea is that Christmas is often considered a time for giving, as God gave his Son to us. But really, at Christmas, the Son just came to earth - it was on Good Friday that we celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for our sins, and on Easter when we celebrate his resurrection: the triumph of God over sin and even Death itself. So Easter is when Jesus really gave himself, and when we should be thinking of giving - not Christmas.
In that spirit, albeit a bit belatedly, here is a quiz about people giving, doing good, and making a difference. Many are celebrities because I researched this quiz while originally planning a quiz on "celebrity crime" - but I thought this might be cheerier.
Have fun.
1. While its nation-wide U.S. premiere is set for May 19th, this eagerly-awaited movie will actually debut 3 days earlier at various benefit showings, the proceeds going to local children's charities and hospitals. Name the film.
2. In December, 1993, Dominican-born carpet magnate Fernando Mateo established a program in New York City in which what items could be exchanged for Toys "R" Us gift certificates?
3. Recently fulfilling a longtime dream, this movie star, who appeared in Heat and Kiss the Girls spent some time as a Peace Corps volunteer, living without electricity or running water in an Amazon jungle village by the banks of a river infested with piranhas. Name her.
4. This baseball slugger, who smacked a record 70 home runs last year, has established a foundation to aid abused and neglected children. He also refuses to sign autographs if people are charged, unless the money goes to charity. Name him.
5. This country singer recently attended spring training with the San Diego Padres to raise money and publicity for his Touch 'Em All Foundation, a charity for under-privileged children. Name him.
6. This rock band raised $2.8 million for local charities over a 17-date tour in 1998. Because 100% of the ticket sales went to the non-profits, the band incurred a financial loss in order to cover the tour's expenses. Name the group.
7. What was the name of the 1979 concerts, featuring James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash (of CSN and sometimes Y), and others, which protested nuclear arms?
8. What foundation was created by a father of Silicon Valley, who said back in 1948, "Management has a responsibility to its employees, to its customers, and to the community at large"? The foundation is one of the three biggest in the U.S., spooning out huge sums in grants to groups concerned with conservation, reducing population growth, spreading scientific knowledge, and helping children.
9. This opera singer, who collaborated with U2 on a song about the war in Sarajevo, plans to donate the proceeds from a July concert to help children in Kosovo. Name him.
10. Twice a year Jos. A. Bank accepts donations from customers of these items - which are given to the homeless to help them ease back into the workplace- in exchange for big discounts off new ones. What are these trade-ins?
11. Gimme 5 for Boys and Girls Club parties, in which Minneapolis area kids are treated to bottomless cereal bowls, toys, backpacks, T-shirts, and video games, are co-sponsored by what cereal maker and what video games producer?
12. Bissell, an international manufacturer of cleaning supplies, is organizing three thousand volunteers around the world this weekend to clean up 156 of these homes away from home for sick children and their families.
13. Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson has established an initiative to raise awareness of what disease, which afflicts fewer African-American women than white women, but kills them at a higher rate?
14. Jay Leno and his wife Mavis are running a campaign to protest and call attention to gender apartheid inflicted on Muslim women by the Taliban militia in what country?
15. This man, who is probably the world's richest and possibly the world's most hated, has recently begun giving away portions of his astronomical wealth. Some grumble this is just a publicity stunt, others suggest that perhaps the grinch does have a heart after all. Nonetheless, he's given bucketfuls of money to numerous causes, including an effort to find a vaccine for four diseases to together annually kill 2.5 million children around the world. Name him.
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