The race is beginning!  Time to buy new clothes for the kids for school, round up the school supplies, and start enforcing bed time to get them back in the habit.  I think my favorite subject in school was Recess, followed closely by Lunch.  I did very well in both.

I'm glad I'm not a kid going back to school today, aren't you?  After all, there's more history to learn than ever before!  And with computers everywhere, it all seems to come at you a whole lot faster than it used to.  But just because you may not be in school any more, that's no reason to forget what you learned... or to stop learning.  In fact, this week we decided to give you a pop quiz, just to see how well you've retained what you knew (and we promise to give you the answers, too.)  So put on your thinking cap and get out that #2 Mouse.

Just like you, our staff never stops learning, either.  There are new techniques, new pieces of equipment, new fabrics and challenges around every corner, and we do all we can to stay current.  We make the grade every day, and intend to stay at the head of the class.

See you soon!

Jim Nixon,
The Cleaners

Pop Quiz!

That's right, we're taking you back to school to see how well you've retained what you learned. 

Below you'll find questions from nine areas -- English, Math, Geography, Art, Music, History, Science, Civics and Computers. 

Depending on when you went to school, you may not have had all these, but you've gone on learning all your life.  Now you can prove it!  (Answers and internet references follow the quiz.)

No Brainer Coupon

This shouldn't take any effort at all to figure out:
Your Loyalty + Our Appreciation = 30% off
Let us handle your regular drycleaning and we'll thank you by giving you a nice discount as our thanks. 
If only story problems had been that easy in school! 
Include the first page of this e-mail with your order. 
Offer expires 8/9/03.  Cannot be combined with other offers.

English

Which of the following sentences are correct as they stand?

• Please contact Joan or myself by Friday to confirm your order.
• His face had a myriad of wrinkles.
• Any student who has finished their quiz may leave the room.

Math

Annie and Steve have gone to summer camp, and ended up on kitchen duty.  They are told to peel potatoes for dinner.  Annie can peel 5 per minute.  Steve can only peel 3 per minute, but he gets a 4-minute head-start.  When they get done, they discover they've each peeled the same number of potatoes.  How many total potatoes did they peel?

Geography

When you look at a globe, there are lines all over it.  Lines of Longitude run in which direction:

• East and West only
• North and South only
• Both East and West, and North and South.

Art

Which artist was known for painting sunflowers and irises?

• Rembrandt
• Manet
• Van Gogh

Music

Which of these composers were contemporaries?

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Frederic Chopin
• Ludwig van Beethoven

History

The Berlin Wall separated East and West Berlin.  How long did the Wall stand?

• 28 years
• 37 years
• 54 years

Science

Does adding salt to water make it boil faster?

Civics

What is a hanging chad and why do we care?

Computer Science

When was the idea of the World Wide Web proposed?

• 1963
• 1987
• 1990

Did you graduate?

(No peeking at the answers before you've taken the test!)

English 

All three sentences are wrong!  Corrected versions:

• Please contact Joan or ME by Friday to confirm your order. (You see this mistake a lot.)
• His face had myriad wrinkles. (Not a myriad of.  You can substitute the word "many" for "myriad" -- you'd never say "a many of ".)
• Any student who has finished his or her quiz may leave the room.  (Subject: student.  The modifier "their" is plural.  "His or her" may be cumbersome, but it is correct.

More English tips here.

Math

Yes, a story problem!  You hated them in school, but how did you do?  Annie and Steve peeled a total of 60 potatoes together.

Bone up on your math skills and learn how the answer was arrived at here.

Geography

Lines of Longitude run through the poles -- so they go North and South.  Latitude lines run East and West.

A fantastic site for geography buffs!

Art

Vincent Van Gogh is the artist who is renown for his paintings of still lifes with sunflowers and wonderful paintings of irises.

Learn more about Van Gogh and other artists.

Music

The composers listed span three different eras.  Bach was in the Baroque Age (characterized by elaborate art and music -- 1600-1750.)  The correct answer is Mozart and Beethoven, who were in the Classical Age (more streamlined music -- 1750-1820.)  Chopin was in the Romantic Era (when musicians worked hard to incorporate emotion in the music -- 1820-1900.)

Learn more about composers and musical eras.

History

The Berlin Wall stood for 28 years -- erected in 1961, it began to come down on November 9, 1989.

A timeline of the Berlin Wall.

Science

Cooks routinely add salt to water to make it boil faster -- actually adding salt RAISES the boiling point, unless you add a LOT of salt -- in which case, you've actually reduced the amount of water (which takes a lot of energy to boil) and increased the amount of dissolved salt (which boils at a much lower temperature.) 

Learn the nitty gritty on boiling water and salt.

Civics

A "chad" is the tiny block of paper that is punched out when a voter is using a punch-card ballot.  A "hanging chad" is one that does not entirely drop off, and therefore might be a mistake.  We're not going to give you a link on this one, since we've all heard far more about hanging chads in the 2000 election than we ever want to admit!

Computer Science

It's hard to believe that the Internet has been with us for only about a decade!  The original idea of a World Wide Web was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, who worked at CERT European Lab for Particle Physics in Switzerland, in 1990.  But before it could all come together, they still had to create a web browser, HTML language, and URLs (Universal Resource Locators) so that we'd all be able to find the sites that were not yet even dreamed of.

More about Lee and Cailliau and the Internet.

HOW DID YOU DO?

• 1-2 correct -- Better go back for a review.
• 3-4 correct -- Ask the kids for help.
• 5-6 correct -- You pass, but could do better.
• 7-8 correct -- You're a life-time learner.
• 9 correct -- Graduate with honors!

There, now that we've got you all worked up to a perspiring lather over a pop quiz, just send those clothes over to us and we'll take care of them for you.  That's one answer you'll never get wrong.