Blind Vision Trivia Quiz

Answer: Golden mole

Let's talk about our four cuties:

Olm:
This is an aquatic salamander, living in mountain caves like the Postojna cave in Slovenia. It resembles a pink snake with degenerated little hands and feet and useless eyes. As it is quite dark where he lives, who cares about eyes?

Mexican blind brotula:
Another one in fashionable pink. This time a fish without eyes, living in Mexican sinkholes and caves. A nice safe place without a fishing rod close by.

Peripatopsis alba or white cave velvet worm:
This beauty is colored white, with 18 legs and no eyes. If you like to contact this animal, the only place to find it is at (or in) the Table Mountains in South Africa.

Golden mole:
And now to the only one wearing fur. A shimmering golden fur, no less. This little rodent has short, strong arms with digging claws to burrow and useless eyes covered with fur. They dig in the desert sands of sub-Saharan Africa and find their food - for example, worms- there. So these are the ones bathing in sand instead of living in damp caves. My cats can understand this. Warm sand...wonderful.

Answer: Olm

Didn't we have an olm before? I hope you remembered. It's an aquatic salamander. With gills and undeveloped eyes. But the other senses, more needed in dark caves, function perfectly.

Answer: Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris was born in the year 1950 six weeks premature which, due to the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, damaged his sight. Wonder's single "Fingertips" was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, which, at the age of 13, made him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Since then, his records reached high places in international charts, including a duet with Paul McCartney.

Andrea Bocelli, famous as a Tenor, was born in 1958 in Italy and started also quite young by winning a music contest aged 12. His really successful time started in 1992, when he was promoted by Italian Rock Star Zucchero. He did appear on stage worldwide, including Madison Square garden.

Clarence Carter was born blind in 1936 and is an R and B and soul artist. His biggest hit so far was "Patches" in 1970.

Maria Doyle-Cuche was born in Ireland and lost her sight as a child due to illness. She participated for Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985. "Wait Until the Weekend Comes" ended at position 6, winner was Norway.

Answer: The Princess and the Frog

The little mermaid Ariel swam near North European coasts, Mulan fought in China. Aladdin ran through Arabian alleys and streets.

In 2009 Disney told the old story of a human turned into an animal and back again, everything happening now in Louisiana in the 1920s. Blind Mama Odie was a voodoo practitioner, who helped a visiting prince and local woman Tiana in losing the unwanted frog flippers and being human again.

Answer: Rapunzel

A sorceress raised a girl in a tower. The long tresses of the girl Rapunzel are used as a kind of hauling rope to get the sorceress up. One day a passing prince, watching this, gets up, and they fall in love. When the sorceress finds this out, she cuts off the girls' tresses and throws her out.

Some time later the prince arrives, is hauled up and meets the sorceress. He escapes her through the window and falls into a thorn bush. This blinds him. After years of wandering, he is lured in a specific direction after hearing a young woman singing. It is Rapunzel! But not alone, she had born twins. She was pregnant when she left that tower. Prince and Rapunzel embrace, her tears fall on his eyes, and he is able to see again. And all lived happily ever after...

Answer: False

Dichlorodiethyl sulfide is a yellowish stuff which, despite his name, does not contain mustard. For the soldiers in Ypres (Belgium), it looked more like a kind of fog. It was the first time used by the Germans in 1917, but other chemical weapons were around even before WW I.

The main harm was done to the lungs and to the skin, causing blistering to vital organs. If the soldier did have conjunctiva of the eye aggravated by the gas, his lungs had suffered enough to kill him. After gas masks and goggles were in use, the maiming was mainly to the skin when the soldiers came in contact with the residue of the gas. A greater danger was being shot in the head when looking over the rim or of the trench or creeping head first under barbwire, or getting hit by splinters of a grenade - not forgetting the unhygienic conditions in the trenches.

Answer: Baking a pie crust before filling it

If you are a perfect baker, baking without measuring might work. If....

Blind baking is a good idea to avoid the pie suffering from a soggy bottom. The form is lined with a dough -for example short puff pasty- weighed down with rice, dried legumes, special baking pearls or whatever you can spare, if is it heavy enough and can't burst easily in flames. It is then baked for the needed time, then the temporary filling is removed. After this, you can fill it as you want. Or use it as a cat bed, if the result is too horrid.

Answer: A Bible story

Pieter's two sons followed into his footsteps and became painters themselves. Pieter Breughel, the younger, copied the style and paintings of his father.

He did paint some cats and there surely were some blind men in the neighborhood. It was an unhealthy time.

But he was inspired by the bible: Matthew 15:14 (New International version)"Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."" Pieter finished the painting in 1568. It was painted on canvas, and measures 86 cm × 154 cm (34 inches × 61 inch). There are six men, linked by staffs. The first one already did fall in a ditch, the next one in line is close to follow.

Answer: Agatha Christie

At 19 Wilbraham Crescent, home of the blind Miss Pebmarsh, a body is placed, together with an arrangement of clocks. With the help of master detective Hercule Poirot the case is solved.

"The Clocks" ticked for the first time in 1963.

For all cat lovers, one cat plays an important role in this book.

Answer: "Cat People" (1942)

"Cat People" is a 1942 horror film with Simone Simon as the heroine. A woman, changing into a big black cat - a panther and behaving like a cat on catnip.

"City Lights" sees Charlie Chaplin as a tramp falling in love with a blind flower girl played by Virginia Cherrill. He helps her to get an operation on her eyes.

In "Wait Until Dark", Audrey Hepburn is a blind woman, fighting in her dark flat against criminals for her life.

In "Scent of a Woman" Al Pacino plays a blind suicidal ex-soldier, who is temporarily accompanied by a young man.

