Quiz
TEST YOUR RQ (Retroterm Quotient)
© Ralph Keyes 2009
Circle the number of the answer that seems most correct.
1. Cha-ching originally was
a) Mandarin for one million yuan
b) a postwar Havana dance revue that featured showgirls wearing dollar bills
c) a sound effect in a 1930s radio ad for National Cash Register
d) an expression repeated continuously in a 1992 TV ad for Rally’s hamburgers
2. A 97 or 98-pound weakling is
a) a boxer fighting above his weight class
b) the scrawny figure in ads for Charles Atlas bodybuilding
c) an anorexic model
d) an emaciated Great Dane
3. Rope-a-dope alludes to
a) someone struggling to get out of a rope hammock
b) hanging dimwitted criminals
c) a rodeo rider roping a confused calf
d) the tactic Muhammad Ali used to defeat George Foreman in 1974
4. The word scuttlebutt originally referred to
a) the water barrel where sailors gathered on ships
b) a chimpanzee who scoots about on its behind while squawking loudly
c) a bucket once used to carry coal
d) the “scut work” done by coal miners who had to work while seated
5. Nurse Ratched was
a) a character in a 1969 TV ad for GM’s Mister Goodwrench
b) a Medal of Honor-winning caregiver during the Battle of the Bulge
c) a stern psychiatric nurse in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
d) the star of a 1973 soft-porn movie called Hospital Hotties
6. A double whammy originally was a
a) drink popular in the 1950s that combined vodka and gin
b) one-two punch in boxing matches that resulted in a knockout
c) two-patty hamburger with hot sauce sold by Wendy’s in the late 1980s
d) lethal curse inflicted by Evil Eye Fleegle in the comic strip L’il Abner
7. The term gangbusters originally referred to
a) a 1930s radio show
b) an elite police unit that broke up Chicago streets gangs in the 1980s
c) a 1970s pro wrestling tag team from the South Bronx
d) a 1984 movie starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd
8. Ping-pong diplomacy refers to
a) a spirited US-USSR ping pong contest in the 1976 Olympics
b) a type of elaborate tact displayed by married couples in counseling
c) a 1971 tour of China by American ping pong players
d) a diplomat bouncing back and forth between two warring countries
9. A Shermanesque statement is
a) a brusque order issued by the commander of a Sherman tank
b) a politician’s unequivocal statement that he or she is not running for office
c) a unique type of curse originated by residents of Sherman, Texas
d) a mock-eloquent expression associated with 1930s actor Halbert Sherman
10. Kumbaya refers to a
a) song sung by 1960s activists
b) famous organic restaurant in Berkeley
c) spice unique to Cape Verde
d) Pentecostal prayer characterized by spontaneous confessions of sin
11. Mrs. Robinson was
a) a strict but sexy schoolteacher in Up the Down Staircase
b) the housewife played by Deborah Kerr who beds a teenage boy in Tea and Sympathy
c) a seductive older woman played by Anne Bancroft in The Graduate
d) the unfaithful wife of Jack Robinson in an old English yarn
12. Zipless is
a) Velcro’s original name
b) a popular Ska band from Trinidad
c) a character in Walt Disney’s movie Song of the South
d) the spontaneous sex depicted in Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying
13. Alphonse and Gaston were
a) two comic strip characters who elaborately deferred to each other
b) a team of French trapeze artists who performed in the late nineteenth century
c) two prominent hockey players on the Quebec Nordiques in the early 1990s
d) the nicknames of two leaders of New York’s 1969 Stonewall demonstrations
14. We say that conforming people are in lockstep because
a) American prisoners were once made to march in close proximity, or “lockstep”
b) goose-stepping Nazi soldiers were said to be in lockstep
c) “Lockstep” was a 1920s dance craze involving large groups of stiff-legged dancers
d) canal locks were constructed by workers tamping down earth in unison
15. Drink the Kool-Aid alludes to slavish loyalty because
a) the makers of this drink have strict standards of employee conduct
b) online rumors allege that those who drink Kool-Aid become unusually compliant
c) followers of the Rev. Jim Jones committed mass suicide by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink
d) fans of the rapper Kool-Ade are notorious for doing whatever he asks them to do
16. The weight of a formidable gorilla is most often thought to be
a) 300 pounds
b) 800 pounds
c) 1000 pounds
d) 500 pounds
17. Mata Hari refers to
a) a form of suicide unique to residents of the Andalusia region of Spain
b) the stage name of an Argentinian actress popular in the 1940s
c) the nickname of a Japanese soccer star who played for Real Madrid in the 1980s
d) an exotic dancer executed by the French for spying in World War I
18. Cakewalk is
a) a game once played by children at birthday parties
b) a dance popular in the early twentieth century
c) a carnival game of chance in which players vied to win a cake
d) the name of an undemanding hiking trail outside Boulder, Colorado
19. We say that some seek the limelight because
a) early fluorescent bulbs gave off a greenish hue
b) old-time stage lighting employed intensely heated lime
c) Victorian-era actors vied to appear at London’s renowned Limelight Theater
d) the spotlight put on stars of Depression-era stage revues employed a pale green filter
20. Those who take the fifth
a) run past home plate in a baseball game
b) steal a bottle of whiskey
c) invoke their constitutional right to not incriminate themselves
d) ride the Fifth Avenue bus in New York City
Answers: 1-d, 2-b, 3-d, 4-a, 5-c, 6-d, 7-a, 8-c, 9-b, 10-a, 11-c, 12-d, 13-a, 14-a, 15-c, 16-b, 17-d, 18-b, 19-b, 20-c.
17-20 fluent retrotalker; in the catbird seat
13-16 solid command of retroterms; in the loop
9-12 a bit hazy on the concept; penny’s dropping
5-8 consider a retro-refresher; back to the salt mines
1-4 RSL (retrotalk as second language); You talkin’ to me?