While you wait for the playoff games, spend some quality time on your couch taking our latest Week to Week news quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: Maybe it will become a tourist attraction in 2,200 years; more good news for Walmart; it's cheaper than a monetary award; and smoke 'em if you've got 'em. Answers are below the quiz.
1. Amazon.com is in a tax dispute again. Where?
a. California
b. Canada
c. European Union
d. Wisconsin
2. What is Saudi Arabia's big plan to counter ISIS militants?
a. It has doubled military spending and plans to increase its armed forces by 200,000 troops
b. It is building a 600-mile wall to keep militants from getting to Mecca and Medina
c. It is allowing its regional arch rival, Iran, to position warplanes on its soil for the first time
d. It is buying 70 tactical nuclear weapons from the United States
3. What company is closing all of its Canadian stores and laying off its 17,600 workers there?
a. Target
b. McDonald's
c. In-N-Out Burger
d. Apple Stores
4. Two people died in a counter-terrorism raid in what country on Thursday?
a. Belgium
b. France
c. Turkey
d. Sweden
5. What did Pope Francis say this week regarding the Charlie Hebdo situation?
a. "Ego Charlie"
b. Free speech is important, but you shouldn't mock people's religions
c. God will deal with the terrorists in heaven
d. Charlie Hebdo is even meaner to him
6. What happened to a Malian Muslim immigrant who saved a group of shoppers at a Paris kosher grocery when it was attacked by terrorists?
a. He has fled the country after being assailed by anti-Muslim hooligans
b. He is engaged to the daughter of one of the women he saved
c. He died on Monday from injuries sustained in the attack
d. He was given French citizenship
7. This week marked the beginning of loosened trade and travel rules between the United States and what country?
a. North Korea
b. Cuba
c. France
d. Iran
8. Charlie Hebdo usually prints about 60,000 copies. How many copies did it print of its first post-attack issue?
a. 60,000
b. 600,000
c. 3 million
d. 5 million
9. In advance of the NFL playoff game between Seattle and Green Bay, what did a Seattle-area city do to show its support?
a. Banned possession and consumption of cheese inside city hall
b. Banned the sale or transportation of foam cheesehead hats
c. Passed a law expelling anyone from the town who wasn't a Seahawks fan
d. Decided to drink overpriced hipster local beer instead of anything made in Wisconsin
10. What did a newspaper do after more than 40 world leaders joined a Paris march in response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre?
a. The Paris International Chronicle ran a front-page article decrying all of the foreign leaders in the streets
b. An ultra-Orthodox Israeli newspaper Photoshopped all of the women out of the photo of the world leaders
c. The New York Times referred to the leaders as French President Francois Hollande's "posse"
d. Le Figaro's editors explained their refusal to run any photos from the march because "protests are a left-wing tool, not a national expression"
BONUS. This week we learned about a special assignment for U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA). What is it?
a. He has been chosen as the second-ranking Republican in the new GOP Senate majority
b. He will head up GOP opposition research to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton before the 2016 presidential race
c. He is in charge of the "Candy Desk," distributing free candy to senators
d. He was named the new U.S. ambassador to the Islamic State
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, February 17 in downtown San Francisco for our next live Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include Debra J. Saunders, Carla Marinucci, and Bill Whalen.
ANSWERS:
1) c.
2) b.
3) a.
4) a.
5) b.
6) d.
7) b.
8) d (and they quickly sold out).
9) a.
10) b.
BONUS) c.
Explanations of the hints: Maybe it will become a tourist attraction in 2,200 years: the Great Wall of China also originally served as a security measure before it served as a backdrop for photos; more good news for Walmart: some observers are predicting an expansion in Canada by Walmart now that Target's closing up shop there; it's cheaper than a monetary award: there was also talk about additional honors to the heroic young man, but so far citizenship will have to do; and smoke 'em if you've got 'em: Americans will now be able to get Cuban cigars legally.