Camellias, a Bessemer video and a Quiz

I asked a couple of days ago if it is Spring? and I know it is not. The Camellias are blooming, and most don't bloom in the Spring, they bloom in the Winter. How refreshing to walk out on a cold morning and find these (providing the temps haven't dipped too far below freezing). I remember when growing up in Vestavia that on Comer Circle there was a yard where on occasion a bush (shrub, not a president) was wrapped in a sheet. Mom explained that it was a camellia. Of course, as I have reminded you before, it is our non native state flower.

And I said I would let you know when the camellia show is at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and I didn't do it. The show was this past weekend. Sorry. To make up, just a little for it, I will provide a camellia show here, of the ones blooming in the yard.

After the pictures you will find a video about Bessemer and a quiz.







This video was posted by photographer Larry O. Gay, who many of us know.



This quiz was in The New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs.

It is great. Thanks Paul Slansky.

SHOUTS & MURMURS Changes A 2008 Campaign Quiz. by Paul Slansky

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1. Who is Michael Palladino?

(a) One of two young men who interrupted a speech by Hillary Clinton by yelling, “Iron my shirt! Iron my shirt!”

(b) The aide to Barack Obama who was shoved by Bill O’Reilly at a rally.

(c) The adviser to Fred Thompson’s campaign who turned out to have been convicted of cocaine trafficking.

(d) The boxer who hosted a Nevada Obama event and who had been convicted of battery.

(e) The New York City police detective who scoffed at Rudolph Giuliani’s claim to have been “at Ground Zero as often as, if not more than, most of the workers.”

(f) The formerly gay gospel singer who advocates “curing” homosexuality with prayer, and whose performance at Obama-sponsored concerts upset gays and liberals.
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2. What did Bill Clinton call a “fairy tale”?

(a) Mike Huckabee’s contention that gay marriage would lead to increased bestiality.

(b) Obama’s claim that he has consistently opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.

(c) Mitt Romney’s positive remarks about Hitler’s scientific achievement in creating “liquefied coal.”

(d) Chuck Norris’s endorsement of Huckabee on the ground that he is “not afraid to stand up for a Creator.”

(e) The report that Obama and Dick Cheney might be distant cousins, which prompted Obama to remark, “He’s the black sheep of the family.”

(f) The suggestion by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, that Hillary Clinton bore some responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
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3. True or false: When the Clinton camp was mocked for its efforts to turn a kindergarten essay written by Obama into a reason not to vote for him, campaign officials claimed that the press release had been intended as “a joke.”

(a) True.

(b) False.
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4. Three of these statements refer to Fred Thompson. Choose the one that refers to Mitt Romney.

(a) He asked an unresponsive audience, “Can I have some applause?”

(b) He referred to Russia as the “Soviet Union,” which it stopped being seventeen years ago.

(c) He said, “Some people have said we ought to close Guantánamo. My view is we ought to double Guantánamo.”

(d) He avoided a question about the Terri Schiavo controversy by saying, “That’s going back in history. I don’t remember the details of it.”
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5. Wayne Dumond is to Mike Huckabee as ________ is to Mike Dukakis.

(a) Willie Horton

(b) John Kerry

(c) John Sasso
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6. Who is Marianne Pernold Young?

(a) The Iowa college student planted in the audience by the Clinton campaign to ask the candidate a question that she was eager to answer.

(b) The CNN reporter whom Bill Clinton scolded by saying, “This is what you live for,” after she asked him to comment on a former supporter’s observation that the Clintons’ distortion of Obama’s record is “reprehensible.”

(c) The New Hampshire photographer who asked Hillary Clinton the question that made her choke up.

(d) The CBS newswoman who asked Elizabeth Kucinich, “Would you remove [your tongue stud] if you became First Lady, or leave it in?”

(e) The owner of the landscaping company that employed illegal immigrants to mow Romney’s lawn, prompting accusations that he lives in a “sanctuary mansion.”
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7. Two of these statements refer to John McCain. Choose the one that refers to Ron Paul.

(a) When a supporter, referring to Hillary Clinton, asked, “How do we beat the bitch?” he replied, “That’s an excellent question.”

(b) He said that he would “prefer” a Christian president to a Muslim one.

(c) He voted against giving the Congressional Medal of Honor to Rosa Parks.
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8. True or false: An hour after attacking Barack Obama’s voting record on “Meet the Press,” Hillary Clinton appeared at a black church and declared herself to be “so proud” of him.

(a) True.

(b) False.
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9. Who said of MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us” ad, “It passed a line that we should not allow American political organizations to pass”—Mike Huckabee or Rudy Giuliani?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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10. Who, when asked about financial disclosures, said, “I’m not doing more than what is absolutely required”?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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11. Who asked, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the Devil are brothers?”

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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12.Who said, “Most of our prisoners would love to be in a facility more like Guantánamo”?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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13. Who scoffed at the notion that sleep deprivation is torture, saying, “On that theory, I’m getting tortured running for President of the United States. That’s plain silly”?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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14. Who turned up on Outdoor Life’s list of the twenty-five most influential people in hunting and fishing?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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15. Of whom was it written that “[His] Nixonian soul comes bearing the face of a particularly cruel Renaissance cardinal”?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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16.Ten years ago, whose son was allegedly involved in the hanging of a dog while at Boy Scout camp?

(a) Rudy Giuliani.

(b) Mike Huckabee.
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17. Who is James Clyburn?

(a) The Clinton campaign official who resigned after raising the issue of Obama’s youthful drug use.

(b) The Georgia congressman who said that Obama is “no Martin Luther King.”

(c) The Clinton adviser who said that Obama appeals to voters who want an “imaginary hip black friend.”

(d) The South Carolina congressman who told Bill Clinton to “chill a little bit” with the race-baiting.

(e) The Obama press secretary who took the blame for a memo cataloguing race-related verbal gaffes by the Clintons and their supporters.

(f) The indicted Chicago slumlord to whom Obama returned more than forty thousand dollars in contributions.
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18. Who said, “Americans are looking for a change”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) Mike Huckabee.

(c) Mitt Romney.

(d) John Edwards.
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19. Who said, “Our time for change has come”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) Mike Huckabee.

(c) Mitt Romney.

(d) John Edwards.
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20. Who said, “I believe deeply in change”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) John McCain.

(c) Bill Richardson.

(d) John Edwards.
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21. Who said, “Look, what we need is change, there’s no question”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) John McCain.

(c) Bill Richardson.

(d) John Edwards.
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22. Who said, “I know that I have been an agent of change”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) John McCain.

(c) Hillary Clinton.

(d) Mitt Romney.
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23. Who said, “I want to make change but I’ve already made change. I will continue to make change. . . . I embody change”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) Mike Huckabee.

(c) Hillary Clinton.

(d) Mitt Romney.
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24. Who said, “Not only can I talk change with you, I’ve lived it”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) Mike Huckabee.

(c) Hillary Clinton.

(d) Mitt Romney.
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25. Who said, “We don’t mention September 11th nearly as much as people think”?

(a) Barack Obama.

(b) Mike Huckabee.

(c) John McCain.

(d) Rudy Giuliani.

For the answers you will either have to read the magazine like I did (I got most of them right) or go to the link and take the quiz and submit.