Category Archives: memes

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

The Rolling English Road
GK Chesterton

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation

amusements, memes

Ten Things

This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!

Ten Composers Born in 18th Century

  1. Joseph Haydn
  2. Ludwig van Beethoven
  3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  4. CPE Bach
  5. Franz Schubert
  6. Antonio Salieri
    Joseph Willibrord Mähler
    Portrait of Antonio Salieri
  7. William Boyce
  8. Giovanni Battista Sammartini
  9. Niccolò Paganini
  10. Carl Maria von Weber
memes, science

July Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Biology

  1. What is the fastest land animal?
  2. How many hearts does an octopus have?
  3. Gentoo, Adelie and Macaroni are all species of what?
  4. What comic strip’s joke name for the row of spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail, the “thagomizer,” ended up becoming the official name?
  5. Which fruit did many people in the Western world think was poisonous until 1820?
  6. What is the natural compound present in green plants that gives them their colour?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

current affairs, history, memes

June Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

World Affairs

  1. Which political figure became Baroness of Kesteven? Margaret Thatcher
  2. What year was the United Nations established? 1945
  3. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the head of which United Nations agency in 2017? WHO (World Health Organisation)
  4. Who was US President in the year 2000? Bill Clinton
  5. What was the name of the treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that officially ended WWI? Treaty of Versailles
  6. The border between North Korea and South Korea is about 257km long and 4km wide. What is this buffer zone known as? Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

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Trees
Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation

amusements, memes

Ten Things

This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!

Ten Artists Born in 17th Century

  1. Claude Lorrain
  2. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
  3. Willem van der Velde the Younger
    Willem van der Velde the Younger
    Calm: Fishing Boats under Sail
  4. Johannes Vermeer
  5. Wenceslaus Hollar
  6. Aelbert Cuyp
  7. Pieter de Hooch
  8. Antoine Watteau
  9. William Hogarth
  10. Peter Lely
current affairs, memes

June Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

World Affairs

  1. Which political figure became Baroness of Kesteven?
  2. What year was the United Nations established?
  3. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the head of which United Nations agency in 2017?
  4. Who was US President in the year 2000?
  5. What was the name of the treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that officially ended WWI?
  6. The border between North Korea and South Korea is about 257km long and 4km wide. What is this buffer zone known as?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

memes

May Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

General Knowledge (2)

  1. What is a grimoire? A textbook of magic, typically including instructions on creating magical objects, performing spells & divination, and summoning supernatural entities
  2. Which British coin was introduced in February 1971 and withdrawn from circulation in December 1984? Half New Penny
  3. The wood of a cricket bat is traditionally from which type of tree? Willow
  4. In the United States, who is second in presidential line of succession after the Vice President? The Speaker of the House of Representatives
  5. Which film concerns the declaration of war by Freedonia against neighbouring Sylvania? Duck Soup
  6. The Velocipede was a nineteenth-century prototype of what? The bicycle

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.