The LitNet Forum Game Quiz o' the Week

[Niamh]

I have on done which i shall post on sunday.

[Virgil]

Last week I had very little trouble finding works by male authors with female names in their titles

Why is it that male authors have to try to prove they understand the female mind, especially 19th century male authors?

but this time finding works about men by women authors was as difficult as finding an honest statement in Hollywood on Oscar night.

And yet women don't feel the same urge. It has crossed my mind.

To your quiz, I got eight correct: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10.

[Niamh]

So as we are all coming into St Patricks week, i decided to borrow the quizmaster hat from AuntShecky and post one of my own.
Here is a literary quiz on Irelands writers and literary associations.
(sorry if its tough! )


1: Shakespeare wrote in the Merchant of Venice "Do all men kill the things they do not love?". But which famous Irish writer wrote "Each man kills the thing he loves"?

2: Who was the first Irish Writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923?

3: What is the name of the famous novel that Bram Stoker wrote which was influenced by local superstitions and folklore from his childhood growing up in Dublin.

4: My fair Lady is a musical version of which famous play by George Bernard Shaw?

5: And Another Thing... is the sixth installment in Douglas Adams famous Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series, but which Irish Novelist, better known for his childrens literature, wrote it?

6: Speranza was the pseudonym of which well known poet, Nationalist, and writer for The Nation during the 19th Century?

7: Writer of Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposel and Drapier's Letters Jonathan Swift was the Dean of which Dublin Cathedral?

8: The Limerick born Thomas Lefroy, Irish MP and famous Lord Chief Justice for Ireland, was once the love interest of which famous English Author?

9: Brian O'Nolan was the real name for which Irish novelist who also wrote articles for the Irish Times under the nom de plume Myles Na gCopaleen?

10: The Anglo-Irish Literary Revival was founded by W.B.Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, George Russell and Edward Martyn. But what other name, also the name of a collection of poems by Yeats, is the revival commonly known as?

11:Which Irish Poet is famous for saying in retaliation to being added in the Penguin Book of Contemporary British poetry "Be advised! My passport is green, No glass of ours was ever raised to toast the Queen"?

12: ChickLit Auther Cecilia Ahern is the daughter of which ex-Taoiseach?

13: What text is contained in the Book of Kells?

14: What was the name of St Patricks supposed autobiography?

15: In 1907 a riot broke out in The Abbey Theatre in Dublin during the performance of which J.M.Synge play?
























1: Oscar Wilde
2: W.B.Yeats
3: Dracula
4: Pygmalion
5: Eoin Colfer
6: Lady jane Wilde
7: St Patrick's Cathedral
8: Jane Austen
9: Flann O' Brien
10: The Celtic Twilight
11: Seamus Heaney
12: Bertie Ahern
13: The Gospels
14: Confessions
15: The Playboy of the Western World

[Virgil]

Hmm, I only got seven correct: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 15. I need to brush up on my Irish lit.

Hehe, I kept wainting for a James Joyce question.

[Niamh]

from me? never! I'm surprised i stuck a Wilde one in there!

[Virgil]

from me? never! I'm surprised i stuck a Wilde one in there!

Oh I didn't know you didn't like Joyce. He is kind of snooty to his own people, isn't he?

[Niamh]

Oh I didn't know you didn't like Joyce. He is kind of snooty to his own people, isn't he?

Nah! Just dont see what the big deal is about him. Better writers have come from this country.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks be to ya, Niamh for writin' the quiz this time.
Sure and I missed Eoin Colfer, Lady Jane Wilde (though I did say "Wilde;" if I had just gone w. the last name, I would've gotten credit on Jeopardy!), Flann O'Brien,and Bertie Ahearn. I should've gotten Seamus O'Heaney. Shame on the likes of me!

[Niamh]

Thanks be to ya, Niamh for writin' the quiz this time.
Sure and I missed Eoin Colfer, Lady Jane Wilde (though I did say "Wilde;" if I had just gone w. the last name, I would've gotten credit on Jeopardy!), Flann O'Brien,and Bertie O'Hearn. I should've gotten Seamus O'Heaney. Shame on the likes of me!

Ah sure you did a grand auld job so you did! Dont be frettin yourself.

[qimissung]

I only got 2, 3, 7, and 13 correct, although I have heard of Eoin Colfer, and Seamus O'Heaney, and of course Oscar Wilde, and Pygmalion (that one I should have gotten, since I've actually taught it); and I've heard the story of Jane Austen's engagement.

[AuntShecky]

Charlatans, pranksters, and scam meisters invade every walk of life, but they must derive special pleasure when they hatch an elaborate scheme against the pompous in our culture. There must be no greater satisfaction to say to the snooty and hoity-toity literary establishment: "You've been punk'd!" Hence, the topic of our little quiz today: literary hoaxed. Embedded therein is a trick, which undoubtedly will be evident to you after answering a couple of the questions. As one of P.T.Barnum's signs used to say, "This way to the egress" . . .and to this week's nonsense, which we like to call

The Hoaxes With the Mostest

1. Speaking of P.T. Barnum, the circus king and showman, offered an exhibit of the so-called "Cardiff Giant," an enormous fossil of a man allegedly discovered in New York State in 1889. Barnum's giant was a mere copy of the "real" thing, which in itself was a carved piece
of wood. It's remarkable that never the twain would meet. Name the monumental American author who based his short story, "A Ghost Tale," upon this elaborate hoax.

2. "The Hoax," a 2007 movie starred Richard Gere as author Clifford Irving, who claimed that he had interviewed Hughes, the reclusive movie producer and aviation manufacturer for a biography, which turned out to be a case of criminal fraud. An earlier movie, Melvin and Howard, told the story of a man who innocently, though mistakenly, claimed to have been mentioned in the billionaire's will. What was Hughes's first name?

3. In 1764, a British author named Horace released one of the first Gothic novels, The Castle of Otranto, which he claimed to have been a translation of a work created in Italy in 1529, but really was his Howard's own creation. The facts did not, however, diminish the book's
wild popularity, whereas today such disinformation may have landed an author in WALPOLE State Prison. What's the last name of this author?

4. That same year, James MacPherson, educated at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh tried to pull a fast one by stating that he had discovered an epic by the mythical poet Ossian (Oisin), but the long poem actually originated from MacPherson's quill. The work nevertheless was a source of patriotic pride for both Scotland and for which other Gaelic-speaking nation, whose heritage is the source of world-wide celebration every March 17?

5. In 1983, respected magazines such as Time and Stern paid huge amounts of money for the rights to publish The Hitler Diaries, purported to be the written thoughts of the genocidal dictator whose designs on conquering Europe led to which world war which followed World War I and occurred from 1939-1945?

6. Though F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is by and large a serious novel, the epigraph to book was meant as a joke. The quotation of the book's flyleaf is attributed to one "Thomas Parke D'Invilliers," a fictional character from an earlier Fitzgerald work, This Side of Paradise. Who really wrote the epigraph?

7. A British poet named Thomas (1752-1770) was adept at mimicking archaic verse, so he claimed that one of his works had been discovered in an old chest of a church, along with fake documents and certificates allegedly proving the poem's authenticity. He claimed that his "Rowley" poems had been written by a 15th century English monk who had committed suicide at the age of 25. According to the Oxford Companion, the critical controversy over their questionable provenance "raged on for decades,"for decades" but despite the TON
of CHATTER, the poet ultimately was respected, notably by Keats, who dedicated Endymion to him. Who was he?

8. The pop culture goddess, Oprah, once had the wool pulled over her eyes when she featured the book by James Frey for her wildly-popular televised "book club." A subsequent revelation which showed that the book purporting to be a truthful soul-baring memoir about the author's suffering through addiction turned out to be mostly made-up tales proved embarrassing to the hostess. Although her credibility among some viewers faltered, Oprah's reputation remained in tact, while that of Frey shattered, one could say into "A Million Little. . ." (what?)

9. Speaking of TV, in 1996 the Fox Network was made a laughingstock when it broadcast an alleged "documentary," Alien Autopsy. The film was supposedly actual footage of a post-mortem exam of an extraterrestrial being who'd crashed his spaceship in Roswell in 1947, though every shot had been fake. Your question: If an alien actually landed in Roswell, and demanded, "Take me to your leader," to whom would you actually take him -- to Rupert Murdock or to Mr. Spock?

10. Speaking of spaceships, on Halloween Night, 1938 a radio drama, with simulated the format of a new program, reported that Martians had landed in New Jersey. Even though there were disclaimers throughout the program, mass hysteria developed among listeners who thought that the alien invasion had been real. The script was 100% fiction, based on an 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, updated by a "boy genius" named Orson who had the same last name with a slightly different spelling. What was it?

11. In 1944, a lonely insurance salesman by the name Ern Malley, committed suicide at the age of 25, but not before carefully leaving behind a manuscript of poetry. As it turned out, Ern Malley was a complete fabrication of two pranksters named James McAuley and Harold Stewart. The poems themselves, nevertheless were deemed "not really bad" or quite good by the poets. The fictional Ern Malley was said to have been a native of which island country where one could find equally preposterous but nonetheless real kangaroos and duck-billed platypuses, Name that country.

12. After the authentic Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, fakes and forgeries of so-called "ancient manuscripts" came out of the woodwork, among them, a fragment from the Gospel of Matthew, which Paul Coleman Norton said he had discovered in 1950. Titled "Amusing Agraphon," it was a complete fraud, which lacked, shall we say bite, because the fragment depicted Jesus assuring the Faithful that in the Afterlife, those with dental loss will have be completely restored to oral health in order that they can weep, wail and gnash their what?

13. And finally, who is buried in Grant's tomb?

Answers

1. Ask me again and I'll tell ya.
2. That's for me to know and you to find out
3. None of the above.
4. None of your beeswax.
5. Surely, you jest.
6. Don't call me Shirley.
7. Does a bear er, sit in the woods?
8. All of the above.
9. Can you serve mankind by telling funnier jokes?
10. Well, you couldn't prove it by me.
11. That's because all the toilets flush the wrong way.
12. That's the Gospel truth.
13. You must be putting me on.
Yep! APRIL FOOL!
For more info on literary hoaxes, here are some nifty sites:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/ente...ry_hoaxes.html

http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/2005...ry-hoaxes.html

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/H...terary_Hoaxes/

GOTCHA!
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ide.../08/14/gotcha/

[Pendragon]

Dang, Auntie. And after I answered all but three of them correctly! That first story by Twain is one of my favorites!

