The Theodore Newsletter

October 1, 2024

This 8^th edition is a tough one. You are once again asked to provide the correct answer to the following 20 questions. Credit 5 points for each correct answer. A grade of 65 indicates you are brilliant.

1. What New York mayor in my earlier days died penniless in a poorhouse on the Bowery?
2. Who gets credit for: “I didn’t lose the gold, I won the silver.”?
3. What famous boxing arena in the 40’s and 50’s was located on 66^th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan?
4. Manhattan College is located in what borough?
5. Who was the first woman to swim the English Channel?
6. What beautiful national park is located in northern Montana?
7. What company owns the casino / hotel in Monticello in upstate New York?
8. Explain the difference between a micron and a micrometer.
9. Who was Don Larson’s opposing pitcher when he threw his now famous World Series no-hitter?
10. Who was our second President?
11. Approximately how many books has your favorite author written?
12. Who said: “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but ten echoes are truly endless.”?
13. What borough was home to the legendary Killeen’s Tavern basketball team of the 1950s and 1960s?
14. Who do we credit for: “My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work?”
15. What thoroughbred racetrack is located adjacent to the New Jersey shore?
16. Who uttered the phrase: “The hardest years in life are those between 10 and 70.”?
17. I know I used this before, but it really is a great trivia question. During my formative years, who played for the New York Knicks, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Rangers?
18. Here’s another one that was used before. Who won a gold medal in the Olympics, wrote the second best-selling book of all time, and ran for President of the U.S.?
19. Who do we credit for: “Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you lost a very important part of your life.”?
20. You want Greek food? What location in the Metropolitan area offers the “best bang for your buck?”

EXTRA CREDIT:

21. Explain A.I. in layman’s terms.

ANSWERS:

1. Fiorello LaGuardia.
2. Michelle Kuan at age 17 (figure skating).
3. St. Nicholas Arena.
4. It is currently located in the Bronx. It was originally located in Manhattan when it was founded over a century ago. And, was recently renamed Manhattan University.
5. Getrude Edelle. A neighbor from my earlier days in Hell’s Kitchen. I believe she swam it sometime during the 1930s.
6. Glacier National Park. Breathtaking. We visited there twice.
7. Resorts International. It’s a place I visit several times a year. It is the smallest casino I’ve ever been to.
8. There is no difference. It is one millionth of a meter.
9. My favorite pitcher of all time – Sal Maglie.
10. John Quincy Adams.
11. 150. I think the exact number is 152.
12. Mother Teresa.
13. Queens. The exact location was Astoria – 24^th Street and Ditmars Blvd.
14. Rosa Parks – who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in 1955. Bravo Rosa.
15. Monmouth Park in Long Branch, NJ.
16. Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind from infancy.                                                                                                                                                       
17. Gladys Gooding. She “played” the organ.
18. Benjamin Spock, a baby doctor.
19. Brooke Shields, an actress.
20. Astoria, Queens. You simply can’t go wrong there.
21. Full credit. I have no idea but here’s what my 15-year-old grandson gave me. Artificial Intelligence or AI, is a loosely define term describing any computer system which exhibits intelligence. This could be in the form of image detection, chatbots like Open AI’s ChatGPT, or voice-based helpers like Apple’s Siri. AI’s can outperform humans in some tasks like chess, but in many others, like responding to text, are useful primarily because of their speed and low cost per use.” Ouch! Here’s my definition: “A term that has come to mean different things to different people but for me, it’s simply a gigantic computer program that can be employed to solve a near infinite variety of problems.”

Note: The seminar on my new book, Winning at Casinos; The Definitive Guide on Wednesday, September 25^th, at the Village of East Williston Library went well and was attended by 25 people. Here is EW Mayor Bonnie Parente’s take on what came down: “The learn how to win at dice presentation tonight was incredibly enjoyable! It took the intimidation factor out of playing craps! This was taught by Lou Theodore and based on his book Winning at Casinos. So glad I went.”  Thank you, Mayor.

After the presentation ended, a post-Casino party was hosted by Mary and me at Spuntino’s Restaurant in Williston Park.

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