On this day in 1862, 10-year-old Alice Liddell received a Christmas present from an Oxford mathematics professor named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. What was the present? [av_button label=’ Use The Comment Form Below To Submit You Answer’ link=’http://jayruud.com/trivia-question-for-november-26/’ link_target=” color=’theme-color’ custom_bg=’#444444′ custom_font=’#ffffff’ size=’large’ position=’center’ icon_select=’yes’ icon=’ue83b’ font=’entypo-fontello’]
Author: Jay Ruud
Movie Review: Mockingjay by Francis Lawrence
[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating MOCKINGJAY Two Susanns/Half Tenneyson[/av_image] The cynicism and manifestly crass commercialism of the new Hollywood trend of splitting the final books of a series into two movies instead of one, in order to double the profits on what they assume will be a… Continue reading Movie Review: Mockingjay by Francis Lawrence
T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”
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Trivia Question for November 19
NAME THAT POEM: Today is the 72nd birthday of acclaimed American poet Sharon Olds. Who can tell me the title of the poem from which these lines come (which is also the title poem of her Pulitzer-Prize winning collection from 2012): Then the drawing on the label of our favorite red wine looks like my… Continue reading Trivia Question for November 19
John Donne’s “Batter My Heart Three-Personed God”
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Trivia Question for November 12
NAME THAT POEM: Armistice Day (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918) ended the “war to end wars” whose centennial we observe this year. Name the poem and author from whom these lines come, by a soldier in that war who was killed by a sniper on November 4,… Continue reading Trivia Question for November 12
Movie Review: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Alejandro González Iñárritu
In the opening credits to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Birdman appear these lines, which form the epitaph on Raymond Carver’s tombstone at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles: And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself… Continue reading Movie Review: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Alejandro González Iñárritu
Ted Hughes’ “Chaucer”
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Trivia Question for November 5
DON’T LEAVE ME THIS WAY: What famous novel ends with these lines? “I do not admit that Gopher Prairie is greater or more generous than Europe! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women! I may not have fought the good fight, but I have kept the faith.” “Sure. You bet… Continue reading Trivia Question for November 5
Movie Review: St. Vincent by Theodore Melfi
[av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] RUUD RATING St. Vincent 3 TENNYSONS [/av_image] “It is what it is,” a bank clerk tells Vincent McKenna (Bill Murray) early in Theodore Melfi’s new film St. Vincent. Vincent, who has been trying to get some kind of relief from the bank because… Continue reading Movie Review: St. Vincent by Theodore Melfi