My AMAZING Book of General Knowledge - By Subroto Mukerji

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My

AMAZING BOOK of

General Knowledge by Subroto Mukerji

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CONTENTS RAPID FIRE ROUND FREE FOR ALL THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ THE RANDOM QUIZ THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ – PART 1 THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ – PART 1I AMAZING FACTS Facts concerning Just Facts about Art

about Anything at All

and Architecture

Facts about Books

and Literature

Facts about

Geography

Facts about

Space & the Universe

Facts about Cuisine & Chocolate—Chocolate Timeline Facts about Bananas…and why they are good for you!

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Facts about Coffee Facts about entertainment Facts about the English language & Word Origins Facts about minerals Facts about plants

and biology

Facts about history Facts about the

and science

and historical events

human body

Facts about products,

advertising, and inventions

Facts about Animals Facts about Cuisine: Food, food origins, beverages, and recipes Facts about Postage

Stamps

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RAPID FIRE ROUND

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This is a warm-up round, to enable you to limber up for the trials (and tribulations) ahead! Ha Ha!! As the gladiators said in the arena, morituri salutamus and all that … 1. Which country is the oldest surviving republic in the world? A) France B) Greece C) San Marino D) Switzerland 2. Which of the following nations is the largest? A) Canada B) China C) Russia D) The USA 3. How many bytes are there in a kilobyte? A) 1,000 B) 1,024 C) 1,080 D) It depends on your computer's operating system 4. What is the southernmost U.S. state? A) Florida B) Hawaii C) Puerto Rico D) Texas 5. In what year was Canada founded? A) 1783 B) 1812 C) 1867 D) 1918 6. In which ocean is the island of St. Helena, site of Napoleon's final imprisonment? A) Arctic B) Atlantic C) Indian D) Pacific 7. Which of the following is true of all animals? A) They eat other living things B) They are less intelligent than humans C) They are mobile D) All of the above

6 8. Many countries have eccentric leaders, but the president of North Korea is probably the strangest of all. Oddly enough, he: A) Is dead B) Believes he is a parrot C) Owns a herd of specially bred pygmy elephants D) Is a chimpanzee 9. Which of the following is an official language of at least one modern nation? A) Basque B) Latin C) Navajo D) Taiwanese 10. Which of the following is most closely related evolutionarily to the primitive "living fossil" fish known as the coelacanth? A) Hagfish B) Shark C) Tuna D) You 11. If your geographical position was 0° latitude, 0° longitude, where on earth would you be? A) At the Greenwich Observatory in England B) In the Atlantic Ocean C) In the West African country of Ghana D) At the center of the Earth 12. The four Marx brothers, Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, made a legendary series of movie comedies from 1929 to 1950. What was Groucho's real first name? A) Arthur B) Herbert C) Julius D) Leonard 13. In which of the following pairs of words can both words refer to the same object? A) Boot, trunk B) Clog, drain C) Shoe, thimble D) Slipper, pencil 14. Alekhine, Capablanca and Tal are: A) Past world chess champions B) Resort towns on the Black Sea C) Brands of Russian chewing gum D) Spanish nature poets, known as "The Triumvirate"

7 15. The Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus (d. 9 AD) served during the reign of the emperor Augustus Caesar. His main claim to fame was: A) Establishing the first Roman settlement in Britain B) Imposing order upon the quarrelsome tribes of Gaul C) Suffering a catastrophic defeat in the forests of Germany D) Marching against Rome in an attempted revolt 16. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman achieved "fifteen minutes of fame" in 1989 for: A) A political scandal B) A military fiasco C) A business failure D) A scientific error 17. Dot TV: Every country in the world has been assigned a two-letter Internet domain name such as ".uk" for the United Kingdom, and ".ch" for Switzerland. Which lucky country has the domain name ".tv"? A) Liechtenstein B) Terra Verde C) The Vatican D) Tuvalu 18. Whose was "the face that launched a thousand ships"? A) Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt B) Helen of Troy C) Joan of Arc D) Queen Elizabeth I of England 19. The "fo'csle" on a square-rigged sailing ship was: A) A small lever for focusing the ship's telescope B) The "forecourse sail" - a large sail on the foremast C) The "forecastle" - a raised deck near the bow D) The "forward console" - a piloting station at the bow, used in fog 20. Each year, southern France is buffeted by a strong wind called the mistral. The mistral is: A) A cold wind from the north B) A hot wind from the south C) A dry wind from the east D) A moist wind from the west 21. Which of the following was Anne Hathaway? A) The daughter of Sir Walter Raleigh B) The mother of Oliver Cromwell C) The sister of Sir Isaac Newton D) The wife of William Shakespeare

8 22. The sounds we hear are transmitted from the outer to the inner ear by three small, distinctively-shaped bones called the malleus, the incus and the stapes. In English, these are: A) The bell, the horn and the lyre B) The ring, the shield and the spoon C) The hammer, the anvil and the stirrup D) The hook, the fish and the snail 23. If the symbol of your profession is a "caduceus", you are a: A) Dentist B) Detective C) Doctor D) Dog trainer 24. The 18th century French intellectual Jean François-Marie Arouet is better known by his assumed name, which was: A) King Louis XIV B) Diderot, the encyclopedist C) Laplace, the physicist and mathematician D) Voltaire, the philosophe 25. Who was Edwin Drood? A) The title character of an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens B) The hero of H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines C) The author of such eerie tales as The Monkey's Paw D) The real-life person on whom Sherlock Holmes was based 26. Of the 206 bones in the human body, how many are in the hands and feet (wrists and ankles included)? A) 40 B) 62 C) 84 D) 106 27.Samuel Taylor Coleridge's celebrated long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner begins with the words, "It is an Ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three". Three what? A) Doctors hastening to a medical emergency B) Guests on their way to a nearby wedding C) Noblemen going to the House of Lords D) Young sailors returning to their ship 28. What is the antithesis of matrimony...er…What is antimony? A) A contradiction between two conclusions, each reasonable on its own B) Ill-feeling or quarrelsomeness C) The belief that all wealth should be eliminated

9 D) A brittle silvery-white metal 29. What are fardels? In the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the suicidally depressed Hamlet asks himself, "Who would fardels bear?" What on earth are fardels? A) Bundles or burdens B) Children C) Insults, mockery D) Arms and armour 30. Horsing around? Where would you hope to find Mare Imbrium? A) In the Pacific Ocean B) On the Moon C) In a stable in Austria D) In C.S. Lewis' imaginary land of Narnia 31. Four of a kind or four of a hind? The atabal, the bocu, the darabuka and the rebolo are all types of: A) Antelope B) Bean C) Ceremonial head-dress D) Drum 32. A very good year; the year 1685 was unusually productive of great composers. Which of the following luminaries was not born in that year? A) Johann Sebastian Bach B) George Frederick Handel C) Domenico Scarlatti D) Georg Philipp Telemann 33. Roman, August. Augustus Caesar, the first of the Roman emperors, was born in September in 63 B.C., and died in August (which was named for him) in 14 A.D. How old was he? A) 75 B) 76 C) 77 D) Impossible to say 34. What is a killdeer? Is the Deerslayer back? A) A bird of the Americas B) A jacket worn by deer hunters C) A rock used as a boat anchor D) A theatrical critic 35. Melody for your ears? Why don’t you listen to a threnody. How does it sound? A) Majestic, like a march B) Merry, like a jig

10 C) Monotonous, like a chant D) Mournful, like a dirge 36. All that jazz…which great jazz musician had the nickname "Satchmo"? A) Art Tatum B) Django Reinhardt C) Louis Armstrong D) Miles Davis 37. Without any Rhyme or reason. The words "Hickory, dickory, dock" from the wellknown nursery rhyme are probably: A) Amusing nonsense words chosen to fit the song B) Derived from Celtic words meaning "eight, nine, ten" C) A reference to Henry Dickers, an Elizabethan church official D) From the Latin "Hic dictat dux" (roughly, "The boss speaks here") 38. The same old faces (sigh). A "regular convex polyhedron" is a solid shape in which all the faces are identical regular polygons such as a square or an equilateral triangle. The most familiar example is a cube, which has six identical square faces. The number of possible different shapes is limited; in fact, there are exactly: A) 2 B) 5 C) 12 D) 360 39. How high is your dudgeon? If you are "in high dudgeon", you are: A) Chained up high on a cliff-side B) Convinced of your moral superiority C) Extremely angry D) Full of good cheer 40. Writing a wrong? In this list of satirical novels and their authors, one entry is incorrect. Which? A) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley B) The Loved One, by Auberon Waugh C) Animal Farm, by George Orwell D) Giles Goat-Boy, by John Barth 41. Giants of yesteryear. The largest land mammal that ever lived, Indricotherium, is most closely related to which of these mammals of today? A) The elephant B) The hippopotamus C) The moose D) The rhinoceros

11 42. Speed of light. The "Mach numbers" that are often used to measure aircraft speeds are based on the speed of sound. Mach 2 is double the speed of sound, Mach 3 is treble the speed of sound, and so on. At about what Mach number does light travel? A) Mach 90 B) Mach 9,000 C) Mach 900,000 D) Mach 90,000,000 43. Sphere of influence…in 1959, physicist Freeman Dyson described a concept that came to be known as a "Dyson Sphere". A Dyson Sphere is: A) The minimum volume needed to contain all living things B) A personal vehicle for interstellar travel C) The region of influence of an interstellar empire D) A rigid hollow sphere completely enclosing a star 44. But…but…what is a sackbut? A) A barrel of wine B) A medieval musical instrument C) A non-aggression pact between neighboring cities D) A slothful person 45. Numbered among the greats of literature, Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, was actually the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford University lecturer in what field? A) Mathematics B) The psychology of dreams C) Religious studies D) Theoretical physics 46. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was the author of masterpieces like Lord Jim, Nostromo and Heart of Darkness. Surprisingly, Conrad: A) Could only write fluently while at sea B) Dedicated all his works to his mother C) Had 12 children, of whom 10 were successful writers D) Knew no English before the age of 21 47. Three of a kind…a dromond, a xebec and a proa are all types of: A) Headgear B) Cattle dog C) Sea-going vessel D) Wind instrument 48. Just a bunch of words...which of the following is NOT a valid English word: A) Skat B) Skaw C) Skeg

12 D) Skep 49. Which is the third largest planet in the Solar System? A) Jupiter B) Neptune C) Saturn D) Uranus 50. Knights and ladies In the days of chivalry, when a knight referred to his "destrier" and a lady to her "palfrey", they were both talking about their: A) Dog B) Hawk C) Horse D) Uncle or aunt 51. The Sound of Music. Note durations in musical notation can be named according to the North American system (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc.) or the older British system (semibreves, minims, crotchets, etc.). What is the equivalent British name for the North American thirty-second note? A) Quaver B) Semiquaver C) Demisemiquaver D) Hemidemisemiquaver 52. Biology, anyone? William Harvey, a 17th century English scientist, made an important contribution to biology with his: A) Explanation of the circulatory system B) Invention of the microscope C) Research on vaccination to immunize against disease D) Study of the electrical nature of nerve impulses 53. Where the river is winding, big nuggets they’re finding…Whitehorse, the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory, was founded late in the 19th century. The town derives its name from: A) A brand of whisky B) A native legend C) A railroad engineer's favorite stallion D) The white foam of the rapids in the Yukon river 54. Monumental discovery…the 19th century French archeologist Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) is most famous for his discovery of: A) The answer to the "riddle of the Sphinx" B) How to decipher ancient Egyptian inscriptions C) The techniques used to prepare mummies D) The tomb of Tutankhamen

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55. Three novel characters in search of a book? Which classic adventure book includes among its characters Ben Gunn, Israel Hands and Dr. Livesey? A) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne B) Prester John by John Buchan C) She by H. Rider Haggard D) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 56. Voice from beyond…starting in the late 1880s, European representatives of Thomas Alva Edison recorded the voices of famous people to publicize the newly invented phonograph. Not long after, one of the people recorded on Edison's machine became the first person ever whose voice was heard after his death. He was: A) Johannes Brahms, composer B) Robert Browning, poet C) Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer D) Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet 57. What manner of dragon was this? In Arthurian legend, who was Uther Pendragon? A) The father of King Arthur B) A giant slain by Sir Gawain C) The guardian of the Holy Grail D) The husband of Morgana le Fay 58. Instant success In Polaroid photography, which was introduced in the early 1960s, a photograph is processed into a finished print almost immediately after the picture is taken. The inventor of Polaroid photography was: A) Francis Crick B) George Eastman C) Dr. Edwin F. Land D) Walter Polarius 59. What do they study? A zoologist studies animal life in general, but a cryptozoologist focuses on: A) Animals that have been extinct for at least one million years B) Animals that inhabit graveyards C) Animals whose behavior is exceptionally puzzling D) Animals whose existence has not been scientifically verified 60. Is it a game at all? The Irish play an ancient team sport, somewhat similar to field hockey, called: A) Field polo B) Hurling C) Lacrosse D) Pelota

14 61. Whose steed was it? Which great military leader rode a horse named Bucephalus? A) Alexander the Great B) Charlemagne C) Julius Caesar D) Richard the Lionhearted 62. Three of a kind, the bongo, the nyala and the sitatunga are all types of: A) Antelope B) Grass hut C) Hand-drum D) Sumo wrestling hold 63. One more sin? One sin on the traditional list of "seven deadly sins" is known in Latin as accidia, from which we have the old-fashioned English word accidie. Today, the deadly sin of accidie is more usually known as: A) Envy B) Gluttony C) Pride D) Sloth 64. Consult the consul…In ancient Rome there were at any time two consuls, or chief magistrates. These very important officials were elected annually. The consul Incitatus, who served under the emperor Caligula, was unusual in that he was: A) A child of six B) A figment of Caligula's imagination C) A horse D) A Saxon prince 65. Food for worms? Most commercial silk fibre is produced by silkworms, a kind of caterpillar native to China. The silkworm is a fussy eater; in fact, it dines on nothing but: A) Bamboo shoots B) Eucalyptus bark C) Mulberry leaves D) Orchid nectar 66. Early Man…er…Woman: In recent decades, scientists working in eastern Africa have made numerous discoveries. One important site is Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where scientists Louis and Mary Leakey found: A) The first complete pterodactyl skeleton B) Stone implements similar to those used by North American natives C) Proto-human fossils D) A buried city, almost perfectly preserved 67. Written and illustrated by...which of the following famous children's books was illustrated by the author? A) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

15 B) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien C) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame D) Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne 68. What a disaster! Which major disaster occurred in London, England in 1666? A) A devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague began B) An earthquake caused severe damage to Buckingham Palace C) A fire destroyed most of the city D) A French agent assassinated the prime minister 69. Theoretically speaking, Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), a German physician, became famous for devising a highly influential theory, although it has few followers today. He believed: A) That one's health is controlled by four fluids called "humors" B) That personality and abilities are revealed by the shape of one's head C) That wealthy people are in most cases innately superior to poor people D) That most diseases could be cured by expertly applied electric shocks 70. In search of the absolute? What temperature is ‘Absolute Zero’, on the centigrade scale? A) Minus (–) 273 degrees C B) There is no such thing as ‘Absolute zero’ C) It is 220 degrees below the freezing point of water D) 333 degrees below the temperature when frost becomes visible 71. Long in the tooth? In 1991, a fossilized tooth belonging to a prehistoric relative of the platypus was discovered in the region known as Patagonia. Just where is Patagonia? A) Between Borneo and New Guinea B) In Australia's Northern Territory C) In New Zealand D) In South America 72. Who were they? Who were Gargantua and Pantagruel? A) The children of Odin in Norse mythology B) Greyhounds belonging to Queen Elizabeth I C) Characters in a classic French novel D) A husband and wife team of circus performers 73. Boyle, Goyle, Hoyle and Gargoyle? The expression "according to Hoyle" means "according to the official rules". Who or what was Hoyle? A) The Hoyle Sports Club in London, England B) A renowned poker expert in the American wild west C) A pseudonym used by Britain's King George IV when gambling D) An 18th-century writer on games

16 74. It’s that word ‘argent’ again… The world's leading producer of silver is a country in the Americas. Which one? A) Argentina B) Canada C) Mexico D) Peru 75. Find the schwa (by the way, what is it?). Only one of the following words has the sound called a schwa. Which is it? A) Boiling B) Sandwich C) Scented D) Vacuum 76. Who were the Mughals? Nowadays we often use the term mogul to mean an important person - particularly in business, and perhaps above all in Hollywood - but the original Mughals were: A) Emperors of India B) Fictional kings in the Tales of Baron von Munchausen C) Princes of Persia D) Wealthy land-owners of Babylon and Ur 77. The road to Brobdingnag; where would you find the kingdom of Brobdingnag? A) In Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes B) In the Bible C) In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift D) In medieval Germany 78. Where is the corpus callosum located? A) Behind the heart, but visible only after death B) In one's head C) On one's hands and feet D) Within each cell of the body 79. Any relation of Tony’s? What was the pseudonym of the famous British writer Eric Arthur Blair? A) E.M. Forster B) George Orwell C) Graham Greene D) Saki 80. Who was the original heel? In the famous Greek epic, The Iliad by Homer, the otherwise invulnerable Achilles was killed during the Trojan War by an arrow that struck him in the heel….the one spot where he was not invulnerable. Who loosed the fatal shaft? A) Hector B) Paris

17 C) Patroclus D) Priam 81. Going to any lengths? Which of the following statements about traditional units of length - not of all of them necessarily in current use - is false? A) A cubit is less than a pace, which is less than a perch B) An ell is less than a yard, which is less than a fathom C) A hand is less than a span, which is less than a foot D) A rod is less than a chain, which is less than a furlong 82. Perhaps it’s just as well…The great English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) wrote only one opera, Dido and Aeneas. The work was performed only once during Purcell's lifetime, and that performance took place not at a theatre but: A) At a girls' boarding school B) On a barge anchored on the Thames C) In a debtors' prison D) For the coronation of King James II 83. Who wrote them? More importantly, who read them? Who was the author of the novels Pnin, Ada and the The Real Life of Sebastian Knight? A) Edgar Rice Burroughs B) Vladimir Nabokov C) Ayn Rand D) James Updike 84. Why David? The U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David has often been the scene of international summit meetings, such as those between the Israelis and the Palestinians. After whom was Camp David named? A) The statue of David by Michelangelo B) Private Lester B. David, a gunner in World War II C) American frontier hero Davy Crockett D) President Dwight Eisenhower's grandson 85. W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan collaborated fourteen times in creating their famous series of comic operas. Their first and last works were: A) H.M.S. Pinafore and The Yeomen of the Guard B) The Sorcerer and The Gondoliers C) Thespis and The Grand Duke D) Trial By Jury and Utopia Limited 86. Which of these words means "meekness" or "gentleness"? A) Consuetude B) Desuetude C) Hebetude D) Mansuetude

18 87. Like most other constellations, Boötes, which contains the bright star Arcturus, is named after a character in Greek mythology. The mythical Boötes was: A) The first man to make wine by fermenting grapes B) A friend of Odysseus, killed by the cyclops Polyphemus C) The inventor of the plough D) A rejected lover of the huntress Artemis 88. What are Doomstead, Skinfaxi and Sleipnir? A) Horses in Scandinavian mythology B) Infectious diseases in the Middle Ages C) The last three books of the seer Nostradamus D) Small flowers that grow on mountainsides 89. Ace fighter pilot…Douglas Bader, a World War II RAF fighter pilot, had a remarkable and distinguished military career despite a serious physical injury during his early pilot’s training. His biography, written by Paul Brickhill, is called Reach for the Sky. Specifically, Bader’s injuries comprised: A) amputation of both legs B) Needed chemical stimulants to remain awake more than a few hours C) Was almost completely deaf D) Was prone to epileptic fits that could strike without warning 90. English physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson is best known for an important discovery that he announced in 1896. It was: A) The "big bang" that gave rise to our present universe B) The existence of the electron C) The measurement of the speed of light in a vacuum D) The unusual behavior of liquid helium 91. The midwinter festival in ancient Rome was called the Saturnalia. Originally celebrated on December 19, it was extended over time to a full week. During the Saturnalia: A) Horses and pets were given wine instead of water B) Marriages could be annulled at the request of either party C) No one could appear in public before sunset D) Slaves were temporarily set free 92. What is "Galvayne's groove"? A) A popular dance rhythm of the 1940s and 1950s B) A pattern of wear often seen in generator turbines C) A groove in the teeth of horses D) A shallow valley on the near side of the moon 93. What is Cotopaxi? Cotopaxi is to be found in Ecuador. What is it? A) A plant used in making arthritis medicines B) in terms of altitude the highest active volcano in the world

19 C) An annual celebration featuring a "dance of peace" D) A river whose temperature reaches 122ºF (50ºC) 94. What is the meaning of the word Excalibur, the name of King Arthur's sword? A) Death to enemies B) "I defend the land" C) Justice D) Taken from a stone 95. What did he do? British bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) is chiefly known for what achievement? A) Authoring a novel about the Crusades B) Developing a simple test for tuberculosis C) Discovering penicillin D) Improving hospital hygiene standards 96. What are they now? Which group of islands was formerly known as the Sandwich Islands? A) The Hawaiian Islands B) The Philippines C) The Society Islands D) The Solomon Islands 97. What was Wat? Wat Tyler, a 14th century Englishman, is remembered for what? A) Inventing a new method of book-keeping B) Leading a peasant revolt that captured the Tower of London C) Running 50 miles with news of a French invasion D) Saving the life of King Richard II during a battle 98. In H.G. Wells' first science fiction tale, The Time Machine, a 19th century Englishman travels forward in time to find that humanity has split into two groups, the Eloi and the Morlocks. A major difference between them is that: A) The Eloi live above ground, and the Morlocks below B) The Eloi are ruled by women, the Morlocks by men C) The Eloi are scientists, but the Morlocks prefer art and philosophy D) The Eloi are spacefaring, while the Morlocks are earthbound 99. The opera Treemonisha was poorly received when first performed in 1915, much to the disappointment of its composer, whose name was: A) Aleksandr Glazunov B) Scott Joplin C) Erik Satie D) Jean Sibelius

20 100. Strange relations? Hyraxes are small furry mammals of Africa and South Asia, whose diet consists of plants and fruit. Oddly enough, the nearest relatives of the hyrax among other mammals are the: A) Bears B) Elephants C) Giraffes D) Lions and tigers 101. Why "draconian"? A "draconian" law is one for which the penalty is excessively severe. The word "draconian" comes from: A) Drac, a medieval Romanian prince who tyrannized his people B) A French phrase, "de racon", meaning "to be reckoned with" C) Draco, an Athenian who wanted to punish even minor crimes with death D) Draco, the Latin word for "dragon" 102. You won't feel a thing! U.S. physician Crawford Long (1815-1878) pioneered the use of ether in surgery. He discovered the anesthetic properties of ether by observing its effect on: A) A professor of chemistry B) An injured horse C) Guinea pigs D) Students 103. Instrumentally speaking…the cor anglais, or English horn, is an orchestral instrument that is actually most closely related to the: A) Clarinet B) French horn C) Oboe D) Trombone 104. What are the kina, the kuna, the kwacha and the kyat? Kurrency? Koins? Or… A) Kick-boxing techniques B) Levels of voodoo priesthood C) Parrots D) Units of currency 105. Who or what were Scylla and Charybdis? A) Deadly dangers faced by the Greek hero Odysseus B) Gallic chieftains vanquished by Julius Caesar C) The eldest wife of King Solomon D) The guardians of the gates to Asgard in Norse myth 106. A porbeagle is a type of... A) Sailboat B) Servant

21 C) Shark D) Sheep-dog 107. Who was Sancho Panza ? A) The 1965 men's Wimbledon champion B) The servant of Don Quixote C) The first Spaniard to found a settlement in the Americas D) A composer specializing in works for the classical guitar 108. Axe the gerrymander? Around 480 B.C., a Greek philosopher advanced scientific knowledge by working out the true cause of astronomical eclipses. His name was: A) Anaxagoras B) Anaximander C) Anaximenes of Lampsacus D) Anaximenes of Miletus 109. Who were Elman, Heifetz and Milstein? A) Famous classical violinists B) The law firm that represented Richard Nixon during Watergate C) The producer, director and writer of the film Casablanca D) The winners of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physics 110. What did he discover? Today's computer systems take advantage of a discovery made by Sir Thomas Young in 1801. Sir Thomas showed that: A) Electric currents can be controlled by combining silicon with other materials B) Mathematical equations can be solved by combining simple logical operations C) Most colours can be represented as combinations of red, green and blue D) Numbers can be represented as combinations of the digits zero and one 111. Who fits the shoes? Of these traditional craftsmen, which one was the shoemaker? A) The broderer B) The cordwainer C) The loriner D) The farrier 112. In the famous Warner Brothers cartoon series, a fast-moving bird called ‘Beep Beep’ – a "road runner" – makes life difficult for a not-so-wily coyote. The real road runner is actually a type of: A) Cuckoo B) Pheasant C) Stork D) Turkey 113. The word lagan (also spelled ligan) is associated with which two other English words?

22 A) Assault and battery B) Beryllium and iron C) Flotsam and jetsam D) Legend and saga 114. Playing as you learn? A 1997 study of music tuition in the United States found that the most popular instruments to study were the piano and the guitar. The third most popular was the: A) Clarinet B) Drums C) Flute D) Violin 115. What is "Daltonism"? A) A system of character analysis based on physical measurements B) The belief that matter is composed of indivisible atoms C) The deliberate avoidance of unpleasant realities D) The inability to distinguish red from green 116. I’ll be Bach…John Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel were born only 130 km (80 miles) and one month apart, but never met, in part because Handel lived and worked abroad for much of his life. There was, however, an interesting connection between the two men, namely: A) Both were awarded gold medals by the British parliament B) Both were married to daughters of famous sculptors C) Both were operated on by the same surgeon D) Both were plagued by nightmares of drowning 117. Like anteaters, all four of the following animals have long snouts and long sticky tongues for eating insects such as ants and termites. However, only one is actually a member of the anteater family. Which is it? A) The aardvark B) The numbat C) The pangolin D) The tamandua 118. Who or what are Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis? A) Brothers, who fatally quarreled after glimpsing the goddess Aphrodite B) Herbs with medicinal and/or poisonous properties C) The three Fates who control the span of mortal lives D) The wives of King Midas, whom he accidentally turns to gold 119. In the 14th century, a warlord created a vast empire by conquering much of Asia and Eastern Europe. His name was: A) Attila the Hun B) Babur

23 C) Genghis Khan D) Tamerlane 120. Gitche Gumee Hiawatha, the hero of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, was raised "by the shores of Gitche Gumee". Most of us know “Gitche Gumee” by which other name? A) Georgian Bay B) Lake Superior C) The Atlantic Ocean D) The Mississippi River

FREE FOR ALL This round that takes you all the way across the universe and back …

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1. The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. It is shaped approximately like: A) A round ball B) A doughnut C) A pretzel D) A flat spiral 2. Unlike most other fish, sharks have no A) Bones B) Teeth C) Gills D) Liver 3. The metal mercury: A) Is the hardest known metal B) Is a liquid at room temperature C) Is highly radioactive D) Is extensively used in aircraft construction 4. If you were to take a lump of coal and squeeze it in some contrivance that exerted titanic pressure on it for a long time at very high temperatures, you would end up with: A) Graphite B) Volcanic glass, also known as obsidian C) A smaller lump of coal D) A diamond 5. It is now believed that dinosaurs became extinct because of: A) Viral diseases B) Hunting by early humans C) A worldwide period of climatic cooling D) A meteorite impact 6. Kinetic energy is: A) Life energy, possessed only by living organisms B) Only important at subatomic distances C) Energy inherent in movement D) A rare form of energy sometimes observed in deep space 7. Charles Darwin began developing his theory of evolution while voyaging on a ship named: A) The Enterprise B) The Beagle C) The Santa Maria D) The Endeavour

25 8. An android is any robot that: A) Has more than one basic function B) Has the ability to make decisions and formulate plans C) Is built by other robots D) Looks and acts like a human 9. What is so special about Sirius, the Dog Star? A) It is the only star first observed by Albert Einstein B) It is the brightest star in the sky C) It always lies directly above the North Pole D) It emits staccato barking sounds which radio telescopes can detect 10. The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that: A) Lay eggs B) Have green blood C) Live in Antarctica D) Eat eucalyptus leaves 11. Dry ice is: A) Frozen carbon dioxide B) Ordinary ice from which all moisture has been chemically removed C) A term applied to industrial diamonds D) A movie prop used to simulate ice at room temperature 12. The exploration of caves is called: A) Plutonation B) Spelunking C) Karsting D) Undermining 13. The main defensive weapon of the dinosaur called Iguanodon was probably: A) Its teeth B) Its horns C) Its tail D) Its thumbs 14. Newton's third law of motion can be roughly stated as: A) The bigger they are, the harder they fall B) What goes up must come down C) If you shove me, I'll shove you back D) Nature abhors a vacuum 15. Sir Isaac Newton, as a boy, began his serious academic studies after: A) Meeting Galileo Galilei B) Beating up a bully

26 C) Having a vision D) Falling out of a tree 16. The first man-made object to move faster than the speed of sound, or ‘break the sound barrier’ was: A) A bullet B) An airplane C) A whip D) A discus 17. A supernova is a star that is: A) More than 10 million kilometres across B) Violet in colour C) In the process of exploding D) Revolving around another star 18. In the human body, blood is transported in veins and arteries. The difference between the two is that: A) Veins are much wider than arteries B) Veins carry only red blood cells, while arteries carry only white blood cells C) Arteries are permanent, but veins are constantly being broken down and replaced D) Arteries carry blood away from the heart, while veins carry it to the heart 19. Acetic acid: A) Can easily dissolve quartz B) Can be extracted from several species of fungus C) Is often used in cooking D) Catches fire when exposed to air 20. During the time of the dinosaurs, the number of continents on the Earth's surface was: A) One B) Three C) Seven D) Sixteen 21. One early type of bird, Archaeopteryx, lived in the Jurassic Period, more than 130 million years ago. Unlike modern birds, Archaeopteryx: A) Had no feathers B) Did not lay eggs C) Could probably talk D) Had teeth 22. The speed of sound: A) Is the same as the speed of light B) Depends on what medium the sound is traveling through

27 C) Is greater for loud sounds than soft sounds D) Is always about 1190 kilometers (740 miles) per hour 23. The sixteenth century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was a very unusual man. Among other things, he: A) Had an artificial nose B) Never went outdoors on Fridays C) Lived in a cave D) Was a champion wrestler 24. The inventor of chewing gum, William Semple, intended it mainly as: A) A household adhesive B) A means of exercising the jaws C) Bait for animal traps D) A flavorful treat 25. On the planet Venus: A) Surface temperatures are cold enough to freeze nitrogen B) The only life forms are bacteria living in the soil C) A powerful earthquake occurs somewhere every seventy minutes or so D) A Venusian day is longer than a Earth year, astronomically speaking 26. According to Darwin, the best way to achieve a high level of "evolutionary fitness" (i.e., fitness to not only survive but actually thrive as a species) is by: A) Exercising regularly B) Eating healthy foods C) Having lots of children D) Attacking other animals 27. Helium, neon, argon, xenon, radon and krypton form a group of elements known as: A) Series H B) The noble gases C) The alkali earths D) The X factors (B). The noble gases are highly inert - that is, they rarely react with other substances. 28. The Earth's magnetic field: A) Sometimes flips over, so that the North Pole becomes the South Pole B) Came into being about 30 million years ago C) Is stronger, at the Earth's surface, than the most powerful man-made magnets D) Attracted a huge iron meteorite to the Earth, resulting in the extinction of the dinosaurs 29. When paleontologists mention the "Cambrian Explosion", they are referring to: A) A meteorite impact

