Skeleton Trivia for Tuesday, 2026-10-20
At this rate, get psyched for round 3 of astrolabe trivia in summer 2028
Hiya Skeleton Crew,
I’m out on the road! It’s just me & the great big highway, zoomin out to who-knows-where. Gotta love it!
Answers to Last Time
- The financial success of Paranormal Activity helped kick off the boom in found-footage horror flicks.
- In business-speak, IRR means the Internal Rate of Return.
Today’s Trivias
Trivia 1
I just stopped off at this li’l gas station to fill up. Now, I gotta say – & I try not to be too judgmental, lord knows I’ve suffered from folks makin assumptions ’bout me based on my appearance – but I gotta say, the guy workin there was … kinda an odd duck?
He looked like some kinda grizzled prospector, he sure did! He had a big bushy gray beard that seemed like it went down to the ground, he was holdin a big rifle that coulda been outta the 1800s, & he was just perched there up on his stool, watchin me all quiet-like. I was half convinced he was gonna chirp “NEVERMORE” at me or somethin!
But that wasn’t even the oddest thing about the gas station! Nosiree, what really threw me was that it was a brand of gas station that I ain’t seen in the States for, like, decades. They even had an ol’ tiger statue out front – that’s on account of the brand’s “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” slogan – although the statue’d definitely seen better days & the lawn around it was all wild & unmown & whatnot. Ah jeez, I wish I’d taken a picture! Totally slipped my mind.
I know this brand’s still kickin ’round in Canada & maybe elsewhere, but like I said, I kinda thought all the U.S. ones had been shut down. I guess the ol’ prospector guy somehow never got the memo from Exxon? Anyways, what’s this brand I’m talkin ’bout?
Trivia 2
Somethin else that’s weird is my GPS has been actin kinda wonky. Not sure what that’s all about. But it’s OK, I’ve got some navigational doohickies stowed ’round this Airstream, just in case of emergency.
Actually, gimme a second while I look for …
… ah jeez, where is that …
Ah, here it is! My handy dandy astrolabe!
Ya might not remember, but I asked youse all ’bout this astrolabe back in January of last year. So maybe consider this question a long-delayed ROUND 2 of astrolabe trivia! Can ya tell me what word, which has got its root in the Latin word for “bracelet” or “ring”, is almost ’sclusively used these days to describe a spherical astrolabe like the type ya’d find on the Portuguese flag?
OK then
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee