Q 01/05

Austrian Erwin Perzy hit on the snow globe while trying to build a brighter version of what?

A) A lighthouse lens

B) A magic lantern

C) A surgical lamp

D) A miner's headlamp

Answer · why

C) A surgical lamp

A surgical lamp was the goal: Perzy made surgical instruments, and the water-filled globe he patented instead is still produced by his family firm in ...

Q 02/05

What did the crew find hiding inside the wrapped Rockefeller Center tree when it arrived in 2020?

A) A saw-whet owl

B) A red squirrel

C) A raccoon

D) A barn cat

Answer · why

A) A saw-whet owl

A saw-whet owl, nicknamed Rockefeller, had ridden 170 miles inside the spruce over three days and became a media sensation.

Q 03/05

Who put up the first Rockefeller Center tree in 1931, hung with cranberries and a few tin cans?

A) Fifth Avenue shopkeepers

B) NBC radio executives

C) The Rockefeller family

D) Construction workers

Answer · why

D) Construction workers

Construction workers building the Depression-era complex pooled their pay for a 20-foot balsam fir, and their families made the garlands.

Q 04/05

After a 1971 FDA finding on child safety, US makers stopped producing tinsel made from which metal?

A) Tin

B) Lead

C) Zinc

D) Copper

Answer · why

B) Lead

Lead foil never tarnished like silver, which is why makers clung to it until the FDA talked them into quitting by January 1972 without a formal ban.

Q 05/05

Which creature's ornaments hang on Ukrainian trees, thanks to a folktale said to explain tinsel?

A) A beetle

B) A mouse

C) A spider

D) A bee

Answer · why

C) A spider

A spider spun cobwebs over a poor widow's tree overnight, and the first sunlight turned them to gold and silver, so artificial webs hang on trees too.