In honor of tomorrow’s joint birthday of Mary Baker Eddy (born July 16, 1821) and Ginger Rogers (born 110 years later on July 16, 1911) — we’ve got a special Tuesday quiz with loads of positive thinking.
We’ve got 10 questions — 5 on Mary and 5 on Ginger. See how you do on this quiz — and, in their honor, approach life this week with your mind and heart focused on the best life can be.
We intend today’s quiz to be a fun learning experience and intend no disrespect to Mrs. Eddy, an important religious innovator and founder of a major denomination within Christianity. For more about the serious side of her work, here’s a Frequently-Asked-Questions Web page sponsored by her denomination — but don’t peek until you’ve tried our quiz today.
1.) What’s the name of the branch of Christianity that she founded in 1879?
A. Church of Christ, Scientist
B. Scientology
C. Science and Health
2.) Where is the “Mother Church”?
A. Jerusalem
B. New Orleans
C. Boston
3.) What is the church’s most famous ongoing publication?
A. U.S. News and World Report
B. Scientific American
C. Christian Science Monitor
4.) What’s the church’s membership?
A. More than 5 million
B. About 1 million
C. No one knows for sure
5.) Which of the following have been among the adherents of Mrs. Eddy’s church:
A. Tom Cruise and Madonna
B. Bill Gates and Paul McCartney
C. Ginger Rogers and Doris Day
6.) One of the great Gerswhin songs about diversity — sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in “Shall We Dance” — includes regional options for pronouncing potato and tomato. Which of the following also is pronounced two ways in the song?
A. pajamas
B. Cadillac
C. baseball
7.) There’s something especially challenging in the way Fred and Ginger danced through that number in “Shall We Dance.” What was it?
A. They were on roller skates.
B. They were on ice skates.
C. They were dancing on the ceiling.
8.) When Fred and Ginger sing, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” a Gershwin standard that has become a hauntingly nostalgic song about love — what were the two of them preparing to do in “Shall We Dance”?
A. Get a divorce.
B. Commit a murder.
C. Go to prison.
9.) Another great Fred and Ginger song, performed defiantly against tough odds is “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” Which movie included this Irving Berlin hit?
A. “Meet Me in St. Louis”
B. “Follow the Fleet”
C. “Holiday Inn”
10.) One of the other great American classics Ginger Rogers introduced was a song by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields for the musical “Swing Time.” Which was it?
A. Pick Yourself Up (Dust Yourself Off)
B. The Lion Sleeps Tonight
C. High Hopes (the Rubber Tree song)
Got all the answers?
IF you are reading the online version of today’s quiz, click on
the link below to see the answers pop up. If not — don’t peek until
you’re ready!
HERE ARE TODAY’S ANSWERS:
1.) A. Scientology is a completely different group. And “Science and Health” is the name of Mary Baker Eddy’s famous book.
2.) C. There are about 1,800 branch churches and societies of the Church of Christ, Scientist, around the world, but the Mother Church is in Boston.
3.) C. The newspaper continues as a publication respected by journalists — even though the newspaper has a fairly unusual history and mission. Here’s the way the Monitor’s Web site describes that mission:
The newspaper is “published by a church — The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., USA. Everything in the Monitor is international and US news and features — except for one religious article that has appeared each day in The Home Forum section since 1908, at the request of the paper’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
“In an age of corporate conglomerates dominating news media, the Monitor combination of church ownership, a public-service mission, and commitment to covering the world (not to mention the fact that it was founded by a woman shortly after the turn of the century, when US women didn’t yet have the vote!) gives the paper a uniquely independent voice in journalism.”
4.) C. One of the unusual and long-standing rules within the denomination is a prohibition against counting the membership.
5.) C. Yes, both Doris Day and Ginger Rogers were devout adherents. See why Mary and Ginger fit together so well in today’s quiz?
Rogers wrote about her long-standing faith in her autobiography. Among the final lines in her memoirs are these: “As the curtain comes down on my final thoughts, I would like to use a
line from my one-woman show that has meant a great deal to me through
the years. It is part of the scientific interpretation of the Lord’s
Prayer by Mary Baker Eddy: ‘And Love is reflected in love.’ This says
everything I want to say and more.”
6.) A. Pajamas, of course, along with playful pronunciations of banana, Havana, oyster and laughter, as well!
7.) A. Roller skates. And, what’s more, part of the gag is that they can’t quite control their wheels — and they wind up falling over together in the park.
8.) A. They may have toyed with the lawlessness in their comedies but they weren’t hardened criminals! It’s ironic, though, that the song — which many Americans recall as a nostalgic love song actually was about a couple preparing to divorce. Fred sings it to Ginger during a ferry ride on a foggy night.
9.) B. “Follow the Fleet.” “St. Louis” was a Judy Garland musical. And, while Fred did appear in “Holiday Inn,” and Irving Berlin wrote music for it — Ginger Rogers wasn’t in the Christmas musical.
10.) A. You may think that “Lion Sleeps” was a much later song, but it originated in the 1930s. “High Hopes” originated in the late 1950s. In the song, “Pick Yourself Up,” Ginger crooned: “Nothing’s impossible I have found, For when my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up, Dust myself off — Start all over again!”
COME BACK TOMORROW …
We’ve got an in-depth Conversation With Dale Brown, a literary scholar who has spent decades exploring the spiritual themes in American novels and poetry. For years, he ran one of the country’s leading literary festivals — and now is founding director of a new center devoted to the legacy of Frederick Buechner at a college in Tennessee.
And, don’t miss Thursday, when our Guest Writer is — Frederick Buechner himself — with a chapter from his new WJK Press book, “Yellow Leaves,” about a historic meeting between Buechner and Maya Angelou.
PLEASE, TELL US WHAT YOU THINK. Click on the “Comment” link at the end of the online version of this quiz. Or, you can always Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm directly.
