Tag: nature

Finders keepers | Answers

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

Image

The Rolling Stones, 1965.
Left to Right: Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards
Image Wikipedia
  1. Brian Jones, born 1942, was a guitarist and founder member of what band?
    • Rolling Stones—Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, initially played slide guitar and later sang backing vocals and played various instruments. After developing alcohol and drug problems, his role in the band diminished, leading to his dismissal in 1969 and subsequent drowning at age 27.
      Shishapangma, Tibet.
      Image Wikipedia
  2. Which of these is NOT found in the Andes?
    • Shishapangma—aka Shishasbangma or Xixiabangma, is the 14th highest mountain in the world, standing at 26,335 feet (8,027 metres) above sea level. It is the lowest 8,000-metre peak and is entirely situated within the Tibetan Plateau. Notably, Shishapangma was the final eight-thousander to be conquered in 1964. Aconcagua and Cotopaxi are both in the Andes; Aconcagua is the highest mountain that is not in Asia, while Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano.
      Ferdinand von Wrangel.
      Image Wikipedia
  3. Of which of these was explorer Ferdinand von Wrangel founder?
    • Russian Geographic Society—Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel was a Russian-German explorer and officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. He is known as the chief manager of the Russian-American Company and governor of Russian settlements in present-day Alaska.
      Icosagon.
      Image Wikipedia
  4. How many sides would be found on a polygon described as an icosagon?
    • 20—In geometry, an icosagon, or twenty-sided polygon, has a sum of 3240 degrees in its interior angles.
      Russell viper.
      Image Wikipedia
  5. The big four venomous snakes found on the Indian subcontinent are those responsible for causing the greatest number of medically significant snake bites on humans. Which of these is one of the big four?
    • Russell’s viper—The Big Four venomous snakes—Russell’s viper, common krait, Indian cobra and Indian saw-scaled viper—are responsible for the majority of medically significant snakebites on the Indian subcontinent. A 2020 study found Russell’s viper accounted for 43% of snakebites in India, followed by kraits (18%), cobras (12%), and other species. In 2023, the World Health Organisation published worldwide estimates showing that each year, 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes, resulting in 1.8 to 2.7 million envenomings and 81,410 to 137,880 deaths.

Finders keepers

A few questions all of which simply feature either the word found or founder!

Brian Jones.
Image history.com
  1. Brian Jones, born 1942, was a guitarist and founder member of what band?
    • Fleetwood Mac
    • Rolling Stones
    • The Hollies
  2. Which of these are NOT found in the Andes?
    • Aconcagua
    • Cotopaxi
    • Shishapangma
  3. Which of these was explorer Ferdinand von Wrangel a founder of in 1845?
    • National Geographic Society
    • Russian Geographic Society
    • Swedish Geographic Society
  4. How many sides would be found on a polygon described as an icosagon?
    • 20
    • 25
    • 30
  5. The venomous snakes found on the Indian subcontinent that are responsible for causing the greatest number of medically significant snake bites on humans are known as the big four. Which of these is one of the big four?
    • Black mamba
    • Russell’s viper
    • Many-banded krait

Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

Who, What, When, Where, Why and How IV | Answers

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

Eric Liddell.
Image Wikipedia
  1. Who was a British Olympic gold medal winner died in a Japanese civilian internment camp during the Second World War and whose story was told in Chariots of Fire?
    • Eric Liddell—a Scottish sprinter, rugby player, and Christian missionary, was born in China to Scottish missionary parents. He won the 400 metres at the 1924 Paris Olympics after refusing to run in the heats for the 100 metres as they were held on a Sunday. These events were recounted in the film Chariots of Fire. He became a Congregational minister in 1932, and served as a missionary teacher in China until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945.
      Flyer for the 1979 stage production at the ICA of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
      Image Wikipedia
  2. What author wrote, “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move“?
    • Douglas Adams—The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise that began as a BBC radio series. The story follows Arthur Dent, the last human who hitched a ride off Earth before its destruction.
      The X-Men, Volume 1
      Image Marvel Fandom
  3. When did the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters make its first appearance In Marvel Comics?
    • 1963—The X-Mansion, located in Westchester County, New York, is the base of operations for the X-Men and houses the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The mansion has undergone several name changes and relocations, reflecting significant events in the X-Men’s history.
      Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
      Image Harry Potter Fandom
  4. Where did Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire come in the Harry Potter book series?
    • Fourth—Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series, following Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts. The book, published simultaneously in the UK and US in 2000, won a Hugo Award and was adapted into a film and video game.
      Eastern glass lizard.
      Image Wikipedia
  5. Why is the glass lizard, such as the eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis), so called?
    • Their tails break off—Anguinae, a subfamily of legless lizards in the Anguidae family, commonly known as glass lizards, glass snakes, or slow worms, are native to North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Their tails easily break or snap off, earning them their first two common names.
      Depiction of Rip Van Winkle by John Quidor.
      Image Wikipedia
  6. How long does Rip Van Winkle sleep in Washington Irving’s short story?
    • 20 years—Rip Van Winkle is a short story by Washington Irving about a Dutch-American villager who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and awakens 20 years later to a changed world. The story was inspired by a conversation on nostalgia and published in 1819

Who, What, When, Where, Why and How IV

Image Wikipedia
  1. Who was a British Olympic gold medal winner who died in a Japanese civilian internment camp during the Second World War and whose story was told in Chariots of Fire?
    • Arthur Lumsden
    • Eric Liddell
    • Hector Lynch
  2. What author wrote, “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move“?
    • Douglas Adams
    • Isaac Asimov
    • Terry Pratchett
  3. When did the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters make its first appearance In Marvel Comics?
    • 1937
    • 1949
    • 1963
  4. Where did Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire come in the Harry Potter book series?
    • Third
    • Fourth
    • Fifth
  5. Why is the glass lizard, such as the eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis), so called?
    • They are diaphanous
    • They are mirror-like
    • Their tails break off
  6. How long does Rip Van Winkle sleep in Washington Irving’s short story?
    • 10 Years
    • 15 years
    • 20 years

Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

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.
      Jane Seymour, 1994.
      Image Wikipedia
      Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife.
      Image Wikipedia
  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).
      Nutcracker (Nucifraga_caryocatactes).
      Image Wikipedia
      First performance of The Nutcracker in Mariinsky Theatre
      Image Wikipedia
  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.
      Purdey shotgun.
      Image Purdey.com
      Purdey (Joanna Lumley).
      Image Pinterest
  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.
      Snoopy vs. The Red Baron.
      Image Wikipedia
      Snoopy as a zero gravity indicator.
      Image Peanuts/NASA
  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) Rebecca—Rebecca 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.