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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What would best describe how Mencken felt about stage acting?
(a) It stabs at the soul with genuine feeling.
(b) It is completely unworthy of the price of admission.
(c) Like portrait painting, stage acting provides a window into the truth.
(d) It gladdens the heart with falsity.

2. To what degree has "new architecture" impacted America?
(a) It hasn't reached American shores yet, and Mencken pleads with Europe to let America "borrow" it.
(b) It has not had much of an impact.
(c) It has come to dominate America, much to Mencken's delight.
(d) It has come to dominate America, much to Mencken's chagrin.

3. What was the source of Oliver Wendell Holmes' allure?
(a) His ability to bribe officials at every level of government.
(b) His eloquent, epigrammatic writing style.
(c) His personal charisma and sometimes outrageous court antics.
(d) His ability to stick to the facts and write sound legal opinions.

4. What aspect of old-time education did Mencken miss most in modern education?
(a) The tolling of the dinner triangle.
(b) The insistence on only male teachers.
(c) The charm of the one-room schoolhouse.
(d) Corporal punishment.

5. What criticism did Mencken have for a book filled with sayings and writings about death?
(a) The book failed to include the work of Theodore Dreiser.
(b) The book failed to mention music at all.
(c) The book had three quotations attributed to the contemptible Oliver Wendell Holmes.
(d) The book had nothing from the ancient Greeks.

6. Why was early Christianity superior to modern Christianity, per "Holy Writ"?
(a) Services took place in cold places, to ensure better concentration.
(b) It featured a lot less sermonizing.
(c) It featured more moral instructions.
(d) Early Christianity had a less strict interpretation of Biblical stories.

7. What city was featured in "The Libido for the Ugly"?
(a) Baltimore, Maryland.
(b) Washington, D. C.
(c) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(d) Dayton, Ohio.

8. How had Wallace behaved in "The Wallace Paranoia"?
(a) He was convinced there are Communist space aliens.
(b) He had been a bumbler and an "ass."
(c) He was flirting with "most every thing in a dress."
(d) He had managed difficult times with great elegance.

9. What point did Mencken make when referring to the picture of a French soldier who was deformed with multiple amputations in war?
(a) Mencken thought it was terribly sad that the man will not be able to walk into heaven.
(b) Mencken imagined that the soldier likely sought a glorious death in battle, but now has to live life in a pathetic state.
(c) The French were brave people, indeed.
(d) The soldier made the noblest of sacrifices, and will be remembered forever.

10. How did Mencken describe the music of Chopin?
(a) "Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled."
(b) "Genesis I, I"
(c) A dozen wind chimes in a hurricane."
(d) "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet."

11. What happened when Mencken sent a junior reporter to get him liquor during the Republican National Convention?
(a) The convention organizers caught Mencken and toss him out.
(b) The reporter encountered drunken goons, and failed to get any liquor.
(c) The junior reporter was arrested and spends the night in jail.
(d) The reporter stole liquor from an aristocrat's secret stash.

12. What was Mencken's opinion of Gothic architecture?
(a) Completely out of style.
(b) Valuable and useful.
(c) Hideous.
(d) Joyless and dreary.

13. Who did Mencken NOT count among the "crackpots" present in "The Wallace Paranoia"?
(a) Career political operatives.
(b) Communists.
(c) Psychopaths.
(d) Bible-belt evangelists.

14. Who was Mencken referring to with the title, "A Good Man in a Bad Trade"?
(a) A chiropractor.
(b) Woodrow Wilson.
(c) Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(d) Grover Cleveland.

15. How did Mencken describe the music of Puccini?
(a) "Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled."
(b) "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet."
(c) "Two intertwined dogs yapping at each other."
(d) "A dozen wind chimes in a hurricane."

Short Answer Questions

1. What problem did Mencken have with Justice Holmes' final court case?

2. According to Mencken, why was Samuel Johnson unique as an artist?

3. How was Mencken able to get a taxi driver to drive him to a speakeasy in Pennsylvania?

4. Complete the following aphorism found in "Sententiae": "Democracy is..."

5. In "The Wallace Paranoia," who was Mencken referring to with the phrase "raisins in the bread."

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