Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Mad Max" (1979)

      The original "Mad Max" came out in 1979, and was a huge hit worldwide.  Fans loved its action, colorful characters, and apocalyptic world.  Its influence on other films is obvious.  Its two sequels followed in quick succession, and then a 4th film, "Fury Road" finally came out in 2015.  (Whether "Fury Road" is a sequel, or remake, or reboot, or revisit, is up to debate.)  And we're still not done--a fifth film in the universe, about Furiosa, is due out in about a month.  Let's hope writer/director George Miller continues his winning ways.  So let's get into the details of the first one.  Questions followed by the answers.  Many SPOILERS ahead. 

Questions:

1)    According to the opening words on the screen, when does "Mad Max" take place?

2)    What road are the characters on in the opening scene?

3)    What is the name of the law enforcement agency that Max is a member of?

4)    What two officers of this agency do we first see?

5)    What is the call sign for this pair's vehicle?

6)    What is the call sign for the first car chasing the Nightrider?

7)    What two men are in this vehicle?

8)    We see an official highway sign.  What does it read?

9)    What is the last name of Fifi, the local Captain?

10)   Where is Goose when we first see him?

11)   What is the slang, disparaging word for the law enforcement members?

12)   What kind of musical instrument do we see and hear Jessie playing?

13)   From a television news broadcast we learn the Nightrider's real name.  What is it?

14)   Jess relates an attack upon her from their son, Sprog, that morning.  What was it?

15)   What message does Jess communicate to Max, using hand signals?

16)   According to the intercom at the Hall of Justice, what is Memorandum 8?

17)   Who is the mechanic at the Hall of Justice?

18)   What are the features of the souped-up Interceptor, according to the mechanic?

19)   We witness the Police Commissioner talking to Fifi.  What is this man's name?

20)   According to the sign, who owns and operates the Central Garage?  

21)   What is Goose's real first name?

22)   What is the name of the small town that Toecutter and his gang ravage?

23)   Why is Johnny the Boy released from custody?

24)   What two members of Toecutter's gang are seen molesting the mannequin on the beach?

25)   What is the name of the club that we see Goose attending?

26)   After Goose crashes his (sabotaged) motorcycle, he starts driving back in a borrowed utility truck.  Who is the owner of this vehicle?

27)   What hospital is Goose taken to?

28)   What kind of sandwich is Max eating on the beach?  (He says what it is.)

29)   For the only time in the series, we learn a tiny bit about Max's childhood.  What does he reveal?

30)   What is the motto of the Grease Rat's auto shop/dealership?

31)   Which member of Toecutter's gang loses his hand while swinging the chain onto Max and Jess's vehicle?

32)   What is the name of the local sheriff that Max and Jessie talk to about the hand?

33)   What is May's last name?

34)   What are Jess's traumas, according to a doctor?

35)   What is Toecutter's gang member Bubba's last name?

36)   How many members of Toecutter's gang does Max directly kill, or cause the death of?

37)   The Nightrider quotes a bit from a real life band's song.  Which band?

38)   Did Toecutter's gang rape both the man and woman (Lair and his girlfriend) who fled in the Chevy?  (Conjectural)

39)   Did Jessie and Goose actually both die?  (Conjectural)

40)   Speaking of Goose, another person played him after the burning.  (The burnt hand and arm we see is that of someone else.)  What other character did this person play?

41)   What year, make, and model is Max's black Interceptor?

42)   Who shoots Max in his left knee?

43)   And who runs over Max's right arm with his motorcycle?

44)   How did the Toecutter gang find Max, Jess, and Sprog?  (Conjectural)

45)   What city is the Hall of Justice based in?  

46)   Is losing his family the only reason that Max is alive for the sequel?  (Conjectural)

47)   Which actor from this movie later co-wrote "Fury Road" and the upcoming 2024 Furiosa movie?

48)   James McCausland, who co-wrote "Mad Max," appeared briefly in this movie.  Name his character.

49)   Which actor in this movie also wrote and produced the song that Jess played, and the one that the singer in the club sang?

50)   Aside from Mel Gibson, obviously, who's the only actor or actress to also appear in the sequel, "Mad Max 2"  aka "The Road Warrior"?

