Source: Wikipedia
All of us are getting older whether we like it or not. Or so I’ve been told. Personally I’m not convinced that I’m getting older, although, to steal a line from Tom Lehrer, it is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age he’d been dead for twelve years, but that’s another story.
One of the keys to staying young is to keep the mind active, or so I’ve been told, and one way to keep the mind active is to take a skeptical attitude to every silly notion you’re told. Another way is with puzzles, toys, and games. My mother-in-law, for instance, regularly does crossword puzzles and other games, and has given me quite a few books of crosswords and other puzzles which have kept my mind active, especially when I have to use my mind to figure out where I put them.
The Christmas season is also traditionally a time for toys and classic movies, so here’s a little mental activity: classic toy or character from L. Frank Baum’s Oz stories?
1. Tik-Tok
2. Stretch Armstrong
3. Slinky
4. Yo-Yo
5. Jellia Jamb
6. Tik-Tok
7. Mr. Potatohead
8. Weebles
9. Patchwork Girl
10. Colorforms
11. Jinjur
12. Kalidahs
13. Frisbee
14. Hammer-Head
15. Jack Pumpkinhead
16. Aibo
17. Gumby
18. Polychrome
19. Mombi
20. Creepy Crawlers
21. Kabumpo
22. Hungry Hungry Hippos
23. Toto
24. Triops
25. Mannheim Steamroller
Scoring:
22-25: You’re incredibly mentally active and also spend too much time playing with toys. How old are you?
18-21: Christmas is still your favorite holiday and the time of year when you make the whole family watch The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
15-17: You’re a master of crossword puzzles.
12-14: You know without checking how old L. Frank Baum was when he was your age.
6-11: You’re mildly amused by toys and think Oz is in the southern hemisphere.
1-5: You were banished from the growups’ table for playing with your food.
I’m incredibly mentally active and I’m almost 65 years old, Chris. Thanks for asking. I think I may have already shared this 11-year-old video of my son Aaron, me and a triops, but, hey, we all repeat ourselves as we grow older.
It seems to be I’ve seen that triops video before, but I’m not mentally active enough to remember whether I really have. And it doesn’t matter because I enjoy watching it again and again. It tickles me that you and Aaron had so much fun raising triops.
Do you know how difficult it is to turn a 19″ monitor upside down to read your answers?
Funny, I do know how difficult it is to turn a 19″ monitor upside down, but I’ll let you in on one weird trick: copy the answer key, paste it into MS Paint or a similar program, and flip it vertically.
That’s how I make those in the first place.
20/25. I knew about 14 but you got me with Triops. I thought someone might have turned the Mannheim Steamroller group into a literal steamroller toy but I guess not. Also, I can’t find 15 in the answer key. I’m guessing it’s in the Wizard of Oz, or a toy, or both, or neither.
Jack Pumpkinhead was an Oz character. In the otherwise creepy and weird 1982 film Return To Oz he was the most annoying character, but that had nothing to do with him being left out of the answer key. And triops are the one thing I put on every birthday or Christmas list, but my wife won’t have them in the house.