Black Wine and Other Oddities Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cahors

Cahors is a small city in southwest France. The Romans planted the first vineyards in the city over 2000 years ago. The red wines of Cahors are so dark that they traditionally have been called "black wine". In the late 19th century, the vineyards around Cahors were wiped out in the phylloxera epidemic that devastated the French wine industry, and had to be replanted.

In 1956, there was a freeze so severe that almost all of the vines died, and they had to be replanted once again. Cahors is made primarily from the Malbec grape variety, with small amounts of Merlot and Tannat sometimes added. Wines from Cahors are bold, high in alcohol, and age well.

Many are of very high quality, and modestly priced compared to other French wines.

Answer: Creation of a gigantic wheel of cheese

Thomas Jefferson wasn't too popular in New England, but evidently the citizens of Cheshire, a small town in western Massachusetts, thought highly of him. So following his election, they decided to honor him in a unique way. Under the leadership of John Leland, a Baptist minister, they created an enormous wheel of cheese, measuring 4.5 feet in diameter, 15 inches thick, and weighing over 1230 pounds. To manufacture the cheese, it required the milk of some 900 cows. It was inscribed with the words, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God".

Once the cheese was made, a way had to be found to get it to Washington, D.C., where it could be presented to the President. It was feared that it might be broken if transported the entire way by wagon. So the townspeople waited until winter and sent it by sleigh to the Hudson River, where it was then taken by ship to Baltimore, and finally overland to the White House, where it was presented to Jefferson by Leland on January 1, 1802. Jefferson was evidently impressed by the people of Cheshire, saying that the cheese was "extraordinary proof of the skill with which those domestic arts which contribute so much to our daily comfort are practiced by them". Because Jefferson disapproved of politicians accepting gifts, Leland was paid $200 for the cheese.

Now, what do you do with over half a ton of cheese? The fate of the Mammoth Cheshire Cheese, as it was called, is not known, but some say that all or most of it survived until 1805, by which time it had gone bad, and it was dumped in the Potomac River. And this wasn't the only gigantic cheese to play a part in American history. In 1835, Colonel Thomas Meacham of Sandy Creek, New York made an even larger cheese, this one weighing 1400 pounds, and presented it to President Andrew Jackson. Meacham's cheese got eaten.

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Yes, the creator of Sherlock Holmes believed in fairies - and had a few other strange quirks as well. In 1917, two young girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, cut some drawings of fairies out of a magazine, stuck hairpins through them to make them stand up, and took photographs of them. Known as the Cottingley Fairies, these photographs shouldn't have fooled anyone, but they did.

Despite the fact that the fairies in the photographs look surprisingly two-dimensional and have bobbed hair, Doyle was convinced they were genuine, and wrote an article about them for "The Strand Magazine".

He also believed in mediums and spirit communication. Two movies, "Fairy Tale: A True Story" and "Photographing Fairies", have been made about the Cottingley Fairies.

Answer: They were dictated by a ghost

One day in 1913, a St. Louis housewife named Pearl Curran and a friend were playing with a Ouija board, when a message from the spirit world came through: "Many moons ago I lived. Again I come. Patience Worth is my name". Over the next two decades, Patience Worth communicated with Mrs. Curran, dictating many novels, poems, etc. Patience Worth claimed to be the spirit of an Englishwoman who had come to America and was killed by Native Americans in 1694. Pearl Curran was a woman with little education, and she had shown no literary ability of her own.

The so-called "spirit novels" created quite a stir at the time. Some people still accept Patience Worth as a genuine example of spirit communication, while others believe that Mrs. Curran was suffering from a split personality or other mental disorder, or that she was an out-and-out fraud. I have read portions of the books, and all I can say is that while they seem to be competently written, Patience Worth's style resembles that of many Victorian writers.

Answer: High ranking Nazi officers with Jewish ancestry

Believe it or not, despite the Holocaust, some persons with Jewish ancestry managed to escape persecution under the Nazi regime and maintained their positions in the German military throughout WWII. The most famous is probably Erhard Milch, who reached the rank of Field Marshall in the Luftwaffe, or German Air Force.

