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Today’s Answers
Five apparently random questions.
One
What sacred river is mentioned in the poem Kubla Khan; and who wrote the poem?
Answers: Alph; Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Kubla Khan
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Two
What is an eight-letter adjective defined as ‘of or resembling a hare or hares’; and what is a seven-lettered noun meaning ‘a young hare in its first year’?
Answers: Leporine; leveret.
leporine /ˈlɛpərʌɪn / ▸ adjective of or resembling a hare or hares: that leporine, glazed gaze. – ORIGIN mid 17th century: from Latin leporinus, from lepus, lepor- ‘hare’.
leveret /ˈlɛv(ə)rɪt / ▸ noun a young hare in its first year. – ORIGIN late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, diminutive of levre, from Latin lepus, lepor- ‘hare’.
Three
In M*A*S*H Radar but not Hawkeye. In sport or leisure activities kayak but not canoe. In forms of address madam but not mister?
Answer: Palindromes.
RADAR, KAYAK and MADAM are all palindromes: a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards.
Four
… is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, … proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of …. By the 17th century, the province of … had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic. —Wikipedia
What one word has been removed from the above quote from Wikipedia?
Answer: Holland.
Holland is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. It was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire from the 10th to the 16th century and later became a dominant maritime and economic power in the Dutch Republic. The name ‘Holland’ is derived from the Old Dutch term holtland (‘wood-land’), rather than the popular but incorrect belief that it comes from hol land (‘hollow land’).
Five
What links these fictional characters: the Fonz; the main character in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; and a member of the Order of the Phoenix?
Answer: Arthur.
Arthur Fonzarelli, a character in Happy Days. Arthur Dent from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter books and films.
In the Beginning
The title points to Alpha, the initial letter, and to alpha and omega as the first and last. The opening letters of the answers—taking the first answer when multiple exist—spell A–L–P–H–A.
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