Hand In Glove

 Puppets Quiz 

There is something enormously intriguing about the fact that Walter Black, a man seeking to salvage his life in the new Jodie Foster directed film 'The Beaver', is played by Mel Gibson, a man seeking to rescue his career. In the film Black is a depressed toy company executive who tries to find his true voice by speaking through a puppet. In what passes for his real life, Gibson in 2006 famously used his own voice for a well publicised anti Semitic rant which resulted in him being ostracised in Hollywood. That outburst, combined with accusations of domestic violence against former partner Oksana Grigorieva, have left him as possibly the most vilified person in western popular entertainment. While that status is unlikely to be altered any time soon, the film is to be commended for its attempt to explore the nature of mental health problems. Meanwhile, as long term fans of puppetry of all sorts, we take puppets as the theme of today's Highly Questionable quiz.   

 Puppets Quiz Questions 

 1  What is the name of the puppeteer who created the TV phenomenon 'The Muppets'?

 2  The fictional woodcarver Geppetto made which world famous wooden puppet?

 3  What is the name of the type of puppet whose movements are governed by the sophisticated manipulation of strings?

 4  Which British pop singer had a 1960s hit with the single 'Puppet On A String'? 

 5  Which famous French actress played the role of a puppeteer in the 2008 film 'Flight Of The Red Balloon?

The answers to our puppets themed quiz will be published along with the next Highly Questionable blog post.

 Photographs Quiz Answers 

The answers to the Highly Questionable photographic themed quiz are:-

 1  China - in Beijing in June of 1989 a man, who's identity and subsequent fate remains unknown, stands in front of a column of tanks in the aftermath of the Chinese army's violent suppression of protests centring on the city's Tienanmen Square.

 2  Vietnam - in June of 1972 a little girl called Phan Thi Kim Phuc, flees naked from a napalm attack on her village. Despite being so badly burned that medics expected her to die, she survived and later sought and received political asylum in Canada.  

 3  Canada - at the 1976 Montreal Olympics teenage Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci celebrates becoming the first person in her sport to record a perfect ten, an event so unexpected that the scoreboard is unable to display her mark properly, registering it as 1.0 instead of 10.0. 

 4  USA - in August 1930, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith are lynched in Indiana.

 5  Sudan - in March 1993 a vulture stalks a starving child who has collapsed on her way to a feeding station during a famine in the south of her country. The South African photographer, Kevin Carter, won the Pulitzer prize for the shot. Reportedly haunted by what he had witnessed in Sudan, he committed suicide a year after capturing the image  

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com