Tag: nature

  • Terrible Twos | Answers

    The answers to my earlier post are shown in bold below. I have included the question simply for your information.

    Pratchett’s Night Watch at the top and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch below.
    Image Pinterest
    1. Willem van Ruytenburch, dressed in yellow, is depicted in a 1642 Rembrandt painting titled similarly to a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. What two words which form the novel’s title are also present in the painting’s title?
      • Night Watch—Rembrandt’s The Night Watch depicts a civic guard company, while Terry Pratchett’s novel follows Sir Samuel Vimes and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.
    2. One was the Bond girl Solitaire, and the other was Henry VIII’s third wife. What was their shared name, first and last?
      • Jane Seymour—Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, died of postnatal complications after giving birth to Edward VI. Jane Seymour, born Joyce Frankenberg, is a British actress known for roles in film and television. A Bond girl, she played psychic Solitaire in Live and Let Die (1973).
    3. What crow is also the name of a Tchaikovsky ballet?
      • Nutcracker—The nutcracker genus, Nucifraga, comprises four species of passerine birds in the Corvidae family. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet, The Nutcracker, is based on Alexandre Dumas’s short story and features a nutcracker doll. The ballet’s score, particularly its use of the celesta, has become famous and is widely performed.
    4. What name links a London gunmaker, which is over 200-years old, and a character in The New Avengers, a British television series from the 1970s?
      • Purdey—James Purdey & Sons, a British gunmaker based in London, specialises in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. The company holds Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families. Purdey, played by Joanna Lumley, was a spy working for British Intelligence in The New Avengers, a British television series in the seventies.
    5. The Royal Guardsmen’s song “_ vs. the Red Baron” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1966. The fictional character missing from the song title became a mascot for aerospace safety in 1969 and has often since been associated with NASA. Can you name the character?
      • Snoopy—The Royal Guardsmen are an American band with several snoopy related hits. Snoopy has been associated with NASA since the Apollo era, inspiring generations to dream big about space exploration. During Artemis I, Snoopy will serve as the zero-gravity indicator, symbolising the journey to the Moon. This partnership continues to promote STEM education and excitement about space exploration. (Snoopy/NASA)
  • Terrible twos


    Today’s trivia features a variety of questions without multiple-choice options, requiring you to come up with the answers yourself.

    Mrs Henry VIII, the third.
    Image Wikipedia
    1. Willem van Ruytenburch, dressed in yellow, is depicted in a 1642 Rembrandt painting titled similarly to a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. What two words, which form the novel’s title, are also present in the painting’s title?
    2. One was the Bond girl Solitaire, and the other was Henry VIII’s third wife. What was their shared name, first and last?
    3. What crow is also the name of a Tchaikovsky ballet?
    4. What name links a London gunmaker, which is over 200-years old, and a character in The New Avengers, a British television series from the 1970s?
    5. The Royal Guardsmen’s song “_ vs. the Red Baron” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1966. The fictional character missing from the song title became a mascot for aerospace safety in 1969 and has often since been associated with NASA. Can you name the character?

  • Continuing the theme, some more true or false | Answers

    The answers to my earlier post are shown in bold below. I have included the question simply for your information.

    Laurel and Hardy.
    Image Wikipedia
    1. True or false MCMXCIX is the Roman numeral for 1999.
      • True—MCMXCIX is 1999. M=1,000; C=100; X=10; I=1.
        M + (M – C) + (C – X) + (X – I) = MCMXCIX. There are various online resources explaining this, but here is well-explained one.
    2. True or false, Morecambe and Wise reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
      • False—Laurel and Hardy reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. The song was from Laurel and Hardy’s 1937 film Way Out West and was performed by Laurel and Hardy with The Avalon Boys.
        The first page of the edition of the Domenica del Corriere, an Italian paper, with a drawing by Achille Beltrame depicting Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo.
        Image Wikipedia
    3. True or false, Gavrilo Princip assassinated US President William McKinley.
      • False—It was Leon Czolgosz who assassinated President McKinley in 1901. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg, in Sarajevo. Their deaths led to the outbreak of World War I.
        Margay in Costa Rica.
        Image Wikipedia
    4. True or false, a margay is a small monkey native to Madagascar.
      • False—a margay is a small wild cat native to the Americas, ranging from Mexico to Uruguay and northern Argentina.
        Procol Harum, 1967.
        Image Wikipedia
    5. True or false, “Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor” is a line from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
      • False—it is the second line of the first verse, from Procol Harum’s 1967 number 1 A Whiter Shade of Pale. See quote below.

