10-Question Quiz: 'All Of It'

( WNYC )
[MUSIC]
Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone, on this last day of our spring membership drive. Thank you for helping us meet the goal for the Craig Newmark $50,000 challenge. 888-376-WNYC, or right from the homepage at wnyc.org for your last-day donation. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now we're going to do our last-day membership drive 10-question quiz.
Those of you who are very regular listeners know that we've been doing a 10-question quiz each day during the drive to keep it kind of fun since we have to do this pledge week thing and to give away some swag, a Brian Lehrer Show hat or a Brian Lehrer Show mug. Your choice if you get two in a row, right? Who wants to play on this last membership drive quiz? 212-433-WNYC is our on-air quiz line. 212-433-9692.
Now, each day's quiz during this drive was inspired by the name of a different public radio show. We had a New Yorker Radio Hour quiz about New Yorkers, radios, and hours. We had a 1A quiz about the First Amendment, a Science Friday quiz inspired by, well, science, an On the Media-inspired media quiz, one about the outdoors inspired by the name of the show Fresh Air, and yesterday in honor of the TED Radio Hour, which we air on Sundays, a 10-question quiz to identify sound bites from guys named Ted.
We wrap it up today with a 10-question quiz in honor of the show that follows this one, the show called All Of It. This quiz is a potpourri. It's all of it. It could be about anything, and mostly it's going to be leftovers from some of the other quizzes. Who wants to play? 212-433-WNYC. We're going to start with Evan in Hell's Kitchen. Hi, Evan. Ready to play?
Evan: I'm ready.
Brian Lehrer: 10-question quiz. Question number one, New York City is home to the largest indoor theater in the world. That's physically largest, not the most amount of seats, and that's not counting the stadium, so not Madison Square Garden, not Barclays, but other than that, the largest indoor theater in the world. Can you name it?
Evan: Not Barclays.
Brian Lehrer: I'll give you one clue. It is really, really famous.
Evan: Carnegie Hall.
Brian Lehrer: Ooh, nice try, but the answer was Radio City Music Hall. We're going to go next to-- which by the way, according to Architectural Digest, the marquee, just the marquee takes up an entire city block signaling the theater's grand scale, and adding to that, the auditorium is remarkably large. At its highest point, it measures 84 feet, which is about the size of an eight-story building. There you go. The volume inside flows from that. Tom, in the East Village, ready to play?
Tom: Yes, Brian. Good morning.
Brian Lehrer: Good morning. Question number two, New York City is home to the New York Public Library. True or false? This is another kind of biggest because things in New York always want to be the biggest. True or false though, the New York Public Library is the largest library in the country.
Tom: Library system.
Brian Lehrer: Well--
Tom: False.
Brian Lehrer: False is correct. That title goes to the US Library of Congress. It's also the third-largest library in the world. Question number three, one more on the library, B, in addition to owning the books of Charlotte Brontë, Walt Whitman, and Mary Shelley, what else is the New York Public Library home to from those famous authors in particular, besides books? Something that may creep you out just a little bit.
Tom: Something in addition to their books? Any hints out there, Brian?
Brian Lehrer: Think body parts.
Tom: Hair.
Brian Lehrer: Hair is right. Very good.
Tom: [laughs] Wow. I was thinking that could be the only thing in common.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, and the only body part that we would want to talk about in conjunction with the New York Public Library. Tom, hang on, we're going to take your request for a hat or a mug and take your address as we go on next to Elizabeth in Brooklyn. Hi, Elizabeth. Ready to play?
Elizabeth: Hi, yes.
Brian Lehrer: Question number four, true or false, New York City is home to the largest gold vault in the world.
Elizabeth: I'm going to say false.
Brian Lehrer: That one is true. I know people think of Fort Knox and that's not a New York thing, but from the New York Federal Reserve website, as of 2024, their vault, the Fed's vault, housed approximately 25% of the world's gold. Blew my mind when I read it. That's 507,000 gold bars. Elizabeth, I think that's more than even Bob Menendez had in his closet with a combined weight of 6,331 metric tons. All right. Yes, we are the biggest at gold bars, if not at libraries. Steven, in Cranford, you're on WNYC. Ready to play?
Steven: I'm ready.
Brian Lehrer: Question number five, New York City is also interestingly home to the fastest, the fastest member of the animal kingdom. Hint, it's a bird. What is it?
Steven: Oh my gosh. A falcon?
Brian Lehrer: Well, I'm going to take that. It's the peregrine falcon specifically, but yes, you got-- That was a hard enough question that will take the family of falcons. According to New York City Audubon, New York City is actually thought to host the largest urban population of peregrine falcons in the world. The Britannica website says the peregrine falcon is best known for its diving speed during flight, which can reach more than 186 miles an hour. Oof.
Steven: Holy cow.
