Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.
Robert G Ingersoll
Category Archives: memes
October 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.
Classical & Ancient World
- What is the name of the home of the Greek Gods?
- Which body of the water was called mare nostrum by the Romans?
- Ask and Embla are the Norse equivalent to the Christian what?
- What was the name of the Egyptian God of the Sun?
- In Roman mythology, who is the goddess of the sewers?
- Which word derives from the Latin for “sand” and originally denoted part of a Roman amphitheatre that was covered with sand to soak up the blood from combat?
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
September 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.
Literature
- Which Tolstoy novel begins “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”? Anna Karenina
- Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016? Bob Dylan
- Who wrote A Child’s History of England? Dickens, 1853
- Who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in Nov 1850? Tennyson
- Apart from his novels, what is Anthony Trollope remembered for? Introduction of pillar boxes to UK
- Which two-word term was popularised by a 1948 Robert Heinlein novel of the same name, which inspired a science fiction franchise centring on a character named Tom Corbett? Space Cadet
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.
This Month’s Poem
A Modern Hiawatha
George A Strong
When he killed the Mudjokivis,
Of the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside.
He, to get the warm side inside,
Put the inside skin side outside;
He, to get the cold side outside,
Put the warm side fur side inside.
That’s why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.
Find this poem online at Poetry Nook
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 19th Century
- Bedrich Smetena
- Leoš Janacek
Leoš Janacek
- Jean Sibelius
- Claude Debussy
- Sergei Prokofiev
- Carl Orff
- Richard Wagner
- Maurice Ravel
- Igor Stravinsky
- Erik Satie
This Month’s Quote
Knowledge isn’t free. You have to pay attention.
Richard Feynman
September 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.
Literature
- Which Tolstoy novel begins “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”?
- Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016?
- Who wrote A Child’s History of England?
- Who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in Nov 1850?
- Apart from his novels, what is Anthony Trollope remembered for?
- Which two-word term was popularised by a 1948 Robert Heinlein novel of the same name, which inspired a science fiction franchise centring on a character named Tom Corbett?
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
August 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.
General History
- How long, in days, was the year 46BC? 445 days; the longest year in human history. It had three extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar as preparation to make his new Julian Calendar match up with the seasonal year.
- According to the 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, what are the only ingredients allowed in beer? Water, barley & hops, although yeast was also used but not stated.
- Who was the first woman to die in an aviation-related incident? Sophie Blanchard (a balloonist who died in 1812)
- In what year was the Battle of Lepanto? 1571
- In 1800, the capital of the USA was transferred to Washington DC from which city? Philadelphia
- The War of Jenkins’ Ear (a term coined by British historian Thomas Carlyle), 1739-1748, between Britain and Spain, was fought where? Caribbean
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.
This Month’s Poem
Kubla Khan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation
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 18th Century
- John Constable
- JMW Turner
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard
- John Sell Cotman
John Sell Cotman; Windmill
- John Crome
- François Boucher
- Giovanni Battista Piranesi
- William Blake
- Katsushika Hokusai
- Antonio Canova