December 2006 Holiday Quiz – Explanation of Answers 1. The abduction of Helen by Paris sparked the Trojan War; Irish mythology tells us that the cattle wars of Cooley were instigated by the theft of the brown bull of Cooley by Queen Maeve of Ulster. Just as the events of the Trojan war are documented in the Aeneid, theft of the brown bull, and ensuing events, are described in one of Ireland‟s earliest sagas, the Táin Bó Cuailgne. 2. holmgang (n.) - a duel fought on an island (from old Norse law) 3. Bort or boart is a term used in the diamond industry to refer to shards of gem-grade/quality diamonds. In the manufacturing and heavy industries, "bort" is used to describe dark, imperfectly formed/crystallized diamonds of varying levels of opacity. 4. Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made of fermented pear juice. It is similar to cider, in that it is made using a similar process and often has a similar alcoholic content, around 8% alcohol by volume. 5. The first image depicts Elsie, the once-famous spokesbovine for the Borden company. Elsie‟s paramour in the rarefied world of famous advertising animal mascots is (of course) Elmer, the equally famous spokesbovine for Elmer‟s glue. The monkey in the second picture is J. Fred Muggs, the “Playful chimpanzee featured on the NBC network morning program THE TODAY SHOW from 1953-57. J. Fred Muggs was the first animal star (as a feature spot) on "live" television. Also seen on the program was Phoebe B. Beebee, J. Fred Mugg's female chimpanzee companion. http://www.tvacres.com/advertising_animals_coverpage.htm 6. A paternoster or paternoster lift is an elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments (each usually designed for two persons) that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers who are agile enough can step on or off at any floor they like. First built in 1884 by Londoner J. E. Hall as the Cyclic Elevator, the name paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting the paternoster. 7. snallygaster : mythical monster of Maryland http://phrontistery.info/s.html 8. mascaron : grotesque face on a door-knocker http://phrontistery.info/m.html 9. materteral
10. This song, Dirait-on, is from the so-called Rose cycle by the American composer Morten Lauridsen, which sets the series of poems by Rilke (“Les Chansons des Roses”) to music. http://www.amazon.com/Lauridsen-Aeterna-SalamunovichAngeles-Chorale/dp/B000006OF1 11. cypseline is an adjective meaning „swift-like‟; the corresponding adjective for the gibbon is hylobatine (ape-like and simian were also accepted) 12. sour. The German for nitrogen and oxygen is Stickstoff and Sauerstoff, respectively. Stick = choke; Sauer = sour, or acidic. This was not a good clue – hopelessly convoluted and nobody got it. 13. „calf‟ in Braille. 14. Avignon is the “windy city” of France. 15. The guy in the picture is Fred Friendly. Bourbon = Reunion; Friendly = Tonga (renaming of islands) 16. regally, or royally, were also considered acceptable; but „un-thinkingly is preferred 17. paragon and nonpareil are different sizes of type (20 and 6, respectively) 18. Orthrus is the two-headed brother of Cerberus 19. The unidentified music was the opening to Alfven‟s “Swedish Rhapsody” 20. Bran is the dog of Fionn (“the fair-haired”) McCool. Thus, the correct answer was not Obelix, the friend of Asterix, but rather Asterix‟s dog, known variously as Dogmatix or Ideefix. 21. Cousin Bette, Balzac‟s eponymous “poor relation” 22. sal or sala: from gerrymander and salamander. 23. Casinos and their founders: George Wynne and the Mirage, Bugsy Segal (seagull) and the Flamingo. 24. gammadion is another word for swastika 25. myrmecophagid, the adjective pertaining to ant-eater 26. Tennyson wrote “The Lotus Eaters”; van Gogh painted “The Potato Eaters” 27. Virgil wrote about the Trojan war in the Aeneid; Heaney wrote about Tollund Man 28. This music, the final theme from the “Organ Symphony” by SaintSaens was featured in the movie “Babe”, just as the aria from La Wally was featured in the film “Diva”. 29. Karl May wrote a series of westerns in German. 30. Tai Shan is the “sacred mountain” of China. (Mount Everest is not in China; nor is K2, as far as I know) 31. Coat of arms for Goethe
32. The answer I had in mind is the play “Andorra” by Frisch; its isolation and persecution of the outsider seemed a close parallel to events in “The Visit”. Several people gave “The Firebugs” as an answer, which, given the theme of a threat coming from the outside, also seems entirely valid. 33. I also accepted “jimmies”, though this seems more of an American variant than the English equivalent. 34. A barrel (kilderkin) of ale contains 36(18) or 32 (16) gallons, depending on your source; either way a barrel = 2 kilderkins. Similarly a tun = 2 pipes 35. The answer I intended was Vardenis Paverdenis, based on an online encyclopedia listing I found, giving the equivalent of John Doe for assorted other countries http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/John-Doe. Obviously I was wrong, since virtually everyone who sent in an entry had as answer the mysterious Dalia Grybauskaite. A little research on Wikipedia shows that Joe Borg and Dalia G are both European Commissioners for their countries. 36. macarism: pleasure in another‟s joy :: Schadenfreude : pleasure in another‟s misfortune. 37. Anitra‟s dance and Solveig‟s song, both taken from Grieg‟s Peer Gynt Suite. 38. panjandrum. I thought this clue was very easy – I was wrong, as nobody got the answer. 39. Deirdre of the Sorrows is a Celtic legend; the best-known legend involving Niall is that of “Niall of the nine hostages” 40. Cave paintings in Lascaux, France and Brandberg, Namibia 41. http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Orion.html ; see the paragraph, Orion and Side. 42. Does anyone not find David Blaine irritating? 43. Hobo signs 44. angels/devils on horseback = bacon + oysters/prunes http://www.britannia.com/cooking/recipes/devils.html http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0298/oyangel.html though there seem to be other definitions for devils on horseback, involving scallops, tabasco sauce, or both. Also dates. 45. isothere: A line connecting points on the earth's surface having the same mean summer temperature. isocheim: A line connecting places on the earth having the same mean winter temperature. Isocryme: A line connecting points on the earth's surface having the same mean temperature in the coldest month of the year. Although I had orginally thought „isocryme‟ was the correct answer, these definitions show that „isocheim‟ is a better solution.
46. kangaroo; both pieces are from Saint Saens‟ “Carnival of the Animals” 47. xiphoid = sword-shaped; equivalently : gladiate http://phrontistery.info/shapes.html 48. from the online dictionary of symbols at www.symbols.com, these are the alchemical symbols for camphor and amalgam, respectively. 49. Carioca 50. terce ; hours of prayer for those following the monastic life 51. kokopelli 52. jimmying tool 53. hypocritically (or “hippo-critically”) 54. Cyrano de Bergerac parallel with the courtship of Miles Standish 55. The first part of the clue specifies a character by Benjamin Franklin, ambassador to the city indicated in the picture. The musical clue also specifies a city – it is the piece “Granada” from the Suite Espanola by Isaac Albeniz. The writer associated with Granada is Washington Irving, who served there as part of his service in the American diplomatic corps, and wrote the “Tales of the Alhambra”. Any character of Irving‟s, e.g. Ichabod Crane, would have been an acceptable answer. 56. Famous shipwrecks: Gericault painted “The Raft of the Medusa”, Gerald Manley Hopkins wrote about “The Wreck of the Deutschland” 57. The mountain is Ben Bulben, associated with W.B. Yeats. 58. calico and tabby: both cats and fabrics! 59. There‟s something about – Mary Mallon – typhoid carrier, instrumental in spreading disease. Mary Hunt played an important role in helping stem the spread of certain diseases: At first all the penicillin was made from descendants of the original molds that had landed on Fleming's plate in 1928. They had been kept alive in various laboratories in England. However, they varied in their ability to produce strong penicillin, so the American scientists kept looking for better kinds of molds. They were unsuccessful until 1943 when they found that the mold—Penicillium chrysogenum—discovered on ripe cantaloupes by Mary Hunt from Peoria, was much more potent and thus ideal for their needs. She was known as “Mouldy Mary” ever since her discovery. 60. Ruth Harkness http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Panda-AdventuresAmerican-Explorer/dp/0375507833 61. Tige (the dog), not Buster (the kid) 62. Nobel trivia. The oldest person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature was Theodor Mommsen, who was 85 when he received the Prize in 1902. The youngest was Rudyard Kipling, who was 42
when he won the Prize in 1907. The longest-lived laureate in literature to date is Bertrand Russell, who was 97 when he died. The oldest living laureate is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, currently 87 years old (born in 1918). The shortest-lived laureate was Albert Camus, who died in a car crash at the age of 46, three years after receiving the award. 63. Another clue which seemed like a good idea at the time. The answer I had in mind was “ambergris” Ambergris occurs as a biliary secretion of the intestines of the sperm whale, Ambergris has historically been important perfume odorant and is highly sought after. What were the hints in the clue? “Alger Hiss” was supposed to be an acoustic cue; Barney‟s #9 was intended to provide an association with Chanel #5. Finally, Barney refers to the artist Matthew Barney (Bjork‟s boyfriend) whose work Drawing Restraint #9 was featured at SF MOMA this past summer. Let‟s just say that the biliary secretions of the intestines of the sperm whale play a major role in the movie. 64. Pont Neuf (Paris) and Ponte Vecchio (Florence), respectively 65. Britney does fragrances 66. gypsy‟s pig 67. eggs benedict and quiche lorraine (the cross is the cross of lorraine) 68. Superhero real names. green arrow = oliver queen ; green hornet = britt reid (I changed “reid” to “reed” to confuse google) 69. Famous overtures. Rossini wrote the William Tell Overture. The painting depicts a location in the Hebrides known as Fingal‟s Cave; Mendelssohn wrote the orchestral work known as the “hebrides” or “Fingal‟s Cave” overture. The name of the artist who painted the picture (Turner) was also a reasonable answer. http://www.showcaves.com/english/gb/caves/Fingals.html 70. Pidgin expressions for helicopter and violin, respectively. More precisely, these phrases are said to be the relevant pidgin expressions, see e.g. http://www.vanuatuatoz.com/b.html . However, there is (reasonable) disagreement; some scholars maintain that these phrases are “too good to be true” and that stories of their use amount to nothing more than urban legend. http://www.top.net.nz/~hugh/Vanity/Personal/LanguageMyths.html 71. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_(mythical_creature) 72. Titivillus, the typo demon (one of many) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographical_personification 73. Add „plant‟ to „sup‟ and to „egg‟ 74. Chopin‟s Mazurka in B flat, Opus 7, No. 1 75. Addinsell‟s “Warsaw Concerto”, main theme in the film “Dangerous Moonlight”
76. colgar los guantes – to hang up one‟s gloves; sucrer les fraise – to sugar the strawberries ; idioms in Spanish and French, respectively, meaning to kick the bucket 77. houghmagandy = fornication 78. family crests for Barber and van dyck, respectively 79. bands : blink 182 and matchbox 20 80. it‟s a chemistry joke! 81. The channel in which the Isle of Wight is located is called the Solent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solent 82. Dvorak‟s Humoresque #7, Opus 101 83. as in the TV show 84. German in this clue referred to “Deutsch”, who cataloged Schubert‟s works. Hoboken cataloged the works of Haydn. 85. The compound depicted is known as “austin”, though not named for Stone Cold Steve Austin. See, for instance, http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols2.htm, roughly half way down the page. 86. pecorous : full of cows 87. Owling was a common term for the smuggling of sheep or wool from England to another country, particularly France. The practice was illegal in England from 1367 until 1824. Participants were called "owlers"; their ships "owling boats." 88. Coats of arms for Cauchy and Bernoulli, respectively. 89. nacreous : adjective pertaining to mother-of-pearl 90. Laurel and Hardy are known in Germany as “Dick und Doof”; Hardy = Dick (fat), Laurel = Doof (stupid) 91. Van Gogh paintings of Arles and Auvers, respectively 92. Types of chocolate in Pepperidge Farm cookie types 93. Regional winds 94. McGuffin and MacGuffin seem to be used with roughly equal frequency. Wikipedia : A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story. The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Hitchcock explained the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University: "[W]e have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers." 95. Dropkick Murphys 96. aibohphobia. It‟s palindromic, see? 97. alchemical symbol for cinnabar 98. Tin Pan Alley is Denmark Street in London, 28th Street in New York.
99. http://www.jack-of-all-trades.ca/jack_frenchpattern.htm 100. The second photograph is by Walker Evans (“Let us now Praise Famous Men”) 101. Billy Bunter was always in anticipation , never in receipt, of a postal order from his rich uncle 102. malachite (not jade) 103. Duchamps (Nude Descending a Staircase) 104. It‟s a barouche (not a landau) 105. http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/saturn.html 106. Nell and Hamm are chacters in Beckett‟s play “Endgame” (Beckett also wrote a play called “Happy Days”)