    A Whiter Shade of Pale

    Procol Harum

    (1967)

    We skipped the light fandango
    Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor
    I was feeling kind of seasick
    But the crowd called out for more
    The room was humming harder
    As the ceiling flew away
    When we called out for another drink
    The waiter brought a tray

    And so it was that later
    As the miller told his tale
    That her face, at first just ghostly
    Turned a whiter shade of pale

    She said, “There is no reason
    And the truth is plain to see”
    But I wandered through my playing cards
    And would not let her be
    One of sixteen vestal virgins
    Who were leaving for the coast
    And although my eyes were open
    They might just as well have been closed

    And so it was that later
    As the miller told his tale
    That her face, at first just ghostly
    Turned a whiter shade of pale

    And so it was that later
    As the miller told his tale…

    Lyrics from AZLyrics.

  • Continuing the theme, some more true or false

    Morecambe and Wise.
    Image BBC

    Here are a few questions which are related to today’s date,

    1. True or false, MCMXCIX is the Roman numeral for 1999.
    2. True or false, Morecambe and Wise reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
    3. True or false, Gavrilo Princip assassinated US President William McKinley.
    4. True or false, a margay is a small monkey native to Madagascar.
    5. True or false, “Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor” is a line from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

  • An A to Z Cornucopia of Trivia. Part IV | Answers

    Here are the answers to my earlier post.

    Portrait of Samuel Pepys by John Hayls. Wikipedia
    See #3.

    1. Q) Question mark—The question mark, used to indicate questions in many languages, has a history dating back to the 5th century. Its modern form, a curved mark, emerged in the 13th century and was standardised in the 15th century. The term “question mark” was first used in the 1850s.
      Rebecca book cover. Wikipedia
    2. (R) RebeccaRebecca is a 1938 Gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier about a young woman who marries a wealthy widower haunted by his late first wife. The novel, a bestseller, has been adapted for stage, screen and as a musical.
    3. (S) Samuel Peyps—Eleanor Gwyn, also known as Nell Gwyn, was an English actress and mistress of King Charles II, celebrated for her comic performances and as a folk heroine of Restoration England. She had two sons with the King, Charles and James Beauclerk. Known for her frank recklessness, generosity and good temper, Nell rose from humble beginnings as an orange-girl to become a leading comedienne in the King’s Company, performing in plays by John Dryden and James Howard. After becoming Charles II’s mistress in 1669, she retired from the stage, lived extravagantly, entertained the king and his friends and secured titles for her sons.
      Inland Taipan aka Fierce snake. Wikipedia
    4. (T) Taipan—Taipans are large, fast-moving, highly venomous snakes endemic to Australia and New Guinea. There are three recognised species, with the coastal taipan having two subspecies. Taipan refers to foreign-born senior business executives or entrepreneurs operating in China or Hong Kong. The term also refers to influential business families in the Philippines. Tai-Pan, a 1966 novel by James Clavell, is the second book in his Asian Saga and introduces the Struan family.
    5. (U) Uranus—Gustav Holst’s The Planets is a seven-movement orchestral suite depicting the planets as astrological symbols. The suite premiered in 1918 and quickly became popular.
    Uranus on 1986-01-23 formula NASA’s Voyager 2 probe. Wikipedia
  • An A to Z Cornucopia of Trivia. Part IV

    Nell Gwyn. Wikipedia

    Some trivia related to the letters Q to U

    1. (Q) An eroteme is a …
      • Quartz crystal
      • Question mark—
      • Quetiapine medication
    2. (R) “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”, is the opening line of what novel?
      • Rebecca
      • Rowena
      • Roxanne
    3. (S) Which contemporary of Charles II’s mistress, Nell Gwyn, described her as “pretty, witty Nell”?
      • Samuel Johnson
      • Samuel Pepys
      • Samuel Richardson
    4. (T) One word links snakes of the genus Oxyuranus; a foreign-born senior business executive in China or Hong Kong and a novel by James Clavell. What word?
      • Taipan
      • Titanoboa
      • Trinket
    5. (U) In Gustav Holst’s suite what is “the Magician”?
      • Uluru
      • United States
      • Uranus

    Good luck. I will post the answers later today.

  • An A to Z Cornucopia of Trivia. Part II | Answers

    Freesia. Wikipedia
    1. (F) Freesia—Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants native to eastern southern Africa. Cultivated hybrids of Freesia species are commonly known as “freesias” and grown as ornamental plants.
    2. (G) Golden Cap—Golden Cap, a hill and cliff in Dorset, England, is the highest point near the south coast of Great Britain. It is owned by the National Trust and part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site.
      H.G. Wells by George Charles Beresford, 1920. Wikipedia
    3. (H) H.G. WellsHalf a Sixpence is a 1963 musical comedy based on H.G. Wells’s novel Kipps. The show, tailored for Tommy Steele, follows Arthur Kipps, an orphan who inherits a fortune and learns that money can’t buy happiness.
    4. (I) Ireland—In May 1915, the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner, was sunk by the German submarine U-20, 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. This tragic event resulted in the loss of 1,197 lives, including passengers, crew, and stowaways. The sinking significantly boosted American support for entering World War I.
    5. (J) J. Alfred PrufrockThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is T. S. Eliot’s first published poem, reflecting the title character’s thoughts in stream-of-consciousness style. Initially considered outlandish, it is now seen as a landmark in the shift from Romanticism to Modernism in poetry.
      Regarding the wrong alternative answers: J. Bruce Ismay was the chairman of the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic. He faced criticism and was branded a coward after surviving the sinking. J. Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the FBI. He served in that role in the predecessor organisation, the BOI, and the FBI for a total of 48 years.
    RMS Lusitania. See #4 above. Wikipedia

  • An A to Z Cornucopia of Trivia. Part II

    Some trivia related to the letters F to J.

    See question 2. Image Wikipedia
    1. (F) Named after a German botanist, what is a flowering plant of the iris family?
      • Foxglove
      • Freesia
      • Fuchsia
    2. (G) Which hill, on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, is the highest point on England’s south coast?
      • Golden Cap
      • Golden Law
      • Golden Tor
    3. (H) Half a Sixpence, the musical, was adapted from the 1905 novel Kipps. Who wrote this novel?(I)
      • H.E. Bates
      • H. Rider Haggard
      • H.G. Wells
    4. (I) In 1915, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed 11 miles (18 km) off the coast of which country?
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Ivory Coast
    5. (J) What T.S. Eliot character says, “I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;”?
      • J. Alfred Prufrock
      • J. Bruce Ismay
      • J. Edgar Hoover
    T.S. Eliot. Wikipedia

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

  • Spaghetti Tree | Answers

    The answers to my earlier post are shown in bold below..

    Duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), Scottsdale, TAS, Australia. Wikipedia
    1. True—Male platypuses have spurs on their hind feet that deliver painful venom making them one of only a few species of venomous mammals.
      Harriet Beecher Stowe by Alanson Fisher (1807 – 1884).
      Google Art Project/Wikipedia
    2. False—Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Stowe, an American writer and philanthropist, is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which significantly impacted public opinion against slavery and is considered a contributing factor to the American Civil War. Growing up in a family of intellectuals and abolitionists, Stowe’s experiences in Cincinnati, Ohio, and her interactions with fugitive slaves deeply influenced her writing.
      Yogi Bear. Hanna-Barbera Productions/Wikipedia
    3. False—Yogi first appeared on Hanna-Barbera’s The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958.
      Jewish girls during Bat Mitzva in Alexandria, Egypt (before 1967).
      Nebi Daniel Association/Wikipedia
    4. True—a bat mitzvah is a solemn ceremony held in some synagogues where a girl of 12 to 13 years of age is formally accepted as an adult member of the Jewish community. It is equivalent to a boy’s bar mitzvah.
      Roadrunner. Wikipedia
    5. True—Roadrunners, or chaparral birds, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos found in deserts across the southwestern and south-central United States, Mexico and Central America. The roadrunner, popularised by Warner Bros. cartoons, is depicted as faster than coyotes, but in reality, coyotes are twice as fast. The cartoons also perpetuate the misconception that roadrunners say “meep, meep”.

      The Simpson-Reed Grove of coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) on US Route 199, California, USA. Wikipedia
    6. FalseSequoia is a genus of redwood coniferous trees. Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, is a large, hairy mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America. It holds significant cultural importance in American and Canadian folklore.

    Spaghetti tree

    Why Spaghetti Tree? The BBC’s 1957 April Fools’ Day hoax, broadcast on the current-affairs programme Panorama, featured a convincing three-minute segment showcasing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from “spaghetti trees”. The report, which claimed the eradication of the dreaded spaghetti weevil had resulted in a bumper crop, was given credibility by being voiced by respected journalist Richard Dimbleby. At the time, spaghetti was relatively unfamiliar to the British public, prompting many viewers to contact the BBC for tips on cultivating their own spaghetti trees. This cleverly executed prank has since been hailed by CNN as

    “undoubtedly the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.”

    —CNN.

    The Spaghetti tree hoax on BBC’s Panorama current-affairs programme was voiced by respected journalist Richard Dimbleby. Wikipedia
  • Spaghetti Tree

    Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in Zoom and Bored, 1957. Wikipedia

    April 1. Some of these may be true, indeed they may all be, but on the other hand they may, some or all, be false. Don’t be fooled!

    1. True or false: a platypus, aka a duck-billed platypus, is a venomous mammal.
    2. True or false: novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama?
    3. True or false: Yogi Bear made his television debut in The Bugs Bunny Show.
    4. True or False: A bat mitzvah is a coming-of-age ritual in Judaism.
    5. True or false: The roadrunner is one of two species of fast-running ground cuckoos.
    6. True or false: Sequoia is another name for Bigfoot, the legendary creature from the forests of North America’s Pacific Northwest.

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.