28 B) A huge volcanic eruption C) A sudden burst of evolutionary activity D) An early parasite whose toxic secretions occasionally caused its hosts to explode 30. The half-life of a radioactive substance is: A) About 35 to 40 years B) The number of genetic mutations it can cause within half an hour C) The full length of time required for half of it to decay D) Half the length of time required for all of it to decay 31. Every day until his death at age ninety-six, the noted chemist Robert Chesebrough was careful to take a spoonful of: A) Rat poison B) Seawater C) Powdered sulphur D) Vaseline 32. Arthur Pedrick, a British inventor, patented numerous inventions, including A) A device to shoot icebergs into desert areas, in order to green them B) A device for steering a golf ball while in flight C) A car that can be driven from the back seat D) An amphibious bicycle 33. In the Wild West, ‘drygulcher’ was the term used to describe a A) A person who shot at other people from a point of concealment B) A device for draining water from an overflowing gully C) A car that can be driven through the roughest of terrains D) A name given to a type of frog that lives in dry watercourses 34. Samuel Colt is generally considered to have perfected a simple, relatively inexpensive device for killing. Paradoxically, while his invention had a host of names including ‘the Peacemaker’ and ‘the Equaliser’, both of which had no association with death whatsoever, in actual fact his device was just that. It is responsible for a death every a minute of the day, somewhere or the other on the planet. It was, in actual fact, a A) device to exterminate mice B) device for killing flies by means of electric shock C) filterless cigarette D) revolver 35. The feast of Epiphany, celebrating the event of the Magi having a glimpse of the Christ Child, is also called the Twelfth Day or Twelfth Night. Today, an epiphany has come to mean A) A revelation B) A glimpse of something supernatural C) An impossible feat D) An elevation to high office

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36. It is observed that people are generally described as being non compos mentis at certain times or occasions, such as the yearly event in Spain during which the men of Pamplona allow bulls to chase them through the town’s narrow, winding streets…or in Brazil, during the annual extravaganza they call Carnival. In actual fact, it is a term that A) describes an elevated state of mind B) denotes an attitude of ‘wait and watch’ C) stands for a mind-set based on pagan rites originating in Ancient Greece D) is synonymous with a state of temporary insanity 37. The men of Laconia, an autonomous province comprising a part of the Greek empire, were renowned for a certain economy of speech. For example, when Xerxes, King of Persia, sent them a message to surrender their arms, Leonidas their king ‘laconically’ replied A) “No dice!” B) “Come and take them.” C) “They’re all yours.” D) “Whatever for?” 38. The Spartans were famous for a certain way of life that added a very special word to the English lexicon: ‘Spartan’, of course! What do you think it means? A) A belligerent attitude towards others B) Isolationism and suspicion of other races and cultures C) A code of righteous conduct that left little room for compromise D) A rigorous, minimalist way of life that shunned luxuries 39. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a Texan ranch owner called Samuel A. Maverick who was not bothered about branding his cattle—an otherwise universal practice. This habit of his introduced a new word to the English lexicon: Maverick. What do you think it means? A) A foolhardy attitude towards life; one who lives in such a way B) Supreme confidence in the honesty of his fellow men C) Eccentric unconventionality D) Confidence in his ability to regain anything that was rightfully his

A) B) C) D)

40. Love is a powerful emotion, one that can transform, torture, humiliate, elevate, crush, inspire or make a man plumb the very depths of misery and despair. Tennyson’s starcrossed love for his cousin Amy made him write what is one of the greatest, most rhythmically-worded and incredibly prescient poems in the English language. It is called In Memoriam Northanger Abbey Locksley Hall The Charge of the Light Brigade

THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ

30 1. It is good to have a keel on a sea-going vessel because: A) It helps to fend off sharks B) It will warn you of shallow water C) It keeps the vessel from being blown sideways D) It strengthens the hull 2. Which of the following instruments is NOT used for navigation? A) Sextant B) Nocturnal C) Theodolite D) Astrolabe 3. According to legend, St. Brendan and a group of monks sailed from Ireland to the northlands in the sixth century. The boat they used would have been of the type called a: A) Knorr B) Canoe C) Galley D) Coracle 4. Ferdinand Magellan is generally known as the first person to circumnavigate (go all the way around) the world. However, he: A) Was beaten to it by ninth-century Vikings B) Probably never really made the voyage at all C) Abandoned the voyage when he reached Tahiti D) Took two separate voyages to do it 5. The first European to reach Australia was probably: A) Sir Francis Drake, an English explorer B) William Jansz, a Dutch navigator C) Daniel Defoe, author of "Robinson Crusoe" D) William Dampier, a pirating adventurer 6. The earliest known European settlement in the Americas is: A) Navidad, Hispaniola (now Haiti) B) L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland C) Machu Pichu, Peru D) Los Angeles, California 7. In the 980s, the Norseman Erik the Red discovered rich fertile land in Greenland, and persuaded settlers to come from Iceland. The colony flourished, partly because: A) The weather was unusually warm at that time B) They found rich mineral deposits C) The friendly natives helped the settlers D) The forests provided good building material

31 8. In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl invented a new type of exploration when he sailed his raft Kon-Tiki to Polynesia. Heyerdahl was trying to prove that ancient peoples could have crossed the ocean to Polynesia from: A) Australia B) Hawaii C) Egypt D) South America 9. One early explorer's journeys would not have been so well known to us if he had not been imprisoned a few years after his travels. His name was: A) Marco Polo B) Sir John Mandeville C) Christopher Columbus D) Erik the Red 10. Before Europeans explored the Indian Ocean and the coasts of Africa, the Chinese had explored the east coast of Africa and perhaps even rounded the Cape of Good Hope. However, China's period of exploration ended abruptly when: A) An oracle counseled against it B) Ming emperors prohibited foreign trade C) They lost a series of battles to the Portuguese D) A huge storm sank most of their ships 11. In the 1400s, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to sail down the west coast of Africa. Before they could do this, they had to overcome: A) A medieval prohibition against ship building B) The war-like African coastal peoples C) A French naval blockade of their ports D) Their fear of a region of fire and boiling seas 12. In 1487-1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz led the first European expedition to sail around the tip of Africa, which he named: A) Cabo Tormentoso B) Port Elizabeth C) Cabo da Boa Esperança D) Rio do Cobre 13. When Vasco Da Gama set sail from Portugal to open a sea route to India, his equipment was the finest available, except for: A) The ships themselves B) His guns, swords and armor C) His instruments of navigation and maps D) The goods he brought to distribute as gifts

32 14. Although John Cabot did not find the riches of the Orient when he reached North America, he did report finding something of great value. This was: A) Tobacco B) Cod C) Beaver furs D) Pearls 15. Juan Ponce de León set out from Puerto Rico to search for the fabled land of "Bimini" where he expected to find: A) Abundant gold and jewels B) Easy fishing C) A fountain of youth D) Horses of superb strength and speed 16. The French explorer Jacques Cartier was the first European to sail up the St. Lawrence river. The natives told him he had reached "Canada", and Cartier thought that name applied to the whole region. In fact, "Canada" simply means: A) Village B) Shining waters C) The shore D) Forest 17. Samuel Baker is credited with the discovery of Lake Albert Nyanza and the Murchison Falls in Africa. His wife Florence was a partner in these explorations. He met her: A) In a slave market B) When he rescued her from a crocodile C) At the house next door to his in England D) During his stay in Ceylon 18. In 1513, a Spaniard, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, became the first European to view the Pacific. Balboa had settled in Hispaniola, but left for Columbia: A) To find the “Great Empire of the South” B) With orders from the King to conquer Panama C) With a band of natives who had befriended him D) Hiding in a barrel to escape his creditors 19. In 1924, Alexandra David-Neel became the first western woman to enter the Tibetan city of Lhasa, in a land which cartographers of the time designated simply as "unknown". Lhasa was known till the last century as the ‘Forbidden City’. She accomplished this feat by: A) Exchanging love letters with the mayor B) Disguising herself as a beggar C) Approaching on the back of an elephant D) Impressing the gate-keepers with her wisdom

33 20. The highest tides in the world are found in: A) The Great Australian Bight B) The Gulf of Finland C) The Bay of Fundy, Canada D) Tierra del Fuego, South America 21. The term "Roaring Forties" refers to: A) The 1840s, a time of much perilous exploration B) The tendency of older seamen to roar C) Forty windswept islands off the African coast D) Southern latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees 22. "What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators, Tropics, Zones and Meridian Lines?" asked the bellman in Lewis Carroll's whimsically nonsensical poem The Hunting of the Snark. Meridian lines are: A) Lines dividing the oceans in two B) Lines used by sailors to set the sails C) Mnemonics used in learning navigation D) Lines of longitude 23. Which is the world's smallest ocean? A) Arctic B) Indian C) Antarctic D) Atlantic 24. John Franklin was an accomplished British seaman who joined the Royal Navy at age 14 and fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Franklin sailed on many expeditions and survived many dangers, but lost his life when: A) Shipwrecked on a coral reef B) Attempting to find the Northwest Passage C) He fought a duel with a senior officer D) He caught a cold at home in England 25. By the late 1800s, no one (apart from Santa!) had yet reached the North Pole. A Norwegian explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, thought the best chance for reaching the pole was to: A) Parachute down from a Zeppelin airship B) Use an ice-sailing ship equipped with runners C) Allow his ship to be frozen in the pack ice D) Use nitroglycerine to blast a passage 26. In the 1590s, a Dutch explorer, Willem Barents, made three expeditions to find a "Northeast Passage" to China. He and his men were the first to: A) Play golf in the Arctic B) Cross the Bering Strait

34 C) Sail the Barents Sea D) Develop trade in furs with Russia 27. Charles Darwin was taken aboard the Beagle as an unpaid naturalist; it was an expedition to chart the coast of South America. Darwin did not like Brazil because: A) He was bitten by a lizard B) It was carnival season C) It was a country where there were slaves D) The specimens were disappointing 28. Thomas Jefferson cited many reasons for sending Lewis and Clarke on an expedition, including: A) His personal dislike of Clarke B) The hope of finding living mammoths C) A shortage of furs in the east D) The quest for the headwaters of the Mississippi 29. The well-known poem, Cargoes by John Masefield begins with the words "Quinquireme of Nineveh". What is a quinquireme (or "quinquereme")? A) A mixture of five pungent spices B) A galley with five banks of oars C) A sailing vessel with five masts D) A tree valued for its fine grain 30. A bathyscaphe is: A) A map of the ocean bottom B) A small bathtub used on sailing ships C) A deep-diving submersible craft D) What early explorers called the Baleen Whale 31. Can you name the one person who has donned England’s national colours in both football as well as cricket? A) Colin Milburn B) Dennis Compton C) Bobby Moore D) Ian Botham 32. An outstanding novel by James Hilton (who also wrote Lost Horizon and Random Harvest), it is a sentimental tale about an old school headmaster who comes out of retirement to keep the school functional through the war years and ends up as a legend. Can you name this eponymous book? A) For Heaven’s Sake B) Through All Eternity C) Till Hell Freezes Over D) Goodbye, Mr. Chips

35 33. Can you name two prominent US physicians who have written books on past lives / past regression? A) Dr. Denton Cooley and Dr. Christiaan Barnard B) Dr. Henry Moore and Dr. Archie Moore C) Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Brian Weiss D) Dr. Ian Botham 34. Kautilya’s Athashastra mentions an official called a Himsrikah. What would you suppose this official was supposed to do? (A) Supervise the royal library (B) Ensure that the army had the best weaponry and victuals while on active duty (C) Drive off pirate ships and enemy vessels as soon as they were sighted (D) Ensure no one unfairly taxed (C) His duties included superintending of boats and ships engaged in trade activities and collecting taxes from ships sailing in the sea and moving along the rivers. The text further mentions that Himsrikah (pirate ships), which were to be pursued and destroyed whenever they were found. The same applied to the vessels of enemy countries when they were sighted in territorial waters. 35. The Yuktikalpataru (wishing-tree of artifice) composed by the king of Bhoja of Dhara (11th century AD) gives a detailed account of boats and ships and classifies boats according to length and the position of the cabins. The Yuktikalpataru specifies certain ships as agarmandira. What was the significance of this term? (A) Only fit for the king’s use (B) A freight ship (C) A troopship (D) A ship able to undertake long sea voyages (D) With the cabin towards the prow, these types of boats were used for long voyages and were equally suitable for naval warfare. 36. The Pallava king Narasimhava Varman II (680–720 AD) engaged in naval warfare and conquered a neighbouring region with the help of his fleet of ships. Which region? (A) Bali, in Indonesia (B) Thailand (C) The Lakshwadeep Islands (D) Sri Lanka (C) The Lakshadweep Islands 37. St. Brendan the Navigator’ has left an account of his 6th century voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Some scholars consider it as proof of the earliest recorded voyage to? (A) Ireland (B) The Mediterranean (C ) America (D) Italy (C) Some scholars consider the Navigatio as proof of the earliest recorded voyage to America—400 years before Leif Ericsson and almost 1,000 years before Christopher

36 Columbus. Their travels probably took the saint and his crew to Iceland, Greenland, and even to the American mainland, though they had no idea where they had gone. When St. Brendan returned to Ireland seven years later, he had many fascinating stories to tell, including encountering “mountains in the sea spouting fire,” floating crystal palaces, monsters with cat-like heads and horns growing from their mouths, and “little furry men.” Scholars see in this account the earliest descriptions of Iceland's volcanoes, icebergs, walruses, and even Eskimos.

(A) (B)

38. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias (from Portugal), sailing down the Atlantic along Africa’s west coast was blown before a terrible gale, to discover something of momentous consequence to the future of east-west interaction. What did he discover? He discovered the working of the Trade Winds He was blown around the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa) (C ) He found the Humboldt Current (D) Driven aground in what is modern Ghana, he discovered vast riches of timber and ivory. 39. When Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition was stranded in the severe cold of the Antarctic with supplies ebbing away, a brave expedition member gave up his life by walking out of the tent into the freezing cold, never to return. What was the name of this gallant Englishman, and what were his last words? (A) Titus Oats; “I am going out, and may be some time.” (B) Rodney McClenahan; “Damn this perishing blizzard.” (C) Edwin David; “It’s warmer than I thought!” (D) Ian Atkinson; “It’s hell without the warmth.” 40. In his youth, Natty Bumpo, the frontiersman hero of the novels of James Fennimore Cooper’s novels such as The Pioneers and The Deerslayer was given a respectful nickname by the American native tribes he encountered. What was it? (A) The Deerslayer (B) Hawkeye (C ) The Pathfinder (D) The One Who Never Sleeps

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THE RANDOM QUIZ This section is a smorgasbord of 20 random delights, designed to give you a little time to catch your breath. Though this assortment of hastily assembled bric-a-brac may test, try and torment you, the opportunities are all there, just as they are in 20 : 20 cricket. 1. Carmagnole A. A lively song often accompanied by street dancing, popular during the French Revolution. B. A disease of the liver that is in many cases terminal. C. A type of derby that was worn in the late nineteenth century and originated in England. 2. Spatung A. A sea urchin. B. A snow crab. C. A shrewish woman. 3. Nautch A. A waterproof watch that is safe at great depths undersea. B. A type of ancient hut. C. A traditional form of dance, popular in rural India. The word itself is the anglicized version of the Hindustani word for ‘dance’—‘naatch. 4. Mantelet A. A small shelf above a fireplace. B. A bulletproof screen. C. A Norwegian soldier. 5. Sardoodledum A. A gadfly B. A type of radish

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C. A melodrama 6. Mahout A. A metal boomerang with extremely sharp edges. B. A prehistoric reptile with pointed tusks. C. An elephant driver. 7. Camisole A. A container used to carry water or wine over long distances. B. A short sleeveless garment for women. C. A boastful, swaggering person. 8. Lagan A. Short, thin, diagonally cut tubular pasta. B. A special gift or donation. C. Goods thrown into the sea with a buoy attached so that they may be found again. 9. Cymatium A. A crowning moulding in classic architecture. B. The angle between an aircraft supporting surface (as a wing) and a horizontal transverse line. C. A small chamber or cavity especially in a plant or animal body. 10. Hoplite A. A circle dance of Romania and Israel. B. A heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece. C. A spittoon.

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11. Preterist A. An architectural housing model. B. An appetizer. C. A person who enjoys reliving past memories. 12. Pignus A. The waning light from a flickering flame. B. Someone who enjoys language games. C. Property held as collateral against a debt. 13. Nictitate A. A very wealthy man. B. Medical treatment using aloe and other healing herbs. C. To flirt by winking the eye. 14. Thesicle A. A type of one-horse sleigh. B. A small thesis or proposition. C. A variety of Asian buzzard. 15. Gawf A. A shiny red apple. B. A laugh that is accompanied by coughing. C. A slow burning fuse that is used in underground explosions. 16. Schesis A. A variety of skunk.

40 B. That which sometimes follows Synthesis in a Hegelian model. C. To make fun of people's accents and mannerisms. 17. Kinnikinnik A. A gambling game played with three small cups and a ball. B. A young palm tree. C. Indian smoking substance made from tree bark. 18. Sindon A. The tissue between the front and back legs of a flying squirrel that aids in flight. B. A poisonous weed. C. A book cover made of linen. 19. Yashmak A. An Indian biscuit. B. An intense argument. C. A face-veil worn by women of Moslem countries. 20. Kilhig A. Dysentery. B. In logging, a short pole used to direct the way a tree will fall. C. As sharp as nails.

THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ

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Things are getting serious now. This is where you must gird up your loins! PART - I 1. He founded the environmental group Green Cross International in 1993, to which he donated his royalties from narrating an introduction and epilogue to a Russian National Symphony performance of Peter and the Wolf with his often-mocked southern Russian accent. "Because of him, we have things like Pizza Hut!", according to a commercial in which he appeared to raise money for the Perestroika Library and Archives. Name this final leader of the now-defunct Soviet Union. 2. They are the only surviving members of the Anapsid clan, distinguished from all other amniotic vertebrates by their lack of a temporal opening in the skull. In the course of the evolution of their most distinctive feature, their pectoral and pelvic girdles moved inside their rib cages. They are the only other group of vertebrates besides birds to have teeth replaced with horny beaks. This order of reptiles includes the matamata, the leatherback, and the Galapagos tortoise. Can you name it? 3. When asked why he only wrote "one book full of candour and human warmth," this author replied, "Because I've only lived one life." That life included a stint as a spy in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. In one novel, the protagonist sees his best friend and fellow World War I pilot die, prompting him to embark on a spiritual quest. In another, the protagonist dies of leprosy after painting the walls of his hut on Tahiti. Those protagonists are Larry Darrell and Charles Strickland, the latter character being based on painter Paul Gauguin. Name this author of the semi-autobiographical novel, Of Human Bondage. 4. Works in this musical key include J. S. Bach's passacaglia for organ, BWV 582; Dvorak's First Symphony (which he thought lost); Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8, or "Pathetique"; Mahler's Resurrection Symphony; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2; the second prelude/fugue pair in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier; and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. What is this minor key signature with three flats, the relative minor of Eb major and the parallel minor to the simplest major key? 5. When asked why it was needed, the man who convened it opened a window and said, "I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in." It asserted that the Jews as a people are not to blame for killing Christ. Closed under Pope Paul VI, it established guidelines to govern the revision of the liturgy and reduced Pentecost and Epiphany to one-day celebrations. Name this church council which opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962, and allowed Mass to be practiced in vernacular languages. What are we referring to? 6. A colonel in the Mexican War, he fought at Buena Vista all day with a bullet in his foot. As a US Senator he took an active role in opposing the compromise measures brought forth by Henry Clay and demanded that Congress protect slavery. He served as Secretary of War during the Pierce administration, where he improved and enlarged the

42 Army. When Lincoln became President, he resigned from the Senate in hopes of becoming the head of the Army of the Confederate States. Name this person who served as president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. 7. Who is this painter whose style is so starkly reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s and whose famous painting, The Scream was stolen in 2003 and recovered in 2006? 8. This chemist's theories were not at first readily accepted and challenged with an alternate model by C. W. Blomstrand called "Chain theory". The dispute was finally resolved when the chemist was able to demonstrate that exactly two geometrical isomers of tetra-amine-di-chloro-cobalt (III) cation exist, one purple and one green. This proved that ligands directly bond to the metal ion in fixed geometries. Name this "founder of coordination chemistry". 9. It included most of Eriador, with the Brandywine, Greyflood, and the Great Road forming its southern border. The chief PalantIr of the north was located at its Great Watch-tower of Amon-Sl on Weathertop hill. In year 1975 of the Third Age, it was destroyed by the Witch-lord of Angmar, and the line of its kings survived in exile as Chieftains of the Dunedain. At the peak of its power it stretched from the Blue Mountains in the west to the Misty Mountains in the East. Name this fictional Middle-Earth kingdom, founded by the Numenorians as a sister-kingdom to its southern counterpart, Gondor. 10. In the context of the infamous Vietnam War, this action invalidated Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker's description of "steady, continual progress", and the "light at the end of the tunnel" boast of William Westmoreland. Nearly three thousand civilians were killed by the attackers during the fighting for the citadel in Hue, while American shelling of the village of Ben Tre led to the remark that "it became necessary to destroy the town to save it." The Vietnamese Lunar New Year signalled the opening of this 1968 Vietcong offensive. 11. Inspired by reports of Romanes and Morgan that described the way cats and dogs opened gate latches, he designed a puzzle box apparatus for studying animal behaviour. His studies led him to develop his Theory of Connectionism, a model of behaviour based on the formation of neural networks through perceived stimuli. He found that any response made in a particular situation becomes associated with that situation, and that rewarding a response strengthens the response association. Name this man who influenced the behaviourists with his laws of exercise and effect. 12. The family members of failed coup leader Mohamed Oufkir were among the political prisoners detained for decades in this country's secret Tazmamart prison. In 1999, its new king pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 50,000 prisoners, a marked break from the autocratic 38 year rule of Mohammed VI's father, Hassan II. Name the northwest African kingdom located across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.

43 13. The bronze sculpture Reclining Nude II and the painting Young Sailor II were among the works by this artist donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York in the 1990s. Lilacs, The Chapel of St. Anne, portraits of his daughter Marguerite, and a study for the mural Dance are among the almost 50 more that will go to it as part of the collection of the artist's son, a prominent modern art dealer named Pierre. Which longtime rival of Picasso as the last century's greatest visual artist created Joie de Vivre and led the Fauvists? 14. He was popularly known (behind his back) as ‘Scarface’. Despite his illegal activities, he opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure the safety of children. By the late 1920s, he ran an underworld empire valued at over $60 million, and was prepared to engage in outright war with his rival, George "Bugs" Moran. He spent 4½ years in Alcatraz on charges of tax evasion. Name this bigtime Chicago gangster that masterminded the St. Valentine Day's Massacre. 15. The Fomalont-Kopeikin experiment claimed to measure the speed of this phenomenon, and showed that it was approximately equal to the speed of light. Some attempts to quantize it include Smolin and Rovelli's loop quantum theory and Penrose's Twistor theory. The boson carrying it is hypothesized to have Spin 2, although it has never been directly observed, and LIGO is the most sensitive experiment established to look for waves caused by this force. What is this fundamental force, the center of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and most famously discovered by Isaac Newton? 16. Characters from this author's works include the merchant Petunikoff and Captain Aristid from his story Creatures That Once Were Men. The girl Tanya – and a group of poor bakers who revile her – comprise the title characters of Twenty-six Men and a Girl. His novel Mother was adapted in Brecht's play The Mother, but he is better-known for his own play which shows a group of derelicts in a cave-like cellar. Name this bitter Russian author of The Lower Depths. 17. Author David Dodge sold the movie rights of his thriller To Catch a Thief before the book itself had been published (1952). Set in the Riviera, it tells the story of John Robie, a one-time jewel thief who’s forced out of retirement to try and nab a copycat burglar whose identical style sets the police on Robie’s trail. Starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, it was this enigmatic film director’s first and last attempt at action romance. The tight editing, racing twists and turns in the plot, and the fact that one of the world’s most celebrated film directors extracted an Oscar-winning performance from what is arguably the best-known screen pair of all time, make this film a classic. Can you name the director of this unforgettable motion picture? 18. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this novel by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was made into a movie set in what was then the distant future. It established a standard for film direction in this genre that – even thirty years down the road – has yet to be surpassed in many respects. TIME Magazine paid homage to it by describing it as ‘the most fantastic visual happening in the history of motion picture’. Perhaps no film ever

44 made has so comprehensively encompassed mankind’s humble origins or foretold its future with such chilling prescience. Can you recall its name? 19. Clint Eastwood as Detective Inspector Harry Callahan in (and as) Dirty Harry uses this potent weapon to stop a getaway car after a bank heist. This episode was taken from a real-life incident where a police officer fired a single round from this gun at a car carrying bank robbers. The bullet went through the back of the car, through the driver’s back (killing him), went into the steering column (fracturing it) and ricocheted into the gearbox (smashing it), causing the car to lurch out of control, hit a lamp-post and overturn. Can you name the fearsome handgun that caused such carnage? 20. It was a small, isolated outpost that was little more than a stockade’. In 1836, it was attacked by an army of over 4,000 men led by Mexican General Santa Anna. The 300odd men in the stockade included legendary frontier heroes Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Although the entire garrison was wiped out, barring women and children, the massacre was later fully avenged. The name of the site became a rousing battle cry that played a decisive role in routing Santa Anna’s forces and in the formation of the state of Texas. It is now a place of pilgrimage—a shrine to the hardy breed of pioneers who helped carve out what we today call the United States of America. Can you remember the name of this blood-soaked piece of hallowed ground? 21. This Thracian warrior was captured and enslaved by Roman forces that trained him as a gladiator, for amusing the crowds in the arena. In the training school, he met Varinia, a fellow slave whom he would later marry. The famous Revolt of the Gladiators that he led in 68 A.D. smashed one Roman army after another that was sent against him, but his army was finally trapped on the seashore while trying to escape by ship. There is no evidence of this gladiator’s death, though legend says that he died fighting in the final conflict. 6,000 of the former slaves were captured and executed. A film on his life was made 50 years ago, with Kirk Douglas (the father of movie star Michael Douglas) in the title role. Can you recall the name of this valiant gladiator who stood up against tyranny and showed the world that the Roman armies were not invincible? 22. This famous Scottish author was a doctor who so despaired of selling his first novel after it was turned down by several publishers that he dumped the manuscript in a park’s garbage bin. But a kindly gardener persuaded him to retrieve it and try again, which he did…successfully this time. That first novel, Hatter’s Castle, set this doctor firmly on the road to fame, with major successes like The Citadel, The Stars Look Down, The Judas Tree and The Northern Light. Can you name him? 23. For fifteen years, this lady kept her manuscript away from prying eyes in a trunk under her bed. It came to light only when a friend who was nursing her through an illness happened to come read it and persuaded her to try and get it published. It was the only novel this author ever wrote, but it captured the imagination of generations of readers, became an indelible part of publishing history and metamorphosed into an all-time cinematic success starring Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable. Name this timeless classic and its author.

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24. When this book was broadcast as a radio play directed by Orson Welles, it unleashed panic among listeners in the British Isles. Its presentation of a story of a Martian invasion was so realistic that people actually started evacuating London. Can you furnish the title of this book, and the name of its author? 25. The Sunbird is a novel set in South Africa in the last century. The plot revolves around three people who discover a long-lost civilization whose Punic script reveals its origins as an offshoot of the House of Hannibal Barca—a Carthaginian cultural transplant whose one-time presence in the Dark Continent was hitherto only conjectured but never decisively proved by means of irrefutable archaeological evidence. But in the process of unravelling the mystery, the trio stumble across an even more chilling discovery— shadowy evidence of having played a major role in the final years of this drama before its dramatic close…all of twenty centuries ago, in their previous incarnations. Can you furnish the name of its well-known South African author? 26. This celebrated novel tells the story of the Jewish merchant prince who was falsely charged of conspiring against Rome and sent to the galleys as a slave. But he saves the life of the Roman fleet commander Quintas Arias (superbly portrayed by veteran actor Jack Hawkins, clipped British accent and all) who promptly adopts him and makes him his heir. Armed with this patrician Roman’s seal, he settles scores with his boyhood friend, the Roman Centurion Messala, traces his mother and sister, witnesses the Crucifixion and the miracles that follow, and regains his proud old heritage. Can you (a) name this extraordinary man and the eponymous novel on which the blockbuster Hollywood motion picture is based? (b) Who wrote this book? (c) Which outstandingly successful actor plays the lead role? 27. The Art of War was a treatise on military tactics written by Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese General of ancient times. Today, it has become a celebrated guide in an entirely different (though perhaps quite similar) discipline. Which discipline? 28. She wrote only one major novel about the injustice meted out to an African American in the mid-20th century that is an all-time classic. To Kill a Mockingbird went on to achieve worldwide success, but its celebrated author retreated into silence and has chosen to life the life of a recluse. Who is she? 29. He was an Englishman who migrated to America and created a fantasy literary world full of eccentric earls in castles where pigs have wings, a world full of the most unlikely yet the most memorable characters with names like Catsmeat Potter Pirbright and Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, irreverent nephews, a brainy butler, young men in spats and aunts that bellow to each other like mastodons across prehistoric swamps. “He will continue to relieve future generations from a thraldom that may be even more irksome than our own. A world to live in and delight in,” said Evelyn Waugh of this famous author. Who are we talking about?

46 30. Erich Segal wrote one of the greatest love stories of all time. Set in the affluent East Coast, it is about a rich Harvard boy who falls in love with a girl from Vassar who claims to be’ smart and poor’ and defies a disapproving father to marry her…only to lose her forever. It broke publishing and box office records to make the two, young unknown actors into overnight celebrities. Which book/motion picture are we talking about, and who were the actors in question (who never again repeated their early success)? 31. What do we know of the ancient epic known as the Epic of Gilgamesh? 32. William Boldwood, Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdeen and Sergeant Troy are the four important characters in which unforgettable novel? Who wrote it? 33. Who Moved my Cheese is a little book that has acquired quite a large following. What is it about, and who wrote it? 34. Saki was the nom de guerre or pen name of this famous writer of short stories. What was Saki’s real name? 35. Fahrenheit 451 is a landmark science fiction book. Who wrote it, and what is the chilling significance of the title? 36. Who is the famous author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Which equally famous Hollywood actor plays the lead role in the smash-hit motion picture version? 37. Name the photogenic lady whose book titled Crystal outsold all the 2007 Booker Prize nominees put together. Married to Peter Andre, she is a mother of two and is better known by her nickname, Jordan. 38. Both were English, both were authors in middle life, both had been Intelligence agents in World War II, both wrote a series of best sellers and both were distinctly alike in appearance. Can you name this dashing duo? 39. Johnny Fontane and Nino Valenti are childhood friends who grow up to become singers, in a world-famous novel about the U.S. mafia. Who wrote the book, and which two real-life Hollywood celebrities do these fictional crooners represent? 40. He wrote a creepy crawly book about a cannibal named Hannibal that became a best seller (hardly surprising, since men have always shown cannibalistic tendencies—watch any broker or lawyer at work) and was made into a hugely profitable motion picture, as was its sequel. Name (a) the author in question, (a) the villain’s full moniker (c) the two books that turn your stomach. If you miss this one, I forgive you. 41. They were both legendary fictional detectives; both had obscure brothers, both were extremely good observers, both are credited with a famous utterance, both were extremely meticulous and methodical…and both were – for a short while at least – killed off by their respective authors. Can you name these pairs of brothers?

