You Aced The SAT, How About The LAT?

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LAT – what’s that?

Lobonagar Aptitude Test.

Something I concocted purely for fun.

To test you on what you know about us Lobos of the Bay Area and what you don’t.

So without further ado, friends and relatives, I present to you below, the LAT.

Ready?

1) Which of these has not been raised or grown by one of us?

• Olives
• Walnuts
• Sheep
• Almonds
• Chickens
• Cherries
• Tomatoes
• Grapes
• Zucchinis
• Artichokes

Answer: Artichokes.  We leave that to Castro Valley, which is the home of the artichoke and where an Artichoke festival has been held every year since 1959. You can read about it here.

2) Which of these foods does the Lobo Khandaan not know how to make?

• Appams
• Biryani
• Mole
• Bamia
• Banofi
• Sannas
• Chappathis
• Paella

Answer: Sannas. Sadly, none of us has ever made this popular and traditional Mangalorean (idli-like) bread. In the hope of inspiring someone to correct this situation, I have included the recipe here. 

For those wondering where you've heard the word sannas before, could be you did in my post: The Mangalorean and the Big Words.  Prior to that post, sorpotel (the dish with which sannas are eaten) also got some love in my post about April Gallaty titled The Sometimes Red Headed, Sometimes Orange Headed, Sometimes Purple Headed Link Between Baseball and King Cake. Remember that?

For a humorous post specific to cooking and our family, Our Cakeboss Family is a fun read.

3) Which of these performances cannot be part of a Lobonagar retrospective?

• Singing Hava Na Gila
• Impersonating Michael Jackson
• Making a Christmas tape of multiple instruments played in a garage
• Jiving at Knock Out
• Lecturing on history at WI colleges
• Giving wedding toasts
• Playing the lead in Bye Bye Birdie
• Reciting poetry
• Doing magic shows
• Playing Richard Corey on the guitar
• Belting out All My Secrets on the Piano
• Imitating Futon Shop owner
• Dancing in lungis

Answer: Surprise.  Surprise.  All of them can. Have fun trying to match these performances with the Lobonagar members who are associated with them. Speaking of music, I hope you will read my post Family Songs which is about the musical traditions in our family; and I also encourage you to read my post Why I Can Never Get a Job in Google - if only to make sure you don't let music and other teen detours keep you from getting your act together. Of course, if you do, you can always course correct by doing the Flower Exercise mentioned in my post "Can A Book About Job-Hunting Show You The Path Back to Yourself?"

4) At which of the following venues have our weddings been held?

• On rooftops
• In army clubs
• In New York
• In South Indian hotels
• In Country Clubs
• In the Santa Cruz hills
• In a winery
• On university campuses
• In churches

Answer: At all of the above.  And to this list, we can now add " scenic Oakland park located right next to Chabot Space and Science Center." This is where the 40^th wedding anniversary celebrations of one of these weddings took place recently. If you want to see the pics of this momentous event, as the agent of the photographer who took the pics, I can hook you up. (Tanita, if you didn't know I was your agent, well, you do now).

By the way, Bay Area visitors, if you’ve never been to the Chabot Space and Science Center, put it on your bucket list to visit the Chabot in Oakland, and while you are there, to take in the Oakland Zoo nearby.

Speaking of bucket lists, I read a hilarious article about bucket lists written by Simon Doonan who is a Slate magazine contributor. Check out his commentary on some of the Match.com bucket lists for an assured chuckle.

5) And finally, which of these is not a Lobonagar topic of conversation?

• Wine
• Meditation
• Healthcare
• The Stockmarket
• Colleges
• Movies
• All Things Food
• History
• Fashion
• Politics

Answer: If you said politics, you score a big Zero. Thanks to one particular Lobonagar denizen (you may know who), we are obliged to have political views on everything under the sun. If you come to one of our gatherings, you will identify who I am talking about in the first 5 minutes. Guaranteed!  I must warn you, though. When you turn right on the road to this person’s house, you turn right – in every sense of the word.

That said, the topic that’s least likely to come up in Lobonagar conversations is fashion.   

My friend Rads once commented “Minoo, sartorial splendor is not your thing”. Well now you know – I can blame it on the family.  However, one learns to make lemonade out of lemons. And that's what I did; finding blog material in being fashion- challenged and even making it a personality plus in my post How to Become More Unique.

This wraps up this first edition of the LAT.  How did you do? Not so good.  Well you can always take the LAT for free again!:)

P.S. Please feel free to circulate this to other interested LAT test takers and if you are interested in reading all things Lobonagar, be sure to check out my Pinterest board The Lobonagar Chronicles.

P.S. 3: As always, thanks for reading and do come back again.