Eight years ago, Floridians picked as their governor a man who offered not just a name but also an exclamation mark: Jeb! But now Jeb Bush is leaving and the choices to replace him come with different punctuation: Jim? Charlie?
How can voters choose between them? Sure, you could study their positions on the issues or review their television ads.
But there is a better way: Quiz them on their knowledge of Florida!
Once again, we are proud to challenge the politicians to prove they're ready to assume Jeb!'s exclamatory mantle.
- CRAIG PITTMAN, Times staff writer
1.
A record four hurricanes hit Florida in 2004. Name them.
2.
The highest point in Florida is:
345 feet above sea level
107 feet above sea level
18 feet above sea level but sinking fast thanks to global warming
The pile of fill dirt used to create home lots in the Green Swamp
3.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh's famous book of meditations, A Gift from the Sea, was written while she was staying at what Florida resort?
Miami Beach
Sanibel
Amelia Island
Chattahoochee
Although Gov. Jeb Bush is not the most eloquent politician Florida has ever seen, his eight years in office have provided us with a number of colorful quotes. Match the Bush quote with the topic:
4.
"I'll talk to the fairy godmother about it."
5.
"Kick their a---- out."
6.
"I have a couple of devious plans."
7.
"There would be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers."
Shrinking state government
Blocking offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico
Reacting to a sit-in at his office
Overturning the voter-approved class-size amendment
8.
This year the Legislature declared key lime pie the official pie of Florida. True or false: Key limes, the most famous ingredient, are not native to Florida.
9.
The name of the infamous Florida investigative panel that in the late 1950s took McCarthyism to new depths was:
The Public Service Commission
The Johns Committee
The Pork Chop Gang
The House Select Committee on Nosiness
10.
Three of these are types of sea turtles that nest on Florida beaches. One is not. Pick the mock turtle.
Loggerhead
Leatherback
Gamera
Kemp's Ridley
11.
For 30 years Jack Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, has hosted a weekly five-minute TV show seen across the country on PBS stations. The show is now called Star Gazer. What was the name before Horkheimer had to change it 10 years ago?
12.
True or false: Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the broken leg of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth, died in prison in the Florida Keys.
13.
Three of these bands are based in Florida. Pick the one that isn't:
Molly Hatchet
Wild Cherry
The Mavericks
Mofro
14.
There has been a lot of talk this year about the marital past - or lack thereof - of gubernatorial candidates. But that's not unusual in Florida. When one flamboyant governor took office, he brought to his inaugural ball a mysterious blond woman whom he identified only as "Madame X." Name that governor:
Claude R. Kirk
Millard F. Caldwell
Clinton Tyree
Reubin O'D. Askew
15.
Fifty years ago, the National Audubon Society preserved the world's largest remaining old-growth bald cypress forest, a place with a screwy name that's just north of Alligator Alley near Naples. Name it.
16.
Only inclement weather prevented the Civil War from starting in this Florida city in April 1861, rather than in Charleston, S.C.:
Jacksonville
Pensacola
Olustee
Tallahassee
17.
In 1981 a neo-noir movie filmed in Lake Worth introduced audiences worldwide to a new femme fatale, a onetime soap opera actor named Kathleen Turner. Name the movie.
BONUS
Name the movie's Florida-born director.
18.
Until the 1960s, many Florida cities had whites-only beaches. Then civil rights protesters began showing up and forcibly integrating them, at least until the police arrived. In the era of the sit-in, what was the term for these beach protests?
Swim-ins
Splash-ins
Wade-ins
Jump-ins
19.
In a 1991 case that made national headlines, the wife of a Broward County deputy was charged with prostitution, but claimed Prozac had made her a nymphomaniac. Her name was:
Lorena Bobbitt
Fannie Fox
Kathy Willets
Courtney Love
20.
In the past seven years Florida newspapers have repeatedly carried headlines about a gigantic fish leaping into people's boats, frequently causing serious injuries among the occupants. In August one leaped onto a water scooter and knocked the rider unconscious. What kind of fish has been wreaking all this havoc? Mullet
Sturgeon
Goliath grouper
Big head sea robin
QUIZ ANSWERS
1) Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne
2) a. The modestly named Britton Hill, in Walton County, is 345 feet high. It is considered the lowest high point in the United States
3) b. Sanibel - although the first line of the book admits, "The beach is not the place to work, to read, write or think."
