Quiz For a Rainy Day

In most parts of the country, a rainy day is a good excuse for staying indoors. Here in Northern California rain has become such a rare event that you have the opposite reaction: you want to get out into it. And that’s just what I did today.

First I headed up to the marine preserve and climbed the hill to the grove of trees on top. And although there were many trees, and they grew rather close together, they still didn’t form enough of a canopy overhead, and I was soon drenched. And loving it.

On the walk back down the path I looked out over the grey, choppy ocean and then down to the beach below. On it was a group of about twenty seals, nineteen of them seeming to be asleep, and acting as if it was just another day in the sun. But I could tell that they knew it wasn’t, and they were perhaps a little pissed about it. Except for the twentieth seal, a baby who bounced around the beach having a swell time, completely confused by the adults who seemed to want to waste another day just lying around. I remembered having that feeling myself, although it was a long time ago.

I hiked back down to my car and was absolutely drenched when I got there. And so what? I had spent the day hiking through the woods in the rare and glorious rain. Arriving back home I turned on the heater and put on some dry clothes, but the feeling that this was a special day, almost a holiday, wouldn’t leave me. In fact it’s still with me now, as I write this quiz.

It’s simple, really. All of the answers have “rain” or some form of it, in them. Oh, and watch out for the homonyms!

1. The title of this Dylan song is actually not “Everybody Must Get Stoned.”

2. The steelhead is one form of this fish

3. Last track on Eric Clapton’s self-titled 1970 album

4. 1988 movie starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman

5. This song by the Carpenters reached #2 in 1971

6. Prince album, song and movie

7. Considered the most successful of the Beatles tribute groups

8. Comedian and actor whose father Richard was also a comedian and actor

9. TV show about Mary, Queen of Scots that premiered in 2013

10. Dasher and Comet, to name two

11. To delay something, or put off until another time

12. It’s the last song on the Who’s Quadrophenia

ANSWERS

1. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”

2. Rainbow trout

3. “Let It Rain”

4. Rain Man

5. “Rainy Days and Mondays”

6. Purple Rain

7. Rain

8. Rain Pryor

9. Reign

10. Reindeer

11. Take a rain check

12. “Love, Reign o’er Me”