Monday, March 21, 2022

Number 16's 2022 Oscars Quiz

The 94th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 27, 2022.  The live show will start at 8 p.m. on ABC and will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.  It will also be live-streamed on the ABC app.  This year's Oscars will be hosted by three women: Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall.  As you prepare for the big night, why not challenge yourself and try Number 16's 11th annual Oscars quiz. There are 10 questions. Good luck!


NUMBER 16 OSCARS QUIZ

1.  Penelope Cruz and her husband, Javier Bardem, have both been nominated for Academy Awards this year.  Cruz is nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Parallel Mothers, while Bardem is nominated for his role as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos.  Other married couples have been nominated in the same year, but which couple was the first one to have that distinction.

Cruz and Bardem

A.  Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

B.  Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

C.  Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne

D.  Vivien Leigh and Lawrence Olivier

E.   Rachel Roberts and Rex Harrison



2.  Who was the first person named "Oscar" to win an Oscar?

A.  Oscar Isaac

B.  Oscar Hammerstein II

C.  Oscar Nunez

D.  Oscar Peterson

E.  Oscar de la Renta 



3.  Who won back-to back Best Actor Oscars for Captain Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938)

A.  Spencer Tracy

B.  Bing Crosby

C.  Fred Astaire

D.  Clark Gable

E.   Frederic March



4.  What was the first colour film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture?

A.  The Wizard of Oz

B.  Stagecoach

C.  It Happened One Night

D.  Gone with the Wind

E.  A Star is Born



5.  Who was the first actor to present himself/herself with an Oscar?

A.  Katharine Hepburn

B.  Norma Shearer

C.  Cary Grant

D.  Bette Davis

E.  William Holden



6,  Which foreign language film received the largest total of Oscar nominations and wins?

A.  Roma  

B.  Life is Beautiful 

C.  Fanny and Alexander 

D. Parasite 

E.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 



7.  What is the only film to win Best Picture winner and receive only one one nomination?

A.  Argo (2012)

B.  Cavalcade (1932/1933)

C.  Grand Hotel (1931/1932)

D.  Green Book (2018)

E.  The Broadway Melody (1928/1929)



8.  How many times was Mickey Rooney nominated for an Academy Award?


Mickey Rooney

A.  4 tunes

B.  2 times

C.  3 times

D.  Once

E.  Never



9.  Who has received the most Academy Award nominations?

A.  Katharine  Hepburn

B.  Meryl Streep

C.  Tom Hanks

D.  Walt Disney

E.   Martin Scorsese



10.  Who was the tallest actor to ever win an Academy Award?

A.  John Wayne

B.  Tim Robbins  

C.  Ben Affleck

D.  Sacha Baron Cohen

E,  Donald Sutherland




ANSWERS

1.  C   Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne

Lunt and Fontanne

Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne made Academy Award history when they were both nominated for Oscars in 1932.  They appeared together in The Guardsman.

In 1969, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were nominated for Best Actor for their work in the film Rachel, Rachel.  Woodward was nominated for Best Actress, while Newman was nominated as a producer for Best Picture.  Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were nominated in 1967 for their starring roles in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?.  Taylor won the Oscar for Best Actress but Burton did not win for Best Actor.  In 1940, Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.  Olivier was nominated for his performance as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.  The pair divorced in 1960.  Rachel Roberts and Rex Harrison were both nominated for Academy Awards in 1964,  Roberts was nominated for This Sporting Life and Harrison was nominated for Cleopatra.


2.  B   Oscar Hammerstein II 

Hammerstein


In 1942, Oscar Hammerstein shared a Best Music, Original Song Oscar with Jerome Kern for the song, "The Last Time I Saw Paris." from the 1941 movie Lady Be GoodIn 1946, he won another Best Music, Original Song Oscar, along with Richard Rodgers, for the song "It Might as Well Be Spring from the 1945 film State Fair.


3.  A   Spencer Tracey 

Tracy with Oscar for Boys Town


Spencer Tracy won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars for his performances in Captain Courageous and Boys Town. Consecutive Oscar winners are rare.  Tom Hanks won Best Actor for Philadelphia in 1994 and Forrest Gump in 1995.  Louise Rainer won Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld in 1937 and The Good Earth in 1938.


4.  D  Gone with the Wind


In 1940, Gone with the Wind became the first colour film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. 


5.  B  Norma Shearer

            


In 1933, Canadian-born Norma Shearer (1902-1982) was the presenter for the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards.  She was nominated  for two Oscars in the Best Actress category that year.  She won for her performance in The Divorcee and had to announce, somewhat awkwardly, that she had won the award.  Since then, no nominated actor har presented an Oscar for his or her own category.


6.  E  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 Hong Kong film.  The Chinese swordplay film, garnered 10 nominations and 4 wins in 2001.  Roma, a 2018 Mexican drama, collected 10 nominations and 3 wins.  Life is Beautiful, a 1997 Italian comedy-drama. directed by Roberto Benigni, received 7 nominations and had 3 wins.  In 2020, Parasite received 6 nominations and celebrated 4 wins, including Best Picture.  The South Korean film became he first foreign language film to win Best Picture.  Fanny and Alexander, a 1982 Swedish film, earned 6 nominations and 3 wins.



