Misbehavior by politicians is only one of the problems you'll see in our latest Week to Week news quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: Brian Williams has schadenfreude; luckily the doctor was right there; he subsequently postponed Silicon Valley fundraisers; and time to 'fess up. Answers are below the quiz.
1. In a study by Vocativ of all Academy Awards acceptance speeches ever, who was thanked the most?
a. Steven Spielberg
b. God
c. "My personal trainer"
d. Amy Pascal
2. What excuse did a Canadian member of parliament give for leaving the legislative chamber in a hurry?
a. He couldn't sit and listen to "this Marxist folderol" any longer
b. He was fleeing Canada to go to the Middle East and join ISIS
c. He needed to leave so there wasn't a quorum for a taxation vote he wanted to delay
d. He couldn't sit for long periods of time because his underwear was too tight
3. What did Mother Jones magazine accuse Fox News host Bill O'Reilly of doing?
a. Fleeing the scene of a DUI accident
b. Discussing classified government secrets during his January 23 program
c. Telling falsehoods about his past war reporting
d. Breaking campaign finance laws
4. What were 180 people exposed to in Los Angeles?
a. A "superbug" deadly strain of bacteria at a hospital
b. Kanye West's speech about "True Integrity"
c. Measles during a birthday celebration at Chuck E. Cheese
d. Contaminated blood at a blood bank
5. Who said this week, "If we wanted to be Indians, we would have stayed in India"?
a. Conservative activist Dinesh D'souza
b. Comedian Aziz Ansari
c. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
d. CNN host Fareed Zakaria
6. Who deflected questions about his foreign policy views by saying "I am my own man"?
a. Jeb Bush
b. Joe Biden
c. John Boehner
d. Pope Francis
7. What happened to a California man who claimed police had beaten him?
a. He was never heard from again after he signed an assault complaint against the Lucerne, California, police department
b. He was videotaped punching himself in the face, creating injuries he then blamed on the detectives
c. He died from his injuries, prompting his family to file a $4 million suit against the city and state
d. His wife revealed that he had been having an affair with the wife of one of the detectives accused of beating him
8. What did Carnegie Mellon University blame for mistakenly informing 800 people that they had been accepted to its prestigious computer science program when they had really been rejected?
a. Government interference in curriculum and student acceptance standards
b. The winter storm that has blanketed the East Coast
c. A computer glitch
d. A prank pulled by MIT faculty
9. How is Walmart going to spend $1 billion?
a. Giving almost 40% of its workers small raises
b. Painting giant portraits of its founder on the back walls of all of its stores
c. Giving away free copies of U2's album Songs of Innocence
d. Buying up stock of its competitor Target
10. Who tweeted about President Obama, "YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO...Watch this vulgar man show his stuff, while America cowers in embarrassment"?
a. House Speaker John Boehner
b. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh
c. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
d. Conservative activist Dinesh D'souza
BONUS. Why were parents at a San Francisco Catholic elementary school upset?
a. The city allowed two marijuana dispensaries to open up within a couple blocks of their school
b. The school handed out pamphlets to the students questioning them about acts of killing, masturbation, and adultery
c. A nearby evangelical school disrupts the school day with its loud singing contests
d. They were fined by the Catholic bishops' conference for refusing to acknowledge new catechism rules issued by the Vatican
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, March 2 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 Carson Bruno, Melissa Griffin Caen, and Josh Richman.
ANSWERS:
1) a.
2) d.
3) c.
4) a.
5) c (according to San Francisco Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci, "He had planned three high-dollar fundraisers Thursday in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, including an Indian-themed event" but those events were postponed after his comments drew criticism).
6) a.
7) b.
8) c.
9) a.
10) d.
BONUS) b.
Explanations of the hints: Brian Williams has schadenfreude: the NBC News anchor has had his own famous problems with misstatements about war zone reporting, as Bill O'Reilly has noted; luckily the doctor was right there: they got infected with the superbug at a hospital, which is both convenient and tragic; he subsequently postponed Silicon Valley fundraisers: there are a lot of Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley, so it's not the best time for him to hit that area to raise money; and time to 'fess up: the disputed pamphlet was intended to prepare the students for confession, but it was criticized by parents who thought it was inappropriate for children.