Here are the answers to today’s questions.
Image Wikimedia Commons
All of these questions are related to today’s date, May 25th.
One
What was the first X-rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture?
Midnight Cowboy.
Released on this day in 1969, Midnight Cowboy, directed by John Schlesinger, stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight as New York hustlers. It won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and is the only X-rated film to do so. Ranked 36th and 43rd on AFI’s lists, it was preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry in 1994.
X-certification has been renamed in some domains; for example, in the U.K., it is now an 18 certificate, which is suitable only for persons aged 18 years and over, and in the U.S., NC-17, No one 17 and under admitted.
Two
He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.
The above lines are the opening verse of an 1897 poem which was published under the pseudonym C.3.3. What is the poem, and who wrote it?
Answer: The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde.
On 25 May 1895, Wilde had been convicted of ‘committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons’, sentenced to two years’ hard labour; he served the majority of his sentence in Reading Gaol. His poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which was written after his release from prison, narrates the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge. It highlights the brutalisation of punishment and Wilde’s identification with prisoners. Published in 1898, under the pseudonym C.3.3. — his prison identification by which he was addressed — it remained anonymous until Wilde’s identity as author was revealed in 1899. The poem, which sold well, provided Wilde with an income for life.
Three
The author who created the character Jason Bourne in a 1980 novel was born in 1927. Who was this author?
Answer: Robert Ludlum.
Robert Ludlum, an American author known for his spy thrillers, wrote best-sellers like The Bourne Identity and The Scarlatti Inheritance. Despite criticism of his plots and prose, his fast-paced espionage novels were immensely popular. He authored 27 thriller novels, including the Jason Bourne series, which have been published in 33 languages and sold an estimated 300-500 million copies.
Four
An actor, born in 1939, links the roles of John Profumo in 1989, Mithrandir (2001), and Leigh Teabing (2006). What actor?
Answer: Ian McKellen.
Ian McKellen, who was born in England on this day in 1939, played John Profumo in Scandal (1989). In 2001, he took on the role of Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — Mithrandir is how Gandalf is known by the Elves in their Sindarin language. He portrayed Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code (2006).
Five
…; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor, a comic opera, debuted in London in 1878. What has been omitted from the beginning of the opera’s title?
Answer: H.M.S. Pinafore.
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor, a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, premiered in 1878, running for 571 performances. Set on a Royal Navy ship, it humorously critiques the British class system and authority. Its success led to other popular works, influencing modern musical theatre.
Quizology.Online 
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