We're an oasis in the political desert this week, so escape the election madness by taking our latest Week to Week News Quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: epidemic proportions; hands-free; also probably the cleanest; and I don't always do news quizzes, but when I do, it's Week to Week News Quiz. Answers are below the quiz.
1. Who was recently named the world's oldest man?
a. Antonio Frangetti, a 109-year-old Italian monk
b. Sasha Oberdorser, a 119-year-old retired Russian Red Army colonel
c. Israel Kristal, a 112-year-old Auschwitz survivor
d. Jonathan Goldsmith, a 108-year-old retired actor
2. This weekend marks the five-year anniversary of what?
a. Passage of the Affordable Care Act
b. Pope Francis' assumption of the papacy
c. The crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
d. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan
3. What did researchers from UCLA claim this week?
a. 55% of California adults are either diabetic or are pre-diabetic
b. Climate change and a rising ocean have already resulted in the loss of 200 square miles of coastline
c. Researchers from UCLA are underpaid
d. The state's highest achievers all have one thing in common: they came from out of state
4. What automobile trend just got a $1 billion investment from General Motors?
a. Driverless cars
b. Flying cars
c. Submarine cars
d. Wood cars
5. According to a new survey, what city is the number-one most expensive place to live (not including housing costs)?
a. Singapore
b. San Francisco
c. New York
d. Milwaukee
6. The leader of what country visited Washington this week for the first time in two decades?
a. Germany
b. The Vatican
c. Canada
d. Japan
7. The Wachowski brothers have directed numerous big-screen hits, including The Matrix. What else have they now both done?
a. They have funded a school for LGBTQ film students at USC
b. They have both come out as transgendered women
c. They have sued the studio that released The Matrix claiming they were cheated out of tens of millions of dollars in profits
d. They have made a 30-minute film supporting Bill Cosby
8. Whose funeral took place on Friday?
a. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
b. Singer David Bowie
c. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan
d. Actor Abe Vigoda
9. What arrives this Sunday?
a. Daylight Saving Time
b. The first under-$40,000 Tesla electric car
c. President Obama's March Madness picks
d. The series finale for Downton Abbey
10. Russian media reported that a former aide to Vladimir Putin had died from a heart attack. How did he really die?
a. Beaten to death in a Washington, D.C., hotel room
b. Jumped off the roof of a Moscow cathedral
c. Licked to death by kittens
d. A heart attack
BONUS. What advertising icon is being retired and replaced?
a. McDonald's Hamburglar
b. Progressive Insurance's Flo
c. Dos Equis beer's Most Interesting Man in the World
d. Hair Club for Men's Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
ANSWERS
1. c.
2. d.
3. a.
4. a.
5. a.
6. c.
7. b.
8. c.
9. a.
10. a (the D.C. medical examiner reports that Mikhail Lesin died from blunt force trauma to the head).
BONUS. c.
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, March 21 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 will include Daniel Borenstein, Carla Marinucci, and Dr. James Taylor.
Explanations of the hints: epidemic proportions: obesity and other factors have fueled a diabetes crisis in the state; hands-free: Google might have been first with the driverless car concept, but now the old-line auto companies are getting in on it; also probably the cleanest: Singapore is known for having some of the strictest behavioral rules in the world; and I don't always do news quizzes, but when I do, it's Week to Week News Quiz: The Most Interesting Man in the World is known for saying "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."