Answer: Han Solo

"Leia: "I love you"
Han Solo: "I know"

And a moment later, he is deep-frozen, like a packet of fish fingers or peas.

Bad things happen if you don't pay your debts and get in trouble with the dark side of the power. That happened to Han Solo at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back". He is frozen in Carbonite and defrosted in the next part of "Star Wars", "The Return of the Jedi". His eyes need some longer time to function again. He nearly missed seeing Princess Leia in her space harem outfit!

Answer: Blancmange

"Blind hope - blind visions - blind center - one center
Blind living - and seeing - blind hell - blind hell
Blind visions - and no reasons - for action - blind words"

Blancmange formed in London in 1979. Their first top ten appearance in their homeland was in 1982 with "Living On the Ceiling", "Blind Vision" was from the following year.

They are named after the white dessert Blancmanche, made in a mold with milk or cream.

Answer: John of Bohemia

John lived from 1296 until his death on the battlefield in 1346. He was the count of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland.

John suffered from ophthalmia in 1336 and was already blind several years when he fought together with King Philip the VI (France) at the battle of Crécy (part of the 100 Years War) against England under King Edward III and Edward the Black Prince.

After he was told to flee, because the battle was lost, he is cited having said:

"Far be it that the King of Bohemia should run away. Instead, take me to the place where the noise of the battle is the loudest. The Lord will be with us. Nothing to fear. Just take good care of my son."

It was done as he wanted it. The Lord wasn't with him and the men going with him. His son survived.

Answer: Righteous Among the Nations

Oscar Weidt, born in 1883 in Rostock, was the blind owner of a workshop for brushes and brooms in Berlin. As his workshop produced for the Wehrmacht, he was able to protect his Jewish workers and delay their deportation, because his products were needed for the war effort. When the deportations then started, he tried to help with false documents, bribes and hiding people in his workshop.

On September 7, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized him as a Righteous Man of the World's Nations. He died in 1947.

One of the persons he hid was the later renowned Journalist Inge Deutschkron, who wrote about her survival. She died in 2022.

Answer: Saint Lucy

Light a candle for St. Francis de Sales if you are deaf, to Saint Appolonia if you suffer from toothache, and pray to Saint Agatha if you are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Lucia of Syracuse (283-304) had consecrated her virginity to God, but her mother had found a rich pagan man to marry her girl. The end is gory: Lucy died as a martyr, and somehow her eyes were gouged out, either by herself or by torture. Thus making her a saint for the blind. Lucy's feast is on 13 December, a festival of light.

If you encounter a picture of a young woman carrying a plate with two eyes on it: this is not about Halloween, but about Saint Lucy.

About Linus: I'm talking of the poor brother of cantankerous Lucy van Pelt, both from Charles M. Schulz "Peanuts". Not a saint at all, that girl!

Answer: Cataract

Couching is used to help with cataract. The lens is dislodged, for example, with a needle. The opaque lens is pushed downwards, light is able to enter the eye, so the patient is able to see something. That operation technique was done for centuries. Nowadays modern and more successful methods are mainly used, leaving the dangerous older method to be still practiced in parts of India and Africa.

Answer: Goalball

Goalball is played with a ball embedded with bells so that the two teams with three players hear the ball and try to get it to the opposite goal. As there are players with different levels of visual impairment, eyeshades are worn. It was introduced by Austrian Hans Lorenzen and German Sepp Reindle in 1946 as a sport for war invalids. Goalball is also played at the Paralympics since 1972. In December 2022, the Turkish women and the male team from Brazil won Gold at the Goalball world championship.

I guess they have to avoid cats going after the ball. My cat Fluffy would, if she had a chance and heard a jingle.

Answer: Mary Ingalls

The real Mary Ingalls, born 1865, lost her eyesight aged 14 due to an illness, at her time supposed to be scarlet fever, but experts of today suspect Meningoencephalitis to be responsible. She was educated at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School and after this lived at home, first with her mother, and after her mother's death with younger sisters. She never married or had children and died in 1928.

The fictional Mary Ingalls, played by Melissa Sue Anderson in "Little House on the Prairie", visited the school, became a teacher and married another blind teacher, with whom she had children. The fictional Mary supposedly had more drama in one episode than the real one in her whole life!

And now to the wrong answers. They are all linked through Michael Landon, who played Mary's father.

Hop Sing, played by Victor Sen Yung, cooked for Little Joe (Landon) and the rest of the Cartwright family in "Bonzana", including Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker), an elder brother of Little Joe. Mark Gordon, played by Victor French, is the guy traveling with "probationary" angel Jonathan Smith (Landon) in "Highway to Heaven". French also played in "Bonanza" in different roles and is better remembered as bearded friend of Charles Ingalls "Isaiah Edwards" in "Little House on the Prairie".

Answer: yes

With the development of video game techniques, there are more possibilities to make them easier and more interesting to play for everyone. In "Lost and Hound" the player follows an audio trail with a scent dog. In "Far Cry New Dawn" the player moreover has vibration feedback and can also use direct voice communication in chat features. Let's hope the games are that much fun as what I read about them.

Answer: A legal court

Lady Justice - Justitia- is an allegorical personification of justice. She carries a sword and scales and sometimes a blindfold. She is based on the Roman Goddess of Justice, Justitia. The scales are there for holding level the balance, the sword as a representative of authority. She is represented blindfolded (impartial) from the 16th Century on. As she represents justice, you will find her mainly in front of the legal courts.

Some famous ones:

Lady Justice with sword, scales and blindfold on the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (fountain of justice) in Berne, Switzerland. Also showing a bare leg, daring for 1543, when the fountain started to spout water.

The Justice, in front of the Supreme Court of Brazil, is more modern and abstract. And just a blind folded female head in front of the Government Center, Newark.