Mixed Fruit Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lemon

Meadowlaark Lemon (1932-2015) played professional basketball, particularly for the Harlem Globetrotters, and was an actor and an ordained Christian minister, as well. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.

"Lemon Tree" is a song written by Will Holt. It was recorded by Trini Lopez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Chad & Jeremy, The Kingston Trio, The Seekers, and others. "Lemon tree very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."

Answer: cherry

The choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) is native to North America. It is a small cherry tree with extremely bitter fruit. The pit is poisonous. Choke cherries were an important part of Native Americans' diets. They are used modernly highly sweetened, dried or to make wine.

A cherry picker is an aerial work platform, usually arising from a truck or trailer, to give a worker access to something at height. They were invented in 1944 to assist in picking cherries (hence the name) but have since been adapted to all manner of industrial, construction and building maintenance jobs.

Answer: Apple

Fiona Apple (whose full name is Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart) was born on 13 September 1977. She has accomplished much as a singer, a poet and songwriter, and a pianist. She has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won one.

A fusion of the talents of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne produced Apple Computer in 1976. The Cupertino, California, corporation has done rather well selling its software, telephones, tablet computers, personal computers, media players, wrist watches, and the like. Surely Ronald Wayne regretted cashing out after only twelve days of incorporation.

Answer: Peach

The peach is the official state fruit of Georgia, adopted by the legislature in 1995. Georgia Peach is the name of a cocktail, a generic name for an attractive woman from Georgia, a brand of beer, the name of a record album, and the nickname of American baseball player Ty Cobb.

Chef Auguste Escoffier invented Peach Melba at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1892 or 1893. He named it in honour of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba who was performing in Wagner's "Lohengrin." It is a dessert of poached peaches atop vanilla ice cream dressed in raspberry sauce.

Answer: Strawberry

A 2009 memoir "Straw: Finding My Way" tells the story of Darryl Strawberry's 17 seasons playing Major League Baseball. He wore the uniforms of the New York Mets (1983-1990), Los Angeles Dodgers (1991-1993), San Francisco Giants (1994), and New York Yankees (1995-1999). At six feet, six inches, he was capable of remarkable hits, reflected in 335 lifetime home runs and 1000 runs batted in.

Author Horace Walpole built a home in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Twickenham from 1749 to 1776 and named it Strawberry Hill. The Gothic Revival villa sits on 46 acres. In the 19th century, the affluent area around it took the name. The area is also the home of Saint Mary's University, the oldest Roman Catholic university in England.

Answer: Orange

"A Clockwork Orange" is a disturbing dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess published in 1962. It was made into an equally disturbing motion picture by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. A rather curious theatrical version was produced in 1987 called "A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music."

From an earlier century, orange bitters bring a unique additional flavour to cocktails. Bitters are made by dissolving burnt sugar in an alcohol base in which Seville oranges, anise, cardamom, coriander, and caraway seed are infused. This can be done at home; there are several international makers of orange bitters. They are often used in a Manhattan, a Revolver, an Old Fashioned. Early versions of the dry martini also used orange bitters ... honestly!

Answer: Banana

Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) became an independent self-ruling democracy in 1980 and Canaan Banana (1936-2003) became its first president (1980-1987). He stepped aside to allow Robert Mugabe to assume the presidency. In 1998, he was charged with and convicted of sodomy, went to prison and was defrocked by the Methodist church of which he was an ordained minister.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera asked Sid and Marty Kroft to design costumes for a televised rock-and-roll band show aimed at children. The programme "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour" premiered in 1968. The series featured a variety-show format. The band comprised Fleegle on guitar and vocals, Bingo on drums and vocals, Drooper on bass and vocals, and Snorky on keyboards. The show was produced for two seasons.

Answer: Grape

Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) is the state flower of Oregon. It is not a grape at all but rather has small clusters of small purple berries which resemble dusty grapes. It is native to the western United States. The berries are edible, tart, and are used to make jelly and even wine.

Grape Ape was a 40-foot tall purple gorilla created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s. He appeared, with his canine companion Beegle Beagle, on his own programme as well as on several other Hanna-Barbera shows. The series was shown internationally as "Momo et Ursul" in France, "Gorilla Lilla" in Italy, "João Grandão" in Portugal, and "Simiolón y Listolín" in Spanish-speaking countries.

Answer: Fig

Mission Figs are the variety of fig (Ficus carica) brought by Franciscan monks to California in 1768. Its skin is dark and it has a pinkish interior. Home gardeners grow them where there is little risk of frost, e.g. USDA Zone 9 and higher. Figs may be eaten fresh or dried. They are made into jam which is often sandwiched in a kind of biscuit called a "fig Newton."

Fig-jam-filled biscuits were made, sold and eaten long before Charles Roser invented a machine to put the paste in the middle in 1891. Kennedy Biscuit Company bought the rights, amalgamated with the New York Biscuit Company, and became Nabisco which has been producing Fig Newtons ever since. They named them after the town of Newton, Massachusetts. In Season 3, Episode 10, of "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon tells Penny, "Fig Newtons are named after a small town in Massachusetts." Fig Newtons also appear in "The Parent Trap" (1961) and "Hud" (1963).

Answer: Plum

Professor Plum is a character in the board game "Clue" or "Cluedo." Since his introduction in 1926, he has been depicted variously. In the 1949 version, he was an elderly scientist. In the 1972 US version, he was younger and a pipe smoker. By the 1986 US version, he had grown a mustache. He lost the pipe in the 1996 version. In the 2016 UK version, he was an archaeologist. He was played by David McCallum in the 1991 British TV version and by Christopher Lloyd in the 1985 movie version.

In the UK, Christmas pudding is called plum pudding despite the absence of plums from its list of ingredients. It contains raisins which were, in medieval times, called plums. It is a boiled/steamed pudding made with many dried fruits flavoured with numerous spices and preserved by successive infusions of brandy. In the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, the collect for the day on the Sunday next before the Season of Advent prays "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works...". A custom arose to make the Christmas pudding on this day, called Stir-Up Sunday.