Auntie's Quiz O' the Week

[PabloQ]

Well, only 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 13, but better than half correct.

[AuntShecky]

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?”

[Virgil]

Eek, I only got seven: 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12. Good one Auntie.

[DickZ]

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.

[qimissung]

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!

[AuntShecky]

Thanks Virgil, DickZ, and qimissung not only for taking the little
quiz but also for your most helpful comments!

[AuntShecky]

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.)

[PabloQ]

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!!

[DickZ]

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.

[DickZ]

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!!

That must mean you're a bigger liar than you are a fool. Maybe that's a good thing - or maybe not.

[Niamh]

jeez i was pathetic with that one. only two!

[AuntShecky]

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?)

[DickZ]

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.

[AuntShecky]

Thank you, DickZ, and thanks for your detailed and witty
reply.

[PabloQ]

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!!