Did Al Gore Really Invent the Internet - And Other Trivia Questions

How much do you know about "Al Gore"? Could you pass a quiz?

Question: How big a pencil-neck trivia geek are you?

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: The Big Green Guy Quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

The answers will be revealed on the next page.

1) __ When Al Gore appeared on television's "The Dennis Miller Show", comic Dennis Miller asked Gore, "So, who rolls a tighter joint? You or Tipper?"

Gore smiled and replied, "Tipper."

Tipper was offstage at the time of the interchange, and she was not pleased.

2) __ Al Gore never really said that he had "invented the Internet." Fox News was the first to fabricate the story; then it spread to bad comics on late night television. However, one of the real fathers of the Internet, Vinton Cerf, does call Gore a true pioneer of the Internet.

3) __ During Al Gore's presidential election campaign in 2000, he wanted a photo opp that showed his "pro-environment" platform. He especially wanted a shot showing him rowing a boat down the Connecticut River. Unfortunately, Connecticut was experiencing a drought and the River's level was too low to float Al's boat. Local New Hampshire authorities granted Gore a favor. They opened a nearby dam, releasing 4 billion gallons of water into the Connecticut River - at a cost of $7 million for Gore's photo opp.

4) __ Al Gore and his wife Tipper were the sole models for the doomed young Ivy League lovers in Erich Segal's bestselling novel "Love Story" and later a hit 1970 movie with Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw.

5) __ Al Gore enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam mostly to help his father, Senator Albert Gore, win re-election in Tennessee. His father was one of the Senate's strongest critics against the Vietnam War. His stand was extremely unpopular in Tennessee. The Senator's son felt that enlisting and going into the war zone would help. Unfortunately, his father lost the election and son Al was in the middle of a war zone.

6) __ When asked about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction in a September 2003 interview, Al Gore said, "We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."

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Here are the answers for the The Big Green Guy Quiz.

Answers:

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. It's true that Al Gore appeared on "The Dennis Miller Show", and Miller asked him, "So, who rolls a tighter joint? You or Tipper?"

It's false that Gore smiled and replied, "Tipper."

It's true that Tipper was offstage at the time of the interchange. She was not pleased with Dennis Miller's question.

2) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. In a 1999 CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer, Al Gore said "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." While the prior statement doesn't exactly state that he had "invented the Internet", I'll lean toward calling this true. It is also true, however, that Vinton Cerf, the man who is most often called "the Father of the Internet", has publicly stated that Al Gore was a prime mover of the Internet.

According to an article in Rolling Stone by Eric Boehlert, "Republican operatives" spread a grossly embellished story via The New York Times, not Fox News; thus making this "factoid" false.

3) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. It's true that, during the 2000 campaign, Gore wanted a photo opp that showed him rowing a boat down the Connecticut River. It's also true that New Hampshire authorities opened a nearby dam to raise the River's water level. It's false that any member of the Gore campaign asked for a favor. The request was made by the Secret Service for security sake. It's also false that 4 billion gallons of water were released into the Connecticut River. According to Rolling Stone, 500 million gallons were released; making the prior mentioned media stories a gross exaggeration. The $7 million cost was also grossly exaggerated because the gallons of water weren't wasted at all. It was "recycled" to a hydroelectric plant, generating another form of much needed energy.

4) F: It's false that the Oliver character in "Love Story" is based solely on Al Gore. According to a 1997 New York Times interview, author Erich Segal said that Oliver was partly based on Al Gore. The other part was Gore's Harvard housemate, actor Tommy Lee Jones.

In the same interview, Segal said, "I did not draw a thing from Tipper."

5) T: According to a New York Timesarticle by Melissa Henneberger, it's true that Al Gore claimed that he enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam mostly to help his father, one of the Senate's strongest anti-war critics, win re-election in Tennessee. His father was against the Vietnam War. It's also true that his father lost the election anyway.

6) T: It's true that, in 2003, Gore said, "We know that he (Saddam) has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330722/bio

"The Press vs Al Gore", Eric Boehlert, Rolling Stone, URL: (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5920188/the_press_vs_al_gore/)

"Critics question how 'green' Gore is", Anne Paine, Detroit Free Press, URL: (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070227/NEWS07/70227039)

"Al Gore's Journey", Melinda Henneberger, New York Times, URL: (http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062100wh-gore.html)

"'Love Story' ends in tears for Al Gore", David Usborne, The Independent, URL: (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19971215/ai_n14139921)

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/gorevietnam.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/fortunate.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp