Auntie's Quiz O' the Week

[Virgil]

I'm the turkey. It's amazing how little of pop culture I know. Anyway, I got only four correct: 6, 7, 8, 13. I too should have gotten 1 and 4.

[AuntShecky]

It's amazing how little of pop culture I know.

An achievement for which you should feel enormously proud!

[AuntShecky]

It’s that time of year again! Already there have been a couple of flakes floating around,if not actually blanketing the ground, and there’s a definite chill in the air, a sign of something very special just around the corner. That’s right, ‘tis the season. . .for colds and flu.

The media have been bending over backwards to make sure we're all gosh-darned scared out of our longjohns because -- make no mistake-- we're all going to die! Unless, unless everybody gets a dose of vaccine –whoops! Sorry, folks, there’s a vaccine shortage. Even if you could find a flu shot, what kind of flu shot are you going to get? Let’s see, now, you've got your “regular” flu, your old-fashioned Asian flu, and lest we forget, the one flu over the cuckoo’s nest. (That would be bird flu.)

The latest “strain” as it’s called (because it strains our patience) is H1N1, although the media are fond of calling it “swine flu,” because that makes it sound nastier. What has dear old Porky Pig done to deserve such a libelous association? Warner Brothers should sue! Well, the inexplicably neglected British author Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) had it right when he had one of his characters say: “Ye can call it ‘influenza’ if you like. . .There was no influenza in my day. We called a cold a cold.”

At-choo! You might want to avoid this week’s topic like the plague, because it’s all about highly communicable and deadly diseases in literature. (I'd say “culture,” but I left it back in the lab.) As far as I know, my quiz file is virus-free. So before you stick a needle as long as US 1 in my business end and slap a quarantine sign on me, let’s inject the quiz, which you'll probably call

Sick, Sick, Sick

1. Which one of Shakespeare’s plays contains the curse, “A plague on both your houses!”

2. Name the U.S. Army physician (1851-1902) who helped begin a successful defense against yellow fever in the by discovering that a mosquito was the carrier of that deadly disease plaguing the Panama Canal zone.

3. Newscasters this week have heavily covered a notorious incident of party-crashing, but that security breach does not at all compare to the uninvited guest who infects a gala ball with a deadly disease in “The Masque of the Red Death.” Who wrote that 1842 tale?

4. Although the term itself did not appear until the 16th century, what is the three-word phrase for both the pneumonic and bubonic plagues which devastated Europe in the years 1348-1351? The term directly refers to the skin-darkening symptom of one of the diseases.

5. The AIDS epidemic is the theme of a millennial historic tableaux which won numerous prestigious awards for drama late in the century just past. What was the title of Tony Kushner’s play?

6. “Bring out your dead!” got a laugh in a Monty Python movie, but the line actually first appeared in 1722, with the publication of A Journal of the Plague Year. Name the author, whom we know as the creator of a certain resourceful shipwrecked sailor.

7. The French called it “la maladie anglaise,” which the English in turn called “the French disease.” In other parts of Europe it was known as the Italian disease, the German disease, and so forth. In reality, the microbe causing the epidemic originated in the New World, whence it hitched a ride with trans-Atlantic explorers and voyagers. (Maybe the old myth about sailors having “a girl in every port” has some truth.) Name this disease that evidently doesn't discriminate against nationalities.

8. Which significant German author wrote the 1924 allegorical novel, The Magic Mountain, ostensibly about a tuberculosis sanitarium?

9. Albert Camus also wrote a allegorical-philosophical novel about an epidemic, this time set in an Algerian port. What is the title of this 1947 book?

10. A world-famous essay by Robert Louis Stevenson praised a priest named Father Damien who did good works at a hospital colony on Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. From which notoriously devastating disease did Father Damien’s patients suffer?

11. An innocuous-sounding nursery rhyme delights children to this very date, but its subject matter contains “folk memory” of a deadly plague. For instance, the verse refers to the practice of using flowers to mask the stench of decomposing corpses who'd had all succumbed to a disease that begins with a seemingly harmless sneeze. What is this nursery rhyme?

12.[Spoiler Alert! Skip this question if you haven't read the story.] The source material for two motion pictures, one good (1953) and one considerably less so (2005) is an 1898 science fiction work by H.G. Wells about a Martian invasion of our planet. The aliens are eventually defeated, not by the earthlings’ sophisticated weaponry but by tiny microbes. What’s the title?