51)   Okay the answer to Question #1 is intentionally vague.  When does it really take place?  (Conjectural)

Answers:

1)    "A few years from now."  See the answer to Question #51 for further detail.

2)    It appears to be Anarchy Road (or Anarchie (sic) Road).  One sign indicates that this road is 3 km. away, but later on the radio someone says the chase is on Anarchy.

3)    The Main Force Patrol, often abbreviated as MFP.

4)    Charlie and Roop.  Charlie is the skinny religious one, and Roop is the rotund guy.

5)    Big Bopper.

6)    March Hare.

7)    Sarse and Scuttle.

8)    Highway 9, Sector 26.  High Fatality Road--deaths this year: 57.  Monitored by Main Force Patrol.

9)    Macaffee.  Other media (comics, etc.) give Fifi's real first name as Fred.

10)   Fat Nancy's restaurant.

11)   Bronze, after the bronze badges they wear.

12)   A saxophone.

13)   Crawford Montazano.

14)   A right hook to her mouth.  Max jokingly says he told Sprog to lead with his left.

15)   "Crazy about you."  This is all Jess's creation, and not real sign language.

16)  "Hospital vouchers are available again" (for MFP officers).  Foreshadowing!

17)   Barry.

18)   A V8 engine, it runs on nitro, has a Phase 4 head, twin overhead cams, and a 600 horsepower blower (supercharger).

19)   Labatouche.  Who's obviously into fencing, as he's brought his uniform.

20)   C L Britten.

21)   Jim.  Alternate (non-canon?) sources give his surname as Rains.

22)   Wee Jerusalem.

23)   Because no one--not the girl, none of the gang, and none of the townspeople--shows up for his court appearance.

24)   Mudguts and Cundalini.  Mudguts just might be a nickname.

25)   The Sugartown Cabaret.

26)   Midge.

27)   St. George's Hospital.

28)   Peanut butter and honey, and it looks like wheat bread.

29)   That he loved going on walks with his dad, who was tall and took long strides, clad in his special shined brown shoes.  And Max had a difficult time expressing his love and admiration to his father.

30)   "Speed is just a question of money.  How fast can you go?"

31)   Cundalini.

32)   Ziggy.  Originally this character was going to be The Dark One, a former partner of Max's, but they changed it.  Although later when May calls for aid, she's told to call The Dark One.

33)   Swaisey.

34)   A subdural, and trauma to the spleen, liver, flail chest, left head of femur, and renal shutdown.

35)   Zanetti. 

36)   At least 4, and up to 8.  There are 9 named member of the gang--Toecutter, the Nightrider, Bubba, Johnny the Boy, Cundalini, Diabando, Mudguts, Starbuck, and Clunk.  Max chases the Nightrider, causing him to die in the fiery crash.  He chases Toecutter into and under the big semi truck.  He shoots Bubba, and blows up Johnny using the improvised fire trap.  He ran his car into the bikes of Diabando, Starbuck, Mudguts, and Clunk.  (The first two wrecking on the bridge, the latter two sent into the river below.)  It is unknown if any of these 4 survived.  Cundalini is presumably alive at film's end, albeit without his throttle hand.  I'm also not including the Nightrider's girlfriend, who also died in the crash, since a sexist gang like this wouldn't admit female members, I think.

37)   Australia's own AC/DC--Nightrider loosely quotes from "Rocker," and possibly "Live Wire."

38)   Probably.  The woman was stripped, and clearly traumatized, and Fifi makes mention later that she was the "town bike," i.e. an old-timey sexist term for promiscuous, clearly implying she was raped.  And her beau, Lair, is seen traumatized, and fleeing pantsless in the field, so probably he was, too.

39)   For Jess, she's badly injured, but still technically alive.  The doctor says she's "salvageable," which might be referring to harvesting some of her organs.  But, it's unthinkable that Max would have abandoned her, so I think she definitely died soon after.  Goose is badly burnt, but also technically alive.  Fift says Goose "bought it," but it's unclear if he again, actually died.  There were early plans to make Goose the main villain in "Mad Max 2," but Miller scraped that idea.  So Goose presumably died soon after, too.

