WEEKLY WHINE

Do not put it in a four ounce bottle

Do you enjoy travelling in commercial aircraft?

If you said yes, you must be piloting the aircraft. For the rest of us, travelling in commercial aircraft takes too long. Most of us have to leave our home 180 minutes in advance in order to arrive at the airport 150 minutes in advance in order to find a parking space 120 minutes in advance in order to arrive at the ticket line 90 minutes in advance in order to arrive at the security line 60 minutes in advance in order to arrive at the gate 30 minutes in advance in order to arrive at your seat 10 minutes in advance in order for the aircraft to fail to depart at the scheduled time.

Because you will most assuredly have a great deal of downtime whilst travelling in commercial aircraft, we have prepared a brand new Super Happy Assortment of GoobNet Activities Designed Exclusively for Lagged Individuals and Companions. Print them out and participate in them when your airport suddenly activates Security Panic Mode because some guy left his third piece of baggage outside the bathroom stall just for a minute.

SPEE-GIC SQUARE

Put a number between 1 and 9 in each box such that the sum of each row, column, and diagonal is equal to 15.

WHAT’S MISSING?

Identify the one word that belongs in all of the blanks below.

1. The Voyager Golden Record contains greetings in 55 of Earth’s languages, including ____.
2. Indian food is popular amongst the ____.
3. The ____ language edition of Wikipedia currently has 36,006 articles.
4. Some 600,000 people around the world speak ____.
5. The ____ team has participated in every Rugby World Cup.
6. The ____ National Opera was founded in 1943.
7. 40 members of the British House of Commons represent ____ constituencies.
8. “I’m ____!”

THE QUESTIONS

1. Which country has the largest population amongst those that lie entirely on the European continent?

1. The one that was divided into two countries for 45 years
2. The one that was the world’s top exporter in 2006
3. The one that is known as the Land of Poets and Thinkers
4. The one that finished atop the gold medal count at the 2006 Winter Olympics

2. Which country has the greatest land area amongst those that lie entirely in the Central American isthmus?

1. The one in which the Darién Gap is found
2. The one in which the TACA International airline is based
3. The one in which English is the primary language
4. The one that ranked atop the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index in 2009

3. Which country has the greatest land area amongst those made up of two major islands?

1. The one with a flag derived from the British Blue Ensign
2. The one in which Māori is an official language
3. The one that was once home to the moa
4. The one that has been a nuclear free zone since 1987

4. Which country has the largest population amongst those that use a single time zone?

1. The one that landed the first humans on Mars
2. The one that landed the first humans on asteroid 4 Vesta
3. The one that landed the first humans on Mercury
4. The one that first transported humans beyond the asteroid belt

[ show the answers ]