Brian Lehrer: That was question number five. One more for a Brian Lehrer Show baseball hat or a Brian Lehrer Show mug. True or false, there are eight continents on Earth.
Steven: Oh, God. Let me think for a minute.
Brian Lehrer: I asked because it's been in the news within the last few years, the number of continents. I'll give you a hint, conventional wisdom changed by one.
Steven: I'm trying to count. I would guess false.
Brian Lehrer: It is true. Sorry, Steven. Nice try. What's new is that it got increased to eight. According to Forbes, in 2017, scientists discovered a previously unknown continent off the shores of New Zealand appropriately named Zealandia. It covers more than 5 million square kilometers and is two-thirds the size of Australia, but despite its size, says Forbes, it is no wonder it wasn't discovered sooner as 95% of its area is submerged beneath the Southwest Pacific Ocean. Now scientists say there are eight continents in the world, not seven as they used to say. Alana, on Long Island, ready to play?
Alana: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: Okay. Question number seven in this 10-question All Of It potpourri quiz. True or false, a 2023 study revealed that the Earth's inner core may have started spinning in the opposite direction from what the Earth usually spins in. True or false?
Alana: Ooh, that's a tough one. I'm going to go with true.
Brian Lehrer: True is right. That was too strange for us to make up as a false thing. New research published in the journal Nature Geoscience analyzed seismic waves from repeating earthquakes over the last six decades. The authors of the study said they found that the rotation of the inner core came to a near halt around 2009 and then turned in the opposite direction. That's weird. I'll want to know more about that when I have the time.
All right. Question number eight, and for the prize, the World Health Organization declared the end of a global health emergency last year of which infectious disease that was not COVID. It was definitely one that was in the news. It was definitely in the news, and then they declared the end of this infectious disease global emergency.
Alana: Oh, no. I'm usually pretty good with this stuff too, and it's not COVID.
Brian Lehrer: Think primates.
Alana: I was going to say smallpox, but I don't think that's right.
Brian Lehrer: Right. Not right.
Alana: No.
Brian Lehrer: Think related primates to human beings. That's the only clue you're going to get.
Alana: I was going to say-- Monkeypox was my first guess, but--
Brian Lehrer: Well, monkeypox is right.
Alana: Oh, wow. Great.
Brian Lehrer: You didn't say it before, right? You didn't say it, and I missed it? I don't think, so it was probably [unintelligible 00:10:27].
Alana: No, no. I thought it, yes.
Brian Lehrer: Your first guess in your head. They declared the monkeypox global health emergency over. Alana, do you want one of the chambray blue Brian Lehrer Show unisex baseball hats or a Brian Lehrer Show New York City skyline mug?
Alana: I'm going to go with the mug.
Brian Lehrer: One mug-
Alana: Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: -for Alana on Long Island. Hang on, we'll take your address. Sharon in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Ready to play?
Sharon: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: Question number nine, leftover from the Fresh Air quiz, which was about things in the outdoors around here. This amusement park in Vernon, New Jersey was more well known for accidents than recreation in the '80s and '90s. It wound up closing down in the '90s, though according to a 2019 documentary, it didn't close because the state found it unsafe despite hundreds of injuries and even six deaths, but because it went bankrupt. What was the name of this notorious but very famous back-in-the-day amusement park?
Sharon: Was it Great Adventure?
Brian Lehrer: No, not Great Adventure. That did not befall Great Adventure. Sharon, sorry. That was Action Park. Nicknames included Class Action Park, Traction Park. According to The New York Times, the park had to buy the town new ambulances to deal with the trips to the ER. Ouch. All right, let's see. We have time for one. Well, we have one more question. Jack in Brooklyn, you're going to get it. When we get to this point when we only have one question left, you only have to get one question to win the prize. Ready to play?
Jack: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: This is our one leftover question from our TED Radio Hour quiz yesterday. The question simply is, as we queue up this soundbite, which Ted and it's a media Ted, said this?
Ted: You've always been very nice to me, so give this new anchor team for Nightline a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot, and then you'll be sorry.
Brian Lehrer: What Ted was that?
Jack: Ooh, tough. A little predates me. Any clues?
Brian Lehrer: Oh, I wish I could give you a clue. He was so well known in his day. No, I really-- Sorry, Jack, I can't think of a clue, but I'll give one more person a shot at this one. How about Tom in Pennsylvania? Tom, did you hear the Ted quote?
Tom: Yes, I sure did. The only long-time broadcaster I could think of would be King, last name King.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, no, you didn't get it either. Sorry, that was Ted Koppel. A lot of you who watched Nightline from the time it started way back in around 1980 till 2005 certainly knew Ted Koppel as an institution in his day. That was from his last broadcast with Nightline in 2005. That's The Brian Lehrer Show All Of It quiz. Thanks for playing. Glad we got to give away a few hats and mugs. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. More to come.
Copyright © 2024 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.
New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.