Take a break from campaigning for the speaker's chair and take our latest Week to Week news quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: no time like the present; hoppla!; Iran says it was due to incompetence; and to be fair, they're going to behead him first. Answers are below the quiz.
1. According to John Boehner, when did he decide to resign as speaker of the House, which he announced on Friday?
a. Friday morning after he woke up
b. In the middle of last year's government shutdown battle
c. After watching last week's GOP presidential debate
d. After getting into a shouting match with Senator Ted Cruz at the Reagan Presidential Library
2. In a speech to the United Nations, who urged limiting the power of global elites and creating a universal appreciation of people?
a. Ralph Nader
b. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
c. Actress Angelina Jolie
d. Pope Francis
3. What did Volkswagen admit?
a. "Volkswagen" is really the German word for "can't afford BMW"
b. Its luxury line of cars has failed all but two crash safety tests since 2009
c. It rigged 482,000 diesel cars to trick U.S. emissions tests
d. It manipulated international currency exchange rates to earn billions in unreported revenue
4. Who did Dr. Ben Carson say should not be president?
a. Dr. Ben Carson
b. A Muslim
c. Anybody "who is too ill-informed to figure out how to cast their own vote in any of the past 16 elections"
d. A Roman Catholic
5. Besides Pope Francis, what world leader is President Obama meeting this week?
a. British Prime Minister David Cameron
b. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
c. Russian President Vladimir Putin
d. Chinese President Xi JinPing
6. What did the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals say about his company's raising the price of a drug 5,000%?
a. "At this price it's a reasonable profit. Not excessive at all"
b. He said the press has the number wrong; it actually only increased 5%
c. "If prayer were as effective as this drug, you'd have to pay $750 to recite the Lord's Prayer, too"
d. "We are confident that this new pricing structure will drive our new corporate synergies that will be unleashed by an aggressive forward-only posture in emerging markets."
7. Who claimed to have recovered thousands of deleted private emails from Hillary Clinton's email server?
a. Conservative activist James O'Keefe
b. Russian hacktivists
c. The CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals
d. The FBI
8. Where were more than 700 people killed in a stampede during a religious rite?
a. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
b. The Ganges River, India
c. The Shinto Kamigamo Shrine, near Kyoto, Japan
d. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
9. Who is Ali Mohammed al-Nimr?
a. Iraq's first-ever ambassador to the Vatican
b. Pakistan's new prime minister
c. A pro-democracy activist in Saudi Arabia who has been sentenced to be crucified
d. The leading candidate to replace John Boehner as speaker of the House
10. Former Major League Baseball player and manager Yogi Berra died this week. Which one of the following quotes is not attributed to him?
a. "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
b. "Wherever you go, there you are."
c. "I knew the record would stand until it was broken."
d. "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."
BONUS. What happened after Connecticut man Derek Benson was arrested for burglary?
a. He was released after convincing police officers that he was the governor's son
b. He escaped from the county jail after convincing a guard that he would marry her if she helped him flee
c. Someone recognized the shirt he wore in his mugshot as one that he had stolen from another home
d. Police discovered that his house contained more than 15,000 beer-themed t-shirts that he had stolen from local homes and taverns over the previous decade
ANSWERS
1. a.
2. d.
3. c.
4. b.
5. d.
6. a.
7. d.
8. d.
9. c.
10. b (that's actually a quote from the film Buckaroo Banzai).
BONUS. c.
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, October 6 in downtown San Francisco for our next live (and lively) Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include Carson Bruno, Bruce Cain, and Bill Whalen.
Explanations of the hints: no time like the present: Boehner made the decision the same day he announced it; hoppla!: that's German for "oops"; Iran says it was due to incompetence: Iran, which lost 100 people in the stampede, blamed Saudi authorities' incompetence for the tragedy; and to be fair, they're going to behead him first: in modern Saudi Arabia, the man will first be beheaded and then have his body attached to a cross and publicly displayed.