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
What is the fastest land animal?
How many hearts does an octopus have?
Gentoo, Adelie and Macaroni are all species of what?
What comic strip’s joke name for the row of spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail, the “thagomizer,” ended up becoming the official name?
Which fruit did many people in the Western world think was poisonous until 1820?
What is the natural compound present in green plants that gives them their colour?
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.
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
Claude Lorrain
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Willem van der Velde the Younger
Willem van der Velde the Younger Calm: Fishing Boats under Sail
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
Which political figure became Baroness of Kesteven?
What year was the United Nations established?
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the head of which United Nations agency in 2017?
Who was US President in the year 2000?
What was the name of the treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that officially ended WWI?
The border between North Korea and South Korea is about 257km long and 4km wide. What is this buffer zone known as?
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)
What is a grimoire? A textbook of magic, typically including instructions on creating magical objects, performing spells & divination, and summoning supernatural entities
Which British coin was introduced in February 1971 and withdrawn from circulation in December 1984? Half New Penny
The wood of a cricket bat is traditionally from which type of tree? Willow
In the United States, who is second in presidential line of succession after the Vice President? The Speaker of the House of Representatives
Which film concerns the declaration of war by Freedonia against neighbouring Sylvania? Duck Soup
The Velocipede was a nineteenth-century prototype of what? The bicycle
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.
Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through briar,
Over park, over pale,
Through blood, through fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moone’s sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone:
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
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 17th Century
George Frideric Handel
Jean-Philippe Rameau
JS Bach
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Dieterich Buxtehude
Domenico Scarlatti
Domingo Antonio Velasco Portrait of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