40)   Sheila Lawrence, who played May, also played Goose's burnt arm and hand.

41)   It's a 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT351, with a hardtop and a supercharger.

42)   Bubba.

43)   Again, Bubba.  Toecutter seems to delegate a lot of his acts of murderous violence.

44)   It appears to be mostly bad luck.  The gang was tailing Goose, but there's no evidence they were trailing Max at first.  By chance the gang was camped out right by the ice cream store that Jess and Sprog visit.  After their altercation, the gang does tail Max, Jess, and Sprog, finding out from the Grease Rat that they were probably headed north.  Evidently they checked each residence along the road, until they saw Max and Jess's vehicle, or the folks themselves.

45)   It's never said.  We hear that the Nightrider was imprisoned, and escaped, and chased from a community named Sun City, but all we know about the Hall of Justice is that it's along Highway 9, in Sector 26.

46)   Probably.  Because it's revealed Max went crazy with grief after losing his family, and went to live in the isolated wasteland, and so missed the great war preceding "Mad Max 2."  Presumably otherwise he'd still be living near civilization, and probably would have died in the conflict.

47)   Nico Lathouris, who played the Grease Rat.

48)   James is seen at the end of the Fat Nancy scene, playing "bearded man with apron."

49)   Nic Gazzana, who played the gang member Starbuck.

50)   Max Fairchild played Benno in the movie, and Broken Victim in the sequel.

51)   Briefly, and partially from other media, in the Mad Max universe there was a great war between Iran and Saudi Arabia in about 1979, causing the Middle East oilfields to be burnt and destroyed.  The resulting fuel shortage affected the whole world, sparking riots and instability.  Australia reacted to this carnage by creating the Main Force Patrol in 1983.  But society continued to collapse due to mob violence and shortages.  In "Mad Max," we see a handwritten date on the "Highway 9 Sector 26" sign giving a date of 1984.  And it's unreadable, but the sign outside the Hall of Justice indicates it was established in 1983.  Therefore, it's evident that this movie takes place in the mid to late 1980's probably 1985-87.

 

 

   

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Two Kinds of Canadian Hummus

      A few weeks ago, I was browsing the savory spread section at my local grocery, without much hope of finding something appropriate for the blog.  But I was pleasantly surprised, as I saw something unusual--a hummus that was dark chocolate flavored.  Looking at the label, I was further blessed, as it was a product of Canada.  I also bought another selection from this brand, one that was less unusual--an edamame (soybean) flavored hummus.  Both were from the Lantana brand.

     So what's the story behind Lantana?  The official company website was mute, so I had to get what little I could from other business websites.  They report that the company was founded by three people--Robert Ferraro, Gil Oren, and John Kincaid.  The date was 2011, and the headquarters were in Austin, Texas.  Lantana reportedly employs between 11 and 50 people, and was originally named Eat Well Embrace Life.  And that's all I have about the background.  Otherwise, Lantana makes many kinds of hummus, some dips, some salsas, and a few salads.  Some of these are offbeat, such as hummus flavors of sriracha carrot, avocado, cauliflower pizza crust, and even a seasonal pumpkin spice one.  Latana is also proud that its packaging is BPA-free, and fully recyclable.  But it finally happened: a company admitted to using artificial ingredients, gluten, and various allergens in its products.  (Okay, this has happened many times for the foods and drinks I've sampled and wrote about over the years, but lately it seems bizarrely rare.)  Moving on, although the company's headquarters are in Austin, apparently they have other plants and distribution centers elsewhere, as my hummus came out of Ferndale, Michigan.  Also, I never found out why some (all?) of Lantana's products are actually made in Canada.  Better ingredients?  Cheaper labor?  Laxer safety rules?  It's a mystery.

Lantana edamame hummus:  This was a typical pale yellow color, with a reddish pepper clump in the middle.  The taste was like most hummus I've had, or very good.  However, I can't say I really detected the edamame flavor--it seemed like regular hummus to me.  Which, again, is a positive.  I had some plain, and then on a cracker.  Both ways were very good.

