Auntie's Quiz O' the Week

[DickZ]

Thanks for another clever quiz, Auntie. I didn’t do nearly as well as I have in the past few weeks, so I won’t think I am getting smarter any more.

I got number 2, mainly because I’ve always loved that poem, and I got number 6 for the same reason. I got number 7 because I read that book, although I didn’t really love it.

I was happy to get number 8, but I have only read Look Homeward, Angel. I plan someday to read the other Wolfe books, because he has such a gift with words. His stories aren’t all that great, but his words are so magnificent that they make the stories better than they would be otherwise. And he has an uncanny ability to come up with such intriguing titles.

And I got number 9, because I’m a big baseball fan and the announcers use the term so often, as you explained.

In summary, I got numbers 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9, which isn’t even going to win me a set of press-on nails.

But I do know the answer to the bonus question.

[Wilde woman]

I did slightly better this week - 7 correct. I got #2, 4, 5 (but only because of this week's theme...I'm not a Dickens fan), 7, 9, 10, and 12.

Oh, and "dumbesticity" made me laugh. I love it! Where do you come up with this stuff? Props to you, Auntie.

[Virgil]

Previous bonus question answer: Home


“A man’s home,” so it’s oft said, “is his castle.” If that’s the case, where does that put the lady of the house?-- not, one certainly hopes, where Orson Bean, the erstwhile professional talk-show guest said to put her: “in the stove!”

Fortunately, the Women’s Liberation Movement changed all that. Now women have equal rights to a full day’s work – and to come home to another full day’s work.

Don't I know it. And more importantly my wife knows it. I ain't no King in this castle.

I'm in a slump. I've been in a slump for the last few. I only got five this time: 7, 8, 10, 12, 13. Though I think I want to protest number nine. I said "home field advantage" which I think fits as well.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks for playing our game, Wilde Woman, and Virgil, number nine is fine-- you had the word "home" in yr. answer

[Virgil]

Oh good. So now I got six right.

[PabloQ]

Maybe I should run away from "home". First, I have to cringe when I see poets and lines from poems. Unless it's Dr. Seuss, chance are it's a swing and a miss or I'm just guessing. I too will take credit for "home field advantage". So give me 6 on the old scoreboard. 5,7,8,9,12, and 13. Yikes!!

[AuntShecky]

Previous topic clue: Mother


Ah, motherhood!– ranks right up there with baseball and apple pie. According to Oscar Wilde, “All women become their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”

Then we have the notorious Philip Wylie, whose
devastating diatribe, A Generation of Vipers
blamed “Momism” for the emasculation of America. In addition of being guilty of every kind of character flaw you could possibly imagine, “Mom”
he says is “the bride at every funeral and the corpse at every wedding.” In the 1955 edition Wylie back-pedaled a little, insisting that, of course, he hadn't meantevery middle-aged woman,but by then the damage had been done.

The more traditional view of Mother, however, depicts her in a more endearing and elegant way. You might remember learning in your high school Latin class about Cornelia of the Gracchi. A rich matron visits Cornelia’s domicilium and after haughtily brandishing her bling-bling, demands of Cornelia, “Now let me see your jewels.” At that very moment, Cornelia’s two sons enter the room and Cornelia replies, “These are my jewels.” If your mother is anything at all like Cornelia, you've got it knocked!

Stop crying! And don't throw those tissues on my clean floor! What were you, born in a barn? This is the thanks I get for working my fingers to the bone! You'd better watch your step, or I'll send you to bed without any quiz!

Mom’s the Word

1. Imagine a relationship so shocking that Freud names a complex after it! Who is the protagonist in the drama by Sophocles who is destroyed by a revelation about the woman who is his “old lady” (in more ways than one)?

2. What is the term for the main part of a computer that contains the circuitry for the central processing unit, the keyboard, and monitor?

3. In the 8th century Anglo-Saxon epic, the hero Beowulf confronts this monster in an underwater wrestling match before ultimately beheading her with a magic sword. Who is she?

4. By what name are nursery rhymes, as well as Charles Perrault’s 1697 book of fairy tales, Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye, more commonly known?

5. What is the inner iridescent layer of the shells of many bivalve mollusks, especially that of a certain species of oyster?

6. She always said that she didn't tell jokes, just the facts. Yet she was a great influence on all who followed her, including Richard Pryor and Whoopi Goldberg. Who was the very first Black American stand-up comedienne (1894-1975)?

7. Known for his collages, who was the artist (1915-1991) who was a pioneer in Abstract Expressionism?

8. Katherine Hepburn created a film portrayal of this queen (1122-1204) whose sons included Richard I and King John. Who was she?

9. What was the title of Bertolt Brecht’s 1939 antiwar play about an itinerant peddler and her family on the battlefields of the Thirty Years War?

10. According to legend, she found the relics of the True Cross. According to history, she was the mother of Constantine, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity in the year 313. Who was she?

11. To which Shakespearean character are these lines addressed?: “Seems, Madam! I know not ‘seems’. . .’Tis not above my inky cloak, good mother. . .that can denote me freely.”

12. Having coined the term “the Lost Generation,” this influential writer (1874-1946) almost played the role of mother hen to expatriates in Paris following WWI. She also wrote the libretto for a Virgil Thompson opera, The Mother of Us All. Who was she?

13. And finally, who is the titular subject of the Ernie K-Doe song that includes the line: “If she'd leave us alone, I'd have a happy home?”


Answers
1. Oedipus
2. Motherboard
3. Grendel’s mother
4. Mother Goose
5. Mother-of-pearl
6. Jackie “Moms” Mabley
7. Robert Motherwell
8. Eleanor of Aquitaine
9. Mother Courage and Her Children
10. St. Helena
11. Gertrude (Mother of Hamlet)
12. Gertrude Stein
13. “Mother-in-Law”

A clue for the next topic is the missing word in the title of the 1961 surrealistic World War II spy novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr (1922-2009) as well as the 1996 movie adaptation starring Nick Nolte:
Mother _____.

[Niamh]

1,2,3,5,9, 11

[Nightshade]

I got 7 1,2,3,4,5,8,11

[Wilde woman]

I did well this week - 9/13. I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, and 12 right. I had fun with this week's quiz.

For #8, that brought back wonderful memories of watching The Lion in Winter in my humanities class as a high school freshman. Amazing movie.

And yes, Cornelia. The story you told is the only thing I remember from my Latin class!

[Virgil]

I got seven again. That seems to be my most frequent number. Correct were: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 11. 12.

Oh Happy Mother's Day to all our wonderful mothers here.

[DickZ]

Thanks for the entertaining and clever quiz, Auntie.

I started out like gangbusters, getting the first six right, but then cooled off by missing 7-10. Had a slight comeback, getting 11 and 12 correct. So I got a total of 8, which is much better than I did last week.

And Happy Mother's Day to you and all the other mothers out there. I know that besides being an aunt, you're also a mother.

[Virgil]

And Happy Mother's Day to you and all the other mothers out there. I know that besides being an aunt, you're also a mother.

Oh is Aunty a mother? I didn't know that. Happy Mother's Day then Aunty.

[Wilde woman]

Yes, Happy Mother's Day, Auntie!

[qimissung]

yes, I'm a little late, but I got 1-6,9 and 12. I missed 7,8,10,11 and 13.