7.  C  Grand Hotel

Greta Garbo and John Barrymore

Grand Hotel is the only film to win Best Picture and receive only one one nomination.  The 1932 MGM drama stars Greta Garbo and John Barrymore.


8,  A.  4 times

Rooney in 1983

Mickey Rooney received four competitive Oscar nominations during his lifetime.  He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for Babes in Arms in 1940, Best Actor for The Human Comedy in 1944, Best Supporting Actor in The Bold and the Brave in 1957 and  Best Supporting Actor for The Back Stallion in 1980.  

Rooney received two special Oscars.  He received a Juvenile Academy Award in 1939 and an Honorary Academy Award in 1983.



9,  D  Walt Disney


Disney in 1946

Walt Disney, who died in 1966, holds the record for the most Academy Awards in history, with 26 Oscars.  He won 22 competitive Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations.

Disney won four honorary Academy Awards.  The first was in 1932 for the creation of Mickey Mouse. His last honorary Oscar was presented posthumously.  It was the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, chosen by the Academy's Board of Governors and given  to "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production."


10.  B  Tm Robbins



Tim Robbins was the tallest actor to ever win an Academy Award.  Robbins is 6 ft, 5 inches (1.96 metres) tall.  In 2004, he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Mystic River, a 2003 drama in which he starred with Sean Penn, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Bacon.


- Joanne

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Good news about all-year Daylight Saving Time

 

After two years of COVID and a heartbreaking war in Ukraine, I really needed a bit of good news, and I received it two days ago.  It isn't earthshattering and it seems very trivial compared to the pandemic and the plight of the Ukrainian people.  Still, it is something positive as far as I'm concerned.  In fact, it's literally a ray of sunshine.

For a long while, I have been an advocate of year-round daylight saving time.  Well, on Tuesday, March 14, 2022, the United States Senate unanimously passed a bill, called the Sunshine Protection Act, that would establish permanent daylight saving time across the U.S.  The bill has one more hurdle before it becomes law, though.  It has to be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives before President Joe Biden can put his signature on it.   House Speaker, Nancey Pelosi has not yet said whether such a vote will occur.  Still, Tuesday's vote was a remarkable step forward.  When was the last time Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation?  Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a leading proponent of of the daylight saving bill was elated about the results of the vote.

The vote was proof of the strong support that year-long Daylight Saving Time has in the United States.  The momentum is on the side of permanent DST.  That  is welcome news for Canadians who are tired of switching clocks twice a year and who long for an extra out of sunshine.  It has been well documented that the time change is the cause of car accidents and traffic facilities.  More car crashes occur on the days following the change to Daylight Saving Time that at other times.  The loss of an hour's sleep affects people.  Also, the lack of sunlight causes moodiness and depression, known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

In 2019, province of British Columbia passed legislation to switch to Daylight Saving Time permanently.  However, B.C. did not set a date because it wishes to align itself with Washington, Oregon and California.  All three West Coast states have passed their own bills to remain on permanent DST.  In response to the U.S. Senate's passing of the daylight saving legislation, B.C. Premier John Horgan said that his province is now "well positioned to do away with the time changes once and for all and move to permanent DST."

In Ontario, where I live, we have to align ourselves with Quebec and the state of New York.  It's a matter of scheduling travel times, television programming and sporting events.   However, I think the writing is on the wall.  It's the right time for permanent Daylight Saving Time.  By the way, on Tuesday, Carlos Paz, a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, said, "The bill just passed this afternoon and we are reviewing it closely."  Over to you, Speaker Pelosi, and your colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Please do the right thing and give us some sunshine during these dark times.  What are you waiting for?

- Joanne

Sunday, March 6, 2022

My novel on sale

 To readers of Number 16:

As you know, I have written a novel called Children of Dieppe. It's available as an ebook on a site called Smashwords.com.  Smashwords is having an ebook week sale until Saturday, March 12, 2022.  The sale began today and my book will be available for only $1.99 US until next Saturday (Regular price is $3.99 US).   

CHILDREN OF DIEPPE is the story of Denise Nair, whose father died during the tragic raid on Dieppe in 1942. The repercussions of that raid are life-changing for Denise's family, friends and acquaintances, especially the troubled Rosemary Tillis and the mysterious Gordon Sloane. This sweeping novel spans a time period from World War II until the 21st century.  It is about family, friendship, the aftermath of war and the effects of mental illness.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of my novel in ebook form, click on the link below.


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1060816


I thank you for your support.   

- Joanne


Friday, March 4, 2022

Baseball fans: Check out HotDog.com

 


Regular readers of Number 16 are well aware that I am an avid baseball fan and a supporter of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Today it is my pleasure to highlight a valuable tool for fans of the game. It's called HotDog.com 

HotDog.com provides a steaming guide for watching Major League Baseball online.  It shows baseball fans how they can watch MLB online without cable.  The guide includes:

* No contract and live-streaming options

* On-demand and DVR options.

* Price comparisons and device compatibility.


You can learn more about HotDog.com's streaming guide by clicking the link below.  Why not check it out?

https://hotdog.com/tv/sport/baseball/

You will note that DIRECTV STREAM provides RSS access to every MLB team except my Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies.


- Joanne