Daily Trivia II

Clifford the Big Red Dog was an educational animated children's television series, based upon Norman Bridwell's children's book series of the same name. So who was the voice of the adorable Big Red Dog? You probably know him best from his starring role on Three's Company. John Ritter was the voice of Clifford in all 65 episodes of the television series. The late actor brought the iconic children's book character to life in this PBS Kids adaptation right up until his untimely passing in 2003. Ritter received several Emmy nominations for his voice work on the show.

 Stuart Sutcliffe was a Scottish-born painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist for the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name "Beetles", as they both liked Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets. The band used this name for a while until Lennon decided to change the name to "The Beatles". As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several people sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle."

  Everyone has to start somewhere and many famous and successful women got their start by working at Hooters. The Hooters restaurant chain is known for its wings, beer, and curvaceous waitresses. Who is the most famous person that worked at Hooters? That would probably be five time Academy Award nominated actress Amy Adams. In an interview, Amy Adams said "it was a great job out of high school and I was a hostess at first, and then I waited tables for a while, and it was great. It was a great way for me to earn money for college."

 Angelina Jolie is a famous actress with a serious love for tattoos. Among her estimated 20 tattoos is a 12-inch long Bengal Tiger tattoo on her lower back. It was done in Bangkok in 2004, during a 2 hour session by tattoo artist Sompong Kanhphai who also blessed it by chanting an ancient hymn. This tattoo was chosen to celebrate her Cambodian citizenship and was made in traditional Thai style using a manual needle. The tattoo was designed to match the existing Cambodian tattoo Jolie had on her left shoulder blade, which she got when she adopted her son Maddox in Cambodia.

 The Amstel is a river in the Netherlands which runs through the city of Amsterdam. Amstel beer is named after the river. The Amstel brewery was founded in 1870 on the banks of the river, and the clean river water was used to produce the beer. The brewery diverted water into its factory complex to chill its stock and in winter scavenged ice from the river for refrigeration. The ice was then crushed and stuffed into insulated cellars that contained Amstel’s beer. The river's name is derived from Aeme-stelle, old Dutch for "water-area”, namely, an area abounding with water.

The Africanized bee is a hybrid species of the Western honey bee. These so-called “killer” bees were accidentally introduced into the wild by Brazilian scientists in 1956. The scientists were attempting to create a new hybrid bee in the hopes of improving honey production, when 26 swarms escaped quarantine and began to dominate the native honey bee. Africanized honey bees have been known to chase people for more than a quarter of a mile once they get excited and aggressive. They have killed some 1,000 humans, with victims receiving ten times more stings than the average honey bee. 

The Baltimore oriole is the state bird of Maryland. It is also the inspiration for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. Maryland designated the Baltimore oriole as the official state bird in 1947. Baltimore Orioles are medium-sized, sturdy-bodied songbirds with thick necks and long legs. It received its name from the resemblance of the male's colors to those on the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. The female Baltimore oriole's feathers are brownish-olive and dull orange, but the male's plumage is black and a brilliant golden-orange, similar to colors in the Calvert shield, which is seen on Maryland's state seal and state flag.

 During the 1970s, Barry Manilow wrote and sang some of the catchiest jingles in history. While many of his jingles were written in the 1970s, some of the tunes have become so identifiable with the product that they’re still being used today. The State Farm jingle ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there") was written by songwriter Barry Manilow in 1971. “They paid me $500 for that jingle,” Manilow said joking that “the girl who sang it is on her third Rolls-Royce for now.” “You don’t get residuals if you write it, so they just buy you out,” he added. “At that point, $500 meant a lot of money — I was grateful to have it.”

 The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts that took place on the night of December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Mohawk Indians, in defiance of the Tea Act of 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea owned by the East India Company. They boarded three British tea ships and threw 342 chests of their tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history.