Thank you so much, Pen, for doing these little quizzzzzes o mine. If you have cable tv, and if you get the Turner Classical Channel ("TCM") please try to catch "Singin' in the Rain" the next time they run it. You will love it.
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Thank you so much, Pen, for doing these little quizzzzzes o mine. If you have cable tv, and if you get the Turner Classical Channel ("TCM") please try to catch "Singin' in the Rain" the next time they run it. You will love it.
The answer to last week’s bonus question is: Wives.
“Woman was God’s second mistake.” Do you agree with Nietzsche on that one? Fact of the matter is that for millennia womankind has been oppressed, repressed, and pressed into service when some guy wants his pants pressed.
For too many centuries women have been the butts of too many jokes. I read somewhere that the old chestnut “That was no lady, that was my wife” dates back to ancient Rome. I wish I could type the original version, but my Latin is rusty.
Speaking of which, years ago I was about to begin subbing for an advanced class in English as a Second Language when I heard two young Asian men yukking it up in the back of the room. Fortunately, their English was more advanced than my Chinese (which was non-existent). When I asked them politely what they were laughing about, they replied that they were telling mother-in-law jokes. I guess humor is the universal language.
But we women are more than mere fodder for jokes. We are grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, wives, girlfriends, yet – to cop a phrase from late night infomercials – “Wait! There’s more!” Hence, this week’s quiz:
Extraordinary Women
1. Who was Chaucer’s lusty teller of tales who provided an alternative to the medieval anti- female mind-set? She describes herself this way: “Hosbandes at chirche dore I have had fyve.”
2. Who wrote the novel Little Women?
3. For Book III of his masterpiece Edmund Spenser created a female knight. Her name is Britomart; her motto: “Be bold, be bold, be not too bold.” What is the title of the entire poem, written between 1590-1596?
4. Who was the 20th century American lyricist (1905-1974) who was the only female songwriter to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. You’ll also find her “on the sunny side of the street.”
5. Name the George Bernard Shaw’s title character who is an officer in the Salvation Army.
6. Which early American First Lady urged her husband to “remember the ladies?”
7. Cole Porter’s smash hit, Kiss Me Kate, was loosely based on which Shakespearean comedy?
8. Identify the reclusive but extremely significant 19th century American poet who said she wrote “a letter to the world that never wrote to me.”
9. Who was the very first female to receive the Nobel Prize? (In physics, yet! So take that, Larry Summers!)
10. Who was the first Black American ever to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize? She won it for her 1950 volume of poetry, Annie Allen.
11. Who was the mild-mannered yet courageous publisher of The Washington Postduring the Watergate scandal?
12. She was the novelist who gave the world Middlemarch, Silas Marner, and [I]The Mill on the [/I]Floss, but she didn’t use her real name, Mary Ann Evans. Instead her books were published under which masculine pseudonym?
13. Born in 1917, she truly was a pioneer, as she broke into the male-dominated realm of stand-up comedy with her endearing self-deprecating humor. Who said, “I was in a beauty contest once. I not only came in last, I was punched in the mouth by Miss Congeniality.”
14. Considered by many to be the best novelist of her era, in 1813 this writer opened one of her books this way: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that asingle man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Who is she?
15. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest person and the first Black American ever to receive the Best Play award from the New York Critics Circle. The title of her work is derived from a line by Langston Hughes. Can you name it?
16. Name the Greek goddess of war and wisdom.
17. Born in 1941, this songwriter was a mere teenager when she worked in the Brill Building and cranked out such hits as “One Fine Day” and “Up on the Roof,” as well as Aretha Franklin’s famous “Natural Woman.” It wasn’t until 1971 before she had a best-selling album of her own. Who is she?
18. Who was the Shoshone woman who was indispensable as a translator and guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition?
19. Christina Rossetti was more into writing poetry than shopping but her most famous work depicts two sisters tempted into buying forbidden fruit from grotesque vendors. What is the title of this 1862 allegorical poem?
20. And finally, who was the widely-quoted Algonquin Wit who wrote pithy poems, sardonic short stories, and sarcastic drama reviews in which she quipped “[I]The House [/I]Beautiful is the play lousy?”
