Category: Pursuit of the Trivial

Five random questions for you to ponder today. 

One

On which of the Great Lakes did the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sink with the loss of her entire crew in 1975?

1. Lake Michigan
2. Lake Ontario
3. Lake Superior

Answer: 3. Lake Superior.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship on the Great Lakes, sank during a storm on November 10, 1975, with all 29 crew members lost. The cause of the sinking remains unknown, though it is believed to have been due to a combination of factors such as structural failure and high waves. The disaster led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices. The Edmund Fitzgerald disaster, immortalised in Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, led to significant changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations, including mandatory survival suits and increased inspections.

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Two

This Eurasian woodland plant, Allium uranium, with broad shiny leaves and round heads of flowers, producing a strong aroma of garlic is also called wild garlic. What is it?

1. Larsons
2. Ramsons
3. Tamsons 

Answer: 2. Ramsoms.

Allium ursinum, or wild garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant native to Eurasia. It is a wild relative of onion and garlic. It has several names including ramsons; it is also known as buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, cowleekes, cows’s leek, cowleek, wood garlic, Eurasian wild garlic, onion grass, bear leek and bear’s garlic. 

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Three

What letter(s) is the symbol which represents the element tungsten?

1. T
2. Gs
3. W

Answer: 3. W.

Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally in compounds and was first isolated as a metal in 1783.

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Four

Who, on a sixties album, released a version of the Christmas carol Silent Night with a simulated 7 O’clock News, which featured real events from the preceding summer, being read over it? 

1. Crosby, Stills and Nash
2. Joni Mitchell
3. Simon & Garfunkel

Answer: 3. Simon & Garfunkel.

7 O’Clock News/Silent Night by Simon & Garfunkel is a sound collage from their 1966 album, combining Silent Nightwith a simulated news bulletin. A sound collage juxtaposes Silent Night with a news report, highlighting social issues like civil rights, Lenny Bruce’s death, and the Vietnam War. The track’s mix emphasises the contrast between the news and the Christmas song.

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Five

In which Scottish body of water was the German High Seas Fleet scuttled in June 1919?

1. Loch Ness
2. Scapa Flow
3. Firth of Lorn

Andwer: 2. Scapa Flow.

Scapa Flow is a strait in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It was an important British naval base, especially in the First World War. The German High Seas Fleet was interned there after its surrender, and was scuttled in 1919 as an act of defiance against the terms of the Versailles peace settlement.

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The Wind in the Wires Made a Tattle-tale Sound — Post Title

The post title is a line from The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. Full lyrics below from AZ Lyrics.

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

By Gordon Lightfoot.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
[Former version:] That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
[Latter version:] That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early 

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’? 

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind 

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Saying, “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.”
[Former version:] At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
[Latter version:] At seven PM it grew dark, it was then
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters 

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered 

[Former version:] In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
[Latter version:] In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
AZ Lyrics.

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Five random questions for you to ponder today. 

One

On which of the Great Lakes did the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sink with the loss of her entire crew in 1975?

1. Lake Michigan
2. Lake Ontario
3. Lake Superior

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Two

This Eurasian woodland plant, Allium uranium, with broad shiny leaves and round heads of flowers, producing a strong aroma of garlic is also called wild garlic. What is it?

1. Larsons
2. Ramsons
3. Tamsons 

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Three

What letter(s) is the symbol which represents the element tungsten?

1. T
2. Gs
3. W

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Four

Who, on a sixties album, released a version of the Christmas carol Silent Night with a simulated 7 O’clock News, which featured events from the preceding summer, being read over it? 

1. Crosby, Stills and Nash
2. Joni Mitchell
3. Simon & Garfunkel

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Five

In which Scottish body of water was the German High Seas Fleet scuttled in June 1919?

1. Loch Ness
2. Scapa Flow
3. Firth of Lorn

Good luck! I’ll post the answers later.

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