47 42. Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, God’s Little Acre…the titles of whose books are we rattling off here? 43. He was called Ivanhoe, but what his full name? And who were the two ladies who were so smitten by the charms of this handsome and gallant knight? Who created these unforgettable characters? 44. In his play The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare saves Antonio’s life by having Portia come up with a brilliant legal loophole that has Shylock on the ropes. What was this legal loophole? 45. Can you remember the name of the big man who knocked Robin Hood off the log with a quarterstaff...and went on to become one of his most trusted lieutenants? 46. The plot of one of Rudyard Kipling’s more popular books deals with what was then known as ‘The Great Game’. Do you remember what this game was all about, and the name of the book? 47. A Nigerian writes a stirring book about the havoc that colonialism causes in his country and shakes the conscience of the modern world. Can you recall the name of both the book and its author? 48. Sir Henry Rider Haggard created a giant Zulu chieftain who wielded a fearsome battle-axe. What his name? And what is his famous axe known as? Wilbur Smith created a similar character, a formidable hunchbacked warrior, who wielded a similar axe; can you name him and his axe…and the book in which they feature? 49. He was a veterinarian who wrote four deeply moving, intensely humane and incredibly funny books about animals. Even more unusual was the fact that the title of each book came from the four lines of a stanza from a famous hymn. Do you recall his name…and the lines of the stanza in question? 50. As a boy, he spent his summer vacations with his family on the idyllic island of Corfu, where his love for animals became the cause of much consternation to a family terrified of what lethal insect, reptile or rodent he’d bring home next. As a man, his avocation bloomed to the point where he became a world famous naturalist who earned vast public acclaim (and money to finance his many expeditions to remote and practically unexplored regions in search of rare creatures). His books, including classics such as My Family and Other Animals, The Bafut Beagles and The Drunken Forest, have entertained generations of readers. Can you recall his name? His older brother Larry went on to become a famous novelist. Can you make the connection?

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THE CONNOISEUR’S QUIZ PART -II 1. Answer the following questions about the Calvin cycle (the Calvin cycle accomplishes fixation of this element into organic compounds): (a) This seldom-remembered Berkeley professor was a co-discoverer of the cycle along with Melvin Calvin. (b) This enzyme, the most common protein on Earth, catalyzes atmospheric carbon fixation. 2. Name these starfighters from the Star Wars films from descriptions furnished below: (a) In the battle against the first Death Star, the Red Squadron was composed of this type of starfighter. Luke and Wedge Antilles flew this type throughout the three original films. (b) An older type of starfighter, this type composed the Gold Squadron in the battle against the first Death Star, and these fighters made the first attempt at the trench run. (c) A new design, the fastest fighter in either Alliance or Empire fleets, a fighter of this type crashed into the bridge Imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor during the battle against the second Death Star. 3. The Middle East is a hotspot indeed: (a) It is said that this man survived more assassination attempts next to Charles de Gaulle and served as the chairman of the PLO. (b) He became Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and signed the Camp David Accords along with Anwar el-Sadat of Eygpt. (c) Israel's Prime Minister during the Six-Day War and a former director of the ministries of defense and finance, he favored Israeli cooperation with Arab states to develop the Middle East. 4. Name these operas that were altered by the Soviets: (a) This Glinka opera was renamed for its peasant hero Ivan Susanin. In the Soviet version, Susanin saves a patriotic official rather than Mikhail Romanov. (b) The massacred title group of this 1836 Meyerbeer grand opera was replaced by the anti-Czarist Decembrists. (c) In The Struggle for the Commune, this work's Soviet counterpart, the mildly proCarbonari Cavaradossi becomes a revolutionary, and his painting of the Madonna becomes a depiction of the Red Army. 5. Name these Nobel Prize-winning writers from clues furnished below: (a) He wrote of a mysterious epidemic which causes the breakdown of society in his novel Blindness. This Portuguese author and Nobel Prize winner also wrote The Stone Raft. (b) Her works include Tala, and Ternura, or Tenderness. This Chilean poet wrote Sonnets of Death, and Desolación.

49 6. Answer the following about a body in orbit around a much larger body under the influence of an inverse square force such as gravity: (a) Kepler's Second Law, of equal areas, is merely a restatement of what principle? (b) In motion under an inverse square law, another conserved quantity is this vector, whose magnitude is the eccentricity of the orbit and which points towards the perihelion. 7. Name the following about modern art exhibitions in New York: (a) Though this 1913 exhibition organized by Arthur Davies included works by Ingres and Delacroix, the more controversial works among the 1600 it showed were by Matisse, Brancusi, and especially Duchamp. Which exhibition are we referring to? (b) This movement, which studied effects such as the illusion of movement through placement of adjacent color fields, first gained prominence with the 1965 MOMA show ``the Responsive Eye,'' including works by Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. (c) This New York museum of American art, located on Madison Avenue since 1966, holds perhaps the most important regular exhibition of modern American art, known as the ``Biennial.'' 8. (a) He was conceived after a freak rainstorm forced his reluctant parents to actually sleep together: Name this absolutist monarch who exclaimed, "L'état, c'est moi!" (b)Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes with this 1685 edict. In his youth, Louis suffered through this uprising against Cardinal Mazarin. 9. Name these characters from the Old Testament: (a) Conceived by Abraham and Sara when they were elderly, God ordered Abraham to sacrifice this child, God spared him and ordered Abraham to sacrifice a sheep instead. (b) One of Isaac's two sons, he tricked Abraham into stripping Esau of his birthright and later changed his name to "Israel". His twelve sons form the basis for the twelve tribes of Israel. (c) The sons of this son of Isaac had exclusive right to the priesthood. When Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt, the descendancy of this son was the only tribe that didn't worship the Golden Calf. 10. Name these entrepreneurs who started young: (a) From his University of Texas dorm room he started his computer empire, and finally incorporated his namesake company that sells computers directly to customers by the time he finished his freshmen year. (b) He was looking for work in restaurants as early as age 11. A millionaire by age 35, he named his restaurant chain with over 5,000 locations after his third daughter. (c ) A former motel owner, he and three others crafted Long Distance Discount Service during a meal at a Sizzler. He is currently in prison serving out a twenty-five year sentence after the downfall of WorldCom, of which he was the CEO. 11. Name these types of reproductive barriers: (a) There is either no sexual attraction between males and females of different species, or the mating rituals are different, and thus the two do not understand each other. An example is the blinking pattern of each species of firefly.

50 (b) Structural differences in sex organs prevent fertilization. An example is a flower whose structure allows it to be pollinated by only 'its own' species of insect. (c) The two species have healthy offspring that are incapable of forming offspring with either parent species or with each other. An example of this is the mule. 12. Answer these questions on an Italian medieval poet, (a) He wrote La Vita Nuova. (b) La Vita Nuova tells of his first sight of this woman when he was nine and she was eight. Love for her inspired much of his work. (c) Dante was a member of this political party, which was defeated and exiled after a coup in the city of Florence in November 1301, a struggle that is referred to in The Divine Comedy. 13. Answer the following questions on Argentina: (a) This term denotes the victims of Argentina's "Dirty War" in the late 1970s, imprisoned without trial, tortured and killed. (b) Argentina engaged in a war with Great Britain over these islands that lie 310 miles east of the Straight of Magellan. (c) She became the first woman president in the Western Hemisphere. 14. Answer these questions on bridges: (a) The twenty longest bridges in the world are this type of bridge, in which long cables linked to long vertical towers hold up the roadbed. Examples include the George Washington and the Golden Gate bridges. (b) The longest suspension bridge in the world is this bridge, built in 1998 in Japan and spanning roughly one and one-quarter miles. (c) This suspension bridge collapsed in November 1940, when high winds caused the bridge to vibrate at its natural frequency. 15. Identify these CPUs from a short description: (a) This Intel CPU, part of a long and distinguished microprocessor line, was the last to bear a numerical designation before Intel switched to "Pentium". (b) This Motorola CPU, named for the approximate number of transistors it had, powered the first Macintoshes and continued to appear in Macs until it was replaced by the PowerPC. (c) This Digital processor, developed as a successor to the VAX line, was the world's fastest processor when it debuted in 1992. 16. “Off with her head!” said the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll): (a) This queen was beheaded on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I, in 1587. (b) Mary first married this French dauphin when she was only 15. This dauphin's reign lasted less than a year in which the long, bitter rivalry between the noble houses of Guise and Bourbon began. (c) Mary later married this cousin, a weak and worthless husband, who died when an explosion was set off in his home.

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17. Answer these questions on an arrogant old man: a professor at Yale and NYU: (a) This literary critic has been an ardent opponent of the politicization of literature and places ascetic value over social agendas, writing works such as A Map of Misreading and The Anxiety of Influence. (b) Among his works is this book, in which Harold Bloom argues for the autonomy of asceticism and provides a list of books he feels are most influential in western literature. 18. Identify these types of elasticity in demand. (a) This elasticity for two goods is positive if they are substitutes, and negative if they are complements. (b) For inferior goods, this quantity is negative; for normal goods, it is positive. (c) This elasticity is obtained by measuring the elasticity of an isoquant. 19. The Ruhr Valley has always been the lair of Germany’s armaments manufacturers (including Krupps), what with abundant electricity from its dams and its vast deposits of coal and iron ore. During World War II, the Ruhr was also where Germany’s sensitive lubricant oil refineries were established. To slow down the Nazi juggernaut, it had become imperative for the Allies to cripple the Ruhr Valley…but how? Its steep sides made it impregnable to conventional air attack, and high-altitude bombers were decimated by heavy anti-aircraft fire and vigilant Me-109s. This book describes how a way was found to get in and bomb the dams and hamstring the industries on which the Nazi war machine depended heavily. Can you: (a) Name the book (and the eponymous film) that describes this stirring episode of the war. (b) Name the inventor of the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ that skipped along the surface of the water, spinning backwards rapidly, bounced off the dam walls, sank deep below the surface and exploded. (c) What was the name of the gallant RAF pilot who led the near-suicidal bombing mission? 20. This fictional crime-fighter – outwardly a wealthy, handsome and debonair gentleman-at-large – was actually an implacable foe of criminals, an experienced streetfighter who gave no quarter. He is considered by many to have been a literary progenitor of Ian Fleming’s intrepid secret agent James Bond. In fact, Roger Moore actually portrayed both characters at different periods of his career. Can you name: (a) The author who created this unique character? (b) The weapons that he carried concealed on his person. What had he named them? (c) His (fictitious) expensive, luxurious and extremely fast car. (d) The character himself. (e) His genial, simple-minded and devoted ally? 21. This particle physicist, enquiring into the ultimate nature of matter and the unseen, mysterious world of elementary particles, plunged deeper into the paradoxes of ultimate reality than he’d bargained for when he encountered – and studied – eastern mysticism. From the startling revelations that ensued and which forever changed his world-view was

52 born a best-seller that has, for over thirty years, deeply influenced the way we look at reality as perceived by our five senses. Can you name: (a) The author. (b) The discipline that represents the western (scientific) portion of this mind-expanding exposition. (c) The book in question. 22. This foundling – the sole surviving heir to a princely title and vast wealth – is brought up by the Great Apes of Africa and grows into a jungle-man of surpassing strength and mental acuity. Can you name: (a) The author who created him? (b) The name of the she-ape who suckled him and brought him up? (c) His fictional name and noble title? 23. When a long-dormant volcano called Vesuvius suddenly erupted in northern Italy in AD 79, the lava and ash that burst from its crater buried two Roman cities, perfectly preserving their artifacts and way of life through the centuries…for modern men to marvel at after the ruins were excavated. Can you guess: (a) When this great archaeological discovery was made, and spotlighted by which archaeologist? (b) The names of these two cities whose ruins were excavated? (c) The name of the volcano (also in Italy) whose fictional eruption enabled the survivors in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth to reach the surface of the Earth once again? 24. This legendary machine-pistol designed by Heinrich Vollmer was developed from its MP-36 and MP-38/40 forerunners. By 1940, it was standard issue to the SS and other crack German infantry regiments. About a million versions of this highly admired smallarm were manufactured, the MP-40 being mass-produced by incorporating a majority of pressed-steel components, unlike its predecessors that had machined steel parts. Though it tended to jam on account of its twin-feed system of ammunition flow that narrowed down to single file at the mouth of the breech, it was much sought after. Secret caches of this still-highly-regarded weapon are said to surface even now, at irregular intervals. Can you: (a) Name it? (b) Why is the misnomer likely to have occurred? (c) Which Allied submachine-guns were inspired by it, one produced by the U.S. and the other by the British? 25. The L-O-N-G-E-S-T Day is a near-eyewitness account of the Normandy landings—DDay, 5th June, 1944. With General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, over ten thousand vessels of every description – the largest armada ever to set sail in human history – descended on the coast of Normandy, northern France in the early hours of 6th June 1945. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is said to have remarked to his aide the previous evening: “I tell you, Lang, the next twenty-four hours

53 will be decisive. The fate of Germany hangs on the outcome. For the Allies, as well as for Germany, it will be the longest day.” Do you know: (a) Who wrote the book? (b) Almost every Hollywood actor, from John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Richard Burton to Sal Mineo, Paul Anka and Jeffrey Hunter vied for – and got – a role in this all-timeclassic cinematic production. It remains a time capsule that has recorded their visages and voices for posterity. Who produced the movie? (c) The code names of the four beaches on which the invading armies landed and established beach-heads? (d) What were code words broadcast by the BBC informing the French Resistance that the long-awaited emancipation of occupied France was definitely going to happen…and (e) What were the words that signaled that the armada was on its way? 26. Old Norse legends (and some unverified accounts from the days of sail) relate to encounters with a sea-monster that threatened to engulf their craft. Peter Benchley wrote a thriller about this beast, and James Bond once happened to escape from the clutches of a hungry specimen eager to dine off him. Decomposed remains of this giant of the deep are sometimes washed ashore. Can you (a) Come up with the name the Norsemen gave to this fearsome creature? (b) Furnish its scientific name (a ‘small’ specimen was filmed by a Japanese crew using a remote-controlled camera at a depth of 900 metres some years ago)? (c) Come up with the name of the chemical substance it smells powerfully of? 27. At the height of the Great Depression of the 1930’s in the USA, a then unknown pair of comic strip writers created a comic book character who was to capture the imagination of a beleaguered nation and infuse new hope and courage into their flagging vision of a viable future. Can you recall… (a) The name this character? (b) The names of his creators? (c) The amount they sold the rights for? (d) The names of his foster parents (e) The names of his real parents? (f) What was his home planet? 28. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. The protagonist of the book was an old, weather-beaten but undefeated sailor – modeled on a friend of this rough-hewn author – whose tales may have worked their way into the book. The two men spent many pleasant hours aboard the author’s 34-foot boat that had a range of 500 miles. Can you: (a) Recall the name of this prize-winning book? (b) Give the name of the boat? (c) The name of the friend who inspired the protagonist of the book? (d) The author’s name, and how he met his end? 29. When this breed of domestic goat is startled, its muscles lock, causing it to topple over on its side…a hilarious genetic peculiarity caused by myotonia congenital. It was introduced into the USA by an unknown goatherd and was later bred to preserve the breed. Guess what this unusual animal is called?

54 30. In the world of classical Western ballet in the 20th century, the name of Russian dancer Rudolph Nureyev is forever linked to that of his dazzlingly beautiful, ethereallygraceful female counterpart. Name her. 30. He was the first mountaineer to not only assert that Mount Everest could be climbed without oxygen but actually performed this ‘impossible’ feat—not once but twice, the second time alone. Name him. 31. He is jocularly known as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce, but his success in persuading a reluctant Charles Stewart Rolls to meet Henry Royce led to the birth of an enduring legend. Can you name him, besides identifying the man whose personal name for his silver-painted machine blossomed into the most famous model in Rolls-Royce’s long and illustrious history? 32. Connoisseurs of fine engineering liken the Supermarine Spitfire – the fighter airplane that saved England in the Battle of Britain (along with its redoubtable counterpart, the Hawker Hurricane) – to the E-type Jaguar sports car, both machines being prime examples of delectable design and supreme functionality. Can you name (a) The type of plane from which it was hurriedly developed to serve the urgent wartime need for a fast, highly manoeuvrable and devastatingly effective fighter plane? (b) The highly coveted trophy it annexed just prior to the war? (c) The legendary engine that powered it? (d) The name of the engine that powered later variants of this plane? 33. World Heavy-weight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey sent challenger Gene Tunney to the canvas with a savage right hook in the eighth round of their 1938 bout. But instead of proceeding immediately to a neutral corner as per rules, Dempsey hovered over his fallen opponent as the referee went ahead with the mandatory countdown. Noticing Dempsey out of position, he ordered him into a corner before beginning his countdown afresh, losing vital seconds. Just before he could be declared the loser by a knock out, a groggy Tunney staggered to his feet…and went on to win the bout. It is said to be the most controversial decision in boxing history. What is it called? 34. This Booker Prize winner shares a similar set of experiential and emotional data, and even writes in the same house as her more famous mother, who was thrice nominated for the Booker but never won it. Can you name (a) The mother? (b) Her 35-year-old daughter, the 2006 Booker Prize winner? (c) Her prize-winning book? 35. In an attempt to stem the tide of the White Man’s invasion of the tribal lands, this Indian chief developed an alphabet for his people’s spoken tongue. Almost overnight, an entire nation became literate; even newspapers were printed in the new language. Though he did not succeed in halting the marginalization of the Indian tribes, or their gradual extinction or absorption by the White Man, his name lives on forever. (a) What was his Indian name? (b) What is his lasting monument?

55 36. Given below are the names of four compositions, the word ‘four’ being common to all of them. However, two of them are not books but movies. Can you spot the two that are not books? (a) The Four Just Men (b) Four for Texas (c) The Sign of Four (d) The Four Riders of the Apocalypse. 37. The world is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’. It has come to light that some of the most venerated universities in the world are asking admission-seekers to answer questions concerning events or phenomena of such earth-shaking importance as: (a) ‘What percentage of the world’s water is contained in a cow?’ (b) ‘Are you cool?’ (c) ‘At what point is a person dead?’, and (d) ‘Put a monetary value on this teapot’. Which hallowed institutions are we referring to? 38. This celebrated (and controversial) British model came under a cloud in 2005 after being arraigned for allegedly being addicted to cocaine, and many of her highly lucrative contracts were hastily cancelled. But it appears to have been only a small cloud that passed rapidly overhead, and it obviously had a broad silver lining because she has since been inundated with even more lucrative offers, one of which relates to a premier brand of ladies innerwear for which she is making a series of ground-breaking promotional films. Can you name: (a) The model (b) The brand in question, promoted in The Dreams of Miss X as featured on the brand’s corporate website. 39. A portion of the movie called The Mighty Heart was filmed at Pune, India, involving two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Can you recall (a) The names of these two celebrities who went all the way to Africa to have their baby? (b) Their media nickname? (c) Whose life and death is the movie about? 40. After a gap of many years, a new species of mammal has been discovered in Europe…just when scientists were convinced that they had catalogued all the mammals in that developed part of the world. Do you (a) Know what sort of animal was found? (b) Where it was found? (c) Know its name? 41. That the Earth is in the throes of climate change is something that is very much in the news these days. The effects of this change are now so plainly visible all over the planet that an ‘ostrich-with-its-head-in-the-sand’ approach will hasten doomsday. We need to get our collective act together if we are to stem the rot. In their latest warning, environmentalists have predicted a catastrophe: Africa’s two highest mountains will lose their ice cover within the next 25 to 50 years. Can you name these two mountain massifs? 42. Between 1950 and 2005, Alaska experienced longer growing seasons, increased thawing of permafrost, and greater water loss from evaporation of open waters. But these changes are overshadowed by a trend that has ominous portents. (a) Can you guess what that is? (b) What are the numbers involved?

56 43. It was a gift from the people of France for America’s inspiration, a moral force that partially energized the French Revolution in 1789. A shattered remnant of it may be seen in the last few frames of a Hollywood film starring Charlton Heston. Can you hazard a guess as to (a) The name of the artifact referred to above? (b) The name of the said Hollywood blockbuster? 44. A lady of Indian origin has taken charge as the Global Chief Executive of Pepsi Inc. (a) Can you name her? (b) Can you name two other powerful corporate women who are playing prominent roles in Indian industry and commerce? 45. This blond heiress to a hotel empire is frequently in the news, often for all the wrong reasons. Living life in the fast lane, she is the darling of the paparazzi, who follow her wherever she goes…which means all over the affluent part of the globe. She recently cut an album that was panned by many critics but staunchly defended by some crooners, who claimed she has talent. Can you name this tempestuous rebel? 46. This descendant of early settlers who could trace his lineage to the 1600s was brought up on tales of the old frontier days, which he assiduously reinforced by extensive reading. A rare breed of adventurer who combined erudition with a raw ‘blood-and-guts’, actionoriented lifestyle, he was – at different times in his life – sailor, professional boxer, journalist and teacher – a ‘western’ writer whose output can never be equaled in either quantity or authenticity. In 1983, he became the first novelist to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in honour of his life’s work. He was also awarded the Medal of Freedom by then US President Ronald Reagan. Can you name this famous author of Last of the Breed, Jubal Sackett, The Haunted Mesa and Shalako (which last he dedicated to his grandfather Truman Dearborn)? 47. A runaway bestseller about a bird, a first book written by an unknown pilot engaged in flying old bi-planes across the American mid-west. It made publishing history and its author an overnight celebrity. Which book are we talking about? Who wrote it? 48. How did the term "bug" become part of computing jargon? 49. Who created marmalade? 50. According to the Bible, Christ was born in March. Then why do we celebrate Christmas – Christ’s birthday – in late December? 51.

What do haloes around the heads of saints in medieval paintings signify?

52.

What was Hadrian’s Wall? Why was it built? 53. What is the difference between a coffin and a sarcophagus? 54. What is the origin of the word ‘assassin’ meaning ‘hired killer’? 55. What is a ‘Stockholm syndrome relationship’?

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AMAZING FACTS… Facts concerning Just

about anything at All

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Shaitan is the Islamic root of an English word . . . Satan.

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The literal Latin meaning of the name Lucifer – which is another name for Satan – is bringer of light or The Illuminator. ‘Lucifer matches, however, were the precursor of safety matches. They had a high sulphur content in order to facilitate their ability to ignite when scraped across any rough surface…the resultant friction bringing the match-head to flashpoint.

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The Big Bang (from which the universe arose) was first postulated by a Catholic monk, Georges Lemaître in 1927, and not by Harvard astronomer Edwin Hubble, as is commonly believed. Hubble published in 1929, two years after Lemaître. Hubble confirmed it, by gathering hard evidence proving scientifically that the Big Bang took place…about 14.5 billion years ago. Scientists claimed it was ludicrous. Matter, science said, could not be created out of nothing. Hubble shocked the world by scientifically proving the Big Bang really happened. Background radiation – the aftermath of the Big Bang – is still detectable today by means of sensitive instruments.

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The world’s largest art collection is in the Vatican Museum, spread over 1,407 rooms. It houses over 60,000 testaments to man’s creative genius, including masterpieces by geniuses such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Bernini and Botticelli.

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A Möbius Strip is a twisted ring of paper that technically possesses only one side. It is often seen in the work of artist M. C. Escher.

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The Latin words Novus Ordo Seculorum inscribed on a U.S dollar bill mean ‘New Secular Order.’ Curiously, it is in apparent contradiction of the words inscribed alongside: “In God We Trust.”

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Only one-eighth of New York City is actually on the North American mainland; the rest is situated on islands.

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Blue disappearing ink can be made by dissolving a pill of phenolphthalein alcohol. After the ink dries, exposure to air makes the blue disappear. The carbon dioxide in the air turns the ink acidic, neutralizing the colour.

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The word ‘berserk’ comes from Icelandic accounts of 12th century Norse warriors who were so fierce in battle they fought without armour and raged like wolves. They were called ‘Berserksgangr’.

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Pretoria has been renamed Tshwane, which is the name of a famous chief and happens to mean ‘we are all the same’.

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Casimir Force is the name for the force that, at the nano level, causes particles to stick together by quantum force. First discovered in 1948 and measured in 1997, it can be seen in a gecko’s ability to stick to a ceiling with just one toe. It is the ultimate cause of friction in the nanoworld. Scientists are trying to find a way of reversing this force, which would render nano machines practically frictionless.

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A new exoplanet (a planet outside the solar system) named TrES-4, is the largest such planet found so far. Fittingly located in the constellation of Hercules, it is 1,435 light years away from earth and is 70% bigger than Jupiter. A year on this planet is shorter than a week on earth.

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Microbes that had been locked in Antarctica ice, frozen for 100,000 years, came to life when thawed out in a laboratory and resumed growing, as reported by Rutgers University researchers in August 2007.

Facts about Art • • • • • • • •

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and Architecture

Although construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg started in 1015, it was not until 1439 that the spire was completed. Ancient Chinese artists would never paint pictures of women's feet. At the age of 26, Michelangelo began sculpting his monumental statue of David. He finished it seventeen months later, in January 1504. Currently the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai Tower in Dubai has crossed 1822 metres in height, and is still going upwards. During a severe windstorm or rainstorm, the Empire State Building may sway several feet to either side. England's Stonehenge is 1500 years older than Rome's Colosseum. Evard Ericksen sculpted "The Little Mermaid" statue which is located in Copenhagen harbor. Frederic-August Bartholdi sculpted the Statue of Liberty. The statue arrived in New York City in 1885 aboard the French ship "Isere." The Statue of Liberty weighs 225 tons. There are 403 steps from the foundation to the top of the torch in the Statue of Liberty. Mt. Rushmore was carved by Gutzon Borglum. If any one of the heads on Mt. Rushmore had a body, it would stand nearly 500 feet tall. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt are the four US presidents whose faces are carved on Mt. Rushmore. In 1925, the 1st motel – the "Motel Inn" – opened in San Luis Obispo, California.

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Jayne Mansfield decorated her "Pink Palace" by writing to 1,500 furniture and building suppliers and asking for free samples. She told the donors they could then brag that their goods were in her outlandish mansion. The pitch worked, and Jayne received over $150,000 worth of free merchandise. On July 28th, 1945, a US Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people. Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years, from 1895 until his death in 1973. The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair. It is 984 feet high, and receives a fresh coat of 300 tons of reddish-green paint every seven years. The estimated weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is 6,648,000 tons. The extended right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long. The first footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), were made by Norma Talmadge in 1927. Legend has it that she accidentally stepped in wet concrete outside the building. Since then, over 180 stars have been immortalized, along with their hands and feet and even noses (Jimmy Durante). The great Gothic cathedral of Milan was started in 1386, and wasn't completed until 1805. The Hoover Dam in USA was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not be fully cured for another 500 years. The largest movie theater in the world, Radio City Music Hall in New York City, opened in December, 1932. It originally had 5,945 seats The largest stained-glass window in the world is at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo daVinci, is very small – only 2'6" by 1'9". The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's 'Le Bateau' upsidedown for 47 days before an art student noticed the error. The official name of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson National Expansion Monument." The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is exactly 630 feet by 630 feet. The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the La Pieta, completed in 1500. The painting, "American Gothic" depicts the sister and the dentist of American artist Grant Wood as rural farm folk. The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1630 by Shah Jahan to honour his wife Mumtaz, who died in childbirth. The three primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The three secondary colors are green, orange and purple. The world's largest art gallery is the Winter Palace and Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Visitors would have to walk 15 miles to see the 322 galleries which house nearly 3 million works of art. The world's largest Gothic cathedral is in New York City. It is the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and 112th Street. The cathedral measures

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601 feet long, 146 feet wide, and has a transept measuring 320 feet from end to end. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. There are 132 rooms in the US White House. Until the time of Michelangelo, many sculptors colored their statues, and most from ancient Greece and Rome at one time had been painted or "polychromed." Over the course of years, rain washed the colors off the marble. Work on St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, began in 1506. Construction took over a century, reaching completion in 1612. X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one.

Facts about Books • • • • • • • • • • • •

and Literature

"The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history. All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and boys. In England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on stage. All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book Peter Pan were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London. Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history. Barbara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold. Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her. Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham after his editor dared him to write a book using fewer than 50 different words. Edgar Allan Poe introduced mystery fiction's first fictional detective, Auguste C. Dupin, in his 1841 story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Frank Baum named "Oz" after a file cabinet in his office. One cabinet was labeled "A to N," and the second was labeled "O to Z." Ghosts appear in four Shakespearian plays: Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet and Macbeth. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published March 20, 1852. It was the first American novel to sell one million copies. John Milton used 8,000 different words in his poem, Paradise Lost.

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Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall." Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, only 164 are women. Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on the mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887). Professor Moriarty was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy. Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.' The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker. (The reference is to Jerome K. Jerome’s book Three Men in a Tub). The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, 'Aladdin was a little Chinese boy.' The Three Musketeers’ names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan joins them later).

Facts about • • •

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Geography

A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral. About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice. According to National Geographic, Mt. Everest grows about 4 millimeters a year: the two tectonic plates of Asia and India, which collided 50 million years ago to form the Himalayas, continue to press against each other, causing the Himalayan peaks to grow slightly each year Alaska and California, with 8 each, are the US states with the most national park sites. All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official. As of Dec. 31, 2000, the number of climbers summiting Mt. Everest reached 1314, and the number of deaths on the mountain reached 167. At 840,000 square miles, Greenland is the largest island in the world. It is three times the size of Texas. By comparison, Iceland is only 39,800 square miles. Australia is the only country that is also a continent. Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village'. Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence. Devon is the only county in Great Britain to have two coasts. Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), which makes it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.

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Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. Europe has no deserts—it is the only continent without one. Forty-six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean; that's around 6 sextillion gallons of water. The Atlantic has 23.9 percent; the Indian, 20.3; the Arctic, 3.7 percent. French was the official language of England for over 600 years. Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city in the US to add fluoride to its piped water. Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee. Hawaii officially became apart of the US on June 14, 1900. If Monaco's ruling house of Grimaldi should ever be without an heir (male or female), the country will cease to be a sovereign state. In 1771 the kingdom of Poland was larger in are than any other European country except Russia and had a bigger population than any other European country except France. In the Great Seal of the US, the eagle grasps 13 arrows and an olive branch. It is forbidden for aircraft to fly over the Taj Mahal. Japan is the world's leading importer of iron ore. Wenchuan, China is the highest city in the world, at 16,730 feet about sea level. This city is part of Sichuan Province, southwest China. (La Paz, Bolivia, at 11,900 feet above sea-level, is the second-highest large city in the world). Lake Pontchartrain Causeway at New Orleans, Louisiana, is the world's largest bridge. It is almost 24 miles (about 38 kilometers) long. Maine is the only state in the United States whose name has one syllable. Mexico City is the oldest capital city in the Americas. It is sinking at a rate of 6 to 8 inches a year because it's built on top of an underground reservoir. Wells are drawing out more and more water for the city's growing population of more than 15 million people. More water flows over Niagara Falls every year than over any other falls on earth. Most landfilled trash retains its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years. New Jersey is the US state with the greatest number of hazardous waste sites: 96 so far. Quito in Ecuador, South America, is said to have the most pleasant climate in the world. It is called the 'Land of Eternal Spring.' The temperature rarely drops below 46 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, or exceed 72 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the US. Talking on a cellular phone while driving is against the law in Israel as also India. The first US zoo was built in Philadelphia, PA, in 1876. The abbreviation 'ORD' for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name 'Orchard Field.' The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest. It is the world's smallest ocean. It is mostly covered by solid ice, ice floes, and icebergs The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

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The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world's longest frontier. It stretches 3,987 miles (6,416 km). The city of St. Petersburg, Russia, was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, hence the name, St. Petersburg. But it wasn't always that simple. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Russian leaders felt that Petersburg was too Germansounding. So they changed the name of the city to Petrograd, to make it more Russian-sounding. Then, in 1924, the country's Soviet Communist leaders wanted to honour the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir I. Lenin. The city of Petrograd became Leningrad and was known as Leningrad until 1991 when the new Russian legislators – no longer Soviet Communists – wanted the city to reflect their change of government. The city has now been renamed St. Petersburg. The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. London, England reached the mark in 1810 and New York, USA made it in 1875. Today, there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of 1 million. The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown in war time. The five Great Lakes are Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes are the most important inland waterway in North America. All the lakes, except Lake Michigan, which lies entirely in the United States, are shared by the United States and Canada and form part of the border between these countries. The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world. The Great Lakes have a combined area of 94,230 square miles - larger than the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont combined. The Hollywood sign was first erected in 1923. Conceived as a real estate ad, it originally read Hollywoodland. The sign stands 50 feet tall, stretches 450 feet across, and weighs 450,000 pounds. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. The Jordanian city of Amman was once called Philadelphia. The largest body of fresh water in terms of area is Lake Superior. In terms of volume, it is Lake Baikal, in Siberia. The largest desert in the world, the Sahara, is 3,500,000 square miles. The largest US city in area is Juneau, Alaska, which covers 3,108 square miles. Los Angeles covers only 458.2 square miles. The Ohio River forms at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela. The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.

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The original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del rio Porciuncula, translating into: The Village of our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River. The Pantheon is the largest building from ancient Rome that survives intact. The river Danube empties into the Black Sea. The San Diego Zoo in California has the largest collection of animals in the world. The Seven Hills of Rome are the Palatine (on which the original city was built), the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine. The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn’s Island (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame), in Polynesia, at just 1.75 square miles. The tallest monument built in the US, the Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, Missouri, is 630 feet tall. The US city with the highest murder rate is Detroit, with 45.3 homicides per 100,000 people. The Vatican's Swiss Guard still wears a uniform designed by Michelangelo in the early 16th century. The water in the Great Salt Lake of Utah is more than four times as salty as any ocean. The wettest spot in the world is located on the island of Kauai. Mt. Waialeale consistently records rainfall at the rate of nearly 500 inches per year. (CHECK) The world's smallest independent state is the Vatican City, with a population of about 1,000 - and a zero birthrate. The world's highest railway is in Peru. The Central Railway climbs to 15,694 feet in the Galera tunnel, 108 miles from Lima. Tourists take it to get to the ruins of Machu Picchu. The longest railway in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian Railroad, built 1891-1916, a network of railways connecting European Russia with Russian Far East provinces. It is 9,288.2 kilometres (5,787 miles) long and spans 8 time zones. The world's longest suspension bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998. The 3,911-meter (12,831-feet) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is 580 meters (1,900 feet) longer than the Humber Bridge in England, the previous record holder. (CHECK).

Facts about • •

Space & the Universe

All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean characters. (ADD THEM) Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.

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In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade object to reach the moon when it crashed on the lunar surface. In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is larger than Mercury. Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in our solar system. On a clear night in the Northern Hemisphere, the naked eye can discern some 5000 stars. On February 7, 1969 a meteorite weighing over a ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico. Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star. Robert Goddard, a scientist and holder of 214 patents, fired the first rocket using liquid propellant in 1926. Sunday, July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin was the second. They were members of Apollo 11, and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The Lunar Excursion Module was named the "Eagle." Astronaut Michael Collins stayed onboard the mother ship, "Columbia." The Apollo 11 plaque left on the Moon says, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. / WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND." The first American satellite in orbit, Explorer I, was launched February 1, 1958. The first man-made object to circle the earth was Sputnik I, launched in 1957. The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field. The three most recently discovered planets were Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto (now reclassified as a dwarf planet) in 1930. Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. What we call the sky is merely the limit of our vision into the atmosphere. The sky, like the horizon, is always as far away as one can see.

Facts about Cuisine • • •

& Chocolate

The botanical name of the chocolate plant is Theobramba cacao, which means "Food of the Gods." No wonder you love it. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love. The daughter of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name of the sweet he invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she went by the nickname Tootsie, and in her honour, her doting father named his chewy chocolate logs Tootsie Rolls.

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The earliest cocoa plantations were established in 600 AD, in the Yucatan, by the Mayans. The fruit of the Cacao tree grow directly from the trunk. They look like small melons, and the pulp inside contains 20 to 50 seeds or beans. It takes about 400 beans to make a pound of chocolate. The Imperial torte, a square chocolate cake with five thin layers of almond paste, was created by a master pastry chef at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830 1916). The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature, which is why it literally melts in your mouth. The Swiss consume more chocolate per capita than any other nation on earth. That's 22 pounds each compared to 11 pounds per person in the United States. The term "white chocolate" is a misnomer. Under Fedaral Standards of Identity, real chocolate must contain chocolate liquor. "White" chocolate contains no chocolate liquor. A 1.5 oz. milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories. A 1.75 oz. serving of potato chips has 230 calories. A recent study indicates when men crave food, they tend to crave fat and salt. When women crave food, they tend to desire chocolate. American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate. American chocolate manufacturers use about 1.5 billion pounds of milk -- only surpassed by the cheese and ice cream industries. Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is almost half of the total world's production. Aztec emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate every day. It was thick, dyed red and flavoured with chili peppers. Bittersweet chocolate is what is usually called for in baking. It contains more chocolate liquor (at least 35%) and less sugar than sweet chocolate. Semisweet chocolate contains 15% - 35% chocolate liquor.

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1824: John Cadbury, an English Quaker, begins roasting and grinding chocolate beans to sell in his tea and coffee shop. In 1842 Cadbury's Chocolate Company in England creates the first chocolate bar. 1875: A Swiss chocolate maker, Daniel Peter, mixes Henri Nestle's condensed milk with chocolate and the two men found a company to manufacture the first milk chocolate. 1894: Milton Hershey adds a line of chocolate to his caramel manufacturing business. Soon he invents the Hershey Bar by experimenting with milk chocolate. Hershey's Cocoa appears next. 1896: Leonard Hirschfield invents the Tootsie Roll, named after his daughter. 1897: Brownies are first mentioned in print, listed for sale in the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue.

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About 1900: A machine called the enrober is invented to replace the task of handdipping chocolate. 1930: Franklin Mars invents the Snickers Bar. 1939: Nestle introduces semisweet chocolate morsels. 1940: The Mars Company invents M&M's for soldiers going to World War II. Chocolate was introduced into the United States in 1765 when cocoa beans were brought from the West Indies to Dorchester, Massachusetts. Cocoa butter is the natural fat of the cocoa bean. It has a delicate chocolate aroma, but is very bitter tasting. It is used to give body, smoothness, and flavor to eating chocolate. Cole Porter got a kick from fudge. He had nine pounds of it shipped to him each month from his hometown. Columbus brought cacao (chocolate) beans back to Spain on his fourth voyage in 1502. Cultivation of cacao trees can occur only in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Principal growing areas include West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador and the Indies. Generally, it takes five years before trees begin bearing fruit in the form of pods. Each pod contains an average of 20 to 40 cream-colored cocoa beans. Nearly 400 beans are required to make a pound of chocolate liquor, the semi-liquid mass produced by grinding the beans. A non-alcoholic substance, chocolate liquor is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products. German chocolate cake did not originate in Germany. In 1852, Sam German developed a sweet baking bar for Baker's Chocolate Co. The product was named in his honour—Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate. Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate. In 1900, Queen Victoria sent her New Year's greetings to the British troops stationed in South Africa during the Boer War in the form of a specially moulded chocolate bar. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along "Chocolate Avenue" are in the shape of Hershey Kisses. In the United States, approximately seven billion pounds of chocolate and candy are manufactured each year. It's a common myth that chocolate aggravates acne. Experiments conducted at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Naval Academy found that consumption of chocolate -- even frequent daily dietary intake -- had no effect on the incidence of acne. Professional dermatologists today do not link acne with diet. One plain milk chocolate candy bar has more protein than a banana. Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French, and Italians. Chocolate kills parrots! Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal. Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa. Chocolate also contains Vitamins A1, B1, B2, C, D and E as well as calcium, potassium, sodium and iron.

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The American Heart Association recommends that daily cholesterol intake not exceed 300 mg. A chocolate bar is actually low in cholesterol. A 1.65 oz. bar contains only 12 mg! A one oz piece of cheddar cheese contains 30 mg of cholesterol - more than double the amount found in a chocolate bar. The theobromine in chocolate that stimulates the cardiac and nervous systems is too much for dogs, especially smaller pups. A chocolate bar is poisonous to dogs and can even be lethal. The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolatemaker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar. There were 1,040 US manufacturing establishments producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2001. These establishments employed 45,913 people and shipped $12 billion worth of goods that year. California led the nation in the number of chocolate and cocoa manufacturing establishments (with 116) followed by Pennsylvania (with 107).

* US Census Bureau, October, 2003

CAFFEINE CONTENT OF CHOCOLATE… White chocolate 3ounce bar or 1 cup chips Caffeine 0.0 Theobromine 0.0 Baking chocolate, unsweetened 1 ounce Caffeine 57.120 Theobromine 346.360 Semisweet chocolate 1 ounce (chocolate chips) Caffeine 17.577 Theobromine 137.781mg Milk Chocolate 1.55 ounce bar Caffeine 11.440 Theobromine 74.360 Cocoa mix 1 envelope/3 heaping tsp Caffeine 5.040 Theobromine 169.680 Cocoa powder, unsweetened 1 tbsp Caffeine 12.420 Theobromine 111.078 mg • • •

mg mg mg mg mg mg mg mg mg mg

There are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk chocolate. Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts. Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.

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Facts about Bananas… Want to go bananas, like Herbie? Here are some facts about bananas that just might do that! • • • • • • • • • •

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3 medium size bananas weigh approximately 1 pound. A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers. As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste. Banana plants are the largest plants on earth without a woody stem. They are actually giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms. Bananas are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber. Bananas are America's #1 fruit. Bananas are available all year-round. They are harvested every day of the year. Bananas are great for athletic and fitness activity because they replenish necessary carbohydrates, glycogen and body fluids burned during exercise. Bananas are not grown commercially in the continental United States. They are grown in Latin and South America from countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala. Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. If left on the plant, the fruit splits open and the pulp has a "cottony" texture and flavor. Even in tropical growing areas, bananas for domestic consumption are cut green and stored in moist shady places to ripen slowly. Bananas are perennial crops that are grown and harvested year-round. The banana plant does not grow from a seed but rather from a rhizome or bulb. Each fleshy bulb will sprout new shoots year after year. Bananas have no fat, cholesterol or sodium. Bananas were officially introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Before that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing ships as sailors took a few stems home after traveling in the Caribbean. Each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. To produce a new stem, only two shoots - known as the daughter and the granddaughter - are allowed to grow and be cultivated from the main plant. In 1516, Friar Tomas sailed to the Caribbean bringing banana roots with him; and planted bananas in the rich, fertile soil of the tropics, thus beginning the banana's future in American life. In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain, most involving people slipping on skins. In Eastern Africa, you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas.

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In some lands, bananas were considered the principal food. Early travelers and settlers would carry the roots of the plant as they migrated to the Middle East and Africa. From there Portuguese traders carried banana roots to the Canary Islands, where bananas are still grown commercially. In South East Asia, the banana leaf is used to wrap food (in the place of plastic bags and cling wraps), providing a unique flavor and aroma to nasi lemak and the Indian banana leaf rice. India is by far the largest world producer of bananas, growing 16.5 million tonnes in 2002, followed by Brazil which produced 6.5 million tonnes of bananas in 2002. To the Indians, the flower from the banana tree is sacred. During religious and important ceremonies such as weddings, banana flowers are tied around the head, for they believe this will bring good luck. Over 96% of American households purchase bananas at least once each month. Some horticulturists suspect that the banana was the earth's first fruit. Banana plants have been in cultivation since the time of recorded history. One of the first records of bananas dates back to Alexander the Great's conquest of India, where he first discovered bananas in 327 B.C. The average American consumes over 28 pounds of bananas each year. The banana market is controlled by five large corporations - Chiquita (25%), Dole (25%), Del Monte (15%), Noboa (11%) and Fyffes (8%). Most bananas are grown on huge plantations, controlled by these corporate giants. The remaining banana production for export comes from small banana producers. The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year. The trunk of a banana plant is made of sheaths of overlapping leaves, tightly wrapped around each other like celery stalks. The origin of bananas is traced back to the Malaysian jungles of Southeast Asia, where so many varieties and names for the banana are in that area. The phrase 'going bananas' was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, and is linked to the fruit's 'comic' connections with monkeys. The word 'banan' is Arabic for ‘finger’. There are more than 500 varieties of banana in the world: The most common kinds are Dwarf Cavendish, Valery, and Williams Hybrid bananas. Other types of bananas include Apple and a small red banana called the Red Jamaica. A large type of banana called the plantain is hard and starchy and is almost eaten as a cooked vegetable. The Cavendish is the most common variety of bananas now imported to the United States. The Cavendish is a shorter, stubbier plant than earlier varieties. It was developed to resist plant diseases, insects and windstorms better than its predecessors. The Cavendish fruit is of medium size, has a creamier, smooth texture, and a thinner peel than earlier varieties. There is no such thing as a banana tree. Bananas grow on plants. Today's commercial bananas are scientifically classified into the genus Musa of the Musaceae family.

…and why they are good for you!

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Instant energy: Containing three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. Providing energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet. Depression: According to a recent survey amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier. PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia. Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect way to beat high blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke. Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert. Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives. Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system. Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief. Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness. Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation. Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system. Overweight and at work…? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panicinduced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

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Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach. Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit t hat can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan. Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal. Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack. Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%! Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a bit of plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills! •

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Compared to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Facts about Coffee Can’t do without your morning cup of steaming java? Here are 111 facts that’ll keep the hot stuff coming… • •

"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love" - Turkish Proverb 52% of Americans drink coffee.

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A acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling. A scientific report form the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevents cancer and heart disease. It's good for you! Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have started in 1715, in the court of King Louis XIV, the French monarch. Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills. After the decaffeinating process, processing companies no longer throw the caffeine away; they sell it to pharmaceutical companies. After they are roasted, and when the coffee beans begin to cool, they release about 700 chemical substances that make up the vaporizing aromas. An arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12 pounds of coffee a year, depending on soil and climate. Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a six-fold increase since 1940. Beethoven, who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew. Before roasting, some green coffee beans are stored for years, and experts believe that certain beans improve with age, when stored properly. Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by street vendors in Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the sidewalk espresso carts of today. Brazil accounts for almost 1/3 of the world's coffee production, producing over 3-1/3 billion pounds of coffee each year. By 1850, the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of the U.S. Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after drinking about 5 cups of coffee. Citrus has been added to coffee for several hundred years. Coffee as a medicine reached its highest and lowest point in the 1600's in England. Wild medical contraptions to administer a mixture of coffee and an assortment of heated butter, honey, and oil, became treatments for the sick. Soon tea replaced coffee as the national beverage. Coffee beans are similar to grapes that produce wine in that they are affected by the temperature, soil conditions, altitude, rainfall, drainage and degree of ripeness when picked. Coffee is generally roasted between 400F and 425F. The longer it is roasted, the darker the roast. Roasting time is usually from ten to twenty minutes. Coffee is graded according to 3 criteria: Bean quality (Altitude and Species) Quality of preparation Size of bean Coffee is grown commercially in over forty-five countries throughout the world.

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Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year. Coffee lends its popularity to the fact that just about all flavors mix well with it. Coffee Recipe from: 'Kitchen Directory and American Housewife' (1844) "Use a tablespoonful ground to a pint of boiling water [less than a quarter of what we would use today]. Boil in tin pot twenty to twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer, it will not taste fresh and lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off grounds into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine-pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee." Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States. Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack. Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but are normally pruned to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting. Coffee trees are self-pollinating Coffee trees produce highly aromatic, short-lived flowers producing a scent between jasmine and orange. These blossoms produce cranberry-sized coffee cherries. It takes four to five years to yield a commercial harvest. Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine. Coffee, along with beer and peanut butter, is one of the "ten most recognizable odours." Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil. Commercially flavoured coffee beans are flavored after they are roasted and partially cooled to around 100 degrees. Then the flavours applied, when the coffee beans' pores are open and therefore more receptive to flavor absorption. Dark roasted coffees actually have LESS caffeine than medium roasts. The longer a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process. During the American Civil War, the Union soldiers were issued eight pounds of ground roasted coffee as part of their personal ration of one hundred pounds of food. And they had another choice: ten pounds of green coffee beans. During World War II, the U.S. government used 260 million pounds of instant coffee. Finely grinding coffee beans and boiling them in water is still known as "Turkish Coffee." It is still made this way today in Turkey and Greece or anywhere else Turkish Coffee is served. Flavored coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavored oils specially created to use on coffee beans. Frederick the great had his coffee made with champagne and a bit of mustard. Hard Bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet. Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is commercially grown. Hawaii features an annual Kona Festival, coffee picking contest. Each year the winner becomes a state celebrity. In Hawaii coffee is harvested between November and April. Hills Brothers Ground Vacuum Packed Coffee was first introduced in 1900. Iced coffee in a can has been popular in Japan since 1945.

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If you like your espresso coffee sweet, you should use granulated sugar, which dissolves more quickly, rather than sugar cubes; white sugar rather than brown sugar or candy; and real sugar rather than sweeteners which alter the taste of the coffee. In 1670, Dorothy Jones of Boston was granted a license to sell coffee, and so became the first American coffee trader. In 1727, as a result of seedlings smuggled from Paris, coffee plants first were cultivated in Brazil. Brazil is presently by far the world's largest producer of coffee. In 1900, coffee was often delivered door-to-door in the United States, by horse-pulled wagons. In 1990, over 4 billion dollars of coffee was imported into the United States. In early America, coffee was usually taken between meals and after dinner. In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by the government. In Japan, coffee shops are called Kissaten. In Sumatra, workers on coffee plantations gather the world's most expensive coffee by following a gourmet marsupial who consumes only the choicest coffee beans. By picking through what he excretes, they obtain the world's most expensive coffee -'Kopi Luwak', which sells for over $100 per pound. In the 14th century, the Arabs started to cultivate coffee plants. The first commercially grown and harvested coffee originated in the Arabian Peninsula near the port of Mocha. In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family's pot filled with coffee. In the last three centuries, 90% of all people living in the Western world have switched from tea to coffee. In the year 1763, there were over 200 coffee shops in Venice. In the year 1790, there were two firsts in the United States; the first wholesale coffee roasting company, and the first newspaper advertisement featuring coffee. Irish cream and Hazelnut are the most popular whole bean coffee flavorings. It was during the 1600's that the first coffee mill made its debut in London. Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time. Italy now has over 200,000 coffee bars, and still growing. Jamaica Blue Mountain is often regarded as the best coffee in the world. Japan ranks Number 3 in the world for coffee consumption. Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the average human. Latte is the Italian word for milk. So if you request a latte' in Italy, you'll be served a glass of milk. Lloyd's of London began as Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse. Milk as an additive to coffee became popular in the 1680's, when a French physician recommended that cafe au lait be used for medicinal purposes. Modern coffee brewing methods use approximately 200° water. October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.

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Only about 20% of harvested coffee beans are considered to be a premium bean of the highest quality. Over 10,000 coffee cafes plus several thousand vending machines with both hot and cold coffee serve the needs of Tokyo alone. Over 5 million people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade. Most of those are involved with the cultivation and harvesting of more than 3 billion coffee plants. Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Over-roasted coffee beans are very flammable during the roasting process. Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa. Regular coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than those noncoffee drinkers. So says a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people. Retail espresso vendors report an increase in decaffeinated sales in the month of January due to New Year's resolutions to decrease caffeine intake. Roasted coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavor within two weeks. Ground coffee begins to lose its flavor in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins to lose flavor within minutes. Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4 pounds. Italy has an annual consumption per capita of only 10 pounds. Special studies conducted about the human body revealed it will usually absorb up to about 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. About 4 normal cups. Additional amounts are just cast off, providing no further stimulation. Also, the human body dissipates 20% of the caffeine in the system each hour. The 2,000 Arabica coffee cherries it takes to make a roasted pound of coffee are normally picked by hand as they ripen. Since each cherry contains two beans, it takes about 4,000 Arabica beans to make a pound of roasted coffee. The Arabica is the original coffee plant. It still grows wild in Ethiopia. The arabica coffee tree is an evergreen and in the wild will grow to a height between 14 and 20 feet. The Arabs are generally believed to be the first to brew coffee. The aroma and flavor derived from coffee is a result of the little beads of the oily substance called coffee essence, coffeol, or coffee oil. This is not really an oil, since it dissolves in water. The average age of an Italian barista is 48 years old. A barista is a respected job title in Italy. The average annual coffee consumption of the American adult is 26.7 gallons, or over 400 cups. The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor. The Civil War in the United States elevated the popularity of coffee to new heights. Soldiers went to war with coffee beans as a primary ration. The coffee filter was invented in 1908 by a German homemaker, Melitta Benz, when she lined a tin cup with blotter paper to filter the coffee grinds.

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The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 or 20 years. The drip pot was invented by a Frenchman around 1800. The Europeans first added chocolate to their coffee in the 1600's. The first coffee drinkers, the Arabs, flavored their coffee with spices during the brewing process. The first commercial espresso machine was manufactured in Italy in 1906. The first Parisian cafe opened in 1689 to serve coffee. The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day. The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom. The largest coffee importer center in the U.S. is located in the city of New Orleans, LA. The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them! The United States is the world's largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20 million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing one-third of all coffee exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee. The typical coffee drinker has 3.4 cups of coffee per day. That translates into more than 450,000,000 cups of coffee daily. The vast majority of coffee brands available to consumers are blends of different beans. The word "tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness," encouraged customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP, has become a byword. The word 'cappuccino' is the result of several derivations, the original of which began in 16th century. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccino, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin, from which came English Capuchin. In Italian cappuccino went on to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco. There is also the story line that says that the term comes from the fact that the coffee is dark, like the monk's robe, and the cap is likened to the color of the monk's head. There are about 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar, while a cup of coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams. Those British are sophisticated people, in almost everything except their choice of coffee. They still drink instant ten-to-one over fresh brewed.

78 • • • • •

Turkey began to roast and grind the coffee bean in the 13th Century, and some 300 years later, in the 1500's, the country had become the chief distributor of coffee, with markets established in Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Venice, Italy. Until the 18th century, coffee was almost always boiled. Until the late 1800's, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stovetop frying pans were favored. When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit. William Penn purchased a pound of coffee in New York in 1683 for $4.68.

Facts about entertainment: Film, TV, cartoons, magazines, music & dance

Here are 99 facts that will make you let go of the remote for a while… 1. Adjusting for inflation, Cleopatra, 1963, is the most expensive movie ever made to date (mid-1999). Its budget of $44 million is equivalent to 270 million 1999 dollars. 2. After six months at the off-Broadway New York Shakespeare Festival Theater, Hair opened at the Biltmore Theater in New York, in 1968. It was the first rockmusical to play on the Great White Way. 3. Although identified with Scotland, bagpipes are actually a very ancient instrument, introduced into the British Isles by the Romans. 4. As of 1996, Hee Haw holds the record for the longest running weekly first-run syndicated show in the history of television. It spanned over 4 decades, from the late '60s to the early '90s, airing every Saturday night at 7:00. 5. Because of TV censorship, actress Mariette Hartley was not allowed to show her belly button on Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK [episode #78 "All Our Yesterdays" in 1969] but later Roddenberry got even when he gave Hartley "two" belly buttons in the sci-fi movie Genesis II (1973). 6. Bette Midler, Barry Manilow and many other famous vocalists got their start in a New York City club called The Continental Baths. 7. Between 1931 and 1969 Walt Disney collected thirty-five Oscars. 8. "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson was the first video to air on MTV by a black artist. 9. By the time an American child finishes elementary school, she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television. 10. C3P0 is the first character to speak in the motion picture Star Wars. 11. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston. 12. Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott." 13. Carnegie Hall in New York City opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.

79 14. Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot. 15. Comedian/actor Billy Crystal portrayed Jodie Dallas, the first openly gay main character on network television on ABC's Soap, which aired from 1977 to 1981. 16. Disneyland opened in 1955. 17. Donald Duck lives at 1313 Webfoot Walk, Duckburg, Calisota. 18. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. 19. Elvis Presley made his first appearance on national television in 1956. He sang Blue Suede Shoes and Heartbreak Hotel on "The Dorsey Brothers Show." 20. Even though they broke up 25 years ago, the Beatles continue to sell more records each year than the Rolling Stones. 21. Gaetano Albert "Guy" Lombardo did the first New Year's Eve broadcast of "Auld Lang Syne," from the Roosevelt Grill in New York City in 1929/1930. 22. George Harrison, with "My Sweet Lord," was the first Beatle to have a Number 1 hit single following the group's breakup. 23. Gunsmoke debuted on CBS-TV in 1955, and went on to become the longestrunning (20 years) series on television. 24. "Happy Birthday" was the first song to be performed in outer space, sung by the Apollo IX astronauts on March 8, 1969. 25. In 1920, 57% of Hollywood movies billed the female star above the leading man. In 1990, only 18% had the leading lady given top billing. 26. In 1938 Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold all rights to the comic-strip character Superman to their publishers for $130. 27. In 1962, the Mashed Potato, the Loco-Motion, the Frug, the Monkey, and the Funky Chicken were popular dances. 28. In 1969, Midnight Cowboy became the first and only X-rated production to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Its rating has since been changed to R.) 29. In 1987, Playtex premiered the first US TV commercials with real lingerie models displaying their bras and underwear on national television. 30. In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is Yensid, which is Disney spelled backward. 31. In October 1959, Elizabeth Taylor became the first Hollywood star to receive $1 million for a single picture. (For Cleopatra) 32. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said. He said: "You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it!" Ilsa says "Play it, Sam. Play `As Time Goes By’. " 33. In the US, federal law states that children's TV shows may contain only 10 minutes of advertising per hour and on weekends the limit is 10 and one-half minutes. 34. In The Wizard of Oz the Scarecrow was looking for a brain, the Cowardly Lion was looking for courage, and the Tin Man was looking for a heart. 35. Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer responsible for such songs as "Aqualung" and "Thick as a Brick." Jethro Tull is the name of the band. The singer is Ian Anderson. The original Jethro Tull was an English horticulturalist who invented the seed drill.

80 36. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison were all 27 years old when they died. 37. Little Jackie Paper was the name of Puff the Magic Dragon's human friend. 38. Mickey Mouse is known as 'Topolino' in Italy. 39. Movie detective Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211. 40. MTV (Music Television) made its debut at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981 The first music-video shown on the rock-video cable channel was, appropriately, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. MTV's original five veejays were Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, J.J. Jackson and Alan Hunter. 41. Napoleon Bonaparte is the historical figure most often portrayed in movies. He has been featured in 194 movies, Jesus Christ in 152, and Abraham Lincoln in 137. 42. On February 9, 1993, "Dateline NBC" was forced to publicly apologize, and NBC president Michael Gartner resigned for a scandal caused by "Dateline" rigging a GM truck with explosives to simulate a "scientific" crash-test demo. 43. Penny Marshall was the first woman film director to have a film take in more than $100 million at the box office - she accomplished this with the 1988 movie Big. 44. Pierce Brosnan's first appearance as James Bond was in Golden Eye (1995). 45. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939, in Chicago, for the Montgomery Ward department stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem by Robert May, but weren't set to music until 1947. Gene Autry recorded the hit song in 1949. 46. Santa's reindeer are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. 47. The "Miss America" pageant made its network TV debut on ABC In 1954. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner. 48. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" gifts: A partridge in a pear tree, two turtledoves, three French hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese laying, seven swans swimming, eight maids milking, nine ladies dancing, ten lords leaping, eleven pipers piping, and twelve drummers drumming. (There are 364 gifts altogether) 49. The first Academy Awards ceremony to be telecast was the 25th, in 1953. 50. The first Academy Awards were presented in 1927. 51. The first recorded wardrobe malfunction happened when actress Jayne Mansfield accidentally exhaled her breast out of her dress during the telecast of the Academy Awards in 1957. 52. The first annual Grammy Awards were awarded in 1959. The Record of the Year was "Volare" by Domenico Modugno, the Album of the Year was "Peter Gunn" by Henry Mancini and the winner of the best R&B performance was "Tequila" by Champs. 53. The first CMA (Country Music Association) Awards, hosted by Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry, were presented at an awards banquet and show in 1967. 54. The first comic strip was "The Yellow Kid," in the New York World in 1896. The cartoonist was Richard Felton Outcault. 55. The first feature-length animated film, released by Disney Studios in 1937, was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

81 56. The first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 were Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose and Hank Williams were. 57. The first interracial kiss on TV took place Nov. 22, 1968 between Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt.Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) on an episode of "Star Trek." 58. The first kiss in a movie was between May Irwin and John Rice in "The Widow Jones," in 1896. 59. The first live televised murder was in 1963, when Jack Ruby killed JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald while millions of viewers watched. 60. The first performance of Handel's "Messiah" was on April 13, 1742 at the New Music rooms in Fishamble St., Dublin. Because of the demand for space, the men were asked not to wear their swords and the ladies not to wear hooped skirts. 61. The first presidential news conference filmed for TV was in 1955. Eisenhower was the president. 62. The first televised presidential debate was September 26, 1960, between Nixon and Kennedy. 63. The first time the "f-word" was spoken in a movie was by Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film, "I'll Never Forget Whatshisname." In Brian De Palma's 1984 movie, "Scarface," the word is spoken 206 times - an average of once every 29 seconds. 64. The first winner of the Academy Award for best picture, and the only silent film to achieve that honour, was the 1927 film, "Wings." 65. The Seven Dwarfs are Happy, Grumpy, Dopey (the beardless one), Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy. They were miners. 66. The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep. 67. The Beatles' first song to hit the UK charts was 'Love me do' on 11th October 1962. 68. The Beatles were depicted in wax at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, in 1964, the first pop album stars to be so honoured. 69. The Beatles were George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. But there were also two lesser known, previous members of the band: Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe. 70. The Black Hole, 1979, was Disney's first PG-rated movie. 71. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It’s a Wonderful Life." 72. The characters of Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie were given the same first names as Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening's real-life father, mother, and two sisters. 73. The first CD pressed in the US - for commercial release - was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'. 74. The first film granted permission by the Chinese government to be filmed in the Forbidden City was The Last Emperor, in 1987. 75. The first issue of People Magazine, in 1974, cost 35 cents and featured actress Mia Farrow on the cover. 76. The four principal characters from the cartoon series "The Chipmunks" are Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and Dave.