13. And finally, in 1907 an Irish immigrant hired as a cook for a wealthy family on Long Island was discovered by the Board of Health to be the carrier of a certain, potentially-deadly infection, though she adamantly refused to admit that she was the source of the disease. Her name is so synonymous with spreading disease that to this day is a teasing jest. What is this common epithet?



Answers
1. Romeo and Juliet, ( III, I )
2. Walter Reed
3. Edgar Allen Poe
4. The Black Death
5. Angels in America
6. Daniel Defoe
7. Syphilis
8. Thomas Mann
9. The Plague
10. Leprosy
11. “Ring Around the Rosie” or “Ring a ring o’ roses” The actual rhyme goes like this: “Ring a ring o’ roses/ A pocket full of posies/ Ai-choo! Ai-choo!/ All fall down.” (A variation on line 3 is “ashes, ashes,” referring to smoke from bonfires, or possibly an allusion the substance, ashes or dust, to which we're all destined to revert, as prophesied in Genesis 3:19.)
12. The War of the Worlds (Fun factoid for MST3K fans: The name of Gene Barry’s character in the 1953 movie is “Dr. Clayton Forrester.”)
13. “Typhoid Mary”

Sources: Reader’s Encyclopedia, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, imbd.com, and the “about twentieth century history” website.

[Virgil]

Oh I did ver well. I got eleven correct!! Woohoo! I got 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

Funny about syphillis, how every country blames it on another.

[Jazz_]

Only 5 for me
1, 5, 7, 9, 11

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie. It's great to have the quiz back after your well-deserved Thanksgiving break. I got numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11.

[ShoutGrace]

My results:


1.Romeo and Juliet.
2.I traveled through the Panama Canal and watched a documentary regarding this story, but the name has escaped me completely.
3.Edgar Allan Poe
4.“The Black Death.”
5.Sad to say I have no idea.
6.Robert Louis Stevenson.
7.Syphillis.
8.Thomas Mann.
9.The Plague.
10. Malaria.
11.Ring around the Rosy.
12.The War of the Worlds.
13.Typhoid Mary.


I figured question 6 would be wrong because you wouldn't give the name away in another part of the quiz, but couldn't come up with something better. I guessed malaria for 10, but leprosy is probably more devastating and certainly more notorious.

As for question 11, I've actually only known "Ashes to ashes, we all fall down." Reading the Wikipedia article on the rhyme was interesting; it appears that many and quite different cultures have the same kind of children's verse.

[AuntShecky]

When you happen to notice Bruce Springsteen’s arrangement of a certain “iconic” holiday song blasting through the PA system of some retail store, you're not really hearing the original 1934 tune by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. That was one versatile songwriting team, for not only has “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” delighted generations of children, the duo also wrote one of the smokiest, steamiest, “adult-themed” torch songs of all time, “You Go to My Head” from 1939. I guess one could say that Messrs. Coots and Gillespie were a little bit sugar, a little bit spice – both nice and naughty.

“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” is a catchy, magical ditty, despite its musical statement of St. Nick as Big Brother, who puts minors under constant surveillance, 24/7 in order to gain info to compile an incriminating dossier: “He’s makin’ a list and checking it twice/ Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.” Wow, way to plant the neurotic seeds of a guilt complex into a four-year-old! This week’s topic, nevertheless, concerns characters from literature who are heroes or villains, or maybe a mixture of both, sort of like an angel food cake made with bad eggs.

When it comes down to zero hour on Christmas Eve, Santa strictly adheres to the “either/or,” nice/naughty dichotomy. Who knew the right jolly old elf would be so judgmental? But have you ever noticed how rich kids almost always seem to land on the “nice” list? Before somebody hurls a brick-hard fruitcake at me or shoves a lump of coal in my stocking, let’s swoop down the chimney to the quiz, which we like to call

Naughty or Nice

1. Name the Shakespearean play in which the chief character rises through the royal ranks through heinous acts, such as imprisoning two little princes in the Tower of London and who describes himself this way: “And thus I clothe my naked villainy/With odd old ends stol’n forth of holy writ,/ And seem a saint when most I play the devil.”

2. Herman Melville’s posthumous short novel features this young sailor who personifies innocence, even after committing an act of violent rage spurred on by a false accusation. His goodness is so innate that he even asks God to bless his executioner. Who is this title character?

3. A devious schemer in David Copperfield tries to convince his victims that he is otherwise by constantly describing himself as “ ‘umble.’ “ Name this memorable character created by Charles Dickens.

4. Generations of American adolescents have been captivated by Salinger’s portrait of an earnestly eloquent prep school student who goes AWOL in post-World War II New York City. Name this character who aspires to be a savior of the innocence of children, notably that of his beloved younger sister, Phoebe.

5. Who wrote the short novel featuring Dr. Jekyll and his evil alter ego, Mr. Hyde?

6. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “scarlet” woman suffers the condemnation of her community, yet bears her humiliation with the dignity of her humanity. Identify this heroine who is definitely more sinned against than sinning.

7. The first part of the 1587 tragedy, Tamburlaine, set in the region of the world that contains modern-day Afghanistan, depicts a lowly Scythian shepherd who becomes a great ruler with even greater potential, yet in the second part, his absolute power turns him absolutely rotten. Name this illustrious but short-lived author, the most famous playwright among Shakespeare’s contemporaries.

8. A title character created by George Eliot makes his living as a weaver but suffers through a lonely existence, largely caused by a deep-seated bitterness over having been wrongly suspected of theft. An even greater setback occurs when he himself is robbed of some gold, closely followed by a scene in the novel in which he finds a golden-haired orphan child. Adopting this little girl becomes the source of his eventual redemption. Who was this former miser who turns good?

9. Talk about your revenge fantasies! In 1321, an Italian poet famously put his political enemies in the nine circles of Hell. What is the title, the first of three parts of Dante’s classic epic poem?

10. Name the figure from British folklore who had nice motives for his naughty deeds -- stealing from the rich in order to give to the poor.

11. In his 1866 novel, Dostoevsky presents Raskolnikov, a student perhaps a little too contemplative for his own good, who through convoluted reasoning comes to a philosophical stance that he believes justifies his evil actions. As one may assume, the self-styled “amoral superman” receives his comeuppance. Yet the story ends on a note of penitence and redemption, helped by the pure love of a good woman. What’s the title of this provocative yet ultimately edifying novel?

12. In Arthurian legend, he was the purest and noblest Knight of the Round Table. The only one qualified for the quest of the Holy Grail, he healed the Fisher King and restored fertility to Britain. Unlike the contemporary myth cherished by single gals about the elusive “Mr. Right,” this hero wasn't too good to be true, even though,let's face it, he was fictional. Who was he?

13. And finally, at the beginning of Theodor S. Geisel’s parody of A Christmas Carol, he has a heart that is “two sizes too small,” which, by the end of the story, grows “three sizes that day.” Name this wildly popular Yuletide figure.


Answers

1. Richard III
2. Billy Budd
3. Uriah Heep
4. Holden Caulfield
5. Robert Louis Stevenson
6. Hester Prynne
7. Christopher Marlowe
8. Silas Marner
9. The Inferno (first part of The Divine Comedy)
10. Robin Hood
11. Crime and Punishment
12. Sir Galahad
13. The Grinch (the one who stole Christmas,
in case you were thinking of some other grinch.)

Sources: The Reader’s Encyclopedia and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame website.
Coming Next Week: A superquiz to close out 09!

[DickZ]

Thanks for another great quiz, Auntie. I particularly loved this one - not that I don't love them all - because I did better than I usually do. I got numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

As for number 1, I only specialize in Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet. And on a few rare occasions, I can answer a Midsummer Night's Dream question. While I've heard of Marlowe in question 7, it's obviously not a very thorough familiarity, because I missed that one also.

[Virgil]

Ha! I got eleven right again. If we stick to literature i do well. The two I got wrong were Silas Marner (I'm afraid my George Eliot is weak) and amazingly I got the grinch wrong!

[ShoutGrace]

I got the Grinch wrong as well!! I guessed Scrooge for whatever reason.

I got most of these by making educated guesses. I knew "Billy Budd" by title only. I knew "Silas Marner" because of a recommendation given by mono years ago. The only other one I missed was Marlowe . . . like DickZ I had heard of him (in my case, through secondary Shakespeare literature), but didn't come up with the answer either. The play sounds very interesting!

[AuntShecky]

Good news! This is the last quiz o’ the “weak” for 2009. Come January, if my PC (“Pong II”) is still kicking, and if we have managed to pay the electricity bill, I'll start a brand-new quiz thread with some slight changes, the details of which will be posted soon.

Way, way back in my school days, the teachers used to warn that their final examinations would “separate the sheep from the goats.” I could never figure out which class of ruminants was supposed to be smarter or into which category of cud-chewers I fell. But I'll tell you something – those tests were “baaa”-ddd!

