Winner: Pluto
Mistress Daphne returned from her journey to the Far East a changed person – calm, almost zen like. She was actually nice to us. We are all waiting to see how long that lasts. Pluto made some lucky guesses on tonight’s music questions, and finished just ahead of Rosebud and Droppin’. His victory earned him a bunch of irreplaceable tchotchke’s, kindly bought back from Japan by the Driver.
Tonight we learned that algophobia is the fear of pain, and that the letter J is worth 8 points in Scrabble. Few of us could actually spell “Millennium”, because that double n tripped us up.
Good Question!: Paraguay has borders with Brazil, Bolivia, and which other country?
Choices: a. Uruguay b. Argentina c. Peru d. Venezuela
Answer: Argentina
Let’s face it – we don’t pay much attention to South America, so a simple question like where is Paraguay is not so simple, even though their flag is a familiar Red, White, and Blue. Imagine if the question had been “Who is Paraguay’s President?”
Paraguay achieved its independence from Spain in 1811. In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70) – between Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay – Paraguay lost two-thirds of its adult males and much of its territory. The country stagnated economically for the next half century. Following the Chaco War of 1932-35 with Bolivia, Paraguay gained a large part of the Chaco lowland region. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo STROESSNER ended in 1989, and, despite a marked increase in political infighting in recent years, Paraguay has held relatively free and regular presidential elections since the country’s return to democracy. Currently the President is Horacio Cartes, a Paraguayan tobacco magnate. He won despite claims of drug-trafficking and other charges that had been leveled against him.
Natural Beauty of Paraguay
Paraguay, Argentina and the World Cup
We won’t be seeing Paraguay in the World Cup because they finished last in their qualifying group. But we will be seeing Argentina, a perennial power with the best footballer in the world, Lionel Messi. His last World Cup was pretty forgettable, but he could carry Los Gauchos to the final game against home team fave, Brazil. Now that would be some match.
The World cup starts in 10 days, with the opening game for the US on Monday, June 16 vs Ghana.
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