82 77. The Jazz Singer, 1927, was the first movie with audible dialogue. 78. The Lone Ranger's "real" name is John Reid. 79. The longest Oscar acceptance speech was made by Greer Garson for 1924's "Mrs. Miniver." It took an hour. 80. The Looney Tunes song is actually called "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down." 81. The Mills Brothers have recorded the most songs of any artist: about 2,250. 82. The Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" was banned in Scotland. 83. The official state song of Georgia since 1922 has been "Georgia on My Mind". 84. The Oscar statuette was designed by MGM's art director, Cedric Gibbons, in 1928. The design has remained unchanged, except for getting a higher pedestal in the 1940's. 85. The Professor on "Gilligan's Island" was named Roy Hinckley. The Skipper was named Jonas Grumby. Both names were used only once in the entire series, on the first episode. 86. The rock music video channel MTV made its debut in 1981. 87. The Russian Imperial Necklace has been loaned out by Joseff Jewelers of Hollywood for 1,215 different feature films. 88. The science-fiction series "Lost in Space" (set in the year 1997) premiered on CBS in 1965. 89. The song "Happy Birthday to You" was originally written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill as "Good Morning to You." The words were changed and it was published in 1935. 90. The song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written by George Graff, who was German, and was never in Ireland in his life. 91. The term ‘karaoke’ means ‘empty orchestra’ in Japanese, and the karaoke machine was designed originally to provide backing tracks for solo cabaret performers. 92. The title role of Dirty Harry, 1971, was originally intended for Frank Sinatra. After he refused, it was offered to John Wayne, and then Paul Newman, finally being accepted by Clint Eastwood. The rest, as they say, is history. 93. The Wizard of Oz was a Broadway musical 37 years before the MGM movie version was made. It had 293 performances and then went on a tour that lasted 9 years. 94. There are 11 points on the collar around Kermit the Frog's neck. 95. There have been about 30 films made at or about Alcatraz, the now-closed federal prison island in San Francisco Bay, including The Rock (1996), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), and Escape from Alcatraz (1979). 96. Time magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1938 was Adolf Hitler. 97. Walt Disney's first cartoon character was called Oswald the Rabbit. 98. Walter Huston and his son John become the first father-and-son team to win Oscars as director of and an actor in "Treasure of Sierra Madre" in 1949. 99. When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.

83

Facts about the English language and Word Origins 1. A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue). 2. A bibliophile is a collector of rare books; also a book lover. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books. 3. A ghost writer is one who pens books in the name of others, in lieu of cash. 4. A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philtre." 5. A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium. 6. A speleologist studies caves. 7. Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular during the Middle Ages. 8. "Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing. 9. Ballistics is the science that deals with the motion of projectiles. 10. Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy. 11. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. 12. In the 19th century, craftsmen who made hats were known to be excitable and irrational, as well as to tremble with palsy and mix up their words. Such behavior gave rise to the familiar expression "mad as a hatter". The disorder, called hatter's shakes, was caused by chronic mercury poisoning from the solution used to treat the felt. Attacking the central nervous system, the toxin led to behavioral symptoms. 13. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling. 14. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo. 15. "Long in the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse. 16. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. 17. Oddly, no term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a variety of expressions referring to specific homosexual roles. Experts find this baffling, as the old Greek culture regarded male/male love in the highest regard. According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.

84 18. "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully. 19. Poor whites in Florida and Georgia are called "crackers." They got the name from their principal staple food, cracked corn. Another theory states that the name comes from the days when they would drive cattle southward using the "crack" of their bullwhips to keep the animals in line and moving. 20. "Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u. 21. "Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow snapped. 22. The "O" when used as a prefix in Irish surnames means "descendant of." 23. The "y" in signs reading "ye olde…" is properly pronounced with a "th" sound, not "y". The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England used the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press, the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y". 24. The ancient Romans built such an excellent system of roads that the saying arose "all roads lead to Rome," that is, no matter which road one starts a journey on, he will finally reach Rome if he keeps on traveling. The popular saying came to mean that all ways or methods of doing something end in the same result, no method being better than another. 25. The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is: "and the rest of the day to yourself." 26. The expletive, "Holy Toledo," refers to Toledo, Spain, which became an outstanding Christian cultural center in 1085. 27. The idiom "pillar of salt" means: to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed or dead. It comes from the Old Testament, i.e., biblical account of the fate suffered by Lot’s wife when she disregarded the angels’ instructions and looked back at the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. 28. The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate. 29. The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression. 30. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. 31. The phrase "rule of thumb" is said to be derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. Actually, that's a piece of folk etymology. The phrase actually refers to the use of rough and ready practical experience rather than formal procedures in getting something done. It's most likely that the saying comes from carpenters using the length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch long, to measure things. So "rule" refers to a ruler in the sense of measurement, not of despotism or

85 male chauvinism. Other parts of the body were used as a ruler, too. A foot was determined by a pace, the distance from the tip of the nose to the outstretched fingers is roughly a yard, and horse heights are still measured by hands—the width of the palm and closed thumb is about four inches. 32. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 33. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling. 34. The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because that was the side that you put in on at the port. 35. The side of a hammer is a cheek. 36. The study of insects is called entomology. 37. The study of word origins is called etymology. 38. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. 39. The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. 40. The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog." 41. The term "honeymoon" is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding. 42. The term "throw one's hat in the ring" comes from boxing, where throwing a hat into the ring once signified a challenge. Today it nearly always signifies political candidacy. 43. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." 44. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone's eye out. 45. The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum. 46. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. 47. The word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert. 48. The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II. 49. The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)

86 50. The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare. 51. The word "coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used. 52. The word "karate" means "empty hand." 53. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." 54. The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French gargouille, meaning throat or gullet. This is also the origin of the word ‘gargle’. The word describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals. 55. The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions. 56. The word ‘quisling’ comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of Norway. The word now means "traitor." 57. The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters. 58. The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan." 59. Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word "I". Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once in their inaugural addresses. 60. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language. 61. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period!

87

Facts about Minerals

and Science

1. A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat. 2. A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court. 3. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be moulded with the hands. 4. An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long. 5. Colored diamonds are caused by impurities such as nitrogen (yellow), boron (blue), with red diamonds being due to deformities in the structure of the stone, and green ones being the result of irradiation. 6. Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and is also one of the most valuable natural substances. Diamonds are crystals formed almost entirely of carbon. Because of its hardness, the diamond is the most enduring of all gemstones. They are among the most costly jewels in the world, partly because they are rare. Only four important diamond fields have been found—in Africa, South America, India, and the Soviet Union. 7. In 1957, the Shipping port Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went on line. (It was taken out of service in 1982.) 8. In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device. 9. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. 10. Mineral deposits in caves: The ones growing upward are stalagmites, the ones growing downward are stalactites. 11. Natural gas has no odor. The smell is added artificially so that leaks can be detected. 12. Prussic acid, in a crystalline powder called Zyklon B, was used to kill in Germany's gas chambers. The gas would paralyze the victim's lungs, causing them to suffocate. 13. Seawater, loaded with mineral salts, weighs about a pound and a half more per cubit foot than fresh water at the same temperature. 14. Ten per cent of the salt mined in the world each year is used to de-ice the roads in America. 15. The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21.5% oxygen, .5% argon and other gases. 16. The Chinese were using aluminium to make things as early as 300 AD. Western civilization didn't discover aluminium until 1827.

88 17. The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found in 1905, the original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown Jewels and the British Royal family's collection. 18. The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz. 19. The largest hailstone ever recorded was 17.5 inches in diameter—bigger than a basketball! 20. The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminium. 21. The only rock that floats in water is pumice. 22. The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3) oxygen. 23. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY.

Facts about Plants 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

and Biology

84% of a raw apple is water. 99% of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as jack-o-lanterns. A cucumber is 96% water. A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows. A pineapple is a berry. Absinthe is another name for the herb wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and the name of a licorice-anise flavored green liqueur that was created at the end of the 18th century, and manufactured by Henry-Louis Pernod. Called the 'green Muse' it became very popular in the 19th century, but was eventually banned in most countries beginning in 1908. The reason is the presence of the toxic oil 'thujone' in wormwood, which was one of the main ingredients of Absinthe. Absinthe seemed to cause brain lesions, convulsions, hallucinations and severe mental problems. Thujone was the culprit, along with the fact that Absinthe was manufactured with an alcohol content of 68% or 132 proof. 7. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the single-seeded fruit of the giant fan palm, or Lodoicea maldivica, can weigh 44 lbs. Commonly known as the double coconut or coco de mer, it is found wild only in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. 8. Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills. 9. Almonds are the oldest, most widely cultivated and extensively used nuts in the world. 10. Americans eat more bananas than any other fruit: a total of 11 billion a year. 11. An average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows. 12. Arrowroot, an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a thickener in cooking. 13. Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams. 14. Banana oil doesn’t come from bananas; it's made from petroleum.

89 15. Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, like all herbs do. 16. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations. 17. Cranberries are one of just 3 major fruits native to North America. Blueberries and Concord grapes are the other two. 18. Dr. Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico, brought the poinsettia to US in 1828. The plant, called "flower of the blessed night" in Mexico was renamed in Poinsett's honour. 19. Eggplant is a member of the thistle family. 20. From 70 to 80 percent of all ripe olives are grown in California's approximately 35,000 acres. In the 1700s, Franciscan monks brought olives to Mexico and then into California by way of the missions. The first cuttings were planted in 1769 at the San Diego Mission. Commercial cultivation of California olives began in the late 1800s. Today, anywhere from 80,000 to 160,000 tons of olives are produced in California each year. 21. From the 1500's to the 1700's, tobacco was prescribed by doctors to treat a variety of ailments including headaches, toothaches, arthritis and bad breath. 22. Ginger has been clinically demonstrated to work twice as well as Dramamine for fighting motion sickness, with no side effects. 23. Hydroponics is the technique by which plants are grown in water without soil. 24. In 1865 opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product was distilled from it that yielded 4 percent morphine. In 1867 it was grown in Tennessee: six years later it was cultivated in Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana and cocaine could be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist. 25. In 1924, Pope Urban VIII threatened to excommunicate snuff users. 26. In 1932, James Markham obtained the first patent issued for a tree. The patent was for a peach tree. 27. In Siberia, in 1994, a container full of marijuana was discovered in the 2,000year-old grave of a Scythian princess and priestess, among the many other articles buried with her. 28. In the Netherlands, in 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of cheese, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of clothes for a single bulb of the Viceroy tulip. 29. Morphine was given its name in 1803 by the discoverer, a 20-year-old German pharmacist named Friedrich Saturner. He named it after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. 30. No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially. 31. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously. 32. Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older. 33. One pound of tea can make 300 cups of the beverage. 34. One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen. 35. Oranges, lemons, watermelons, and tomatoes are berries. 36. Orchids have the smallest seeds. It takes more than 1.25 million seeds to weigh 1 gram. 37. Peanuts are beans.

90 38. Plants that need to attract moths for pollination are generally white or pale yellow, to be better seen when the light is dim. Plants that depend on butterflies, such as the poppy or the hibiscus, have more colorful flowers. 39. Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America called the cinchona. 40. Rice paper isn't made from rice but from a small tree which grows in Taiwan. 41. Tea was so expensive when it was first brought to Europe in the early 17th century that it was kept in locked wooden boxes. 42. The California redwoods - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are the tallest and largest living organisms in the world. 43. The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe. 44. The fragrance of flowers is due to the essences of oil which they produce. 45. The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches. 46. The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be 4,600 years old. 47. The pineapple was symbol of welcome in the 1700-1800's. That is why in New England you will see so many pineapples on door knockers. An arch in Providence RI leading into the Federal Hill neighborhood has a pineapple on it for that very reason. Pineapples were brought home by seafarers as gifts. 48. The plant life in the oceans makes up about 85 percent of all the greenery on the Earth. 49. The popular name for the giant sequoia tree is Redwood. 50. The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots. 51. The world's tallest grass, which has sometimes grown 130 feet or more, is bamboo. 52. There are more than 700 species of plants that grow in the United States that have been identified as dangerous if eaten. Among them are some that are commonly favored by gardeners: buttercups, daffodils, lily of the valley, sweet peas, oleander, azalea, bleeding heart, delphinium, and rhododendron. 53. Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated plant; grown on every continent except Antarctica. 54. When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit. 55. Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever since the Greeks discovered its therapeutic power nearly 2,500 years ago. 56. Wine grapes, oranges, figs and olives were first planted in North America by Father Junipero Sera in 1769.

When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning of rose colours are: Red = Love and respect Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation Light pink = Admiration, sympathy

91 White = Reverence, humility Yellow = Joy, gladness Orange = Enthusiasm, desire Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality Pale blended tones = Sociability, friendship

Facts about History

and Historical Events

FIRST OF ALL… 1. According to tradition, the first engineer to build a bridge across the Tiber in Ancient Rome was given the name Pontifex, meaning "bridge builder." The Pontifex was seen as someone who "connects" people, and that symbolism was so powerful that Roman high priests--including Julius Caesar--later adopted the title Pontifex Maximus. During the Roman Imperial age, the emperor was always the Pontifex Maximus. The title eventually passed from Roman emperors to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Today, the Pope still carries the title Pontifex Maximus, or ‘pontiff’. 2. Acupuncture was first used as a medical treatment in 2700 BC by Chinese emperor Shen-Nung. 3. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. 4. At the height of its power, in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves. 5. Bock's Car was the name of the B-29 Bomber that dropped the Atom Bomb on Nagasaki. The one that dropped the Hiroshima bomb was named ‘Enola Gay’. 6. Britain's present royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was changed in 1917, during WW1 because of German connotations. The name Windsor was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time, the Battenberg family name of the cousins to the Windsors was changed to Mountbatten. 7. Canada declared national beauty contests cancelled as of 1992, claiming they were degrading to women. 8. Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795, the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships. They also lime kept aboard, hence the British were called ‘Limeys’…as they still are. 9. Chicago's Lincoln Park was created in 1864. The original 120 acre cemetery had most of its graves removed and was expanded to more than 1000 acres for recreational use. 10. Christmas became a national holiday in the US in 1890. 11. During the US Civil war, 200,000 blacks served in the Union Army; 38,000 gave their lives; 22 won the Medal of Honour. 12. Emperor Nero's lust for excess was most evident in his elaborate parties. According to the ancient writer Seutonius, Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea had a

92 circular main dining room with a roof that revolved day and night, in time with the sky. In what remains of the palace today, there is a large octagonal room with a domed ceiling that some believe is this dining room. The octagonal room has a large dome with an oculus in the middle. It predates the Pantheon--and was probably the inspiration for it. The architects of the Domus Aurea developed an innovative mechanism cranked by slaves, which made the ceiling underneath this dome revolve like the heavens. While the ceiling revolved, perfume was sprayed from the ceiling and rose petals were dropped on the diners. Legend has it there were so many rose petals falling at one dinner that one of the guests was asphyxiated. 13. Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98--117 A.D., was celebrated as the greatest of Roman emperors. In fact, for the rest of Roman history, new emperors were honoured by the Roman senate with the prayer felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, meaning "may he be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan." In Dante's Divine Comedy, Trajan is the only emperor allowed into heaven. 14. Everyone in the Middle Ages believed – as Aristotle had – that the heart was the seat of intelligence. 15. For decades after Emperor Nero's death, people all over the Roman Empire claimed to have spotted him. Several men even claimed to be him, and started popular movements to be reinstated as emperor. Because of his notoriety and the questionable circumstances under which he died (he purportedly stabbed himself to death in hiding outside of Rome), Nero was the Elvis Presley of ancient Rome. 16. Former President Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison in 1892, becoming the first (and, to date, only) chief executive to win nonconsecutive terms to the White House. Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd (1885–1889) and 24th (1893–1897) President of the United States, and the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of Republican political domination between 1860 and 1912, and was the first Democrat to be elected after the Civil War. His admirers praise him for his bedrock honesty, independence, integrity and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism 17. Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit that included a large beaked headpiece. The beak of the headpiece, which made them look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims. 18. From its completion in 125 A.D. until 1958, the Pantheon's domed ceiling was the largest unsupported concrete span in the world. It was surpassed only with the construction of the CNIT building in Paris. 19. From the Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a number of medical duties including bloodletting, wound treatment, dentistry, minor operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originated in the Middle Ages, when it was a staff the patient would grip while the barber bled the patient. 20. Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first US city to fluoridate its water in 1945.

93 21. In 1810, the US population was 7,239,881. At 1,377,808, the non-white population was 19% of the total. In 1969, the US population reached 200 million. 22. In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a ‘private social club’ in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan. 23. In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to… 12! 24. In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters. 25. In 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service to protect former presidents and their spouses for their lifetime, unless they decline the protection. Recently, Congress limited the protection of former presidents and their spouses (elected after January 1, 1997) to 10 years after leaving office. President Clinton, who was elected in 1996, will be the last president to receive lifelong protection from the Secret Service. 26. In England and the American colonies, the year 1752 only had 354 days. In that year, the type of calendar was changed, and 11 days were lost. 27. In the Holocaust, between 5.1 and 6 million of Europe's 10 million Jews were killed. An additional 6 million 'unwanted' people were also executed, including more than half of Poland's educated populace. 28. Many of Rome's most ambitious emperors idolized Alexander the Great. When Julius Caesar was a 33 year-old general in Spain, he wept when he saw a statue of Alexander, lamenting that he had accomplished nothing, while Alexander had conquered the whole world by his age. The schizophrenic emperor Caligula built a bridge of wooden boats across the Bay of Naples and rode back and forth across it on a horse, wearing armor he stole from Alexander's tomb. Emperor Caracalla set out to conquer the same eastern lands Alexander had conquered, and made a great show of visiting his grave in Alexandria, Egypt. 29. Martha Washington in the only woman whose portrait has ever appeared on a US currency note. Her portrait was on the face of the $1 silver certificate issues of 1886 and 1891, and on the back of the $1 silver certificate of 1896. Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony are the only women pictured on a US coin. Both were honoured on a dollar coin. 30. Members of the Nazi SS had their blood type tattooed on their armpits. 31. More than 20,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest one-day fight during the Civil War. 32. Napoleon took 14,000 French decrees and simplified them into a unified set of 7 laws. This was the first time in modern history that a nation's laws applied equally to all citizens. Napoleon's 7 laws are so impressive that by 1960 more than 70 governments had patterned their own laws after them or used them verbatim. 33. Nevada was the first state to sanction the use of the gas chamber, and the first execution by lethal gas took place in February, 1924. 34. New Orleans' first Mardi Gras celebration was held in February, 1826. 35. New York's first St. Patrick's Day parade was held on March 17, 1762. 36. Of the 262 men who have held the title of pope, 33 have died by violence. 37. On April 12, 1938, the state of New York passed a law requiring medical tests for marriage license applicants, the first state to do so.

94 38. On August sixth, 1945, during World War Two, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. 39. On Dec. 10th 1901 the 1st Nobel prizes were awarded. Literature - Rene SullyPrudhomme; Physiology - Emil von Behring; Chemistly - Jacobus van't Hoff; Physics - Wilhelm Roentgen; Peace - Jean Henri Dunant Frederic Passy. 40. About two years later, the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight in a heavierthan-air machine (December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina), but they never got the Nobel Prize for an invention that transformed man’s view of himself in the context of the world around him. 41. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. 42. On June 26th, 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco. (The text of the charter was in five languages: Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.) 43. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. 44. President George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart in 1782. It's a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. 45. President Lincoln proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1863. 46. Richard Nixon was the first US president to visit China in February, 1972. 47. Roman coins have been dug up in America, suggesting that perhaps the Vikings or Columbus weren't the first Europeans to visit the New World. The coins were found in locations as far afield as Texas, Venezuela and Maine. One stash was found buried in a mound in Round Rock, Texas. The mound is dated to approximately 800 A.D. In the town of Heavener, Okla., a bronze tetradrachm bearing the profile of Emperor Nero was found in 1976. The coin was originally struck in Antioch, Syria, in 63 A.D. 48. Seven of the eight US Presidents who have died in office - either through illness or assassination - were elected at precisely 20-year intervals. 49. The "Spruce Goose" flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, it is the largest aircraft ever built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320 feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon, Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again. 50. The first 20 African slaves were brought to the US, to the colony of Virginia in 1619, by a Dutch ship. 51. The first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1954, made her maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955. 52. The first US federal holiday honouring Martin Luther King, Jr. was in 1986. 53. The first US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) was enacted in 1909.

95 54. The first US federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas in 1906. 55. The first US Minimum Wage Law was instituted in 1938. The minimum wage was 25 cents per hour. 56. The ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. 57. The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from 1347 to 1351. 58. The Colosseum has long been known as a site of Christian martyrdom. It was converted into a shrine as early as the sixth century and still serves as the venue for the Vatican's Good Friday services. However, there is no evidence that Christian persecutions ever took place in the Colosseum. 59. The dollar was established as the official currency of the US in 1785. 60. The Emperor Caracalla – a tyrant remembered for slaying his brother and building the extravagant Baths of Caracalla – was murdered by his own guards while he was relieving himself. That may be where the phrase "caught with your pants down" comes from. 61. The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on October 15, 1794. 62. The first country to abolish capital punishment was Austria in 1787. 63. The first losing candidate in a US presidential election was Thomas Jefferson. He lost to John Adams. George Washington had been unopposed. 64. The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896. 484 contestants from 13 nations participated. 65. The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from sabres, hence the name "leathernecks." 66. The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 BC. 67. The House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, won England's 'War of the Roses.' 68. The Hundred Years War actually lasted 116 years (1337 to 1453). 69. The influence of ancient Rome on architecture is all around us. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., is almost a dead-ringer for the Pantheon. And the original Penn Station in New York was modeled on the Baths of Caracalla. 70. The longest reigning monarch in history was Pepi II, who ruled Egypt for 90 years; 2566 to 2476 BC. The second longest was France's Louis XIV, who ruled for 72 years, 1643 to 1715. 71. The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day. 72. The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey. 73. The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol. 74. The peace symbol was created in 1958 as a nuclear disarmament symbol by the Direct Action Committee, and was first shown that year at peace marches in England. The symbol is a composite of the semaphore signals N and D, representing nuclear disarmament.

96 75. The quarries where the Romans extracted travertine for the Colosseum and other great structures are still being mined today. 76. The Republic of Israel was established on April 23, 1948. 77. The seven wonders of the ancient world were: ... 1. Egyptian Pyramids at Giza ... 2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon ... 3. Statue of Zeus at Olympia ... 4. Colossus of Rhodes - a huge bronze statue near the Harbor of Rhodes that honoured the sun god Helios ... 5. Temple of Artemis at Ephesus ... 6. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus ... 7. Lighthouse at Alexandria. 78. The shortest war on record was fought between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. 79. The standard U.S. railroad width (4 feet, 8.5 inches) is directly derived from the width of Roman war chariots. This is because the English expatriates who designed the U.S. railroad system based their measurements on the pre-railroad tramways built in England. Those tramways were built using the same tools used to build wagons, which were also that width. The reason wagons were built to that width is because otherwise, they would break during long treks across the old English roads. Those roads – built by the Romans –were full of ruts carved out by Roman war chariots. All Roman chariots were built to a standard width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches, and so English wagons were built so that their wheels would fit into those ruts. 80. The supersonic Concorde jet made its first trial flight on January 1, 1969. 81. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal. It was adopted as the international signal for distress in 1912, and the Titanic struck the iceberg in April of that year. 82. The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars. 83. The Union ironclad, Monitor, was the first U.S. ship to have a flush toilet. 84. The US federal income tax was first enacted in 1862 to support the Union's Civil War effort. It was eliminated in 1872, revived in 1894 then declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the following year. In 1913, the 16 th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the US tax system. 85. The USSR set off the largest nuclear explosion in history, detonating a 50 megaton bomb (2600 times the Hiroshima bomb) in an atmospheric test over the Novaya Zemlya Islands, October 30, 1961. 86. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. 87. The White House, in Washington DC, was originally gray, the color of the sandstone it was built out of. After the War of 1812, during which it had been burned by Canadian troops, the outside walls were painted white to hide the smoke stains. 88. The worldwide "Spanish Flu" epidemic which broke out in 1918 killed more than 30 million people in less than a year's time. 89. There are more statues of Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark's female Indian guide, in the United States than any other person.

97 90. To raise public revenue, Emperor Vespasian – who built the Colosseum – was the first to introduce pay toilets in the city of Rome. When his son and successor Titus protested that the toilets were raising a stink with the poor, Vespasian held a coin up to his nose and said, "Money doesn't stink." Today, Romans still refer to public toilets as vespasiano. 91. Until Sunday, September 3rd, 1967, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekend at 5 p.m. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize 'this' was the day of the changeover. 92. Vermont, admitted as the 14th state in 1791, was the first addition to the original 13 colonies. 93. Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote. 94. Yellowstone is the world's first national park. It was dedicated in 1872. 95. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with the 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of former U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278 acres (5.17 km²), and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts around 2 million people annually. 96. The mountain known to the Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, in 1885. The project of carving Mount Rushmore originally started with the purpose of increasing tourism in the Black Hills region of South Dakota (notorious for the gold rush into the area that angered the Sioux, who regarded this as an invasion of their sacred grounds, and led to the hostilities which General George Custer was sent in to quell…only to meet his death at the Battle of Little Big Horn) the area as. After long negotiations involving a Congressional delegation and President Calvin Coolidge, the project received Congressional approval. The carving started in 1927 and ended in 1941, and though there were a few injuries, no deaths occurred. 97. Gutzon Borglum and a team of dedicated South Dakotan workers built the national monument at Mount Rushmore. They toiled for fourteen years, but in the end they created a shrine of democracy—a massive

98 sculpture unlike any other. Millions of people make the pilgrimage to Rushmore each year. Carved for the ages from towering mountain ramparts, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln stand eternal guard over their country.

In the six-and-a-half years of work that occurred on and off between 1927 and 1941, Borglum employed almost 400 local workers. Some built roads, ran the hoist house, generated power or sharpened thousands of bits for the pneumatic drills. Others set dynamite charges or completed delicate finishing work on the sculpture. Among the most highly skilled workers were those using dynamite. Using techniques he had developed at Stone Mountain and relying on skills his crew had acquired in mining, Borglum used the explosive in an innovative way that helped to remove large amounts of rock quickly and relatively inexpensively. His powdermen became so skilled that they could blast to within four inches of the finished surface and grade the contours of the lips, nose, cheeks, neck and brow. In fact, 90 percent of the 450,000 tons of granite removed from the mountain were taken out with dynamite.

Facts about the

Human Body

Here are 70 facts, the number of heartbeats per minute of the average woman (if women are at all average…!) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip. A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day. A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks. 7. According to German researchers, the risk of heart attack is higher on Monday than any other day of the week. 8. According to the Kinsey Institute, the biggest erect penis on record measures 13 inches. The smallest tops off at 1¾ inches. 9. After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of white paper. It will probably appear pink.

99 10. An average human drinks about 16, 000 gallons of water in a lifetime. 11. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. 12. An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day. 13. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body. 14. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies. 15. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime. 16. Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people. 17. Blood sucking hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide. 18. By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds. 19. By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.) 20. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels. 21. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. 22. Every person has a unique tongue print. 23. Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it. 24. Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10th of a calorie. 25. Fingernails grow faster than toenails. 26. Fingerprints serve a function - they provide traction for the fingers to grasp things. 27. Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14 and crayfish have 200. 28. Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin. 29. Humans shed and re-grow outer skin cells about every 27 days - almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime. 30. If it were removed from the body, the small intestine would stretch to a length of 22 feet. 31. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation. 32. If you go blind in one eye, you'll only lose about one-fifth of your vision (but all your depth perception.) 33. In a lifetime, the average US resident eats more than 50 tons of food and drinks more than 13,000 gallons of liquid. 34. In the late 19th century, millions of human mummies were used as fuel for locomotives in Egypt where wood and coal was scarce, but mummies were plentiful. 35. It takes 17 muscles to smile — 43 to frown. 36. Jaw muscles can provide about 200 pounds of force to bring the back teeth together for chewing. 37. Lab tests can detect traces of alcohol in urine six to 12 hours after a person has stopped drinking. 38. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day. 39. Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep. 40. On an average, women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000.

100 41. One in every 2000 babies is born with a tooth. 42. Pregnancy in humans lasts on average about 270 days (from conception to birth). 43. The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds. 44. The average duration of sexual intercourse for humans is 2 minutes. 45. The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and water to fill a ten-gallon tank. 46. The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools. 47. The average person releases nearly a pint of intestinal gas by flatulence every day. Most is due to swallowed air. The rest is from fermentation of undigested food. 48. The body's largest internal organ is the small intestine at an average length of 20 feet 49. The feet account for one quarter of all the human body’s bones. 50. The human body has over 600 muscles, 40% of the body's weight. 51. The human brain is about 85% water. 52. The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell. 53. The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 square feet. 54. The left lung is smaller than the right lung to make room for the heart. 55. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus. 56. The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective "sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors (or "sartors") at work. 57. The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered. 58. The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is. 59. The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a Vshaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles. 60. The only time the human population declined on the planet was in the years following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague 'Black Death' in Europe. 61. The permanent teeth that erupt to replace their primary predecessors (baby teeth) are called succedaneous teeth. 62. The sound of a snore (up to 69 decibels) can be almost as loud as the noise of a pneumatic drill. 63. The tips of fingers and the soles of feet are covered by a thick, tough layer of skin called the stratum corneum. 64. The smallest bone is the stapes or stirrup, in the middle ear. 65. There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being. 66. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

101 67. There are four main Blood types: A, B, AB and O and each Blood type is either Rh positive or negative. Blood types in the US - Type O positive 38.4%, O negative 7.7%, A positive 32.3%, A negative 6.5%, B positive 9.4%, B negative 1.7%, AB positive 3.2%, AB negative 0.7% 68. Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute. 69. Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. 70. Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

Facts about Products, Advertising, and Inventions 1. 67 million pounds of pesticides and about 3 million tons of fertilizer are used annually on lawns in the US. 2. A single share of Coca-Cola stock, purchased in 1919, when the company went public, would have been worth $92,500 in 1997. 3. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian use in 1992. The vehicle weighed in at 6,300 lbs and was 7 feet wide. 4. Americans consume 29 billion, or 58 percent, of the 50 billion aspirin tablets which are taken worldwide each year. 5. Americans spend more than $5 billion a year on cosmetics, toiletries, beauty parlors and barber shops. 6. Bayer was advertising cough medicine containing heroin in 1898. (Heroin was legal then, and available over the counter). 7. Britain's first escalator was installed in Harrods in 1878. 8. Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women. 9. BVD stands for the organizers of the company: Bradley, Voorhies, and Day. 10. Carbonated soda water was invented in 1767 by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen. 11. Cheerios cereal was originally called Cheerioats. 12. Chewing gum was patented in 1869 by William Semple. 13. Coca-Cola was so named back in 1885 for its two 'medicinal' ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. As for how much cocaine was originally in the formulation, it's hard to know. 14. Cocaine was sold to cure sore throat, neuralgia, nervousness, headache, colds and sleeplessness in the 1880s. 15. Colgate claims "Tooth Fairy" as a registered trademark. 16. During the Prohibition, at least 1,565 Americans died from drinking bad liquor, hundreds were blinded, and many were killed in bootlegger wars. Federal Agents and the Coast Guard made 75,000 arrests per year. 17. False eyelashes were invented by film director D.W. Griffith while he was making the 1916 epic, "Intolerance." He wanted actress Seena Owen to have lashes that brushed her cheeks. 18. G.I. Joe was introduced at the annual American International Toy Fair in New York on Feb. 9, 1964. 19. Hungarian brothers George and Laszlo Biro invented the ball point pen in 1938.