4) b.
5) c.
6) d.
7) a.
8) True. Key lime trees are actually native to Indonesia and Malaysia, but were probably brought to Florida by the Spanish, who carried them on their voyages to prevent scurvy.
9) b. The Johns Committee, named for its chairman, Sen. Charley Johns, a Democrat from Starke who later became governor. Johns took charge of the panel, formally known as the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, in 1957. Originally it focused on "race groups and communist infiltration," but then it launched a purge of all homosexuals from public education.
10) c. Gamera is the fraud (unless you think Godzilla is a documentary).
11) From its inception in 1976 until about 1997, Horkheimer called himself and his show Star Hustler. Then along came the Internet. As Horkheimer explained, "When people, especially children, were accessing our Star Hustler site by using a search engine, STAR HUSTLER was not the HUSTLER they got to link to . . ."
12) False. Mudd was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas in the Keys. When a yellow fever epidemic struck and the prison doctor died, Mudd took over treating the afflicted. Because he helped stave off the outbreak, he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson - and later elected to the Maryland legislature.
13) c. Best known for Play That Funky Music (White Boy), Wild Cherry formed in Ohio --but its front man now lives in St. Petersburg. Molly Hatchet and Mofro originated in the Jacksonville area, while the Mavericks hailed from Miami.
14) A. Sometimes known as "Claudius Maximus" and "Governor-a-Go-Go," Claude Kirk was the first Republican to be elected Florida governor in the 20th century, serving from 1967 to 1971. Madame X turned out to be Erika Mattfeld, and Kirk - who was divorced when he was elected - married her a month after his inauguration.
15) Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. By the early 1950s, Corkscrew was the last of Florida's great bald cypress stands to survive clear-cutting. Thanks largely to amateur naturalist Ernest Taylor of Tampa, the Audubon Society began acquiring the land in 1954 and the sanctuary opened in 1960.
16) B. Pensacola. When Florida seceded in 1861, Confederate soldiers demanded Lt. Adam Slemmer surrender Fort Pickens, at the mouth of Pensacola Bay. For 10 weeks, fearing a surprise attack, Slemmer kept his command on full alert. The Confederates had in fact planned an attack, but bad weather forced them to postpone it. Then they learned that South Carolina forces had opened fire on Fort Sumter. Ultimately Fort Pickens remained in Union hands.
17) The movie was Body Heat. BONUS ANSWER: The movie was written and directed by Miami Beach native Lawrence Kasdan. The next film he wrote and directed, The Big Chill, surprisingly had nothing to do with air conditioning.
18) c. In the 1950s and '60s there were major confrontations during wade-ins at St. Augustine and Delray Beach.
19) c. At one point there were Kathy Willets posters, Kathy Willets bumper stickers and Kathy Willets T-shirts, but the Prozac/nympho defense never went to a jury. Instead, she and her husband pleaded guilty. After completing probation, she appeared in adult films as "America's Favorite Nymphomaniac."
20) b. Sturgeon can weigh as much as 200 pounds and can leap up to 8 feet out of the water. As for why they jump, one biologist quoted by National Geographic offered this theory: "For joy."
SCORING
Give yourself one point for every correct answer. (Two points if you got both answers to No. 17).
21 correct: Congratulations! You've got the job. Now don't be late for your swearing-in (which is usually followed by the swearing-at).
15-20 correct: Nice work, Mr. Graham, but shouldn't you be enjoying your retirement from the U.S. Senate?
10-14 correct: Not bad, but you ought to get out of the mall occasionally and try canoeing a few rivers.
0-9 correct: We'll expect your concession speech by tomorrow. Then you can start boning up for 2010.
Craig Pittman, who is represented as the proctor in today's illustration, covers environmental issues for the St. Petersburg Times. His ancestors moved to Florida in the 1850s looking for a good deal on oceanfront condos.