Answers
1. The Wife of Bath
2. Louisa May Alcott
3. The Faerie Queene
4. Dorothy Fields
5. Major Barbara
6. Abigail Adams
7. The Taming of the Shrew
8. Emily Dickinson
9. Marie Curie
10. Gwendolyn Brooks
11. Katherine Graham
12. George Eliot
13. Phyllis Diller
14. Jane Austen
15. A Raisin in the Sun
16. Athena
17. Carole King
18. Sacajawea
19. "The Goblin Market"
20. Dorothy Parker
Sure and you’ll be knowin’ the topic for next week’s quiz if ye guess the missing word in this title:
“Did Your Mother Come from _______?” (What?)
Thanks for another great quiz, Auntie. I hope you are aware of how much some of us appreciate the clever little zingers you put into you work – like the one leading up to the guy who wants his pants pressed. Things like this, and the ways in which you word your questions, yield a great deal of delight.
I got numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14 (but I have to admit 14 was a guess), 16, and 18. I thought I knew a few Dorothy Parker quotes, and I knew she used to sit at some Algonquin Round Table somewhere, but I didn’t know that particular quote. I would ask you to zero in on Dorothy Parker quotes that I’m more familiar with, but you might claim that you don’t know which ones those are.
And since I’m a big fan of Frank Patterson and Anthony Kearns, I not only got the bonus question, but I’m also very ready for next week’s quiz. And all this despite the fact that my own mother came from somewhere else.
thank you, Dick Z. I'm assuming that Frank and Anthony are the songwriters who came up with the title of the bonus question. (I just knew the song, not the composers.
Shame on me.)
Re: Question #3. We had to read "The Faerie Queene" back in school, when considerably closer to its original publication date of 1596. Spenser had planned to write
12 books, but he had only finished 6. So when asked "How many books of The Faerie Queene have you read, they'd get themselves into trouble by replying "12." The safer answer would be Gov. Palin's famous answer, "All of 'em."
By the by --"Britomart" Sounds like a discount store in
London, right?
Got only 2, 5,7, 9 and 17.
Lots of American culture in it, so I guess that I can excuse myself with that.
Whoa, Aunty, somehow I missed the one on the movies. But it's a good thing. I knew nothing there, not one, zippo. I know nothing of those things. :blush:
Now this week on women, well I apparently know women very well. :brow: And I love my wife and my mother and my sister and all the women in my life and on lit net. :)
Ok on this quiz I got twelve: 1,3,5,7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16,18.
No, Frank Patterson and Anthony Kearns are singers, who sing the song that happens to be the bonus question. I have no idea who the composers might be.Quote:
Originally Posted by AuntShecky
Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
As well you should! (But God Bless ya, for't!)
12 out of 20 correct? Good. Then I'm on the right track.
My goal is to write a quiz, not too difficult and not too easy,
in which somebody hits 'em all.
I got 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 20! Which means that I still got only about half of them right, whcih is how I usuallly do with your quizzes, Auntie. I got half of 11-I knew her first name was Katherine.
The answer to the last bonus question is: Ireland.
‘Tis March and your aunt’s arrived once more,
this time to bring minutiae of Celtic legend and lore:
how tiny Esirt, the poet of King Iubhdan’s band,
could fit in the palm of the dwarf, Aedh’s, hand;
toward tyranny, old and new, vows ever t’ renounce
in language of wit in words I can never pronounce;
how the strangers ‘cross the sea, stirring mighty dread,
well met the shillelagh’s wrath upside o’ the head;
or wrenching one’s back for a hard kiss o’ the Stone
brings a gift o’ the blarney to cajole ye t’ the bone;
the Inferno’s circles that did Dante once tell,
naught but fairy rings beside the Saint’s vision of Hell,
inspiring Eire’s Faithful toward God’s judgement to fear
with His love for the auld sod forever kept near.
Yet in all of these grand t’ings that Eire has held dear
not one, I’ll be tellin’ ya, mentions green beer.
Sure, and t’is well to be goin’ straight to th’ quiz now:
1. A plant from several species of Trifolium and Oxalis, used by St. Patrick to explain the Trinity, serves as the national symbol of the Republic of Ireland. In ancient Rome Pliny the Elder said it was the only plant that a serpent wouldn't touch.
2. And speaking of serpents, legend says that St. Patrick once drove them all off an cliff into the Irish Sea. It’s true that no snakes exist in Ireland, but this is the result of which geophysical phenomenon from the earth’s history?
3. No Country for Old Men is an award-winning film derived from the first line of which poem by William Butler Yeats?
4. Which Irish-born playwright refers to the Emerald Isle in a play called John Bull’s Other Island?
5. This satirist and cleric (1667-1745) was born of English parents in Dublin. One of his works features tiny creatures resembling leprechauns. Who was he?
6. Who was the Galway-born noblewoman (1852-1932) who was also a scholar of folklore, a patroness of literature, and a playwright in her own right as well as creating the Abbey Theatre?
7. James Joyce’s masterpiece is Number One on the list of most important books of the twentieth century, but it took a Federal District Court decision to reverse its ban in the United States. What is the title of this novel?
8. Who was the poet, born in 1939 (the year that Yeats died), who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995? His works include Death of a Naturalist and Door into the Dark.
9. What is the general name for the turmoil-tossed region from which in 1920 six counties were placed under the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland while the remaining three stayed in the Republic of Ireland?
10. The beauty of this Irish patriot, philanthropist, and actress(1866-1953) was widely- renowned, but her chief claim to fame was her nearly-omnipresent role as the muse for W.B. Yeats. Who was she?
11. Born in a slum, he grew up to be not only a fierce fighter for Irish independencebut also one of Ireland’s most important playwrights, though some productions caused riots. He wrote Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars. Who was he?
12. The notion that there have been more people of Irish heritage in the United States than have ever lived in Ireland has inspired the themes for many Irish-American works. The assimilation of Jewish and Irish immigrants into American life was the topic of a 1922 long-running play by Anne Nichols that held the Broadway record for decades. What was the title of this romantic comedy?
13. What catastrophic event occurring in Ireland in 1845 caused a million people to starve?
14. What is the nuclear particle which quantum physicists named after a word they found in Finnegans Wake by James Joyce?
15. James Stephens (1882-1950) collected and translated Irish folklore but is best known for a prose fantasy whose title is a symbol for the elusive treasure that allegedly sits at the end of the rainbow. What was the name of this 1912 work?
16. One of the most significant figures in 20th century literature, this playwright, novelist, and poet (1906-1989)was Irish-born but he wrote his works mainly in French. Still he often exemplified the dual Gaelic character of twinkling wit and deep despair. One of his most famous lines is “I can't go on, I'll go on. . .” Who was he?
17. And finally, name the Irish county which gave the always-funny and often-bawdy 5-line rhyming verse its name.
Answers
1. Shamrock
2. The ice age.
3. “Sailing to Byzantium”
4. George Bernard Shaw
5. Jonathan Swift
6. Lady Gregory
7. Ulysses
8. Seamus Heaney
9. Ulster
10.Maude Gonne
11. Sean O’Casey
12. Abie’s Irish Rose
13. The Potato Famine
14. quark
15. The Crock of Gold
16. Samuel Beckett
17. Limerick
and begorra, here’s the Bonus now, which will be givin’ ye the topic of the next quiz.
Fill in the blank:
The Aran Islands on the West coast of Ireland often form the _______ for J. M. Synge’s plays.
Thanks, Auntie. I was able to get the bonus question from last week, but I still missed more than I got right on this week’s quiz. I got numbers 1, 7, 9, 12, 13, and 17 right. I’m taking credit for number 13, although I said the Potato Latke Famine, after placing too much importance on number 12. I hope that’s all right.
Got all of them bar no. 12! Go me! lol!
I know the ins and outs of the bonus question too, but i will go on forever if i write it down. I'll get carried away. J.M.Synge is after all my favourite Irish Playwright! :D
Thanks for takin' the quizz, DickZ and Niamh. For the both of ye
as well as the rest o' ye now, a heartfelt toast from th' auld sod:
Slainte 'gus Saol agat!
Go raibh mile maith agat!
I got nine right: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 13, 14, 16, 17. I should have gotten a few others but memory lapses suck. I'm actually taking credit for number 1, even though I called it a three-leaf clover. I think that's the same thing.
The answer to the previous bonus question is: setting.
If you're a fan of the Science Channel, you might have seen various programs about string theory and “parallel universes,” in which could exist a multitude of different versions of our world and everything on it (including you me.) I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that just one of me is more than enough for any number of universes!
But if you buy the parallel universe notion, then it would also make it theoretically possible for a person to be simultaneously in more than one place. I've got news for you – it’s already possible to be in two places at once. Case in point: At this moment you are sitting in front of your computer, out there in Upper Sandusky or
Outer Mongolia, wherever. Yet at this self-same moment, you are also “on” the LitNet, ergo, two places at once. Yeah, I know, that’s neither here nor there. Let’s make it three places and go to the quiz:
Everybody’s Got to Be Someplace
1. Who was the 20th century poet whose trademark lower-case letters could be found in such graceful poems as “somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond”?
2. When a well-known character asks a fairy where she’s been, she answers “Over hill, over dale. . .” adding, “I do wander everywhere.” Name the Shakespearean comedy in which this passage appears.
3. An anonymous saying, cited by the author of The Romance of the Rose as well as St. Bonaventure, defines “a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.” Whose “nature” is so described?
4. In 1923, what was the question posed to George Leigh Mallory in which he famously replied, “Because it was there”?
5. The Unnameable, the last part of a novel trilogy, consists of a stream of conscious monologue by a narrator whose head is encased in a glass jar set in an alley behind a downscale restaurant. Who was the author?
6. What is the title of E.M. Forster’s first novel, culled from a line by Alexander Pope?
7. Because of theological technicality, some souls, which are barred from heaven and hell yet not guilty enough to be sentenced to purgatory, required a kind of permanent holding area. What is the name of this place, which is also the name of a dance which originated in the Caribbean islands?
8. Inspired by a passage in Plato’s Republic and written in Latin, Utopia depicts an idealized island community. Who wrote this 1516 fantasy?
9. On a similar theme, Samuel Butler’s 1872 satire uses a future world to poke fun at social and political institutions which actually existed circa 1872. Name the title, which is an anagram of a common English word we use every day.
10. Where did heroic Scandinavian warriors go after they were slain on the battlefield?
11. According to songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, where do “bluebirds fly”?
12. What is the title of Sartre’s absurdist play in which three characters are imprisoned in a room where the door won't open?
13. And finally, in 17th century England it was rare for women to forge literary careers, but one woman fought the tide and became a celebrated playwright. Even though most of us never heard of Aphra Behn, we often quote her lines. Finish this famous saying:
“Here today. . .” and what?
Answers
1. e e cummings
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
3. God
4. “Why did you climb Mount Everest?”
5. Samuel Beckett
6.Where Angels Fear to Tread
7. Limbo
8. Sir (or Saint) Thomas More
9. Erewhon (an anagram for “nowhere”)
10. Valhalla
11. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
12. No Exit
13. “. . .gone tomorrow.”
Bonus Question
( in which is set a hint about the next topic.) Finish this phrase from a line from King Lear:
“That way madness ____” (what?)
Thanks, Auntie. For number 1, I knew it was either kd lang or ee cummings because they are the only two people with brains that I know of who use lower case letters for everything. I tossed a coin and it came up ee cummings so I’ll take credit for a right answer. I also guessed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I started out really strong.
After missing number 3, probably because I don’t go to synagogue as often as I should, I got number 4. I guessed To Err is Human as the title borrowed from Alexander Pope for number 6, so it shows that you can’t just keep guessing and do all that well on an Auntie Quiz. I also guessed calypso instead of limbo for number 7, again proving it’s better to know the material than to guess.
Since I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz when I was about five, and a few times since, I got number 10 right. I got numbers 11, 12, and 13 correct also, and I didn’t even have to guess on them.
So to recap, I got 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Thank you for taking the quiz, DickZ. I appreciate your feedback.
Ooh, I did extremely well on this one, even thouogh I felt tentative with each answer, but they turned out to be correct. I got eleven correct, all correct from 1 through 10 and 13. I think you transposed the answers for 10 and 11 in your answers list.
[QUOTE=Virgil; I think you transposed the answers for 10 and 11 in your answers list.[/QUOTE]
Whoops! Won't be the first time I made a foolish mistake on the "Internets." All fixed, mehopes. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Virgil.
Well, only 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 13, but better than half correct.
The answer to the previous bonus question is: lies.
A couple of years ago an urban myth surfaced out of the pop culture underground about some plainclothes detectives who'd ginned up a devious scheme in order to get a probable perpetrator to confess to a crime. After hauling the poor schlub down to headquarters, the
cops hooked him up to a device which they led him to believe was a lie detector. In reality it was an office photocopier. Each time the suspect answered a question, a button would be pushed, producing a print-out which proclaimed: “He’s lying!”
That possibly apocryphal anecdote reminds me of the one about the mad scientist who crossed truth serum with hair-growing tonic in order to concoct a potion thatcould detect bald-faced lies.
By now you've probably surmised that the theme for this quiz is truth-benders, prevaricators, and fork-tongued four-flushers. (Good thing it’s against the rules to mention current politicians, or we'd be here all day.)
Would I Lie to You?
1. Nearly every culture has a version of this tale in which a shepherd boy continually calls out false alarms in order to make fun of his fellow villagers. Who is he?
2. What is the title of Melville’s 1857 tour de force set on a Mississippi riverboat on April Fool’s Day in which a master of disguises deceives everyone on board with his philosophically astute and humorous lies?
3. In Shakespeare’s Othello, who is the character addressed in the following lines: “You told a lie, an odious damned lie/Upon my soul, a wicked lie!”?
4. The first-time effort by director Steven Soderberg was a complex plot involving adultery, truth, and a technological invention which in 1989 was still a novelty in many households. What was the title of this movie, which won top honors at the Cannes Film Festival?
5. In Acts 5:1-11, what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira after they each told consecutive lies about a real estate deal?
6. A nonce word, “Newspeak,” was coined by George Orwell to describe the language used by the government in which novel that’s a perennial favorite on the LitNet?
7. Who wrote the lines: “O what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practice to deceive?”
8. In 1917, U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson said that truth is the first casualty of what?
9. According to Matthew 26, who lied by saying “I do not know the man” three times before the (rooster) crowed?
10. This next quotation has been quoted time and time again, but few know that it originated with Lord Byron. Can you finish the line? “Truth is stranger than (what?)”
11. Pinocchio was created not by Disney but by an Italian writer whose pen name was Collodi. What is the curious thing that happens to the little puppet every time he tells a lie?
12. The 1951 movie Royal Wedding features a song that may have the longest title in filmdom: “How Can You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?” The film’s star, undoubtedly a straight-forward gent in real life, was a Hollywood icon, perhaps best known as half of a dancing duo. So who was he?
13. And finally, name the prominent American author (1835-1910) who wrote this line: “One of the striking differences between a lie and a cat is that a cat only has nine lives.”
Answers
1. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
2. The Confidence Man
3. Iago
4. sex, lies, & videotape
5. They both dropped dead.
6. 1984
7. Sir Walter Scott
8. War
9. Peter the Apostle
10. fiction
11. His nose grows.
12. Fred Astaire
13. Mark Twain
BONUS: For a God’s-honest-true clue about the next quiz fill in the missing word in the title of this song by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers:
“Why Do _____ Fall in Love?”
Eek, I only got seven: 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12. Good one Auntie. :)
Thanks, Auntie, for all your efforts on these entertaining quizzes.
I got number 1 about The Boy Who Cried Wolf, mainly because I know so many people who do exactly the same thing as the boy and then they get upset when I fail to agree with them that the world is coming to an end again today just like it was yesterday and just like it was the day before that and just like it was the day before that and how come the hardships just never end for them?
I also got number 3 (Iago) thanks to the fact that my memory of the characters’ names from Othello is limited to just three (Othello, Iago, and Slyshock), which jacks up the probability of a correct guess from about 5% to about 38%.
I missed number 5 because I said they got interviewed by Donald Trump, which is pretty stupid on my part since Donald Trump wasn’t even in the Bible.
I got number 6 because I read that book once, and I was able to remember that even though it was several years before 1984 when I read it.
I missed number 7 because I could have sworn that the spider Charlotte said that.
I got number 8 just because I happened to remember that quote about truth being the first casualty of war. I think the news reporters always say that whenever a new war starts – and it applies to MSNBC whether there’s a war on or not.
I missed number 9 because I only know stuff about the Old Testament, since most of us Jews don’t know much stuff about the New Testament.
I got number 10 except that I feel guilty taking credit for it since I had no idea that Lord Byron said it first.
I got numbers 11 and 12, but I don’t really know why and besides, you probably don’t even care.
In summary, I got numbers 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12. I missed all the others.
And I know the answer of next week’s bonus question mainly because I know so many people who fall into that same category, despite the fact that some of them say I fall into that category as well. Of course, the ones who say that are total morons.
I got 1,4,6,9,10,11,12, and 13 correct, and the bonus question-one of my favorite songs. Which means that I got 5 of the questions wrong-which is actually pretty good for me! :D
Thanks Virgil, DickZ, and qimissung not only for taking the little
quiz but also for your most helpful comments!
The answer to last week’s bonus question is: Fools.
National Poetry Month begins today. That it’s also April Fool’s Day is just a coincidence, right? Here are some lines from Alexander Pope (1688-1744):
“Sir, I admit your gen’ral rule
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.”
Whether we write verse or not, today is a day when we're all susceptible to becoming victims of practical jokes, yet, according to Horace (65-8 B.C.) everybody should have a chance to let loose once in a while: “Mix a little foolishness in your serious plans.” That’s just fine for April 1, but now I've got to come up with an excuse for the remaining 364 days of the year! Meanwhile, to the quiz:
Fools Rush In
1. What’s the term for writing paper, usually 13 ½" by 16 ½," often yellow in color? The company which manufactured this stationery originally used a watermark in the shape of the kind of hat worn by jesters.
2. Derived from the Greek, what is the word often synonymous with a “wise fool,” i.e., immature and overconfident, like a certain student who has only limited experience?
3. The character of the Fool is said to represent Truth in which Shakespearean tragedy?
4. In ornithology, it refers to a coastal aquatic member of the Larinae subfamily; in Elizabethan and Restoration comedies, a stock character, usually a high-born gentleman who is easily duped. What’s the word?
5. By what name is the mineral pyrite more commonly known?
6. What would one call a fruitless enterprise or a trivial pursuit or a wild goose chase?
7. In 1975, Foolish Pleasure won which significant thoroughbred race for three-year-olds?
8. Name the English essayist (1561-1626) who noted that “Silence is the virtue of fools.”
9. A favorite – and evidently anonymous – quotation among lawyers is the line about a man who acts as his own attorney. What does he allegedly have?
10. Name the author from upstate New York noted for his 1993 novel, Nobody’s Fool.
11. What is the activity which Dr. Johnson (1709-1784) is credited with describing as having “a stick and a string with a worm at one end and a fool at the other”?
12. P. T. Barnum stole the line “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.” Who said it first?
13. And finally, name the humorist and novelist who said: “First the good Lord made idiots. Then, when he had achieved sufficient practice, he made school boards.”
Answers
1. Foolscap
2. Sophomore
3. King Lear
4. Gull (Mentioning it in The Tempest, V,i, Shakespeare also uses the word "geek." I kid you not!)
5. Fool’s gold
6. A fool’s errand
7. The Kentucky Derby
8. Francis Bacon
9. “A fool for his client.”
10. Richard Russo.
11. Fly-fishing. (Trout season opens today–another April Fool’s coincidence?)
12. Abraham Lincoln
13. Mark Twain. [Twain got a lot of mileage out of that one line, substituting “fools” for “idiots,” and other groups, such as printers or Congress(men) for “printers.]
Bonus question, containing a clue for the next quiz. Supply the missing word:
“There’s no fool like an ___ fool.” (Present company excepted, of course. . .ahem.)
I got 9 out of 13 on the Lies quiz, but boy did I take a beating on this one. I only got four (5, 7, 11, and 12). Yikes!!
Thanks for another creative quiz, Auntie. I got numbers 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 13 correct. You sure fooled me on all the others.
And I know answer to the bonus question.
That must mean you're a bigger liar than you are a fool. Maybe that's a good thing - or maybe not.Quote:
Originally Posted by PabloQ
jeez i was pathetic with that one. :blush: only two!
The answer to the previous bonus question is: old.
There’s an old saying that up here in my neck o’ the woods there are four seasons:Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. Judging by the temperature outside, it’s Still Winter, though the calendar says Spring, when the fancy of a young man (and at least one old woman) turns to thoughts of. . .baseball!
What has the grand old game have to do with this week’s topic, especially when the demands of the big league necessarily define it as a “young man’s game?” Toward the end of his legendary career, the colorful Major League manager, Casey Stengel (1890-1975) was asked, given his longevity, how he was doing. Casey replied, “Not bad. Most people my age are dead. You could look it up.”
Similarly, no one really knew the exact chronological age of Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, who nonetheless might have been the greatest pitcher who ever lived. Satchel said, “I don't know how old I am because the goat ate the Bible that had my birth certificate in it. The goat lived to be twenty-seven.”
With that, let’s play ball!
Everything Old is New Again
1. Who or what is the whippersnapper whose age is estimated to be between three and five billion years old?
2. Oscar Wilde famously ridiculed the pathetic death of a character in an 1840 Dickens novel widely criticized for its excessive sentimentality. What was the title of the novel?
3. What is the collective name given to the group of great artists who flourished in Italy, Holland, and Belgium from the 13th through the 16th centuries?
4. In relatively recent years, a long-running Broadway musical was loosely based on a 1939 book of whimsical verse titled Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Who was the poet?
5. London’s “Old Vic” theatre was noted for its productions of whose plays?
6. If one uses the influence of one’s male relatives and close family friends in order to secure a plum position in the workplace, he is said to be connected to the “old” what?
7. By what term do scholars call the first five Books of the Old Testament?
8. The Old Maid is a 1924 novella from a collection titled Old New York by which American novelist?
9. It’s the title of 1595 satirical play by George Peele and a 1908 novel by Arnold Bennett, but we know it best as an expression referring to a superstitious belief to which many folks, especially older women cling. What’s the phrase?
10. Name the highly significant Irish poet who began a 1892 poem with the line:
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep”?
11. Of the few nursery rhymes for which we know the origin, which is the one which was written in the relatively recent date of 1805 and whose subject is an actual person who worked as a housekeeper in South Devon in England?
12. In a 1915 poem called “Sunday Morning” the speaker doubts whether the Resurrection on the first Easter ever took place, yet he exults in the glory of the natural world. Name this eminent American poet who composed the line “we live in an old chaos of the sun.”
13. And finally, it’s a sure “bet” that this song by Stephen Foster (1826-1864) is played at a famous sports venue on the first Saturday in May. What’s the title?
Answers:
1. The earth
2. The Old Curiosity Shop
3. The Old Masters
4. T. S. Eliot
5. Shakespeare
6. The Old Boy Network
7. Pentateuch
8. Edith Wharton
9. Old Wives’ Tale
10. Yeats
11. Old Mother Hubbard
12. Wallace Stevens
13. “My Old Kentucky Home”
This week’s bonus question, containing a clue about the next quiz topic, yadda-yadda-yadda:
Fill in the missing word in the title of the first volume of Isaac Asimov’s autobiography:
“In Memory Yet _____” (what?)
Thanks for another great quiz, Auntie. I was afraid we wouldn’t have one this week since you probably do a big Easter celebration, and wouldn’t have the time to do this.
I was out of the gate in fantastic order by getting number 1 correct, even though it was partially a guess. While I’m hesitant to take credit for number 2, since I only knew that from something you had said long ago in response to something I said about the book whose title is the answer, I’ll go ahead and take credit since I actually read the book.
I came close on number 3, saying the Dutch Masters, even while recognizing that Italy isn’t really all that Dutch. So I won’t take any credit for that one – I was probably thinking about those cigars I smoked in my younger days.
As an incredible coincidence to question 4, just last night I was playing one of my Andrew Lloyd Webber CDs, and they were going through some of the highlights of Cats, which is one of my favorites. Well, the third time my brown tabby Eleanor heard the line “Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mister Mistoffelees?” she went over and turned off my stereo. So I knew number 4 also. By the way, that’s Eleanor who appears in my profile.
I got number 5 also, because I used to read some of that guy Shakespeare’s stuff, but it’s been a long time. I should get back to his works before I forget everything I ever knew.
After missing number 6, I got number 7 even though I’m not actually a scholar.
I should have known number 8 because I’ve read a few of Edith Wharton’s books, but not that one, so I missed it.
I got number 9, just from the theme of the quiz, because I didn’t even know there were plays or novels with that title. I feel guilty taking credit, but I’m going to do just that.
I didn’t know number 10 at all. I should have gotten number 11 just from the theme of the quiz, but I didn’t.
I never heard of number 12, but I got number 13 because I sometimes watch that race you mentioned.
In summary, I got 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 13.
I hope you have a wonderful Easter, Auntie.
Thank you, DickZ, and thanks for your detailed and witty
reply.
Well, I only missed numbers 3, 8, and 12. I guess if we use DickZ's logic from a previous post, I'm an old liar, which we can argue just might be better than an old fool. Thanks for another great quiz Auntie S and Happy Easter!!
Oh I had missed the April Fools quiz. I got seven correct on that one: 2,3,5,6,7,9,12.
On the last one also go seven correct: 1,4,5,7,8,10,12.
There were a few I should have known in both.
Thanks Pablo for taking this and all the other quizzes. Happy Easter to you as well -- and a belated congrats to NC for winning the NCAA.
And Virg, thank you too. Seven must be your lucky number. Next time you're @ a racecourse that's the one to play!
The answer to the previous bonus question is: Green
Now that Earth Day is on the horizon, it’s interesting to note that the buzzword du jour – “green” – describes one who is environmentally conscious (and conscientious.) I wonder if this connotation is more or less arbitrary, other than the obvious fact that green is the color of natural phenomena: leaves, flower stems, and the legal variety of grass. Occasionally the word “green” doesn’t even mean green, as the rubric of Noam Chomsky’s famous line illustrates a sentence that is linguistically perfect while making no semantic sense at all: “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”
The English language is as just as alive as any frog awakening in an April pond, and since they are living things, words change constantly. For instance, today the word “transparent” has a positive quality, meaning to be willingly open to scrutiny, but not so long ago a “transparent” person meant one could see right through him. (Such is the trivia picked up by watching cable news shows. But if I never hear the word “counterintuitive” again I’ll be a happy woman.)
So far “green” can be either good or bad according to the context. When used to describe slime or mold, green can be nasty. Remember the scene from Neil Simon’s
The Odd Couple when Felix is shocked by what he finds in Oscar’s refrigerator? When the ultra-neat Felix asks his cleanliness-challenged roommate to identify
the disgusting leftover, Oscar shrugs and says: “It’s either very young cheese or very old meat.”
With that, to the quiz:
How Green Was My Auntie?
1. Who was the prominent American who began a short poem with the line “Nature’s first green is gold”?
2. What is the term to describe a tyro or an absolute beginner?
3. What were the legal tender notes first issued by the U.S. in 1862?
4. For a television series which ran between 1955 and 1960, Richard Greene portrayed this beloved character.
Who was this folk hero, who is, incidentally, usually clad
all in green?
5. Which 1943 Rogers and Hammerstein musical was based on Green Grow the Lilacs, a play by Lynn Riggs?
6. In Shakespeare’s Othello, what is meant by the phrase “the green-eyed monster?”
7. Who was the highly-regard British novelist-playwright-screenwriter (1904-1991) who wrote serious novels with religious themes (The Power and the Glory) as well as political thrillers and detective stories (The Quiet American and The Third Man)?
8. What did Eric the Red discover in 985?
9. In a 14th century poem, perhaps one of the finest in the English language, Sir Gawain manages to keep a cool head, so to speak. Who is the other main character
mentioned in the poem’s title?
10. In 1775 Ethan Allen led a band of Vermonters who rose up against British occupation. What is the nickname given to these intrepid revolutionaries?
11. A person who has a natural affinity for and success with gardening is said to have what?
12. What term refers to the backstage area where performers wait just before their cue to go on?
13. And finally, name the actor who famously proclaimed in a 1973 SF movie, “Soylent Green is people!”
Answers
1. Robert Frost
2. greenhorn
3. greenbacks
4. Robin Hood
5. Oklahoma!
6. Jealousy
7. Graham Greene
8. Greenland
9. The Green Knight
10. The Green Mountain Boys
11. A green thumb (or “green fingers”)
12. The Green Room
13. Charlton Heston
A clue for the next quiz can be found in this BONUS question:
Supply the missing word in the title of this 1923 e e cummings poem:
“All in green my love went______” (what?)
I only got seven. I should have done much better on this. I'm upset at myself I didn't get Frost. I got these correct: 2,3,6,7,8,9,11.
I got eight right: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12. I'm upset I didn't get Frost, too, because I've been studying him.