102 20. IBM's motto is 'Think.' 21. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. 22. In 1889, the first coin-operated telephone, patented by Hartford, Connecticut inventor William Gray, was installed in the Hartford Bank. Local calls using a coin-operated phone in the U.S. cost only 5 cents everywhere until 1951. 23. In 1964, General Mills began marketing Lucky Charms cereal with pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The marshmallow bits (technically referred to as marbits) were invented in 1963 by John Holahan. The cereal is marketed using a leprechaun character named Lucky (L.C. Leprechaun is his full name) that touts his cereal as being "Magically Delicious." Over the years, the various shapes and colors of the marshmallow bits in the cereal have undergone many changes. 24. In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted a law requiring cigarette manufacturers to put health warnings on their packages. 25. In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting advertising space on his cows. 26. In 1991 Procter & Gamble won a $75,000 lawsuit against James & Linda Newton who were found responsible for spreading rumors that the company supported the Church of Satan. The two were distributors of Amway Products, a competitor of Procter & Gamble. 27. In 4000 BC Egypt, men and women wore glitter eye shadow made from the crushed shells of beetles. 28. In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the candy in 1941. 29. In the 1700s, European women achieved a pale complexion by eating "Arsenic Complexion Wafers" actually made with the poison. 30. Insulin was discovered in 1922 by Sir Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best. 31. It was the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, CT, whose name – and lightweight pie tins – gave birth to the modern Frisbee. 32. Kikkoman soy sauce was originated in 1630 in Japan. 33. Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during W.W.I. 34. Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." Developed 1950s - 1960s. 35. Levi Strauss blue jeans with copper rivets were priced at $13.50 per dozen in 1874. 36. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen. 37. Most American car horns honk in the key of F. 38. Most lipstick contains fish scales. 39. Penicillin was first produced synthetically in a laboratory in 1946. 40. Perfume contains ethyl alcohol and 25% fragrant oils. Cologne is cheaper to produce and to purchase because the oil content in cologne is only 3%. Cologne was named for the German city in which it was first produced. The original formula combined alcohol, lemon spirits, orange bitters and mint oil. 41. The first personal computer, the Apple II, went on sale in 1977. 42. The first unattended, 24-hour self-service laundromat in the United States was opened by Nelson Puett in 1949 on North Loop in Austin, Texas

103 43. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. 44. The Brownie box camera, introduced by Eastman Kodak, sold for $1.00 in 1900. The camera's 6-exposure film sold for 15 cents. 45. The Butterfinger candy bar was first produced by Chicago's Curtiss Candy Co. in 1923. As an advertising ploy, candy bars were dropped from an airplane on cities in 40 states. 46. The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500's. 47. The electric chair was invented by Dr. Alphonse Rockwell and was first used on William Kemmler on August 6, 1890. 48. The first brand of Wrigley's chewing gum was called "Vassar", after the New England woman's college. Next were "Lotta" and "Sweet Sixteen Orange." 49. The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. in 1953. That early 'Vette sold for $3,250. 50. The first credit card, issued in 1950, was Diner's Club. Frank X. McNamara started the company with 200 card holders. 51. The first product to have a UPC bar code on its packaging was Wrigley's gum. 52. The first safety feature for an automobile was invented in 1908 by John O'Leary. He patented a large net, to be installed on the front fender, to scoop pedestrians out of the way before they could be run over. 53. The first seeing-eye dog was presented to a blind person on April 25, 1938. 54. The first suburban shopping mall was opened in 1922 by National Department Stores in Saint Louis. 55. The first toothbrush with bristles was developed in China in 1498. Bristles were taken from hogs at first, later from horses. The nylon bristles were developed in 1938 by DuPont. 56. The first toy product ever advertised on television was Mr. Potato Head®. It was introduced in 1952. 57. The first US consumer product sold in the Soviet Union was Pepsi-Cola. 58. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. 59. The Prudential Life Insurance Company in USA stopped using their slogan "Own A Piece Of The Rock" after Rock Hudson died of AIDS and many jokes where made about him and the slogan. 60. The revolving door was invented August 7, 1888, by Theophilus Van Kannel, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 61. The safety pin was patented in 1849 by Walter Hunt. He sold the patent rights for $400. 62. The sewing machine was patented on August 12, 1851, by Isaac Singer of Pittstown, New York. 63. The soldiers of World War I were the first people to use the modern flushing toilet. The inventor: Thomas Crapper invented the automatic shut-off mechanism used in the modern toilet. 64. "Flushable" toilets were in use in ancient Rome. 65. The United States minted a 1787 copper coin with the motto 'Mind Your Business.'

104 66. The word vaccine comes from the Latin word "vacca," which means cow. This name was chosen because the first vaccination was derived from cowpox which was given to a boy. 67. The world's first adhesive postage stamp went on sale in England in 1840. It was the Penny Black, portraying Queen Victoria. 68. The world's first singing commercial aired on the radio on Christmas Eve, 1926 for Wheaties cereal. The four male singers, eventually known as the Wheaties Quartet, sang the jingle. 69. The yo-yo was introduced in 1929 by Donald F. Duncan. The toy was based on a weapon used by 16th century Filipino hunters. 70. There are about 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar, while a cup of coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams. 71. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. 72. Townsend Speakman of Philadelphia mixed fruit flavor with soda water in 1807, creating the first flavored soda pop, he called it Nephite Julep. 73. Two in every three car buyers pays the sticker price without arguing. 74. VHS stands for Video Home System. 75. When Scott Paper Co. first started manufacturing toilet paper, they did not put their name on the product because of embarrassment. 76. Wrigley's promoted their new spearmint-flavored chewing gum in 1915 by mailing four sample sticks to each of the 1.5 million names listed in US telephone books.

Your product’s not doing too well? Despair not! Here are some dismal firstyear sales of famous products: 1. VW Beetle (U.S.)—sold 330 in the first year. 2. Liquid Paper—sold 1,200 bottles in the first year 3. Cuisinart—sold 200 in the first year. 4. Remington typewriter—sold 8 in the first year. 5. Scrabble—sold 532 in the first year. 6. Coca-Cola—sold 25 bottles in the first year. (For total of $50; supplies and advertising ran $70.)

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A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times its own weight each year. A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat. A capon is a castrated rooster. A chameleon can move its eyes in two different directions at the same time. A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.

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A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't. A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds. A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime. A father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more to protect his eggs, which he keeps on his feet, covered with a feathered flap. During this entire time, he doesn't eat a thing. Most father penguins lose about 25 pounds while they wait for their babies to hatch. Afterward, they feed the chicks a special liquid from their throats. When the mother penguins return to care for the young, the fathers go to sea to eat and rest. A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks. A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time. A Holstein cow's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots. A leech is a worm that feeds on blood. It will pierce its victim's skin, fill itself with three to four times its own body weight in blood and drop off. It will not feed again for weeks. Leeches were once used by doctors to drain "bad blood" from sick patients. A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length. A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices). A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel. A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872. A rat can last longer without water than a camel can. A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour. A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second. A zebra is white with black stripes. After mating, the male Surinam Toad affixes the female's eggs to her back, where her spongy flesh will swell and envelop them. When the froglets hatch, they leave behind holes in their mother's flesh that they will remain sheltered in until large enough to fend for themselves. All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their lives. All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930. An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride. An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph. An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

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Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also believed that cats were sacred animals. Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months. At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life", an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog. Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades. Bird eggs come in a wide variety of sizes. The largest egg from a living bird belongs to the ostrich. It is more than 2,000 times larger than the smallest bird egg, which is produced by the hummingbird. Ostrich eggs are about 7.1 inches long, 5.5 inches wide and typically weigh 2.7 pounds. Hummingbird eggs are half an inch long, a third of an inch wide and weigh half a gram, or less than a fifth of an ounce. Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red lobes; white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white lobes. Shell color is determined by the breed of hen and has no effect on its quality, nutrients or flavor. By feeding hens certain dyes, they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks. Camel milk does not curdle. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been struck by lightning. Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats. Catfish have 100,000 taste buds. Catnip is a herb that can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine. Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed and continue living. Chameleons can reel in food from a distance as far away as more than two and a half times their body lengths. Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away. Cojo, the first gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 ¼ pounds. Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750 calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet. Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares. Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air. Domesticated turkeys (farm raised) cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

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Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph. Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks. Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz. Every year, $1.5 billion is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on baby food. Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade. Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days. George Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favorite was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favorite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog. Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream. Hippos have killed more people in Africa than any other wild animal. Howler monkeys are the noisiest land animals. Their calls can be heard over 2 miles away. Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m. Hummingbirds are the smallest birds—so tiny, in fact, that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis. In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey. Infant beavers are called kittens. It takes 35 to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other types of fur coats are: beaver - 15; fox - 15 to 25; ermine - 150; chinchilla - 60 to 100. It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound. It takes forty minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg. Korea's poshintang – dog meat soup – is a popular item on summertime menus, despite outcry from other nations. The soup is believed to cure summer heat ailments, improve male virility, and improve women's complexions. Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump. Lassie was played by several male dogs, despite the female name, because male collies were thought to look better on camera. The main "actor" was named Pal. Lassie, the TV collie, first appeared in a 1930s short novel titled Lassie Come-Home written by Eric Mowbray Knight. The dog in the novel was based on Knight's real life collie, Toots. Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride, ranging from 5 to 30 individuals, is closely related. Lovebirds are small parakeets that live in pairs. Male and female lovebirds look alike, but most other male birds have brighter colors than the females. Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are types of penguins.

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Mockingbirds can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing. Molerats are the only eusocial vertebrates known to man. This means that these mammals live in colonies similar to those of ants and termites, with a single fertile queen giving birth to non-reproductive workers and soldiers. Molerats are also famous for their incredibly powerful jaws, the muscles of which constitute 25% of their body mass. Baby molerats are raised on a diet of their older sibling's fecal pellets, emitting a special cry when hungry to summon a worker. Moles are able to tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day. Of all known forms of animal life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today. On average, pigs live for about 15 years. Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes. Parrots, most famous of all talking birds, rarely acquire a vocabulary of more than twenty words. However, Tymhoney Greys and African Greys have been know to carry vocabularies in excess of 100 words. Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal. Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned. Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent. Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species. Rats can't throw up. Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer. Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that they can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves. Snakes are immune to their own poison. Some baby giraffes are more than six feet tall at birth. Swans are the only birds with penises. Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length. The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings. The first buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884. The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866. The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs. The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.

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The biggest members of the cat family are Siberian and Bengal tigers, which can reach over 600 pounds. The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue. The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court. The blue whale is the loudest animal on Earth. The call of the blue whale reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This extraordinarily loud whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles underwater. The second-loudest animal on Earth is the Howler Monkey. The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers. The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when 20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a children's diphtheria epidemic. The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs." The cat lover is an ailurophile, while a cat hater is an ailurophobe. The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses. The chameleon has several cell layers beneath its transparent skin. These layers are the source of the chameleon's color change. Some of the layers contain pigments, while others just reflect light to create new colors. Several factors contribute to the color change. A popular misconception is that chameleons change color to match their environment. This isn't true. Light, temperature, and emotional state commonly bring about a chameleon's change in color. The chameleon will most often change between green, brown and gray, which coincidently, often matches the background colors of their habitat. The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws. The Chinese, during the reign of Kublai Khan, used lions on hunting expeditions. They trained the big cats to pursue and drag down massive animals - from wild bulls to bears - and to stay with the kill until the hunter arrived. The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874. The English Romantic poet Lord Byron was so devastated upon the death of his beloved Newfoundland, whose name was Boatswain, that he had inscribed upon the dog's gravestone the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices." The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold night — so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm. The fastest bird is the Spine-tailed swift, clocked at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. The fastest -moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph. The first house rats recorded in America appeared in Boston in 1775.

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The giant squid (architeuthis dux) is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long. Each eye is a foot or more in diameter. The harmless Whale Shark holds the title of ‘largest fish’, with the record being a 59 footer captured in Thailand in 1919. The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or backward! The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk. The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years. The largest animal ever seen alive was a 113.5 foot, 170-ton female Blue Whale. The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil. The largest Great White Shark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000 pounds. It was found in a herring weir in New Brunswick in 1930. The largest pig on record was a Poland-China hog named Big Bill, who weighed 2,552 lbs. The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash. The most frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, northern cardinals and European starlings. The mouse is the most common mammal in the US. The name of the dog from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is Max. The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo. The only dog to ever appear in a Shakespearean play was Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire life-span. The penalty for killing a cat, 4,000 years ago in Egypt, was death. The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression. The pigmy shrew - a relative of the mole - is the smallest mammal in North America. It weighs 1/14 ounce - less than a dime. The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people. The poisonous copperhead snake smells like fresh cut cucumbers.

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The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History houses the world's largest shell collection, some 15 million specimens. A smaller museum in Sanibel, Florida owns a mere 2 million shells and claims to be the world’s only museum devoted solely to mollusks. The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog." The turbot fish lays approximately 14 million eggs during its lifetime. The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin. Turkeys originated in North and Central America, and evidence indicates that they have been around for over 10 million years. The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth. The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itself until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly. The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie. The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons. The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds. The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny. There are around 2,600 different species of frogs. They live on every continent except Antarctica. There are more than 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend more than 5.4 billion dollars on their pets each year. There is no single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really a black leopard. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown. Unlike most fish, they can swim both backwards and forwards. When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny. When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats. By being able to thrive even in slightly polluted water, oysters provide an invaluable ecological service; a single adult oyster can filter 50 gal. (189 liters) of water a day.

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When Jamestown's founder John Smith first sailed into the pristine Chesapeake Bay 400 years ago, he had to navigate around oyster reefs 20 ft. high and miles long, which were effectively filtering the entire estuary — the country's largest — every few days, according to Rowan Jacobsen, author of the recent book A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America. "If we can get oysters [back] to historic levels they can make a huge difference," he says, but his dream of a return to oyster's golden age — in the late 19 th century when 100 million lbs. (more than 45,000 metric tons) of oysters were harvested from the Chesapeake every year, versus today's 250,000 lbs. (113 metric ton) haul — is a long ways off.

Facts about Cuisine: Food, food origins, beverages, and recipes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey. A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime. Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer. Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993. An etiquette writer of the 1840's advised, "Ladies may wipe their lips on the tablecloth, but not blow their noses on it." 6. Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. 7. Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially. 8. Caffeine: there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk chocolate. 9. California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11 years old. 10. Capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk. 11. China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat 9,000 people at one time. 12. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love. 13. Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts. 14. During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes. 15. During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole

113 loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort. 16. Fortune cookies were invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodle maker. 17. Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the US. The next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham, and fried shrimp. 18. Goulash, a beef soup, originated in Hungary in the 9th century AD. 19. Haggis, the national dish of Scotland: take the heart, liver, lungs, and small intestine of a calf or sheep, boil them in the stomach of the animal, season with salt, pepper and onions, add suet and oatmeal. Enjoy! 20. Hostess Twinkies were invented in 1931 by James Dewar, manager of Continental Bakeries' Chicago factory. He envisioned the product as a way of using the company's thousands of shortcake pans which were otherwise employed only during the strawberry season. Originally called Little Shortcake Fingers, they were renamed Twinkie Fingers, and finally "Twinkies." 21. In 1860, 'Godey's Lady's Book' advised US women to cook tomatoes for at least 3 hours. 22. In 1926, when a Los Angeles restaurant owner with the all-American name of Bob Cobb was looking for a way to use up leftovers, he threw together some avocado, celery, tomato, chives, watercress, hard-boiled eggs, chicken, bacon, and Roquefort cheese, and named it after himself: Cobb salad. 23. In 1976, the first eight Jelly Belly® flavors were launched: Orange, Green Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Grape, and Licorice. 24. In 1990, Bill Carson, of Arrington, Tennessee, grew the largest watermelon at 262 pounds that is still on the record books according to the 1998 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. 25. In 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in the US. 26. Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is almost half of the total world's production. 27. In an authentic Chinese meal, the last course is soup because it allows the roast duck entree to "swim" toward digestion. 28. In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes. 29. Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the average human. 30. Laws forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday prompted William Garwood to invent the ice cream sundae in Evanston, IL, in 1875. 31. Mayonnaise is said to be the invention of the French chef of the Duke de Richelieu in 1756. While the Duke was defeating the British at Port Mahon, his chef was creating a victory feast that included a sauce made of cream and eggs. When the chef realized that there was no cream in the kitchen, he improvised, substituting olive oil for the cream. A new culinary masterpiece

114 was born, and the chef named it "Mahonnaise" in honour of the Duke's victory. 32. McDonald's "Big Mac" slogan, introduced in 1975, is: "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun." 33. McDonalds and Burger King sugar-coat their fries so they will turn goldenbrown. 34. Mushrooms have no chlorophyll so they don't need sunshine to grow and thrive. Some of the earliest commercial mushroom farms were set up in caves in France during the reign of King Louis XIV (1638-1715). 35. Nabisco's "Oreo's" are the world's best-selling brand of cookie at a rate of 6 billion sold each year. The first Oreo was sold in 1912. 36. Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French, and Italians. 37. Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays. 38. Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used in barbecues. These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak, pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the type of meat being cooked. 39. Potato chips are American's favorite snack food. They are devoured at a rate of 1.2 billion pounds a year. 40. Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by chef George Crum. They were a mocking response to a patron who complained that his French fries were too thick. 41. Refried beans aren't really what they seem. Although their name seems like a reasonable translation of Spanish frijoles refritos, the fact is that these beans aren't fried twice. In Spanish, refritos literally means "well-fried," not "refried." 42. Research shows that only 43% of homemade dinners served in the US include vegetables. 43. Rice is the staple food of more than one-half of the world's population. 44. Saffron, made from the dried stamens of cultivated crocus flowers, is the most expensive cooking spice. 45. Since Hindus don't eat beef, McDonald's outlets in India serve mutton burgers. 46. Sliced bread was introduced under the Wonder Bread label in 1930. 47. Swiss Steak, Chop Suey, Russian Dressing, and Hamburgers—all originated in the US. 48. Tequila is made from the root of the blue agave cactus. 49. The Agen plum, which would become the basis of the US prune industry, was first planted in California in 1856. 50. The bubbles in Guinness beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top as in other beers.

115 51. The California grape and wine industries were started by Count Agoston Haraszthy de Moksa, who planted Tokay, Zinfandel, and Shiras varieties from his native Hungary in Buena Vista in 1857. 52. The color of a chili is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is—the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. 53. The daughter of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name of the sweet he invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she went by the nickname Tootsie, and in her honour, her doting father named his chewy chocolate logs Tootsie Rolls. 54. The difference between apple juice and apple cider is that the juice is pasteurized and the cider is not. 55. The dye used to stamp the grade on meat is edible. It's made from grape skins. 56. The English word "soup" comes from the Middle Ages word "sop," which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The first archaeological evidence of soup being consumed dates back to 6000 B.C., with the main ingredient being Hippopotamus bones! 57. The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter. 58. The first ring donuts were produced in 1847 by a 15 year old baker's apprentice, Hanson Gregory, who knocked the soggy center out of a fried doughnut. 59. Truffles, or mushrooms that grow below the ground, are one of the world's most expensive foods. One variety, Tuber melanosporum, can cost between $800 and $1,500 a pound. Truffles are sniffed out by female pigs, which detect a compound that is in the saliva of male pigs as well. The same chemical is found in the sweat of human males. 60. The hamburger was invented in 1900 by Louis Lassen. He ground beef, broiled it, and served it between two pieces of toast. 61. The herring is the most widely eaten fish in the world. Nutritionally, its fuel value is equal to that of a beefsteak. 62. The hottest chili in the world is the habanero. 63. The ice cream soda was invented in 1874 by Robert Green. He was serving a mixture of syrup, sweet cream and carbonated water at a celebration in Philadelphia. He ran out of cream and substituted ice cream. 64. The largest item on any menu in the world is probably the roast camel, sometimes served at Bedouin wedding feasts. The camel is stuffed with a sheep's carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs. 65. The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, and it's still growing 66. The Pillsbury Bake-off has been held every year since 1948. 67. The pound cake got its name from the pound of butter it contained. 68. The sandwich is named for the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), for whom sandwiches were made so that he could stay at the gambling table without interruptions for meals.

116 69. The vintage date on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked, not the year of bottling. 70. The white part of an egg is the albumen. 71. The white potato originated in the Andes Mountains and was probably brought to Britain by Sir Francis Drake about 1586. 72. The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolatemaker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar. 73. The world's costliest coffee, at $130 a pound, is called Kopi Luwak. It is in the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop. 74. The world's deadliest mushroom is the Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap mushroom. The five different poisons in the mushroom cause diarrhoea and vomiting within 6 to 12 hours of ingestion. This is followed by damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system and – in the majority of cases – coma and death. 75. To determine the percentage of alcohol in a bottle of liquor, divide the proof by two. 76. Van Camp's Pork and Beans were a staple food for Union soldiers in the Civil War. 77. Vanilla is the extract of fermented and dried pods of several species of orchids. 78. Watermelon is grown in over 96 countries worldwide. Over 1,200 varieties of watermelon are grown worldwide. 79. Watermelon, considered one of man’s favorite fruits, is really a vegetable (Citrullus lanatus). Cousin to the cucumber and kin to the gourd, watermelons can range in size from 7 to 100 pounds. 80. When Catherine de Medici married Henry II of France (1533) she brought forks with her, as well as several master Florentine cooks. Foods never before seen in France were soon being served using utensils instead of fingers or daggers. She is said to have introduced spinach (which "à la Florentine" usually means) as well as aspics, sweetbreads, artichoke hearts, truffles, liver crépinettes, quenelles of poultry, macaroons, ice cream, and zabagliones. 81. When honey is swallowed, it enters the blood stream within a period of 20 minutes. 82. When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century, it was thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person's life. 83. When Swiss cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call them "eyes."

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Facts about Postage

Stamps

Finally, here are some fascinating facts about famous, rare, valuable and odd stamps… 1. In 1973, Bhutan issued a stamp that looked like a record. Put it on a record player and it would actually play the Bhutanese national anthem! 2. The United Kingdom is the only country that doesn't have its name on its stamps. (Usually they have the monarch's head.) 3. The Pacific island of Tonga once issued a stamp shaped like a banana. 4. The smallest-ever stamp - 9.5 x 8mm - was issued in 1863 by the Columbian state of Bolivar. 5. Australia has issued several stamps which look just like gems. Special technology was used to create the look of real opals on stamps issued in 1995 and a real diamond in 1996. 6. The first stamp to be issued, in England on 6 May 1840, was the Penny Black. It's called the Penny Black because it cost a penny, and it was black. The face on the stamp is Queen Victoria, who was Queen at that time. Just because a stamp is old doesn't necessarily make it valuable. The Penny Black is not rare - 68 million of them were printed - but if you had one in mint condition it could be worth $1000 or more. 7. In Australia's early days, stamps were issued by individual colonies. The first stamp issued in Australia came from New South Wales in 1850. The one penny stamp which showed the seal of the colony is worth around $5000 in mint condition. The Kangaroo and Map series, first issued in 1913, were the first real Australian stamps. A whole range of stamps bearing this design was issued, valued from half a penny to £2 (about $4 in today's money). A mint copy of the £2 Kangaroo and Map could be worth as much as $4000 today. 8. Before stamps were invented, the person who received the letter was charged by the number of pages, and also by the distance the letter had travelled. An Englishman called Rowland Hill came up with the idea of pre-paying for postage with 'postage stamps'. Today stamps just seem like common sense, but the Postmaster General at the time complained, 'Of all the wild schemes I have ever heard of, this is the most extraordinary.'! However, Hill's idea was adopted and other countries soon started to issue stamps. Here’s another sidelight: 9. Stamps started out as purely practical objects and it is not generally known that Australia was a pioneer in their development. In November, 1838, the Colonial Postmaster-General in Sydney introduced a system of pre-payment for letters which used a form of postage stamp. This was probably a world’s first. For, although an Englishman, Roland Hill, thought up the idea of the postage stamp, pre-paid postage in New South Wales pre-dated the famous British 'Penny Blacks' (the first adhesive stamps) by about two years. 10. About one billion (or 1000 million) stamps are produced in Australia every year and about 1.3 million Australians collect them. 11. Cats were used for a mail service in Liege, Belgium, in 1879. In all, 37 cats were employed to carry bundles of letters to villages within a 30km radius of the city

118 centre. The experiment was short-lived as the cats proved to be thoroughly undisciplined. 12. The first stamps from the Australian continent were issued from New South Wales on 1st January 1850 (although embossed letter sheets had been used by the colony since 1838). 13. It was not until January 1913 that the first Commonwealth of Australia stamps appeared…twelve years after the various Australian states were federated by the Commonwealth of Australia Act on 1 January 1901. 14. The first Commonwealth Country to issue a stamp specifically for postage on Christmas greetings cards was Australia in 1957. The first stamps issued specifically for postage on Christmas greeting cards appeared in Austria in December 1937. 15. In 1932, a gang of three men operating a racket in bogus sweepstake tickets forged quantities of the 2d George V red and 2d Sydney Harbour Bridge stamps, using the former to mail out circulars. An Adelaide philatelist detected the forgery and notified police, who arrested all three men and seized 60,000 forged stamps. 16. The Australian Commonwealth issued ‘postage due’ stamps in July 1902, eleven years before it issued ordinary stamps. Britain did not adopt postage due stamps until 20 April 1914. (The first in the British Commonwealth were issued in Victoria in 1890 and New South Wales in 1891). Since 1935, Canadian stamps have had the date of their production concealed in tiny numerals in the design. 17. The first Australian miniature sheet was issued on 29 October 1928. It featured four 3d stamps with a Kookaburra on a branch of a gum tree. The miniature sheet commemorated the Fourth Australian Philatelic Exhibition held in Melbourne. 18. The first airmail stationery, consisting of postcards and letter sheets, was produced in Paris for carriage by balloon in 1870. 19. In 1849, the French Government introduced a law making it an offence to wash or otherwise clean used French postage stamps. This was to combat the practice of using the same stamps over and over again. In one six-year period, almost 15,000 persons (including genuine stamp collectors) were charged under this law. 20. The world's rarest, and most valuable, stamp is the 1c British Guiana of 1856. It was acquired in 1873 by an English schoolboy who later sold it for 6/- to a fellow collector. The stamp is now valued at more than $1 million. 21. The numbering of houses for postal purposes began in Paris in 1463-4; the Pont Notre Dame district being the first so numbered. 22. Germany was the first country to adopt postcodes, introducing a two-digit system in 1942. Australia introduced postcodes on 1 July 1967. 23. The first person other than a head of state (living or dead) to appear on a stamp was Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait featured on the 10c stamp issued by the United States of America in July 1847. 24. The first person other than royalty to appear on a British stamp was William Shakespeare, in 1964. 25. Potato starch, wheat starch and acacia gum were the ingredients of the gum used on the back of the Penny Black. The Post Office called it cement and early stamps bore instructions printed on the sheet margins - 'In Wetting the Back be careful not to remove the Cement'. This created a panic that the gum was injurious to

119 health and led to a Select Committee on Postage Label Stamps being convened in 1852 to enquire into its composition. 26. The first self-adhesive stamps were issued by Sierra Leone on 10 February 1964. 27. The earliest adhesive stamps were issued imperforate and had to be torn apart or cut with scissors, although the printers, Perkins Bacon, actually had a small perforating machine in 1840 to perforate cheque book counterfoils. They regarded the perforation of sheets of stamps as impracticable owing to the closeness of the stamps and unevenness of the layout caused by paper shrinkage after printing. 28. The NSW Stamp Council issued Australia's first maximum card set of three for Christmas in 1978. 29. The first Australian stamp pack featured the 50th Anniversary of the First UK/Australian Flight. It was issued in November 1969. 30. China issued the largest stamps ever - 210 x 65 mm. They were issued in the early 1900s and used on express letters. 31. The earliest postal markings date back to about 3000 B.C. They were used by Egyptian court officials and read: 'In the name of the living king, speed!' 32. The first stamp collector was John Bourke, Receiver-General of Stamp Duties in Ireland. He formed a collection of fiscal stamps in an album in 1774.

