Category Archives: memes

memes, science, words

April 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.

Geography

  1. In what country would you find Mount Kilimanjaro?
  2. What is the largest desert in Asia?
  3. Which river flows through the Grand Canyon?
  4. Which country bordering India measures it’s success in terms of “gross national happiness”?
  5. Which country makes up more than half the western coastline of South America?
  6. There’s a town in the Peloponnese region of Greece with a namesake food item known for its purple colour and smooth meaty texture. What is this fruit?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

memes, words

March 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.

Language

  1. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States, but in this context, bald doesn’t mean hairless. The bald part of the bird’s name comes from an Old English word meaning what? White
  2. What is the study of mushrooms called? Mycology
  3. Where would you find together a verso and a recto? In a book (left and right pages)
  4. In medieval times armies had a simple yet effective weapon to impede the advance of enemy cavalry or infantry. It was typically made of metal and had four sharp points arranged so that one point always faced upward when thrown on the ground. What was it called? Caltrop
  5. “Width”, “wagon”, “stand” and “leader” can all follow which word to make new words?  Band
  6. Which commonly used word in the English language originates from the religious saying, God be with ye? Goodbye

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

1 Comment

Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelly

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
And on the pedestal these word appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

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 16th Century

  1. William Byrd
  2. Thomas Tallis
  3. Claudio Monteverdi
    Domenico Fetti: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
  4. Carlo Gesualdo
  5. Orlando Gibbons
  6. Christopher Tye
  7. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
  8. Orlande de Lassus
  9. Andrea Gabrieli
  10. Giles Farnaby
memes, words

March 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.

Language

  1. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States, but in this context, bald doesn’t mean hairless. The bald part of the bird’s name comes from an Old English word meaning what?
  2. What is the study of mushrooms called?
  3. Where would you find together a verso and a recto?
  4. In medieval times armies had a simple yet effective weapon to impede the advance of enemy cavalry or infantry. It was typically made of metal and had four sharp points arranged so that one point always faced upward when thrown on the ground. What was it called?
  5. “Width”, “wagon”, “stand” and “leader” can all follow which word to make new words?
  6. Which commonly used word in the English language originates from the religious saying, God be with ye?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

medical, memes

February 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.

Medicine

  1. What is dermatophobia the fear of? Skin disease
  2. How many teeth do adult humans have? 32
  3. In 2015, which country started thanking people via text message when their donated blood was used? Sweden
  4. An absence of the SRY gene means what for a human being? It means the human is a female. The presence of the sex-determining region Y (SRY) gene is the specific factor which leads to maleness in mammals
  5. In which part of the body would you find the atlas and axis bones? Neck
  6. First developed by John Salk, the vaccine for which illness was first tested in 1952? Poliomyelitis

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

No Man Is An Island
John Donne

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Find this poem online at All Poetry