• Africa’s biggest and most prestigious film festival is FESPACO, the Panafrican Film and Television Festival. It takes place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in alternate years. Winners receive a statuette called the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, which depicts the 12th-century warrior princess Yennenga on the back of a rearing horse. The Tunisian film “Ashkal” took the grand prize in 2023.

• We all know that our senses become less acute over time, but which one tends to be the first to go? That would be your sense of taste, according to a study of “older adults” — people ages 57 to 85 — conducted at the University of Chicago. Researchers found that 74% of the people they studied showed a deficit in their sense of taste.

• Skunks are attracted to beehives not for the honey but for the bees. They’ll scratch around the entrance to the hive at night. When the bees come out to investigate the ruckus, the skunks swat them down and eat them.

1. The Golden Lion is awarded to winning films at which international film festival?

A) Berlin International Film Festival

B) Cannes Film Festival

C) International Film Festival of India

D) Venice Film Festival

2. What Japanese loan word refers to a taste that is pleasantly savory?

A) Bento

B) Karaoke

C) Umami

D) Wasabi

3. Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is the main character in novels by which author?

A) Harlan Coben

B) Michael Connelly

C) Laura Lippman

D) Ian Rankin

4. What was the name of Jodie Foster’s character in “The Silence of the Lambs”?

A) Anna Crowe

B) Phoebe Forrester

C) Cecily Pigeon

D) Clarice Starling

5. In the Disney film, one of Bambi’s friends is a skunk with what unlikely name?

A) Flower

B) Rosie

C) Rusty

D) Spot

6. British general Charles Cornwallis surrendered his troops to George Washington at which Virginia site?

A) Appomattox Court House

B) Manassas

C) Richmond

D) Yorktown

Answers

1) Winners at the Venice Film Festival are awarded the Golden Lion statuette.

2) Umami, or pleasantly savory, is the “fifth taste,” after salty, sweet, sour and bitter.

3) Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is a character in books by Michael Connelly.

4) Jodie Foster won an Oscar for her role as Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

5) Flower the skunk is one of Bambi’s friends.

6) Gen. Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington after the siege at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.

Email Leslie at triviabitsleslie@gmail.com.