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ANSWERS RAPID FIRE ROUND 1. (C) According to local lore, San Marino was founded, as a republic, in the fourth century AD, and while this has not been proved, it is certainly ancient. It is the last of the old Italian independent states, having remained unconquered when Garibaldi unified the rest. The nation today is a minuscule enclave completely surrounded by Italy, but its inhabitants retain a strong national pride. 2. (C) Russia, even without the other Soviet republics, is still by far the biggest country in the world—almost twice the size of Canada, its nearest competitor. China comes in third, closely followed by the United States, Brazil, and Australia, in that order. 3. (B) The prefix "kilo" usually means one thousand: a kilogram is exactly 1,000 grams. For technical reasons, however, computer memories are organized around numbers that are powers of two (numbers that they can be obtained by repeatedly multiplying two by itself). 1,024 is such a number (2 raised to the 10th power). The term "kilobyte" is merely a convenient approximation. Similarly, a megabyte is 1,048,576 (1024 times 1024) bytes, rather than exactly one million as the "mega" prefix would suggest. 4. (B) Although Florida is the former holder of this title, Hawaii overtook it a few years ago because of volcanic activity, which continually enlarges the southernmost of the Hawaiian Islands. Puerto Rico would take the crown if it were to become a state of the U.S. 5. (C) Canada was formed in 1867 as a confederation of the former British North American colonies, which split from the United States because of their loyalty to the British monarchy. Canada still considers the Queen of England its formal "head of state", although the queen has very little real influence in government. 6. (B) After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, he was shipped off to this tiny flyspeck in the Atlantic by his victorious enemies. He lived out the rest of his life there,

121 before dying in 1821 of uncertain causes. There is some speculation that he died of arsenic poisoning, though later research attributes this fact to the inordinate amounts of this toxic substance in the wallpaper, which was activated by the damp sea breezes that blew through the house. 7. (C) Not all animals are mobile: Sponges and a few other creatures stay rooted to one spot for their entire adult lives. Most animals are less intelligent than humans, but all known animals subsist on some form other of life— plants, animals, fungi, or microorganisms. 8. (A) The isolationist communist dictatorship of North Korea is still officially led by Kim Il-Sung, its founder, who died in 1994. A few years after his death, he was proclaimed the nation's "eternal president" by his son, Kim Jong-Il, who effectively rules the nation. The younger Kim is, not surprisingly, widely believed by international observers to be mentally ill. 9. (B) Latin is – with Italian – one of the official languages of Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, which comprises less than a square mile of territory in the middle of Rome and is ruled over by the Pope and his subordinates. Taiwan's official language is Mandarin Chinese. 10. (D) Scientists lump together the coelacanth with lungfish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals (including yourself and all other humans) into the class Sarcopterygii. This unlikely group exists because it is believed that all these diverse creatures are descended from a single species which lived hundreds of millions of years ago, while tuna, hagfish, and sharks come from different evolutionary lines. 11. (B)! If your latitude is 0°, you must be somewhere on the equator, the line separating the northern and southern hemispheres. If your longitude is 0°, you are standing on a line that connects the North and South Poles, and passes through Greenwich, England. The two lines meet in the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred kilometres south of Ghana and west of Gabon. 12. (C). Harpo's name was Arthur, Chico was Leonard, and Zeppo was Herbert. Zeppo retired from the team after they made the classic 1933 movie Duck Soup. 13. (A). It all depends on which side of the Atlantic you’re on! In Canada and the USA, the storage compartment in a car is known as the "trunk"; in other Englishspeaking countries it is called the "boot". 14. (A). The son of a noble Russian family, Dr. Alexander Alekhine was one of the most colourful characters in the history of chess. He became champion in 1927 by beating José Capablanca, the Cuban prodigy who had achieved the championship in 1921 despite never having formally studied chess openings or tactics. The Russian Mikhail Tal won the title in 1960 to become, at 23, the youngest chess champion in history. 15. The defeat of Varus and his three legions at the hands of the Germanic tribes was a stunning humiliation for the usually invincible Roman army. Varus took his own life after the battle, and Rome never again attempted to expand the empire east of the Rhine. 16. (D). Pons and Fleischman were the scientists who created a brief sensation by announcing the discovery of a process for achieving "cold fusion", a technology with the potential for solving many of the problems that plague our energy-hungry

122 modern world. Unfortunately, attempts to duplicate the effect failed, and their claims were rejected by most of the scientific community. 17. The tiny, impoverished South Pacific nation of Tuvalu garnered an incredible windfall from the sale of the rights to its Internet domain in April, 2000. The selling price of $50,000,000 U.S., spread over 12 years, will give Tuvalu's population of less than 11 thousand one of the highest per capita incomes on the planet. As for the other three choices: Liechtenstein's domain is ".li"; the Vatican City State's is ".va". There is no country by the name of Terra Verde. 18. (B). Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the brother of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. She eloped with the Trojan prince Paris around 1200 BC. Agamemnon and an alliance of Greek kings sailed to Troy, a walled city in Asia Minor also known as Ilium, and thus began the decade-long siege called the Trojan War, described in Homer’s Iliad. The famous "thousand ships" line is from Christopher Marlowe's play Faustus: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? 19. (C). In modern sailing vessels, the term fo'csle refers to the crew's quarters at the front of the vessel. It is an abbreviation of the word ‘forecastle’. 20. (A). The mistral blows down from the Central Plateau of France onto the northwest Mediterranean, usually during the winter months. Wind speeds up to 150 km/h (90 mph) have been recorded. 21. (D). Anne Hathaway was eight years older than Shakespeare, whom she married in 1582 when he was just 18. Although they had three children together, the couple spent most of their married life apart, she remaining at home in Stratford while her husband occupied himself with pursuing a theatrical career in London and becoming the greatest playwright in history. 22. (C). These tiny bones, called "ossicles", are the smallest in the human body. The hammer is in contact with the eardrum, and transmits its vibrations via the anvil to the stirrup, which passes them on to the inner ear. 23. This familiar symbol of the medical profession – a staff wrapped by a pair of entwined serpents – dates back to ancient times. It was once the symbol of Hermes, messenger of the gods. The staff represented oratory, while the entwined serpents stood for reconciliation. 24. Voltaire (1694-1778) was a brilliant writer, satirist and thinker. He was an enemy of tyrants, and the leading genius of the Enlightenment. Often in trouble with French authorities, he spent much of his life in exile. His best known work is Candide. 25. (A) Not only was The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished when Dickens died, but the author's notes did not say how the story was to be completed, or give the solution to its central mystery: who killed Edwin Drood? As for the other choices: The hero of King Solomon's Mines was Allan Quatermain; the author of The Monkey's Paw was W.W. Jacobs; and the real-life model for Sherlock Holmes was Dr. Joseph Bell. Incidentally, there is no flat number 221B on Baker Street, London—Holmes’ address as per the Sherlock Holmes books and stories. 26. The bones of the hand are in three groups: the carpus (wrist) with 8 bones, the metacarpus (palm) with 5, and the phalanges (fingers and thumb) with 14, for

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a total of 27 bones in each hand. The foot is similarly divided into tarsus (7), metatarsus (5) and phalanges (14), for a total of 26. 27. (B) The guest button-holed by the Mariner is impatient to get to the wedding. He replies, "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?" Transfixed by the stranger's hypnotic gaze, though, he finds himself unable to resist lending an ear to the rest of the poem's nearly 700 lines. 28. Antimony is element 51, which brackets it with arsenic and bismuth. Its chemical symbol is Sb. It should not be confused with antinomy (a contradiction between two individually reasonable conclusions; a paradox) or acrimony (bitter animosity) or even autotomy (voluntary shedding of a limb or tail by a lizard to elude a predator). (A). Fardels are bundles or burdens! To continue the passage: ...Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

30. Mare Imbrium (the ‘Sea of Rains’, or ‘Sea of Showers’) is the largest of the dark plains – misnamed seas by early observers but of course having no moisture at all - on the near side of the Moon. Its diameter is 1123 km (about 700 miles). 31. (D) These are four of the many types of ethnic drums that, like other folk instruments, are increasingly being used by musicians around the world. The atabal is of Basque origin; the bocu is Cuban; the darabuka is from North Africa and the Middle East; and the rebolo is Brazilian. 32. Telemann was a little senior to his three contemporaries, and he also outlived them. His dates are 1681-1767. 33. (A) Augustus died a month short of his 76th birthday. Had there been a year zero, the year of his death would have been 13 A.D. 34. (A) The killdeer, named in imitation of its call rather than for any risk it poses to deer, is the largest of the ringed plovers—a bird of the shoreline. Several species of plovers range throughout the U.S. and the West Indies, extending into British Columbia and northern South America. Incidentally, a heavy rock used as an anchor is called a "killick". 35. (D) A threnody is a song of lamentation, or mourning for the dead. It derives from the Greek word for "wailing". 36. (C) The trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is considered by many to have been the greatest musician in the first half-century of jazz. From childhood he had many nicknames, including some that were based on his unusually wide mouth. One of these, "satchel-mouth", was eventually contracted to "Satchmo", a nickname that, with Armstrong himself, became a part of jazz history. He is well remembered for his celebrated vocal rendition of the song Hello, Dolly!

124 37. (B) Till quite recently, shepherds in Lancashire would count their sheep using a traditional counting system, thought to be of Celtic origin, which used these words for the numbers from one to ten: yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik. 38. (B) It’s five! The five possible regular convex polyhedra, or "Platonic solids", are the tetrahedron (a pyramid with four triangular faces), the cube, the octahedron (eight triangular faces), the dodecahedron (12 pentagonal faces) and the icosahedron (20 triangular faces). 39. (C) The curious word "dudgeon" is listed in some dictionaries as being of unknown origin; others claim it is derived from an Anglo-French phrase, en digeon, meaning "with one's hand on the hilt of one's dagger". For some odd reason, dudgeon is virtually always high. High tea, anyone? 40. (B) The Loved One, which lampoons American funeral practices, was actually written by Auberon Waugh's father Evelyn (1903-1966) whose other works include Vile Bodies, Brideshead Revisited and The Sword of Honour. Auberon Waugh is also a novelist, as was Evelyn's brother Alec. The other three titles are all works of science (or ‘speculative’) fiction. 41. (D) Indricotherium (formerly known as Baluchitherium), inhabited central and western Asia during the Oligocene epoch, 35 million to 23 million years ago. The creature stood 5.5 m (about 18 feet) at the shoulder, and was three times as heavy the largest modern mammal, the African elephant. Although it was a direct ancestor of the rhinoceros, Indricotherium had no horns. It's also worth noting that even Indricotherium was puny compared to either the largest dinosaurs or the largest modern whales. 42. (C) If you selected Mach 900,000, you got it right! The speed of light in air is about 300 million metres per second. At sea level in moderate temperatures, sound travels at some 333 metres per second, about 900 thousand times slower than light. 43. (D When considering the long-term consequences of continually increasing energy consumption, Dyson foresaw that in the distant future, humanity would require energy in amounts that now seem almost incalculably vast. He proposed a correspondingly vast solution: a shell with a radius of one earth orbit, completely enclosing the sun, which would capture all the sun's energy for human use. 44. (B) The sackbut is the ancestor of the modern trombone, from which it differed only in detail. Professional musicians in the 15th century would entertain on the sackbut, bombard and shawm (both double-reed instruments), while amateurs preferred flutes and pipes. 45. (A). Dodgson's main mathematical interest was symbolic logic, a topic that complemented his knack for the kind of zany illogic for which the Alice books are rightfully famous. 46. (D). Conrad knew no English before the age of 21. A master craftsman of seafaring tales, Conrad was born Teodor Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski to Polish parents. An orphan by the age of 11, he went to sea at 17 from the time he came to England, after which he worked as a sailor for 20 years. His first published work appeared when he was in his thirties.

125 47. (C). A dromond is a large medieval ship used for trade or war. A xebec is a small Mediterranean vessel with both square and triangular sails. A proa is a Malayan sailing boat with a canoe-like outrigger. 48. (B) The three real words in the group were skat, a three-handed card game; skeg, the fin on a surfboard; and skep, a basket of wood or wicker. 49. (D) With a diameter 3.98 times that of the Earth, Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune (3.81 Earth diameters), and much smaller than either Jupiter (11.21) or Saturn (9.45). The Earth is the fifth largest planet, followed in order by Venus, Mars, Mercury and Pluto (which has now been declared a ‘dwarf’ planet). 50. (C) A destrier is a war-horse; a palfrey is a light horse for riding, especially by women. 51. (C) The longest duration normally used in modern music is the whole note, or semibreve, equivalent to 32 demisemiquavers. 52. (A). Harvey established the role of arteries and veins in the circulation of the blood, and the true relationship between the pulse and the action of the heart. The first microscope useful for biological study was invented by Anton von Leeuwenhoeck (1632-1723). Edward Jenner (1749-1823) came up with immunization through vaccination. The first experiments relating electric currents to nerve impulses were carried out by Luigi Galvani (1737-1798). 53. The rapids at Whitehorse were a formidable challenge to the "Stampeders" who headed north for the Klondike gold fields. Many died attempting to negotiate them. 54. (B) Champollion's greatest achievement was the use of the Rosetta Stone an ancient priestly inscription in three different writing systems - as the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. The work occupied most of his adult life. Curiously enough, the Rosetta Stone was found by Napoleon Bonaparte during an expedition to Egypt, and thus reached France. 55. (D) Stevenson's classic story, Treasure Island, tells of a young boy named Jim Hawkins who finds himself enmeshed in a web of piratical intrigue. A favourite with children ever since it was published, it is arguably Stevenson’s most widely-read work. 56. (B) Robert Browning's recording was played back in 1890, at a gathering in Venice on the anniversary of his death. Brahms, Sullivan and Tennyson all did make recordings for Edison, along with such other notables as nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale – the famed ‘Lady of the Lamp’ – and British Prime Minister William Gladstone. 57. (A). Although King Uther was Arthur's father, the boy was raised by his stepfather, King Lot of Orkney. It was not until Arthur reached adulthood, and drew the sword from the stone, as urged by Merlin the Magician, that he was made aware of his true parentage. 58. (C) In Polaroid photography, the processing of each photograph to produce a print is carried out by chemicals packaged with the film itself. The idea was suggested to Dr. Land by his daughter's impatience with the long processing times required for the family's vacation photos. The ‘Land’ camera was an instant hit with American vacationers but – for obvious reasons – the photo-processing

126 trade hated it like poison till it was found to be ideal for instant passport photographs! 59. (D) The best-known targets of cryptozoological research are the various (mythical?) forms of "ape-man", such as the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Sasquatch or ‘Bigfoot’…and the sea and the lake "monsters", such as Scotland's fabled Nessie—the Loch Ness monster. 60. (B) Hurling is played on a large field by two teams of 15 players wielding sticks called hurleys. The ball is passed from player to player either along the ground or through the air. Points are scored by shooting the ball through the opponent's goal either above the crossbar (one point) or below it (three points). 61. (A). The name Bucephalus means "bull-headed". Alexander bought his famed charger for the princely sum of 13 talents. 62. (A). All three animals are native to Africa, and all are "bovine" antelopes, closely related to oxen, buffalo and bison. The sitatunga is semi-aquatic. 63. (D). The other six sins on the list are superbia (pride), invidia (envy), ira (wrath), avaritia (covetousness), gula (gluttony) and luxuria (lust). 64. (C) Incitatus was the mad emperor Caligula's own horse, and lived nearly as well as his master: he ate from an ivory manger, and drank wine from a golden goblet. It is said that Winston Churchill, as a schoolboy, once wrote a one-line essay on Caligula that earned him pass marks. It read: ‘The less said of Caligula, the better’. 65. (C) The silkworm uses the silk it produces for constructing a cocoon, into which it then retreats for a month or so to emerge as a chrysalis, which in turn develops into the adult moth. Up to 900m (3000ft) of thread may be used in the construction of a single cocoon. Cocoons are put into boiling water to kill the pupae before the silk thread is unravelled. 66. (C) Much of the work at Olduvai was carried out by expeditions led by the American scientist Louis Leakey and his wife Mary, whose discoveries there in the early 1960s included Homo habilis, a tool-user dating back nearly two million years. They named their oldest find ‘Lucy’. 67. (B) Tolkein himself illustrated ‘The Hobbit’. The original illustrator of Alice in Wonderland was John Tenniel. Winnie the Pooh and one well-known edition of The Wind in the Willows were illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. 68. (C) The Great Fire of London broke out at a time when the city was just beginning to emerge from the worst of a plague outbreak that had at one time claimed 7,000 lives in a single day. The fire began on Pudding Lane, near - or possibly in - the house of the King's baker. The fire has been best chronicled in the diary left by Samuel Pepys (pronounced ‘Peeps’). 69. (B) Gall was the founder of phrenology, which was based on the belief that differences in ability and temperament were reflected by differences in development of particular areas of the brain; and that the detailed shape of the skull reveals the amount of development of each area. The theory was taken seriously for some time, but was later discredited. 70. (A) –273 degrees centigrade. This theoretical barrier has almost been reached in some research experiments in cryogenics, or low-temperature physics.

127 71. (D) Patagonia is the mostly-desert region at the southern tip of South America, including the islands of Tierra del Fuego. Combined with other discoveries, the platypus tooth suggests that Antarctica, Australia and South America belonged to a single land mass as recently as 40 million years ago. 72. (C) François Rabelais wrote the comic tale of Gargantua and Pantagruel in four volumes, which appeared between 1532 and 1552 (a fifth volume appeared after Rabelais' death, and may not be authentic). The title characters are giants, father and son. Their search for the meaning of life gave the author wide scope for satirical comment on contemporary society. 73. (D) Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) was an English expert on card and board games. His books on whist and other games established his name as an authority, and many subsequent books of rules, especially for card games, have long borne his name. 74. (C) Mexico produces more than 100 million ounces of silver annually, making it the highest producer by a considerable margin over its nearest rival, Peru. The U.S., Canada, Chile and Australia are other large producers. Despite its silvery (‘Argent’ means ‘silver’) name, Argentina is not currently among the top silver producing countries. 75. (C) A schwa is an indistinct vowel in an unstressed position, like the second e in scented. The word schwa itself is German, and derives from a Hebrew word meaning "emptiness". 76. (A) The Mogul (or Mughal) empire originated with the invasion of India from Afghanistan by Babur, Prince of Ferghana and son of Umar Shaikh, in 1526. The empire continued - not counting one early interruption - until 1857, when the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was deposed by the British. Architecturally at least, the high point of Mughal rule was the reign of Shah Jehan from 1628 to 1658, during which the Taj Mahal and other great buildings were constructed. 77. Brobdingnag is the kingdom where the wandering Gulliver finds that the inhabitants are as large in relation to him as those in Lilliput were small. The phrase "of Brobdingnagian size [or scale, or proportion]" means "much larger than usual". The Earth is very large in relation to us, but of only middling size for a planet, and so - unlike Jupiter perhaps - doesn't qualify as Brobdingnagian. 78. (B) The corpus callosum is the bundle of nerve fibres that connects the left and right halves of the brain. Because the brain hemispheres are to some extent specialized for different tasks, a person whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed may have unusual responses when only one hemisphere is receiving sensory input (if one eye is covered, for example). Intuitive and rational responses - from right and left halves respectively - are no longer coordinated and fail to achieve the balance necessary for successful decision making. 79. (B) Blair/Orwell (1903-1950) is best known for the novels 1984 and Animal Farm. Among his other works are Homage to Catalonia, which describes his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, the novel The Road to Wigan Pier, and several volumes of essays. 80. (B) The Trojan prince Paris (son of King Priam) who was responsible for eloping with Helen of Troy (see Q. 57) was aided in his marksmanship by the god

128 Apollo, to avenge Hector’s death at Achilles’ hands. Hector was a Trojan hero whom Achilles slew in order to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus. After the deed, he dragged the body behind his chariot to rub home his victory. But Hector lives on in the English language; quite unjustifiably, the word is a synonym for ‘bully’. 81. (B) An ell (3.75 feet) is longer than a yard (3 feet). The other measurements mentioned in the question are: hand (4 inches), span (9 inches), cubit (1.5 feet), pace (2.5 feet), fathom (2 yards), perch (5.5 yards), chain (22 yards) and furlong (220 yards). 82. (A) The performance of Purcell's short (one hour) opera took place at Josiah Priest's boarding school at Chelsea in 1689. Although many of the roles in the opera would have been performed by the "young gentlewomen" of the school, there are parts for male voice that would have required outside performers. Opera did not become popular in England until somewhat later - Dido and Aeneas was not performed in a theatre until 1700. 83. (B) Nabokov (1899-1977) was a native of Russia who became a U.S. citizen in 1945. His most famous novel is Lolita. 84. (D) The first president to use Camp David was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Until Eisenhower, the facility was called Shangri-La. 85. (C) Although the libretto for Thespis still exists, the score has been lost, except one song that was recycled for The Pirates of Penzance. HMS Pinafore is enacted to this day. The first successful work was Trial by Jury. Their final collaborations, Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke, were also comparative failures, and brought the often troubled partnership to an end. 86. (D) Consuetude means "a custom" (to which the Concise Oxford Dictionary adds, "especially one having legal force in Scotland"); desuetude means "a state of disuse"; and hebetude means "dullness". 87. (C) Ascending to the heavens after his death along with his plough and two oxen, Boötes was the primordial ‘ox-driver’ or ‘herdsman’. The constellation can be seen just beyond the handle end of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), which is why it is also known as the ‘bear-driver’. 88. (A) According to E. Cobham Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Doomstead was the horse of the Norns (Fates); Skinfaxi ("shining mane") was the steed that pulled the car of day; and Sleipnir was Odin’s eight-legged gray horse, which represented the wind that blows from eight directions over land and sea. 89. Bader lost his legs (one above and one below the knee) performing a ground-level flying stunt that ended in a crash when he was a young trainee pilot. Following a near-death episode, an arduous convalescence, and extensive training to use his newly-developed lightweight artificial legs, he was eventually allowed to rejoin the Royal Air Force. The remarkable story of his rehabilitation and subsequent flying achievements is told in the book Reach for the Sky, which was made into a film in 1956, with Kenneth More in the title role. The only other legless pilot of the war was one ‘Tin legs’ Hodgkinson, who had stuffed his metal legs with ping-pong balls. He was paranoid about being shot down over water and being pulled under by the weight of the metal legs; the ping-pong balls, he felt, would give him the

129 buoyancy to keep him afloat, but they burst at the low pressures they were exposed to when Hodgkinson flew too high. 90. Thomson was the first physicist to demonstrate that the atom, previously thought to be indivisible, had component particles. He was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. 91. (D) During this festival, dedicated to the harvest god Saturn, feasts were held, presents were exchanged, and all ordinary business was suspended. Schools and offices were closed, and executions and military operations were forbidden. Slaves were not only exempt from work, but also dined with and were even waited on by their masters. 92. (C) Galvayne's groove appears in a horse's upper corner incisors near the gum-line when the horse is about ten years old. Five years later it extends halfway down the tooth. When the horse is twenty, the groove run the whole length of the tooth, whereafter it gradually recedes over the following ten years. This is also the origin of the term ‘long in the tooth’. A prospective buyer can – by examining a horse’s teeth carefully – estimate a it’s age fairly accurately before bidding for it. This practice perhaps also gave birth to the term ‘to look a gift horse in the mouth’, meaning to openly (and often critically) assess the value of a gift—an act of extreme rudeness since a gift (which is, by its very nature, something acquired without any financial sacrifice) hardly warrants such a churlish assessment. 93. (B). Cotopaxi is a 19,347 feet high (nearly 5900m) dormant volcano, and is part of the Andes mountain range. It last erupted in 1942. 94. (D) The word is derived from a Latin phrase, Ex calce liberatus, literally meaning "freed from the stone". The name recalls the action of Merlin the wizard, of having magically placed the sword in a stone so that only its hilt protruded. Arthur, as the rightful king of England, was the only person who could withdraw the sword, and so claim the throne. 95. (C) Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928 was more or less accidental, and didn't immediately lead to its use as a drug. The method for extracting penicillin on a larger scale, which led to a revolution in the treatment of bacterial disease, was developed by Howard Florey and E.B. Chain from 1934 to 1944. The three scientists shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine. 96. (A) The islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands, were named by Captain James Cook in honour of John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792). He was the first lord of the admiralty (the highest post in the British Navy) from 1771 to 1782. The Encyclopædia Britannica remarks that "for corruption and incapacity, Sandwich's administration is unique in the history of the British navy". Captain Cook was killed by natives while visiting the Sandwich Islands during his third great voyage. 97. (B) In the years following the Black Death, the massive outbreak of plague in the mid-1300s, the English peasantry were burdened with higher taxes and restrictive legislation that led to a seething undercurrent of rebellion. In 1381, Tyler led an insurrection by thousands of peasants, who marched on London and eventually seized the tower. Tyler had two meetings with Richard II. In the first, he demanded the abolition of serfdom, to which Richard agreed. During the

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second, he was assassinated, and the rebellion he led was thereafter brutally suppressed. 98. (A) The time traveler is at first delighted by the peaceful Eloi, but learns that their childlike simplicity goes much too far: their lives are empty, and without initiative or accomplishment. The brutal subterranean Morlocks work to maintain the Eloi's way of life, but only in order to eat them. 99. (B) Joplin, who had achieved fame if not fortune as "the king of ragtime composers", had long dreamed of creating a large, serious work in the ragtime idiom. He was unable to secure adequate financing for the production of Treemonisha, however, and was forced to accompany the single performance of the work on the piano, for lack of funds to hire an orchestra. The opera was not revived until a performance in Atlanta in 1972. In 1975, it was successfully staged on Broadway. (B) Elephants! There are two species of rock hyrax and six of tree hyrax. The latter are also known as "dassies". (C) Draco created his infamous legal code in 621 BC. It was repealed less than 30 years later by Solon, who retained the death penalty only for murder. (D) Long attended, and sometimes hosted, parties called "ether frolics", during which the participants - generally medical students - took ether as an intoxicant. When Long noticed that although the drugged students had a tendency to bruise themselves on the walls and the furniture, they were literally feeling no pain, he began experimenting with the use of ether in surgery. (C) The Oboe. Neither English nor a horn, as is often said, the cor anglais is a double-reed woodwind like the oboe and bassoon, and falls between them in pitch. It has the same relationship to the oboe as the viola does to the violin. (D) The kina is the currency of Papua New Guinea; the kuna that of Croatia; the kwacha that of Malawi and Zambia; and the kyat that of Burma. (A) Scylla was a six-headed sea monster, while Charybdis was a whirlpool. The two were separated by a passage so narrow that Odysseus and his crew were endangered from both sides as they passed between them. Read about them in Homer’s Odyssey. (C) Porbeagles are medium-sized sharks, about three metres (10 feet) in length. They are found most frequently in warm water, but range well into the north Atlantic. Although their pointed snouts are well equipped with sharp teeth, they are not considered dangerous to humans. (B) Sancho was the servant or squire of Don Quixote in the great Spanish novel by Miguel Cervantes. Sancho is practical and level-headed—quite the opposite of his eccentric master, whose idiosyncrasies live on in the word ’quixotic’ in the English language. Incidentally, Don Quixote has been declared the most outstanding novel of the millennium. (A) Anaxagoras believed that there is an infinite number of elements, and that all things include the essence of all other things. This was in contrast to Anaximander, who had concluded a century earlier that there was only one indeterminate primordial substance from which all things were derived. Anaximander is believed to have been the first person to attempt mapping the entire world, which he thought of as a stubby cylinder.

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117.

118.

Anaximenes of Lampsacus (c.380-320 B.C.) was a writer and historian who accompanied Alexander the Great on his Persian campaigns. Anaximenes of Miletus, a contemporary of Anaximander, taught that all things ultimately consisted of air at various densities. Russians Mischa Elman (1891-1967) and Nathan Milstein (1904-1992), and Lithuanian Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) were all in the first rank of violin soloists. The name of Heifetz in particular was practically synonymous with virtuoso violin playing. (C). The fact that most colours can be created by adding red, green and blue light in various mixtures was first applied to colour photography. Computer monitors use the same principle in representing virtually any colour by mixing 256 levels (typically) of each of the three primaries. (B) The cordwainer derived his name from Cordova, in Spain, a source of fine shoe leather. The broderer was an embroiderer; the farrier shod horses; and the loriner (also lorimer) made bits for horses, and other metal pieces for their harness. (A) There are two species of road runner, both native to Central America. They are poor flyers, but - as the name suggests - good runners, attaining sprint speeds of up to 25 kph (15 mph). Although they are cuckoos, road runners do not lay eggs in other birds' nests as do their more infamous brethren. (C) All three words are legal terms for goods lost (or jettisoned) at sea. Goods found floating are flotsam, while those that sink are either lagan or jetsam depending on whether they have or have not been marked with a buoy to indicate ownership. (C) The study, carried out by the Gallup polling organization, found the piano to be the choice of 33% of music students, while 18% preferred the guitar and 6% chose the flute. The list of also-rans included the drums (5%), clarinet (5%), trumpet (4%), saxophone (4%), organ (3%) and violin (3%). (D) John Dalton (1766-1844), the English physicist regarded as the founder of modern atomic theory, was also the first person to scientifically describe color blindness. Red-green color blindness, from which Dalton himself suffered, is the commonest form. (C) Bach and Handel both suffered from blindness in later life, and both sought the help of a surgeon named John Taylor. Not only did he fail to help either composer, but Taylor - though he had managed to have himself appointed eye doctor to George II - was a notorious quack, described by Samuel Johnson as "an instance of how far impudence will carry ignorance." (D) The African aardvark, the Asian and African pangolin, the Australian echidna and numbat, and the South American anteaters (including the tamandua) provide a striking example of "evolutionary convergence"—the existence of a similar set of adaptations in unrelated creatures. (C) Clotho spins the thread of life; Lachesis casts lots as to its length; and Atropos cuts it at the indicated point, bringing death. Atropos is the eldest; her name (meaning "the unalterable" or "the inflexible") gives us the word atropine, the toxic substance in the plant deadly nightshade whose extract finds use in dilating the pupils of the eyes for purposes of clinical examination.

132 119. (D). Tamerlane (or Taimur i Leng—Timur the Lame) lived almost a thousand years after Attila, two centuries after Genghis Khan, and a century sooner than Babur, founder of the Mogul Empire. Tamerlane claimed descent from Genghis, probably falsely, but like him had a large appetite for conquest, leading brutal invasions of Russia, Turkey, Persia, Syria and India. He died, aged about 70, in the midst of planning an invasion of China. His empire swiftly collapsed. 120. (B) "Gitche Gumee" is an Ojibwa phrase meaning "great sacred waters". Longfellow's poem, written in 1854 and 1855, was based on legends of an Iroquois chieftain of the 15th century. According to the legends, Hiawatha united the Five Nations of the Iroquois, and taught them medicine, agriculture and navigation. After his mother’s death, Hiawatha was raised by Nokomis, his grandmother: By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. Dark behind it rose the forest, Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, Rose the firs with cones upon them; Bright before it beat the water, Beat the clear and sunny water, Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

FREE FOR ALL 1. The Milky Way has spiral arms radiating out from a central cluster of stars or "nucleus". Our solar system revolves around a rather insignificant yellow sun located on one of the spiral arms, quite far from the incandescent, densely packed galactic core. 2. (A). A shark's skeleton is made of cartilage, a material softer and more flexible than bone. The Whale Shark is the largest known fish, often reaching forty feet in length. 3. (B) Mercury is a liquid at room temperature. It is also known as quicksilver, and happens to be a deadly poison. 4. (D) This process, occurring in the Earth's crust, produces natural diamonds. The Japanese have found a way of making artificial diamonds; though they cost less than real ones, they are used for a variety of horological and decorative purpose. 5. (D) A large meteorite is thought to have collided with the earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, some 65 million years ago, striking the Earth with tremendous impact near Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The extinctions were probably caused by drastic climatic changes resulting from the vast clouds of dust that obscured the sun after the impact occurred. 6. (C) Anything that moves has kinetic energy. In a collision between objects, kinetic energy is transferred from one object to the other. 7. (B) Darwin was particularly intrigued by the many unusual plants, birds and animals he observed in the Galapagos Islands, such as the giant Galapagos turtles.

133 8. (D) Previously, androids existed only in science fiction; but now, Japanese engineers have built a robot that comes disturbingly near human appearance and behaviour. 9. (B) Sirius belongs to the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog). 10. (A) These animals, called monotremes, are true mammals, but have some reptile-like features. 11. A) Carbon dioxide freezes at a much lower temperature (-78 degrees Celsius) than water. As it warms up, it goes straight back from the solid to the gaseous state – a process called ‘sublimation’ –bypassing the liquid state altogether (which explains why ice-cream carts are cool and dry). 12. (B) Caves contain many mineral formations of interest to geologists, such as stalactites (mineral spires hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (which come up from the cave floor). An easy way of remembering which is which is to note that the word ‘stalactite’ has a ‘c’ which could be used to denote ‘ceiling’, while ‘stalagmite’ has a ‘g’ that could be used to represent ‘ground’. Read up more on how the two usually go together, i.e., stalactites and stalagmites are a pair! 13. (D) An Iguanodon's thumbs were sharp bony spikes, suitable for fighting off predators. 14. (C) In other words: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you exert a force on something, it will exert an equal force on you. 15. (B) Newton was uninterested in his school work until the fight, which the bully started by kicking Newton in the stomach as he walked to school. After winning, he decided to complete his revenge by proving himself a better student than the other boy…and was soon at the top of his class! 16. (C) The crack of a whip occurs when the end of the whip travels faster than the sound waves produced by its own motion (whiplash), creating a shock wave. 17. (A) Only very large stars become supernovas; others simply collapse, becoming very small and dense. One supernova was recorded by the Chinese in 1054; the exploding star was clearly visible in the daytime, and provided enough light to read by at night. 18. (D) Veins and arteries are connected by much smaller blood vessels called "capillaries", in which substances are exchanged between the blood and the body's tissues. 19. (C) Acetic acid, diluted with water, is the main component of ordinary vinegar. 20. (A) All seven continents existing today – Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, North America and South America – were at that time welded together into a single land mass known as Pangaea. 21. (D) Archaeopteryx may have been an intermediate form between modern birds and the small carnivorous dinosaurs from which they probably evolved. Besides teeth, Archaeopteryx had small claws on its wings, and solid bones (the bones of modern birds are hollow, to reduce weight). 22. (B) Sound travels five times faster in water than in air (at sea level), and will not travel through a vacuum at all. 23. (A) Brahe's nose was cut off in a duel, fought against a man who boasted of being a better mathematician. He was often seen carrying a box of glue, to reattach the artificial nose when it fell off.