His father was Jewish, and his mother, who was a Gentile, was forced to sign a document stating that Milch was actually illegitimate, and that his biological father was an Aryan. Milch was convicted of war crimes and served three years in prison. Bernhard Rogge, a vice-admiral in the German Navy, and Walter Hollaender, a highly decorated colonel in the German army, each had one Jewish grandparent. Persons of mixed Jewish and Aryan heritage were known as "Mischlings".

They had to apply for a German Blood Certificate, which granted them legal status. In a few rare cases, even full-blooded Jews were declared to be Honorary Aryans. The rumors that Hitler himself was part Jewish seem to be unfounded.

Many of the Mischlings who fought for Germany did so to protect their families from persecution under the Nazi regime.

Answer: Mauritania

Mauritania is a small country in northwest Africa. It has a long tradition of slavery, and didn't get around to making it illegal until 1981. Even then it didn't really criminalize slavery; penalties for trafficking in human beings were not enacted until 2007. Even though slavery is illegal, it is estimated that there are still 600,000 slaves in Mauritania (2014 data), and the government doesn't seem to be doing much about it. Through 2013, only one person had been prosecuted for violating anti-slavery laws.

Answer: Wallpaper cleaner

Play-Doh was invented in 1933 by Noah and Joseph McVicker. It was originally called Kutol Wall Cleaner, and was designed to remove the soot deposited on wallpaper by coal-burning stoves. After WWII, more people began using oil, natural gas, and electric furnaces for heat, and sales began to drop.

In 1954, Joe McVicker, who was the founders' nephew, learned from his wife that the kids in her nursery school loved playing with the compound, and making small objects out of it. The formula was changed slightly, some coloring was added, and Play-Doh was born.

The new product became an instant hit after appearing on the "Captain Kangaroo" television program. Today, Play-Doh is sold in over 75 countries.

Answer: 29

The word is floccinaucinihilipilification, and it means "the action or habit of estimating something as worthless". It was first recorded in print in 1741.

Answer: America's entry into WWI

Sculptor Hermon A. MacNeil was chosen to design the new quarter. His design showed Lady Liberty standing in a gate, with an olive branch in one hand and a shield in the other. She was wearing a gown that slipped off her shoulder, leaving one breast exposed.

The mint in Philadelphia did not get around to striking the new quarters until December 1916; they were released for circulation the following January. An old myth states that many people were offended by what they considered the "scandalous" design. Actually, MacNeil modified the design to add a coat of chain mail under the gown to give Liberty a more warlike appearance; this covered Lady Liberty up to the neck, and removed the offending body part from sight.

The change was made midway through 1917, about the time the United States entered WWI.

Other design changes were made as well. Millions of the bare-breasted coins had already been produced, and there is no contemporary evidence that they caused a public outcry. The model for Lady Liberty is thought to be silent film actress Doris Doree, although some claim she is Broadway actress Irene MacDowell.

Answer: Electronic voice phenomena

Electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, is very real. It refers to the recording of human voices, not audible to the ear, by devices such as tape recorders. They are often found in static or background noise, hence the title of the film. White noise refers to a signal or sound with a flat or random frequency spectrum, and is sometimes used to refer to background noise, such as that produced by a waterfall.

While EVP is a real phenomenon, there are various theories about what causes it. Those who believe in the paranormal attribute EVPs to the voices of the dead who are trying to communicate with the living; messages are sometimes received that are answers to questions asked by investigators. The responses cannot be heard, but appear on tape recordings. Often they need to be slowed down or enhanced to be understood. The problem is that it is very easy to fake EVP messages, just as it is easy to fake ghost photographs. All I can say is that they are quite eerie.

There are many skeptics, of course, who attribute EVPs to natural causes. One common explanation is auditory pareidolia, or the tendency of the brain to interpret random patterns of sound as familiar ones. Other people say that the phenomena is caused by the recording process itself or by the equipment picking up stray radio signals. There are many sites online where you can listen to EVPs and come to your own conclusion.