The drought is very much on our minds and its evidence is everywhere. The absence of water, however, is not prevalent in our literature, music, history, art. So let’s celebrate rain and water with a quiz. Those two words will appear as will places where water is — in harbors, rivers, et al. As usual, 5 points when you’re right, and you should do rather well on this quiz. Enjoy.
1. An easy one to begin: In what song do we hear the lines, “Since my man and I ain’t together keeps raining all the time”?
2. In what musical does “the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain”?
3. In which of Shakespeare’s plays is the line referring to mercy, “It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.”?
4. Time for a harder one: In what poem do we read the lines, “Water, water, everywhere, and all the boards did shrink.”?
5. Name either the composer of or the choreographer for the film, “Singin’ in the Rain.”
6. Where do we find, “By the waters of Babylon there we sat and wept”?
7. Name the film in which Dustin Hoffman played the autistic brother and Tom Cruise also starred.
8. Fallingwater is the name of a beautiful, unique house in Mill Run, Pa. Who was the architect? (Easy quiz, isn’t it?)
9. “Into each life some rain must fall” is among the memorable lines written by this great poet, who was honored by Westminster Abbey as well as by his fellow Americans. Name him.
10. In one of his best-loved poems he wrote, “From the waterfall he named her, Minnehaha, Laughing Water.” Name the poet. Would it help if I included part of another line: “By the shores of Gitche Gumee”?
11. A song by Johnny Burke, written in 1936, it’s also the name of a movie. Fill in the blanks: “Every time it rains it rains (blank, blank, blank).”
12. When Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down. What did he break?
13. In school we learned about the historic battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor. On what body of water did it take place?
14. Paul Simon wrote “Like a bridge (blank, blank, blank) I will lay me down.” Fill in the blanks.
15. A wonderful song, supposedly written for Ella Fitzgerald but also recorded by many greats, including Frank Sinatra and recently by Justin Timberlake, it says, “Now you say you’re lonely.” What does the singer suggest that poor lonely soul should do?
16. Where does one find the lines, “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”?
17. I found my wonderful cat PeeDee at our shelter. But perhaps I could have stood outside in a heavy rainstorm because the old saying describes that as “raining (blank, blank, blank).”
18. Our national anthem was inspired by a battle that took place in Baltimore Harbor. Name the fort involved.
19. Hoosier Ross Lockridge Jr. wrote a novel that eventually became a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. Name the book/film.
20. Please know this. It has appeared in a few other quizzes. “Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night,” which was paraphrased and inscribed in the New York City General Post Office was originally written by whom?
Bonus: When one drives from Washington, D.C., to Arlington National Cemetery, the bridge crosses what river?
Answers: 1. “Stormy Weather”; 2. “My Fair Lady”; 3. “The Merchant of Venice”; 4. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”; 5. Arthur Freed (composer) or Gene Kelly (choreographer and dancer); 6. In the Bible, Psalm 137; 7. “Rain Man”; 8. Frank Lloyd Wright; 9. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 10. Longfellow, again; 11. “Pennies from Heaven”; 12. His crown; 13. Chesapeake Bay; 14. “over troubled water”; 15. “Cry Me a River”; 16. the Bible, Song of Solomon; 17. “cats and dogs”; 18. Fort McHenry; 19. “Raintree County”; 20. Herodotus; Bonus: the Potomac River.
Surely a score of 70, yes?