Lantana dark chocolate hummus:  This one, obviously, was a very dark brown color.  I could definitely taste the chocolate--it was pretty overwhelming.  As regular readers know, I strongly prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate because of the bitterness of the latter.  Plain this hummus was a bit below average.  But, on a cracker it was improved.  The cracker cut the bitterness nicely.  So, on a cracker this was alright.  Not my favorite kind of hummus, but a fun alternative.  I didn't have any problems finishing it.  I don't think I'll buy this flavor again, but maybe folks who adore dark chocolate would love this.

     Therefore, I came away impressed by these Lantana selections of hummus.  I'll definitely consider buying the edamame one again, or trying other Lantana flavors.  Otherwise, I realize that this post is a bit short--there wasn't much else to say about these products.  And I couldn't realistically list the famous people from the company's countries, since the U.S. and Canada (and even Texas and Michigan) are full of them.  I will, though, provide a preview of an upcoming post.  Look for another movie trivia quiz soon, one about a film that spawned a very popular series.  It's a little hard to categorize, but I would say they're in the action/sci-fi genres.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Six Different Brands of Energy/Protein Bars

      It's been a while since I reviewed energy or protein bars, so I thought I'd rectify that.  This section at my local grocery store seems to have grown significantly since the last time I checked.  And there were many new-to-me brands as well.  So I grabbed one from six different companies to compare and contrast.  In all I tried one from Jonesbar (mango almond), one from Quantum Energy Squares (salted peanut butter crunch), one from RxBar (peanut butter), one from GoMacro (peanut butter chocolate chip), one from Verb Energy (cookie dough), and one from Munk Pack (peanut butter and dark chocolate).

     Because I'm sampling from six different companies, I'll keep their histories and background information deliberately short.  (And, frankly, for many I would have had to do this anyway, since their official websites were basically just product lists.)  Therefore, Jonesbar was started by a man named Taylor Jones.  Jones is originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but he moved to Manasquan, New Jersey, and started his company there.  Jonesbars are organic and kosher, some are paleo-friendly, and all lack added sugar and were neither cooked nor baked.  Many of Jones' other flavors include peanut butter and/or chocolate.

Quantum Energy Squares are made in Santa Monica, California.  The listed founders are Leah and Dan.  A business website provided Dan's surname as being Medvene.  But I'm not 100% sure if Leah and Dan are a couple, and if so, if she changed her surname to Medvene.  Quantum's overriding goal is to make energy bars that are nutritious, and don't result in the jitters and a crash.  The company claims that caffeine from green coffee fits this bill.  Their bars also lack gluten, GMOs, artificial ingredients, dairy, and soy, and are kosher and vegan-appropriate.

     RxBar was founded in either 2012 or early 2013 by Peter Rahel and Jared Smith, in Chicago, Illinois.  Their bars include "A.M." and "mini" varieties.  Unlike most of the other companies I'll discuss, RxBars are evidently not vegan or kosher, and some contain gluten and/or added sugar.

     GoMacro is a mother-daughter operation, with the former being Amelia Kirchoff, and the latter being Jola (no surname given).  Amelia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, and in addition to getting surgery and conventional medical treatment she decided to switch to a plant-based macrobiotic diet.  The ladies quickly decided to make macrobiotic bars for sale, and began the company in 2004.  (As far as I can tell, GoMacro is by far the oldest of the companies I'll talk about today.)  All of GoMacro's wares are organic, plant-based, and lack GMOs.  The company's location is the family farm, in Viola, Wisconsin.

     Verb Energy sells both energy bars and protein ones.  The company's headquarters are in Boston, Massachusetts, and its founders are Matt Czarnecki (who's also the current CEO), Andre Monteiro, and Bennett Byerley.  As with Quantum Energy, the business claims to use a healthier form of caffeine, that's derived from green tea.  In 2020 Verb donated 750,000 bars to healthcare workers during the early days of the COVID pandemic.  (Meaning the company was started at least by early 2020 at the latest.)  The brand also has a celebrity fan in Olympic athlete Shawn Johnson.  An artistic gymnast, she won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in the balance beam category, and 3 silver medals in other artistic gymnast events.

