A Bee, See? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mead

A simple recipe for mead. Take a tree on the African plains thousands of years ago, have elephant rip off branch. Honey bees arrive, make hive in hollow. Rains come, fill hole and bees move on. Natural fermentation occurs. Some months later early man dips finger in water, licks finger and thinks 'Hey, good stuff and why are the elephants pink?' Man has been refining the recipe and making mead ever since.

Answer: Ariel

'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare, Act V, scene one. Ariel, (a sprite) sings these lines as he/she aids Prospero in dressing.

'When the bee sucks. there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.'
(Miranda is the daughter of Prospero and Caliban the son of Sycorax. Antennae is what bees have as sensors.)

Answer: a bee's wing

The first chorus of 'Bees wing'

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bees wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said, 'As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way'.

Maybe THAT video site has a 5 minute live version by RT?

Answer: Royal Jelly

Royal Jelly is produced from glands in worker bees heads. Molecular biologist Dr Ryszard Maleszka and colleagues from the Australian National University in Canberra reported in the March 2008 journal 'Science' that 'The larvae that develop into workers and queens are genetically identical, yet those fattened up on royal jelly become fertile queen bees and are much larger and longer-lived than the rest that turn into sterile workers.' Damn, I was in the wrong hexagon again.

Answer: Paris

'And that's why birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it, Let's do it, let's fall in love.' This was the most popular song from 'Paris'. The show was a hit and established Cole Porter on Broadway. Prior to this Cole's several Broadway attempts had flopped.

Answer: Winnie-the-Pooh

A. A. Milne was the creator of Winnie. His book, 'Winnie-the-Pooh', all about this honey-loving bear, was first published in 1926. A very popular book then and now. Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne, was the basis for the Christopher Robin character in the book. Note the Disney organisation now has some control over Winnie.

By the way, I'm planning a novel, 'How-Winnie-Lost-his-Hyphens'.

Answer: All written by Barry and Robin Gibb

The Bee Gees recorded these three tunes (Barry and Robin share writing credits) on an album called 'Bee Gees 1st'. Of interest, Nina Simone (one of my favourite singers) recorded covers of these three Bee Gees songs not long after the Bee Gees had recorded them.

Answer: Beauty is in the Eye of the Bee

'Busy as a Bee' relates to the bee's 'all work, no play' attitude.
'The Bee's Knees', means something above the ordinary or classy.
'Like a Bee in a Bottle', again darting all over the place, always on the go.
Ah ha, sorry, that should have been 'Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder'. We all have a different view of things.

Answer: Bees wax

Bees wax stuff is so complex that scientists are still trying to duplicate it. The bee excretes it through glands and gets it into its mouth. There it makes the wax pliable and uses it to build hive cells. Next to me at present is a tin of 'Bee Pure Beeswax Polish'. It's made in Australia and we use it on all our wooden furniture, to buff, clean and protect the natural wood. Royal Jelly is a bee manufactured food, while Apitoxin is the venom bees release into protagonists via their sting. Bees Plaques? Just made it up.

Answer: Jimmie Rodgers

James Frederick Rodgers recorded as Jimmie Rodgers. He went and auditioned at Roulette Records one day. He sang 'Honeycomb', a song written by Bob Merrill in 1954. By two a.m. the next morning he was recording this song. In September 1957 it was at number one on the USA Billboard charts.

He didn't even have a formal recording contract at the time. I recommend you listen to his recording of 'The World I Used to Know', it's my favourite recording of his. If you have time then check out his story, taking special note of the year 1967. Very sad. The 'other' Jimmie Rodgers, an even more famous country singer, known as 'The Singing Brakeman' died in 1933.