134 24. (B) William Semple was a dentist. His original chewing gum was essentially weakly flavored rubber, and wasn't terribly popular. 25. (D) A day on Venus lasts about 243 Earth days, while a year lasts about 225 Earth days. This is because, of course, it’s slow rate of rotation about its axis. Venus' day is the longest of any planet in the solar system, while its year is the second shortest (behind Mercury's). 26. (C) In Darwin's theory of evolution, "fitness" is measured by number of offspring, since an organism with many offspring signifies it is flourishing in its evolutionary niche, and more offspring means that it will have a better chance of passing on its traits to future generations. By this reckoning, the western countries are regressing evolutionarily, while Asia, with higher population growth is evolutionarily progressive. 27. (B). The noble gases are highly inert - that is, they rarely react with other substances. 28. (A) The magnetic field flips at irregular intervals, once every few million years. Each reversal takes several thousand years to complete. 29. (C) During the Cambrian period, about 530 million years ago, many new creatures arose – a veritable evolutionary "explosion". 30. (D) Each radioactive substance has a characteristic half-life period during which half of its radioactivity will be expended. The science of radio-carbon dating uses this half-life as a measure. 31. (D) Vaseline was one of Chesebrough's own discoveries, patented in 1878. He was sure it had medical benefits, and tested it extensively on himself by cutting, scratching and burning his own hands and applying it to the wounds. 32. (A) One of Pedrick's more fanciful ideas was a scheme for supplying water to the world's deserts - by shooting icebergs at them from machines resembling giant peashooters. Needless to say, no such contraption ever saw the light of day. 33. (A) A drygulcher was an assassin, a person who shot at unsuspecting victims from behind cover, such as a dry gulch, which was easy to hide in and which afforded ample opportunity to track the intended target. Another word meaning the same thing is ‘bushwhacker, a ‘hitman’ who fired from behind a bush or some such form of natural vegetative outcropping. Today, of course, all these words are known to be synonymous with ‘sniper’—a word derived from modern warfare. At the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Nelson was killed by a single shot fired by a sniper from a nearby enemy (French) vessel, who was perched high in the rigging of his ship—extraordinary marksmanship indeed. 34. Colt’s revolver overturned the concept of individual physical superiority by enabling any man to kill another man at the press of the trigger. Perhaps to stress the equality of all men before a bullet speeding at the heart, many were the euphemisms applied to this deadly device, including’ The Peacemaker, Judge Colt, and The Equaliser. Yet it cannot be denied that it was also a source of protection, and there was no longer any excuse to move about unarmed in hostile terrain. Incidentally, the Colt handgun – in a series of avatars – is still very much alive and flourishing in America, the land of its birth, and innumerable variants arose in every part of the world that spawned yet more versions.

135 35. The glimpse of the Christ Child was a rare privilege afforded to the Magi who had devotedly followed the fabled Star of Bethlehem. To these ‘wise men from the East’, it was an event that foreshadowed the deliverance of Man from sin. Today, the word ‘epiphany’ is applied to anything that serves as an eyeopener that opens new vistas of thought and expression. A word not to be used lightly, it signifies a turning point in one’s spiritual evolution and the genesis of new values based on sudden insights. 36. (D) This Latin term for not being in full possession of one’s mental faculties, or a temporary suspension of the normal rules of orderly living, is thought to originate in pagan times when the heavy consumption of intoxicants led to the temporary suspension of ethical and moral codes, which occasioned what would normally be regarded as wild and irresponsible conduct—hardly surprising when the mind was not composed in a state of equanimity. 37. (B) Their sprit of independence, warlike qualities and brevity of speech didn’t exactly endear the men of Laconia to peoples of other regions, but today, brevity is regarded as the soul of wit. 38. Their warlike qualities and fiercely independent spirit often led the Spartans to clash with hostile neighbours. Their truculence probably led to the historic engagement at the Pass of Thermopylae, where a thousand Spartans held an army of thirty thousand Persians, preferring to die rather yield. Simonides wrote an epitaph for the Spartans who perished at Thermopylae that was quoted by Herodotus in his Histories: “Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by: Carrying out their orders, here we lie”. 39. Today, the word ‘maverick’ is used to describe one who flies in the face of convention or established practice—a person who swims against the tide of popular opinion, one who defies the norms of society, or rebels against accepted norms. 40. (C) Shuttling between deep despair and towering optimism, Locksley Hall is a towering, soul stirring poem soaring to the very outer limits of poesy, imagination and inspired construction. It contains some of the most incredible prophecies ever experienced in world literature…all of which have come true.

THE ADVENTURER’S QUIZ 1. (C). A keel reduces side-slip and makes the boat easier to steer. Small sailboats often have a centerboard instead, which can be retracted so the boat can sail in shallow water. 2. (C). A theodolite is an instrument used by surveyors. The nocturnal was used in the Renaissance to tell the time at night from the North Star, while the astrolabe and sextant helped determine latitude by measuring the altitude of heavenly bodies.

136 3. (D). Coracles (or “currachs”) are rowing boats made of wood or wicker with a waterproof covering. The knorr was a Norse voyaging ship, while canoes (usually made from Birch bark) were used by North American natives. A galley was a Greek or Roman vessel, usually rowed by slaves or criminals—triremes, quadremes or even quinqueremes…” …quinquereme of Ninevah from golden Ophir…( John Masefield). 4. (D). Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships and a crew of over 200 men. He was killed in the South Pacific, but by then had passed the point he had reached from the west on a previous voyage. Only one ship and 18 men returned. 5. (B). Jansz, in his ship Duyfken, or "Little Dove", landed in the Gulf of Carpentaria on the northern coast of Australia in 1605. A Spanish expedition also sighted the northern coast a few months later. 6. (B). Norse sagas record the discovery of Vinland, and its settlement by Leif Eriksson in the 990s. Later settlers named the site L'Anse aux Meadows, which means Jellyfish Creek. 7. (A). Luckily for the settlers, they came at the beginning of the “Little Climatic Optimum”, so until about 1200 the coast was ice-free, pastures were rich, and animal life was plentiful. The colony eventually failed after the weather turned colder again. 8. (D). Kon-Tiki was a balsa-and-rope raft, constructed by traditional methods long used on the coast of Peru. A small open cabin of bamboo and banana leaves was built at the stern, and a square sail mounted in the middle. It took ninety-seven days to reach a Polynesian island. 9. (A). Marco Polo traveled in Asia from 1271 to 1295, and for 17 years was a personal emissary of the Khan. He told stories of his travels to friends, but wrote nothing down. In 1298 Venice and Genoa fought, and Marco was captured and put in prison in Genoa, where he dictated his adventures to a fellow-prisoner, a writer named Rustichello of Pisa. 10. (B). From 1405 to 1433, the great Chinese admiral Cheng Ho explored the Indian ocean, bringing back tribute and exotic treasures to the Chinese court. He is even said to have brought back a giraffe from Africa. Cheng Ho's 'treasure ships' were Chinese junks, five times the size of Portuguese caravels. 11. (D). Philosophers once thought that the world was encircled by five zones. Europeans lived in the North Temperate Zone, between the Northern Frigid Zone and the Torrid Zone. Many people believed that ships would come to a fiery end if they ventured into the Torrid Zone. 12. (A). King John of Portugal thought the name ‘Cabo Tormentoso’ or "Cape of Storms" would not encourage exploration, so changed it to "Cape of Good Hope" (Cabo da Boa Esperança). Ironically, Diaz was drowned in a storm there on a later expedition. 13. (D). Da Gama's mission was to establish good relations with local rulers in Western Africa and India. Such worthless trinkets as bells, bracelets and red caps were scorned by the wealthy nobles, who were used to trading in rich cloth, spices and pearls.

137 14. (B). Cabot said the fish were so numerous they could be caught by simply lowering baskets into the water. English, Breton, Basque and Portuguese fishing boats flocked to the area around Newfoundland known as the Grand Banks. In fact, much of the exploration of this area was done by fishermen. 15. (C). An Indian legend spoke of a fountain with waters of marvelous curative powers. Ponce de León reached land on Easter Sunday and so named it Florida (in Spanish, "Pascua Florida" means Easter). Unfortunately, he never found the fountain of youth. 16. (A). The Hurons gave Cartier a grand reception when he arrived at their stockaded village of Hochelaga. He was entertained by the chief, Donnaconna, who Cartier referred to as "the Seigneur of Canada". Cartier soon repaid the Hurons' hospitality by kidnapping Donnaconna. 17. (A). Florence was a Hungarian refugee up for sale at a slave market in what is now Bulgaria. She contributed greatly to the success of Baker’s expeditions in Africa, keeping porters from rebelling and securing help from traders. 18. (D). Balboa had been part of a merchant's expedition from Spain that became stranded in Hispaniola with unseaworthy ships. He tried his hand at farming for several years, but apparently did not do well at it. He went on to lead the first Spanish expedition to the Pacific Ocean. 19. (B). The British Resident in Tibet had ordered David-Neel out of the country, but instead she disguised herself and walked more than two thousand miles to get to Lhasa. Not only did David-Neel gain entry to Lhasa, but she became the only western woman to become an honourary Buddhist lama. 20. (C). In 1604, Samuel de Champlain explored the Bay of Fundy. The Sieur de Monts, who sailed with him, founded the colony of Port Royal there, the first French settlement in North America. The eastern end of the bay has tides of over 50 feet. 21. (D). In those latitudes, where the only land is the tip of South America, the west winds blow unchecked, and are so strong that they produce huge waves. These steady winds help sailors make a fast if uncomfortable trip from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia. 22. (D). If you draw a great circle around the earth from pole to pole, you have drawn a meridian line. Why are they useful? Longitude is one of the two quantities that tell sailors their position on the surface of the earth. (The other is latitude.) In the early days of sailing, longitude could only be estimated. Modern instruments help us to measure one's exact longitude without calculation. 23. (A). The Arctic Ocean is about five million square miles in area. The next smallest is the Indian Ocean at about 28 million square miles. There is no Antarctic Ocean. 24. (B). Since 1744, the British navy had offered a large reward for opening up the Northwest Passage. Despite Franklin's experience in Arctic exploration, his whole party perished. Franklin's widow financed expeditions to find her husband, but they only found a cairn with a message giving news of his death. 25. (C). Nansen's ship, Fram, was designed to lift up as the ice froze around it so it would not be crushed. Others ridiculed the idea, but in fact it worked very well.

138 Though Nansen did not actually reach the Pole, he counted the expedition a success because of the scientific data he was able to collect. 26. (A). Barents discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen and gave his name to the Barents Sea. In August, Barents' ship froze into the ice, so they made a hut of driftwood and spent a miserable winter. In April, they played golf "thereby to stretch our joints". 27. (C). Darwin greatly angered Fitzroy, captain of the Beagle, with his arguments against slavery, and was nearly kicked off the ship. As for the specimens, they sent Darwin into "transports of pleasure" such as he had never known! 28. (B). Like many naturalists of his day, Jefferson had trouble with the notion that a whole species could become extinct. Of course, no mammoths were found. Lewis and Clarke traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific coast and back again—a round trip of over 7000 miles. 29. (B). The poem contrasts the elegant goods carried by quinquiremes and Spanish galleons with the "road-rails, pig-lead, firewood, iron-ware and cheap tin trays" carried by a "dirty British coaster". Masefield, who in his youth served before the mast at sea, went on to become Poet Laureate of England. 30. (C). The first bathyscaphe was created in 1953, when Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard hung a round diving chamber called a bathysphere from a submersible balloon. More people have gone to the moon than have reached a depth of 10,000 feet, and the ocean depths are still largely unexplored. ALVIN II at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, is currently the world’s most modern bathyscape, capable of submerging to a depth of two and a half miles below the surface, where hull pressures exceed 2 tons per square inch! 31. (B). Sports coaches have long believed that playing football is good for cricketers because it strengthens their legs, abdominal muscles and backs and tends to make them fitter and more resistant to injuries. Dennis Compton actually excelled in both these sports…and took it to its logical conclusion by representing England in both—a feat yet to be emulated by anyone except Chuni Goswami, who did the same for India. 32. (D). A typically low-key tearjerker from Hilton, Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the story about a self-effacing, mediocre widower of a schoolmaster who sticks with his old school even though it’s apparent that he lacks the drive and accomplishments to become Headmaster. But his years of selfless service have put him on the slow and gentle road to the schoolmaster’s equivalent of canonization as he makes a spirited comeback to steer Brookfield through the most precarious period in its long history. Robert Donat starred in the title role in the first (1939) movie version, followed three decades later by no less a thespian than Peter O’Toole. For James Hilton fans, this is book – published in 1934 – is definitely his magnum opus. 33. (C). Only in recent times have practicing physicians of some eminence in the US begun writing books about their paranormal experiences, detailing their experiments in this nascent field. Dr. Moody’s book Life after Life was one of the earliest ventures into this hitherto (for ‘scientific’ medical men) taboo genre. Dr. Brian Weiss’s book Many Lives, Many Masters was followed by three more on the theme. This is not to forget prominent motivational writer Dr. Wayne

139 Dyer’s several books that explore the shadowy no-man’s land of extra-normal phenomena, as does Dr. Melvin Morse’s absorbing Where God Lives. 34. (C) His duties included superintending of boats and ships engaged in trade activities and collecting taxes from ships sailing in the sea and moving along the rivers. The text further mentions that Himsrikah (pirate ships), which were to be pursued and destroyed whenever they were found. The same applied to the vessels of enemy countries when they were sighted in territorial waters. 35. (D) With the cabin towards the prow, these types of boats were used for long voyages and were equally suitable for naval warfare. 36. (C) The Lakshadweep Islands. 37. (C) Some scholars consider the Navigatio as proof of the earliest recorded voyage to America—400 years before Leif Ericsson and almost 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus. Their travels probably took the saint and his crew to Iceland, Greenland, and even to the American mainland, though they had no idea where they had gone. When St. Brendan returned to Ireland seven years later, he had many fascinating stories to tell, including encountering “mountains in the sea spouting fire,” floating crystal palaces, monsters with cat-like heads and horns growing from their mouths, and “little furry men.” Scholars see in this account the earliest descriptions of Iceland's volcanoes, icebergs, walruses, and even Eskimos. 38. (B) By being driven around the Cape, he accidentally found the long-sought-after sea route to the orient. His discovery revived Portugal’s colonial ambitions and led to a race between European countries eager to exploit the rich (but weak) countries in the east, including India. 39. (A) Titus Oats walked away without giving the slightest hint that he did not intend to return. As Scott recorded in his diary, it was the unselfish act of an “English gentleman, and a hero.” 40. (B) As he is rowing his canoe upstream, an Indian – who had concealed himself in his blankets and other gear in the stern of the canoe – stealthily creeps up on his unprotected back to stab him. But sensing the intruder, Bumpo whirls around, snatches up his loaded rifle and shoots the would-be assassin. The dying man whispers, “You mighty fighter…call you Hawkeye…Hawkeye…”

THE RANDOM QUIZ 1. (A). A lively song often accompanied by street dancing, popular during the French Revolution. 2. (A). A sea urchin. 3. (C) A traditional form of dance, popular in rural India. 4. (B). A bulletproof screen.

140 5. (C). A melodrama 6. (C). An elephant driver. 7. (B). A short sleeveless garment for women. 8. (C). Goods thrown into the sea with a buoy attached so that they may be found again; flotsam so marked. 9. (A). A crowning moulding in classic architecture. 10. (B). A heavily armed infantry soldier of ancient Greece. 11. (C). A person who enjoys reliving past memories. 12. (C). Property held as collateral against a debt. 13. (C). To flirt by winking the eye. 14. (B). A small thesis or proposition. 15. (A). A shiny red apple. 16. (C). To make fun of people's accents and mannerisms 17. (C). American Indian smoking substance made from tree bark. 18. (C). A book cover made of linen. 19. (C). A face-veil worn by women of Moslem countries. 20. (B). In logging, a short pole used to direct the way a tree will fall. …………………………………………………………………………………..

THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ – PART - I 1. Mikhail Gorbachev. 2. Chelonia or Testudines Turtles (not Tortoises or Terrapins). 3. William Somerset Maugham. 4. C minor. 5. Second Vatican Council or Vatican II. 6. Jefferson Davis. 7. Edvard Munch. 8. Alfred Werner. 9. Arnor.

141 10. The Tet Offensive. 11. Edward Lee Thorndike. 12. Kingdom of Morocco. 13. Henri Matisse. 14. Al Capone. 15. Gravity. 16. Maxim Gorky, a.k.a. Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov. 17. Alfred Hitchcock. 18. 2001: A Space Odyssey. 19. The awesome .44 magnum revolver from Smith & Wesson. 20. The Alamo. 21. Spartacus. 22. A. J. Cronin. 23. Gone With the Wind; Margaret Mitchell. 24. The War of the Worlds; Herbert George Wells. 25. Wilbur Smith. 26. (a) Ben Hur (b) Lew Wallace (c) Charlton Heston. 27. Management science. 28. Harper Lee. 29. P.G. Wodehouse. 30. Love Story; Ryan O’Neil and Ali McGraw. 31. The Gilgamesh Epic is the most notable literary product of Babylonia as yet discovered in the mounds of Mesopotamia. It recounts the exploits and adventures of a favorite hero, and in its final form covers twelve tablets, each tablet consisting of six columns (three on the obverse and three on the reverse) of about 50 lines for each column, or a total of about 3600 lines. Of this total, however, barely more than onehalf has been found among the remains of the great collection of cuneiform tablets gathered by King Ashurbanapal (668–626 B.C.) in his palace at Nineveh, and discovered by Layard in 1854 in the course of his excavations of the mound Kouyunjik (opposite Mosul). The fragments of the epic painfully gathered—chiefly by George Smith—from the circa 30,000 tablets and bits of tablets brought to the

142 British Museum—were published in model form by Professor Paul Haupt; and that edition still remains the primary source for our study of the Epic. A definite indication that the Gilgamesh Epic reverts to a period earlier than Hammurabi (or Hammurawi) i.e., beyond 2000 B. C., was furnished by the publication of a text clearly belonging to the first Babylonian dynasty (of which Hammurabi was the sixth member); which text Zimmern recognized as a part of the tale of Atra-ḫasis, one of the names given to the survivor of the deluge, recounted on the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic. Dr. Bruno Meissner in 1902 published a tablet, dating, as the writing and the internal evidence showed, from the Hammurabi period, which undoubtedly is a portion of what by way of distinction we may call an old Babylonian version. The tablet consists of four columns (two on the obverse and two on the reverse) and deals with the hero’s wanderings in search of a cure from a disease with which he has been smitten after the death of his companion Enkidu. The hero fears that the disease will be fatal and longs to escape death. It corresponds to a portion of Tablet X of the Assyrian version. Its chief value, apart from its furnishing a proof for the existence of the Epic as early as 2000 B. C., lies in the remarkable address of the maiden Sabitum, dwelling at the seaside, to whom Gilgamesh comes in the course of his wanderings. From the Assyrian version we know that the hero tells the maiden of his grief for his lost companion, and of his longing to escape the dire fate of Enkidu. In the old Babylonian fragment the answer of Sabitum is given in full, and the sad note that it strikes, showing how hopeless it is for man to try to escape death which is in store for all mankind, is as remarkable as is the philosophy of “eat, drink and be merry” which Sabitum imparts. The address indicates how early the tendency arose to attach to ancient tales the current religious teachings. We now have further evidence both of the extreme antiquity of the literary form of the Gilgamesh Epic and also of the disposition to make the Epic the medium of illustrating aspects of life and the destiny of mankind. The discovery by Dr. Arno Poebel of a Sumerian form of the tale of the descent of Ishtar to the lower world and her release—apparently a nature myth to illustrate the change of season from summer

143 to winter and back again to spring—enables us to pass beyond the Akkadian (or Semitic) form of tales current in the Euphrates Valley to the Sumerian form. 32. Thomas Hardy; Far From the Madding Crowd. 33. It emphasis the value of exploration, optimism and adaptability as opposed to inertia, conventional behaviour and boldness. It was written by Spencer Johnson. 34. H.H. Munro. 35. 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. The title is significant inasmuch as the story concerns a totalitarian society where the State destroys books because they may put revolutionary ideas into men’s heads. Ray Bradbury wrote this book. 36. Roald Dahl; Johnny Depp. 37. Katie Price. 38. W. Somerset Maugham created Ashenden, while Ian Fleming created James Bond. 39. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather; Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. 40. Thomas Harris; Dr. Hannibal Lector; The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. 41. Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes; Hercule and Achille Poirot. 42. John Steinbeck. 43. Wilfred of Ivanhoe; Rebecca and Lady Rowena; Sir Walter Scott. 44. Shylock could have a pound of flesh from Antonio’s haunches…but there was no mention of any blood. Since it was impossible to carve out a pound of flesh without taking even a drop of blood along with it, Shylock had to admit defeat. 45. Little John. 46. The role of espionage in Britain’s struggle to contain Russian influence in Afghanistan. The book’s name is Kim, after the little hero of the book. His real name – as he discovers later – is Kimball O’Hara, the son of an army officer. 47. Chinua Achebe; Things Fall Apart. 48. Umslopogaas, holder of the iron Chieftainess, the axe known as the Groan-maker. Wilbur Smith’s character is called Huy Ben-Amon, and his axe is known as the Vulture Axe (because of the vulture motif engraved on it)…in The Sunbird.

144 49. James Herriot, All things bright and beautiful/ All creatures great and small/ All things wise and wonderful/ The Lord God made them all. 50. Gerald Durrell; Laurence Durrell.

THE CONNOISSEUR’S QUIZ – PART II 1. Carbon. (a) Andrew Adam Benson (b) RubisCO or ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase or RuBP carboxylase. 2. (a) Incom T-65 X-Wing (b) Koensayr BTL-S3 Y-Wing (c ) Alliance RZ-1 AWing. 3. (a) Yasser Arafat (b) Menachem Begin (c) Levi Eshkol. 4. (a) A Life for the Czar (b) Les Huguenots (c) Tosca. 5. (a) José Saramago (b) Gabriela Mistral, aka Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga. 6. (a) Law of conservation of angular momentum (b) Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector. 7. (a) Armory Show or International Exhibition of Modern Art (b) Op Art (c) Whitney Museum of American Art. 8. (a) Louis XIV (b) Edict of Fontainebleau (c) Fronde. 9. (a) Isaac (b) Jacob (c ) Levi. 10. (a) Michael Dell (b) Dave Thomas (c) Bernie Ebbers (now in prison). 11. (a) Behavioural isolation (b) Mechanical isolation (c ) Reduced hybrid fertility or hybrid infertility / hybrid sterility. 12. (a) Dante Alighieri (b) Beatrice Portinari (c) White Guelfs. 13. (a) Los desaparecidos, the ‘disappeared ones’.(b) The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) (c ) Isabel Peron. 14. (a) Suspension bridges (b) Akashi-Kaikyo bridge (c) Tacoma-Narrows Bridge. 15. (a) 80486 (b) 68000 or 68K (c) Alpha AXP. 16. (a) Mary Queen of Scots (b) Francis II (c ) Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. 17. (a) Harold Bloom (b) The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. 18. (a) Cross elasticity of demand (b) Income elasticity of demand (c) Elasticity of substitution.

145 19.

(a) The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill (b) Sir Barnes Wallis (c) Wing

Commander Guy Gibson. 20. (a) Leslie Charteris (b) A pair of ivory-handled throwing knives named Anna and Maria (c ) A Hirondel (d) Simon Templar, also known as The Saint, as immortalized in his signature—a haloed matchstick figure trademark left at the scene of every crime he solved (e) Hoppy Uniatz. 21. (a) Fritjof Capra (b) Quantum Mechanics (c) The Tao of Physics. 22. (a) Edgar Rice Burroughs (b) Kala, the she-ape (c) Tarzan; Lord Greystoke. 23.

(a) 1748; Johann Joachim Winckelmann (b) Pompeii and Herculaneum (c)

Stromboli. 24. (a) The Schmeisser (Maschinenpistole 40) (b) Possibly because the name Schmeisser (after the supplier of the magazines, Hugo Schmeisser) was engraved on the magazine (c) The U.S.-made Thompson submachine-gun chambered for .45 calibre ammunition (aka the ‘Tommy Gun’) with its distinctive round drum magazine, it was a hot favourite with gangsters like ‘Scarface’ Al Capone and ‘Bugs’ Moran; the British-made Sten machine-carbine. 25. (a) Cornelius S. Ryan (b) Darryl F. Zanuck (c) Sword, Juno, Omaha, Gold (d) ‘The long sobs of the violins of autumn wound my heart with a monotonous languor’ (e) ‘Jack has a long moustache’. 26. (a) The fabled Giant Squid, the Kraken. (b) Architeuthis dux (c) Ammonia. 27. (a) Superman (b) Schuster and Siegel (c) In 1938 Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold all rights to the comic-strip character Superman to their publishers for $130. (d) Jonathan and Martha Kent (e) Jor-el and Lara (f) Krypton. 28. (a) The Old Man and the Sea (b) The Pilar (c) Gregorio Fuentes (d) Ernest Hemingway; he committed suicide in July 2, 1961. 29. Not surprisingly, it’s known as the ‘Fainting Goat’. 30. Dame Margot Fonteyn. The perfect foil for the genius of Rudolph Nureyev, Fonteyn went to achieve equal if not greater standing as the all-time great female exponent of this operatic dance form. Her unforgettable performance in Swan Lake still remains the benchmark for those who follow in her footsteps.

146 30. Reinhold Messner. After conquering Europe’s most difficult peaks including the Matterhorn, Eigerwand and Gasherbrum, he declared his intention of climbing Everest without oxygen—and was promptly dismissed as mad. Against medical advice that the attempt would be fatal, he did the impossible along with his climbing companion Peter Habeler. He was the first climber to prove that Mount Everest could be climbed without oxygen, performing this ‘impossible’ feat twice, once in 1978 and again 1980. 31. (a) Henry Edmunds (b) Claude Johnson, who called his own car The Silver Ghost. 32. (a) A seaplane, complete with pontoons! (b) The Schneider Trophy (c) The RollsRoyce Merlin engine (d) The Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. The last words that many a fighter pilot flying a Mercedes engine-powered Luftwaffe Messerschmitt 109BF uttered were “Himmel! Schpitfeur!! ” before going down in flames. 33. The Long Count. 34. (a) Anita Desai (b) Kiran Desai (c ) The Inheritance of Loss. 35. (a) Sequoia (b) The Giant Redwood Trees of California were renamed after him, as Sequoias. 36. They are (b) Four for Texas and (d) The Four Riders of the Apocalypse. Edgar Wallace wrote The Four Just Men and the author of The Sign of Four is by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 37. Oxford and Cambridge, UK. Question (b) was asked by Oxford during interviews for its coveted PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) course, (c) was asked of interviewees by Cambridge for its undergraduate course in Medicine, and (d) fell to the lot of aspirants for the PPE course offered by Cambridge. For the sake of mankind, we hope the answers threw fresh light on these weighty issues. 38. (a) Kate Moss (b) Agent Provocateur. 39. (a) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (b) Brangelina (c) Journalist Daniel Pearl. 40. (a) A big grey mouse. It has a larger head, bigger teeth and a longer tail than Mus musculus—the common house mouse (b) On the island of Crete (c) Mus cypriacus. (d) It was accidentally discovered during research into feeding habits of barn owls. 41. Mount Kilimanjaro (19,335 feet) and Mount Kenya, respectively. Kilimanjaro has already lost 82% of the ice cover it had eighty years ago. Mount Kenya has fared

147 even worse, having lost 92% of its permanent glaciers – famous for being so near the equator – over the last 100 years. The nearly 5,000 acres in its vicinity has several major rivers and forest cover that is valuable for preserving the ecological balance, and as a catchment area for rainfall that runs dams and produces electric power. This has been depleted. Further deterioration will severely affect the entire region. Besides, this vast forest belt soaks up pollution originating in the West. With its passing, yet another cushion against pollution will have vanished. 42. It’s incredible but it’s true: Alaska’s famous lakes are vanishing. 10,000 of them have either dried up or shrunk in size over the last fifty-odd years, probably due to lowering of the water table in the region. Obviously, environmental change of a magnitude that can only be speculated upon right now is on its way. 43. (a) The Statue of Liberty (b) Planet of the Apes. 44. (a) Indra Nooyi (b) Kiran Shaw Mazumdar and Naina Lal Kidwai. 45. Paris Hilton. 46. Louis L’Amour. 47. Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Richard Bach. 48. It came from the world's first computer—the Mark 1—a room-size electromechanical computing machine built in a lab at Harvard University in 1944. When the computer developed a fault one day, no one could locate the cause. A lab assistant named Grace Hopper finally spotted the problem: a moth had landed on one of the computer's circuit boards and shorted it out. The ‘bug’ was removed, necessary repairs were made, and the computer revived. From that moment on, computer glitches have been called ‘bugs’. 49. The Seville Cathedral is the birthplace of marmalade. A small patio on the side called Jardin de los Naranjos was famous in Seville for its twenty blossoming orange trees. This was the birthplace of English marmalade. An eighteenth-century English trader had purchased a large quantity of oranges from the Seville church and taken them back to London, only to find that the fruit was incredibly bitter. He tried to make jam from the skins of the oranges by adding a lot of sugar to make the concoction palatable. Orange marmalade was the happy outcome.

148 50. Conquering religions often adopt existing holidays to make conversion an easier transition. It’s called transmutation and helps people acclimatize to the new faith. Worshippers keep the same holy dates, pray in the same sacred locations, and use a similar symbology. December twenty-fifth is the ancient holiday of sol invictus— Unconquered Sun—coinciding with the winter solstice. It is the time of year when the sun returns, and the days start getting longer and warmer, making it perfect for a holiday and merry-making. 51. Haloes were borrowed from the ancient Egyptian religion of sun worship. The haloes or ‘sun discs’ represented the Sun…helios. The term ‘halo’ is derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘sun’. Sun worship is an ancient religion found in almost all ancient cultures, including the Incas, Mayas, Aryans, Egyptians, etc. 52. Hadrian was a Roman emperor who built the wall to keep out marauders. 53. Strictly speaking, a burial takes place when a body is placed in a pit dug in the ground and then covered with earth. In time, bodies came to be placed in coffins in order to make the transition less painful and more acceptable to the mourners and pall bearers. A sarcophagus, on the other hand, is a raised box carved out of stone with a heavy, tight-fitting stone lid. The body is laid to rest directly in it, wrapped in burial shrouds or normal clothing, often accompanied by the dead person’s favourite personal belongings, such as weapons or jewellery. The word ‘Sarcophagus’ comes from the Greek ‘sarx’ meaning ‘flesh,’ and ‘phagein’ meaning ‘to eat’. In other words, sarcophagus literally means a box designed to ‘eat flesh’. Though the two methods of disposing of human mortal remains are essentially the same, the basic differences are obvious. 54. When the crusaders went to the Holy Land, a small but deadly army formed to defend themselves. This army of resistance fighters emerged as protectors—skilled executioners who wandered the countryside slaughtering any of the enemy they could find. They were renowned for celebrating their slayings by plunging themselves into drug-induced stupors. Their drug of choice was a potent intoxicant they called hashish, which is why these lethal men became known by a single word—Hassassin —literally “the followers of hashish.” The name Hassassin became synonymous with

149 death in almost every language on earth and was still used today, but like the craft of killing, the word had evolved. It was now pronounced assassin. 55. It is the name given to the condition where hostages change their orientation and form close bonds with – and even develop affection and love for – their kidnappers, and side with them. This name was given after a sensational hostage crime in Stockholm, Sweden, where the victim, a girl, actually sided with and spoke up for the men who held her hostage. ***