[Virgil]

Ok, I struggled through all that and ... Aunty, aunty, aunty.

[AuntShecky]

I don't mean to ignore National Poetry Month and certainly don't want to downplay the significance of Earth Day (tomorrow, April 22.) But I won't kid ya, folks -- verily, I gots the Fever! On the other hand, this Friday is a big day for lovers of the Bard, for April 23 is the date for his birth (in 1564) and death (1616.) The problem is -- how do I combine both baseball and Shakespeare in one quiz? Let's face it, you don't see many Danish princes covering center field; furthermore, sports during the Elizabethan Era usually involved baiting bears and some kind of "hurling" that had nothing to do with 90 mph fastballs. But way back when kids actually played outdoors on sandlots they used to ridicule each other with a sarcastic taunt that alluded to the Shakespeare. So, with these two seemingly disparate topics yoked by violence together, enters today's quiz, which we like to call:

Nice Play, Shakespeare!

1. The opening line to Shakespeare's play about an assassination in Rome sounds like an exhortation to sluggers taking too long to take their home-run trots: "Hence! Home, you idle creatures get you home." A slightly later line describes both The Fever as well as the defensive player whose position is right behind the plate: "Passion, I see, is catching." And a batter who likes to "take" rather swing at pitches might tell himself that the man on the mound "hath left you all his walks." Name the play in which these quotes appear in their original contexts.

2. What is the title of the 1952 Bernard Malamud novel about a washed-up hitter named Roy Hobbs who gets a second chance to make baseball magic with his bat named "Wonderboy?"

3. The hero of Shakespeare's greatest drama experiences deep philosophical trauma when he cries foul after his recently-widowed mother and uncle have gone well beyond first-base. Near the tragic conclusion of which play do we hear the line "A hit, a very palpable hit?"

4. The legend of Faust goes to the ballpark in an original novel by Douglass Wallop which formed the material for a hit Broadway play in the 1950s. Name this musical which features the fabulous song "Heart" ( as in ya gotta have it.)

5. The chief character in what might be Shakespeare's most emotionally powerful tragedy might even be too old for an Old Timer's Day game. Nevertheless, name the play in which we can find this famous simile: "As flies to wanton boys, so are we to the Gods. They kill us for their sport."

6. Last Sunday every Major League Player wore the same number on his uniform -- 42. This annual gesture is in honor of a man who helped change not only the history of baseball but also the social fabric of America. Who was he?

7. When a batter wonders if the air blowing into the stadium might carry the ball over to right field, he might ask his manager, "Sits the wind in that corner?" When a runner steals a base, the pitcher might complain "Flat burglary if ever was committed!" Both quotes come from the same play and of course, they weren't intended to be applied to the Grand Old Game but instead to the action of the delightful romantic comedy of whom Beatrice and Benedick eventually become a couple. What is the title?

8. Among the several books produced by a present-day American sportswriter are two outstanding collections of his baseball essays: How Life Imitates the World Series and Why Time Begins on Opening Day. Who is he? (Hint: His last name is exactly the same as the 18th century biographer of Samuel Johnson.)

9. A Mark Harris novel about the relationship between a worldly-wise pitcher and a terminally-ill catcher inspired a 1973 movie starring a young Robert De Niro. What was it?

10. Some fans are so interested in compiling or even memorizing baseball records and statistics that they become obsessed with "[t]rifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." Other fans who like baseball but deplore the ever-escalating salaries of some of the star players might want to chide owners who only want to "Put money in thy purse." Both of these quotes come from a play about a Moor who is led astray by a green-eyed monster, not to be confused with the mighty green monster at Fenway Park. Name the play.

11. New York State native Phil Alden Robinson tapped into the spirit of Midwest farmlands with his mystical baseball novel. Name the book whose 1984 movie version contains the popular quotation, "If you build it, they will come."

12. When a team's standing is entrenched down in the cellar it's easy for a player to experience this sentiment: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes/I all alone beweep my outcast state." This is the opening couplet of one of 154 poems that Shakespeare wrote in a special form. What do you call this kind of verse, consisting of 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter?

13. And finally, the lyrics and music by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer are not as old as Shakespeare, but they're 102 years old and I daresay nearly as beloved as Shakespeare's poetry. Fans often sing it during the seventh inning stretch. Name that tune!




Answers
1. Julius Caesar
2. The Natural
3. Hamlet
4. Damn Yankees
5. King Lear
6. Jackie Robinson
7. Much Ado About Nothing
8. Thomas Boswell
9. Bang the Drum Slowly
10. Othello
11. Field of Dreams
12. sonnet
13. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_stmo.shtml

[Niamh]

1,3,5,7,10,12 I know nothing about baseball!