Lately, every day brings a surprise. You're hanging out, waiting for the Independence Day fireworks to start, and suddenly there is Sarah Palin on TV, announcing that she's quitting her job because she's not a dead fish. And now we're hearing that San Diego is under attack from giant flying squid with razor-sharp beaks. And then there's the string of weird political sex scandals. Illicit lust is not, in and of itself, a novelty in our nation's capital. But over the past few weeks we've gotten one story after another about politicians whose extramarital affairs turned into public displays of strange behavior, conflict and hysteria. For instance, the estranged wife of Chip Pickering, a very conservative, toothy ex-congressman from Mississippi, has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering blames the woman, Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, for ruining her family and forcing Pickering to turn down an offer to succeed the departing Trent Lott in the Senate. If it weren't for Creekmore Byrd, Leisha Pickering contends, her husband would have been promoted, and she would still be happily married. See what I mean? The story starts out with a humdrum married-boy-meets-married-girl, and then suddenly arcs into a lawsuit over alienation of a Senate seat. Strange times. Let's see how closely you've been paying attention: 1. The Prayer House is a Washington nickname for a row house where some conservative Christian members of Congress go for meals and religious study groups. It is also the place: A) Where Gov. Mark Sanford got counseling during his affair. B) Where Sen. John Ensign lived during his affair. C) Where Chip Pickering lived during his affair. D) All of the above. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 2. The Prayer House is owned by a secretive evangelical group known as the Fellowship. According to Jeff Sharlet's book, 'The Family,' the Fellowship was founded in 1935 to fight the New Deal, by a minister who said that God had appeared to him in the guise of: A) An angel. B) A blinding light. C) Wendell Wilkie. D) The president of U.S. Steel. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 3. When Chip Pickering retired from Congress in January, he said he was leaving to: A) Become a lobbyist for the cell phone company owned by his mistress. B) Spend more time with his family. C) Spend more time with the Fellowship. D) Rethink that Senate offer. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 4. When the parents of Sen. John Ensign of Nevada learned that their son had had an affair with his campaign bookkeeper, who was married to his chief aide, they: A) Were shocked and dismayed. B) Urged their son to give up politics and return to his former career as a veterinarian. C) Gave the cuckolded aide and his wife $96,000 'out of concern for the well-being of longtime family friends.' D) Went hiking on the Appalachian Trail. 5. According to his ex-aide, Prayer House regulars convinced Ensign to write a breakup letter to his lover. In it, Ensign referred to a relationship that had 'suffered terribly' because of the affair. It was the one between him and: A) Mrs. Ensign. B) The Fellowship. C) God. D) The people of Nevada. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 6. In a TV interview, Ensign's ex-aide described the complicated story of his boss's pursuit of his wife and concluded: A) 'I'm beginning to think the senator may not be as worried about the integrity of the American family as he says.' B) 'It happened in Vegas, but it didn't stay there.' C) 'All those tentacles were birthed because John needed things to go down like this.' D) 'If I'd known what he was like I'd never have trusted him with my collie.' 7. When he was in Washington as a congressman, Mark Sanford used to live: A) In the Prayer House. B) On a couch in his office. C) In a normal apartment. D) Near the Argentine Embassy. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 8. In an interview with the AP, Sanford said his relationship with Mar?a Belen Chapur was 'a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was: A) A complicated affair.' B) An affair that required a great deal of commuting.' C) A love story.' D) A bad idea.' (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) 9. When Sanford disappeared earlier this summer, his aides told reporters he had gone: A) To test the presidential waters. B) To lay off some more public schoolteachers. C) To seek solace in nature. D) To help the Fellowship stage an intervention on John Ensign. (AST)(AST)(AST)(AST)(AST) Answers: 1-D; 2-D; 3-B; 4-C; 5-C; 6-C; 7-B; 8-C; 9-C 