At this late date I must confess that I was never much of a test-taker. Even when the questions were giveaways, such as “Who wrote the autobiographical book The Education of Henry Adams?” or “Fill in the blank ‘To be or not to __’ , “ I still got them wrong!

So I was not a test-taker, but a quiz-maker. Throughout the postings on this thread there has been a little comedy, and also some inadvertent tragedy: less than two weeks after his name was mentioned in the quiz, the actor Gene Barry passed away at the age of 90. Most of the quiz questions concerned writers who had already died a long time ago, especially Shakespeare and Shaw, who appeared in the quiz more frequently than most. There was also a preponderance of American references –a coincidence, not a conscious act of jingoism.

Nearly everything in this year-end review has been culled from previous quiz questions, answers, and introductions – you did read all of my introductions, didn't you? If you get stuck on an item, all you have to do is scroll up through the thread. Time’s almost up, so let’s get to the last snore-fest of ‘09 which I hate to call

Final X-Zam

1. What was Herman Melville’s 1857 novel that takes place on a river boat on April Fool’s Day?

2. Who wrote Leaves of Grass?

3. Name the author from the Jazz Age who said, “In the dark night of the soul it’s always three o’clock in the morning.”

4. Who was the Dublin-born author (1845-1900) who observed that “Work is the curse of the drinking class”?

5. What is the Pentateuch?

6. Name the title of Henry Miller’s 1939 novel considered a counterpart to The Tropic of Cancer.

7. Who wrote A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers?

8. What is the one-word term that refers to both a literary device which directly addresses an absent person, place, or thing and a punctuation mark which few Americans know how to use appropriately?

9. According to Greek mythology, how many muses are there?

10. Which month of 2009 was designated Hispanic Heritage Month?

11. Who was the American literary giant (1835-1910) who categorized really old jokes this way: “The only way to classify the majestic ages of some of those jokes was by geological periods.”

12. What is the only Shakespearean play whose title refers to an occasion set in early January?

13. Who wrote the poem in which the albatross is a symbol of bad luck?

14. Name the leading poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

15. What was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), author of numerous expertly-crafted Victorian novels?

16. Name the monumental English poet of the 17th century who wrote the lines “Come and trip it as ye go/On the light fantastic toe.”

17. Who was the versatile 20th century British author of such novels as The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair?

18. The adage, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” refers to which dubious offering portrayed in The Odyssey and The Aeneid?

19. His tombstone reads, “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.” In which New England location would one find the grave of this 20th century literary giant?

20. Who wrote Crime and Punishment, as well as “The Grand Inquisitor”?

21. Aldous Huxley derived the title of Brave New World from a line in which Shakespearean play?

22. Name the seasonal song for which Vernon Duke wrote both the music and lyrics.

23. “Jarndyce v. Jarndyce” is the never-ending lawsuit in Bleak House. Who wrote that novel?

24. Name the Greek dramatist who wrote the satiric comedy, The Clouds.

25. What is the perennial holiday song composed by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie?

26. And finally, according to a German legend, when a knight was attempting to pick some posies for his damsel, he slipped off the river bank and drowned. The name for these beloved spring flowers comes from this knight’s last three words. What were they?


Answers
1. The Confidence Man
2. Walt Whitman
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Oscar Wilde
5. The first five books of the Old Testament
6. The Tropic of Capricorn
7. Henry David Thoreau
8. Apostrophe
9. Nine
10. October
11. Mark Twain
12. Twelfth Night
13. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
14. Langston Hughes
15. George Eliot
16. John Milton
17. Graham Greene
18. The Trojan Horse
19. Bennington, Vermont, where, no matter the season, “Frost” is always in the ground.
20. Dostoevski
21. The Tempest
22. “Autumn in New York”
23. Charles Dickens
24. Aristophanes
25. “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”
26. “Forget me not.”

And that’s my “final answer.”

[PrinceMyshkin]

I was just about to attempt this, by copy pasting the questions when in scrolling down, I came upon the answers! Perhaps, Jeopardy-style, you meant to post the answers and have us guess the questions?

Competitive as I am, I'd have loved to have a shot at this, but alas...

[AuntShecky]

All of this year's quizzes have the answers at the end, Prince.

[DickZ]

Thanks, Auntie, for all the quizzes we've had this year. Since there are 26 questions in this week's, I won't itemize my successes and failures, but will just say I got 15 of them. I guess I should have gotten more, since this is a second shot at them.

I'm already looking forward with great anticipation to next year's quizzes - or should I say next years just to reinforce question 8?