BOOKS AND IDEAS: Snapple and pop quizzes
Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia), October 29, 2006
by May Brown, CanWest News Service
The Snapple Aptitude Test: Real Facts for Real Life
by Sandy Wood and Kara Kovalchik; Broadway Books; paperback, 224 pages; $12.95
The Snapple company put this quiz book together as a spin-off from the Real Facts printed under their bottle caps. Their approach here, like their advertising image, is lighthearted, starting with their scoring categories.
Real Genius tops the list with 1,000 points, followed by Fact Fanatic, Seriously Cerebral, and Brainy, Around the 600 to 699-point level, the names get really creative: Snapple Savant, Egghead, Sharpie, Radio-FACT-ive. In the 200 to 299-point category, we’re still considered Not Too Shabby, but dropping to the 100 to 199, we’ve become Factose Intolerant. If we score only 10 to 99 points out of the maximum 1,000, we’re kindly referred to as a Newbie. But if we get between zero and nine answers? Cro-Magnon.
The book contains 10 categories, from nature, music and movies to sports and technology, so there’s bound to be a subject area in which an individual can excel.
Do you know how many sets of twins lived in the Full House household (trick question!) or how golfer Jack Nicklaus got the nickname The Golden Bear? Can you guess which letter is removed from “vodka” to make the Russian word for water? If not, you can look up the answers at the end of each section, satisfying your curiosity and, as the title implies, adding to your knowledge of “real facts for real life.”