Malcolm X - Gardner Museum Heist | Beans About Boston . 7

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So you think you know beans about Boston? We'll see. Take our progressive trivia test. Every week a question, carefully crafted by our crack trivia team, is posed about Boston history, culture, customs, driving directions or whatever.

Email your answer (on the back of a $20 PayPal draft) to contact@roofscapemagazine.com. Contestants with the correct answer will be acknowledged and losers admonished.

Now the 'progressive' part of the test is this. When we post the answer to the previous week's question (Old Beans) it will be followed by a related background briefing. Recall that information in the future to help solve some New Beans.

Old Beans ...

Malcolm X moved to Boston in the early 1940's, a troubled teenager with a tumultuous past, to live with his aunt Ella on Dale Street in Roxbury. Soon after his arrival, his aunt offered him a piece of advice that Malcolm later recalled as being one of the most important he was ever given. What was it?

1. Go see Boston.
2. Get a job!
3. Go to church.
4. Get some sharp threads.
5. Join the Nation of Islam.

Correct answer ... 1. Go see Boston.

Aunt Ella told Malcolm to go see Boston before he became busy with a job and schooling and had no time to wander around the city. He took her advice and was amazed by all the history on view wherever he went, including the Boston Massacre monument featuring Crispus Attucks, the black martyr who helped spark the American Revolution.

Amazingly, no one got this right. 100% of respondents chose 5. Join the Nation of Islam. Malcolm joined the Nation after being introduced to it by fellow prisoners while serving time in Concord and Walpole.

New Beans ...

The infamous art heist at the Gardner Museum - the largest in history with an estimated current worth of a half-billion dollars and now approaching its 20th anniversary - was cleverly carried out by thieves posing as what?

1. Mimes.
2. Undertakers.
3. Policemen.
4. Plumbers.
5. Exterminators.