Truth is always strange, Stranger than Fiction—Answers

Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.
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Here are the answers to the questions I posted earlier.

Today’s questions not only relate to January 22nd, they are also all about quotes. The first two questions are multiple choice, while the remainder are not.

One

Today’s post title is ‘Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction’. The person, born today in 1788, who originated this saying, was whom?

  • Lord Byron
  • Mark Twain
  • Rudyard Kipling

Answer: Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron)

‘T is strange,—but true; for Truth is always strange—

 Stranger than fiction: if it could be told,

How much would novels gain by the exchange!

— Lord Byron: Don Juan (1819)

Mark Twain is also associated with this phrase, but it was originated by Byron.


Two

Which science fiction author wrote ‘How does one hate a country, or love one?’?

  • Isaac Asimov
  • Philip K. Dick
  • Ursula K. Le Guin

Answer: Ursula K. Le Guin

How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one’s country; is it hate of one’s uncountry? Then it’s not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That’s a good thing, but one mustn’t make a virtue of it, or a profession… Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness


Three

On this day in 2004, Wikiquote had this as its Quote of the Day: ‘I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.’ Whose words are being quoted?

Answer: Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams, English author and humourist, created The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a radio comedy that became a successful book series and was adapted into various media. He also wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, and contributed to Doctor Who and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.


Four

What king, who had previously said, ‘I don’t mind praying to the Eternal Father, but I must be the only man in the country afflicted with an eternal mother,’ ascended the British throne on this day in 1901, and who was his mother?

Answer: King Edward VII; Queen Victoria

The quote was a joke referring to his mother’s famously long reign of almost 64 years. Queen Victoria died in 1901, and Edward succeeded to the throne at the age of sixty.


Five

A 1960 song which was written by a singer-songwriter born today in 1931 includes these lines: ‘All day long they work so hard / Till the sun is goin’ down.’ Who is the singer-songwriter and what is the song?

Answer: Sam Cooke; Chain Gang

All day long they work so hard
Till the sun is goin’ down.
Working on the highways and byways
And wearing, wearing a frown.
You hear them moanin’ their lives away.
Then you hear somebody say:
“That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang.
That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang.”

Chain Gang


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Author: Quizologist

As a retired trivia writer, editor and quiz compiler, I wholeheartedly agree with Bertrand Russell’s quote: “There’s much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.” Trivia of all sorts has always fascinated me, and for many years, I’ve written and compiled trivia for various media, including traditional TV and radio quiz shows, newspapers and magazines, apps, and other digital platforms.

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