     Finally, Michelle and Tobias ("Toby") Glienke dislike sugar.  Or, more properly, they despise it.  So, when they decided to start making their own protein bars, they used an allegedly healthier alternate sweetener, allulose.  Which is a naturally occurring substance, and the Glienkes get theirs from non-GMO corn.  In 2013 the Greenwich, Connecticut-based company Munk Pack began.  Like many of the others, the business is proud of being GMO free.  Although, oddly, for a company such as this, they're not necessarily allergen-free, as their bars are made in facilities that also process peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and sesame.  And while they technically qualify as being gluten-free by government standards, they reportedly do have trace amounts of it.  So bear that in mind if you have allergies or celiac disease.

Because there are so many products today, I'm going to change up my usual rating system.  At the end I'll rate every bar as being "weak," "okay," or "good."  And they'll be listed worst to first.

GoMacro bar, peanut butter and chocolate chip flavor:  It measured about 8 cm. by 5 cm. (or about 3.5 inches by 2 inches), was a light brown color, and had visible inclusions such as chocolate chips in it.  It was also quite shiny.  The texture was sticky and very chewy.  The taste was kind of bland.  I could detect a chocolate flavor, but not much else.  It wasn't terrible--I could finish it, but it was far from tasty.  (Weak)

Verb Energy bar, cookie dough flavor:  This was a small bar, being only about 3 inches by 1.25 inches (or about 7.5 cm. by 3 cm.), and it had a shiny, light brown color, with visible yellow chunks in it.  The flavor was a bit oat-y, and I didn't really detect a cookie dough taste.  It was chewy, but overall bland.  (Weak)

Jonesbar, mango and almond flavor:  It was about 2.75 inches by 1.5 inches (about 7 cm. by 4 cm.), with a shiny, dark brown color, with visible inclusions.  It was chewy, and alright.  Sweet, but could have been sweeter.  A solid energy bar, and nothing more.  (Okay)

RxBar, peanut butter flavor:  This bar measured about 7 cm. by 5 cm. (about 3 inches by 2 inches), and had a dark brown hue, again with visible inclusions.  The texture was chewy.  The taste was peanut-y, and decent.  (Okay)

Quantum Energy Square, salted peanut butter crunch:  As the name suggests, it was a square shape, about 2.5 inches (about 6.5 cm.) to a side.  Dark brown color, with visible nuts and seeds and such.  It was a little crunchy.  The flavor was very peanut butter-y.  Or good, almost like a candy bar.  I really enjoyed this one.  (Good)

Munk Pack, peanut butter and dark chocolate flavor:  This one was a dark brown chocolate on one side, and the other was exposed nuts and seeds, with some chocolate drizzle lines atop it.  The size was about 3.75 inches by 1.25 inches (about 10 cm. by 3 cm.).  The texture was crunchy and chewy.  The taste was seed-y, and the dark chocolate bitterness was cut nicely by the other ingredients, including the peanut butter.  Along with the Quantum one, I enjoyed this one the best.  Unusually tasty for a health bar.  (Good)

     So, all in all, I would consider buying the Quantum and Munk Pack bars again.  But even the weakest ones weren't terrible--just kind of blah and dull.  And to be fair, I only tried one flavor per brand.  Maybe other flavors of the weak brands are better, or other kinds of the strong brands are bad.  Although since I only tried one kind per brand, I deliberately chose flavors I usually like, so there's that.

     I realize when you pick protein/energy/health bars as a topic, you're naturally going to buy from companies that are super into nutrition, and may be obsessed with avoiding things like gluten, GMOs, artificial ingredients, etc.  You know, kind of hippie types.  But after reading through six very similar founder histories, I'm kind of getting tired, and crave something different.  Like, "This company was founded by fat, lazy, couch potatoes, who don't give a crap about nutrition, or artificial ingredients, and instead only care about taste.  As well as making piles of precious, precious money."  Or in other words, an account that's cynically honest, perhaps even destructive, for a change.  I'm more than half-kidding here, but you get my point.

