A Serious Pursuit of the Trivial

The answers to my earlier post are shown highlighted below.

One

The unstriped ground squirrel is which of these?
– Xandra Neramanius
– Xerus rutilus
– Xantia citroenus

Answer: Xerus rutilus

The unstriped ground squirrel is a rodent species found in dry savannas and shrublands across East Africa. The distractors provided were made-up terms: Xandra Neramani (us) is a character in Marvel comics, while Xantia citroen (us) refers to the Citroën Xantia, a French car manufactured between 1992 and 2001.

Two

Founded in Rochester, New York in 1906 the Haloid Photographic Company is better known today as…

Answer: Xerox

Xerox, founded in 1906 as Haloid Photographic Company, commercialised Chester Carlson’s xerography process in 1951. Joseph C. Wilson, who took over Haloid, led the company’s development of xerography and renamed it Xerox Corporation in 1961. In 2019, it became Xerox Holdings Corporation.

Three

Calculate the sum of the number of steps from the title of John Buchan’s 1915 novel plus the title of the 1979 Blake Edwards romantic comedy film starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews and Bo Derek. Please express your answer in Roman numerals.

Answer: XLIX

John Buchan’s steps are The Thirty-nine Steps and Blake Edward’s film is 10. Therefore, 39 + 10 = 49, which is written as XLIX in Roman numerals.

Four

What surname links these?

• A Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, and
• The fictional Professor X from the Marvel universe.

Answer: Xavier

Francis Xavier, a cleric and missionary, co-founded the Society of Jesus and led the first Christian mission to Japan. He is venerated as a saint and known as the ‘Apostle of the Indies’ for his extensive missionary work in Asia, particularly in India and Japan.

In the Marvel universe, Professor Charles Francis Xavier, known as Professor X, is a powerful telepath and mutant. As the founder of the X-Men, Professor X runs a school for mutants in New York. The character has been portrayed by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy in the X-Men film series.

Five

One word links the following?

• A word in the first line of an 1816 poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem
• A 1968 by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
• A 1980 song by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra

Answer: Xanadu

The poem is Kubla Khan, shown in full below. The Legend of Xanadu was by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich and Olivia Newton-John and ELO’s song was Xanadu.

Kubla Khan

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.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ‘twould win me
That with music loud and long
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Continuing the alphabet theme and all today’s answers begin with the letter ‘X’.

One

The unstriped ground squirrel is which of these?
– Xandra Neramanius
– Xerus rutilus
– Xantia citroenus

Two

Founded in Rochester, New York in 1906 the Haloid Photographic Company is better known today as…

Three

Calculate the sum of the number of steps from the title of John Buchan’s 1915 novel, plus the title of the 1979 Blake Edwards romantic comedy film starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews and Bo Derek. Please express your answer in Roman numerals.

Four

What surname links these?

• A Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, and
• The fictional Professor X from the Marvel universe.

Five

One word links the following

• A word found in the first line of an 1816 poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem
• A 1968 song by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
• A 1980 song by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra
  What is the word that links the above?

Good luck! I will post the answers later today.