  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Bubble Teas

      Over the past few years, I'd vaguely heard about something called "bubble tea."  Not being much of a tea drinker (I only drink the very occasional flavored ice tea), I didn't pay much attention to it.  But, a couple of months ago I saw some for sale at my local grocery, so I picked up a couple.  I bought two offerings from the Joyba line--their blueberry pomegranate black tea and their cherry hibiscus tea.

     The official Joyba website was yet another one of those very limited, brief ones, with no information about the founders, or the company history.  It was basically just a product list.  Aside from the two I tried, alternate flavors include strawberry rose, strawberry lemonade, mango passion fruit, raspberry dragon fruit, and sweet peach honeysuckle.  Some of these are available in both black and green tea kinds.  Other than that, about the only tidbits I learned were that the bubbles, or boba, are made from a soft seaweed extract called alginate, and that Joyba supports LGBTQ+ rights.  However, I then learned from other sources that Joyba is a brand owned by the massive Del Monte company.  There also wasn't much about Del Monte's history online.  It started in 1886, when unnamed people used the name of a famous hotel in California's Monterrey Peninsula to sell coffee.  By 1892 this new company started selling canned peaches as well.  Over the next century Del Monte began selling many other kinds of canned foods, as well as both buying up other brands and being bought up by other companies themselves.  In 1972 it reportedly did become the first food processor company to  voluntarily include nutritional information on their product labels.  Aside from Joyba, Del Monte also owns brands such as S&W, Contradina, Take Root, and Quick 'n'Easy.

    But, you may be asking, what exactly is bubble tea?  Well, this time the creation is pretty well known.  No one disputes that it was developed in Taiwan in the 1980's.  There are two competing origin stories.  In the first, it was invented in the Chun Shui Tang tea room in Taichung, which was owned by Liu Han-Chieh.  The business's product development manager, a woman named Lin Hsiu Hui, allegedly poured some tapioca balls into some tea during a staff meeting in 1988, drank it, and encouraged others to do the same.  The results were so pleasing that the tea room started selling this new drink to customers.  Alternately, the Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan claims it invented the drink in 1986.  Owner Tu Tsong-he said he'd been inspired by the white tapioca he saw at the local market.  This version was named "pearl tea."  Whoever first created it, bubble tea exploded in popularity.  It spread throughout Hong Kong, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore, and then throughout much of the rest of the world.  There are many varieties of bubble tea.  Some use green tea, some black, some oolong.  Sometimes milk is added, and sometimes not.  All sorts of different fruit flavors are added as well.  The bubbles can be made from several different sources, too, although most modern ones are made from tapioca.  And, there is a range of bubble or ball shapes--round, pea-sized ones seem like the most common, but some are cubes, rectangles, or even stars. Some people even add milk or cheese foam on the top.  The latter supposedly adds an interesting saltiness to the sweet tea flavor.  However it's made, and flavored, bubble tea is almost always served cold.  Which, as someone how eschews hot beverages, I fully support. 

Joyba bubble tea, blueberry pomegranate black tea flavor:  Had a red-purplish color.  Fruity odor.  Tastes like iced tea, I guess.  Or alright.  The bubbles had accumulated at the bottom.  They were soft, and slightly chewy, without much taste of their own.  I suppose they were kind of fun to pop in your mouth.  So I guess the bubbles did add a little something to an otherwise regular iced tea.  Therefore, if you like iced tea I'll give this a slight recommend.

Joyba bubble tea, cherry hibiscus tea flavor:  Reddish-brown in color, cherry-ish odor.  Decent taste--again cherry-ish, not surprisingly.  Once again, the bubbles were at the bottom, and they had the same texture and lack of taste as in the previous tea.  Oddly, this tea was listed as being a "Product of Mexico," while the other one was apparently made in the home factory of Walnut Creek, CA.  As with the other one this tea was okay, and if you're a fan of iced tea you'll presumably enjoy this as well.

     I looked it up, and the Chun Shui Tang tea room (one of the two possible origins of bubble tea) is still in business.  I was especially intrigued by one of its menu items.  In addition to dozens of sorts of bubble teas, they also serve some food.  Including something called pig's blood cake, which appears to be really made from pig's blood, ala the blood pudding made in the U.K.  It sounds revolting, but in a possibly cool way.