I'm Your Venus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Birmingham City

Mark Venus started out at his local team of Hartlepool United, before playing for Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ipswich Town and Cambridge United (with a loan spell at Dagenham & Redbridge), and finishing at Hibernian in 2004, becoming their caretaker manager in 2006. He and Tony Mowbray worked together at several clubs; Mowbray appointed Venus as his assistant manager at Hibernian, and the two were reunited at Blackburn Rovers, Celtic, West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough, Coventry City, Sunderland, and Birmingham City. It was at Birmingham where Venus found himself in the driving seat after Mowbray, who had succeeded Wayne Rooney after a disastrous period, had to step down due to illness. Gary Rowett was appointed as interim manager for the rest of the season in March 2024, and Venus left the club three months later.

(I did consider writing a question about Venus Williams, but it seemed too obvious!)

Answer: Over the pubic bones

The Mound of Venus - or, to give it its proper name, the mons pubis - is a mound of fatty tissue located over the pubic symphysis, the cartilaginous joint between the pubic bones. In women, it is larger and becomes more prominent once puberty kicks in; it forms the top and bottom parts of the vulva and is divided into the labia majora, a pair of skin folds.

It is also the area where pubic hair grows.

Answer: Peter O'Toole

The legendary Peter O'Toole, most known for starring in 'Lawrence of Arabia', played ageing actor Maurice Russell in 'Venus', directed by Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi. He was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 2007 Oscars, but was beaten by Forest Whitaker, who played Idi Amin in 'The Last King of Scotland'. In 'Venus', Maurice befriends Jessie (Jodie Whittaker of 'Doctor Who' fame), the great-niece of his friend Ian (Leslie Phillips), and dubs her 'Venus' after arranging for her to pose for an art class. 'Venus' is not a reference to Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus', but Diego Velasquez's 'The Rokeby Venus'.

Jessie is not sexually interested in Maurice, treating him as a friend, and the film comes to a head when Jessie and her boyfriend have sex in Maurice's flat and he kicks them out. Jessie causes him to injure himself when he tries to attack her boyfriend with his stick and she grabs it off him. She takes care of Maurice and the two go on holiday to the seaside resort of Whitstable, where he dies while the two are sitting on the beach.

Answer: Romania

Venus is one of several beaches on the Romanian Riviera, under the administration of the city of Mangalia, and is one of several resorts with names from Greco-Roman mythology, along with Saturn, Cap Aurora, Jupiter, Neptun and Olimp (Olympus). They are located on the coast of the Black Sea, with the Bulgarian Riviera further south, and are popular for their sandy beaches.

Other places on Earth named after the planet Venus include Venus Bay in Australia, Point Venus in Tahiti, Venus Glacier in Antarctica, the Indian neighbourhood Venus in Chennai, and several American unincorporated communities.

Answer: 1962

The Mariner space programme, a response to the Soviet Sputnik programme, was created by NASA to explore other planets within the inner part of the solar system (Mercury, Venus and Mars). There were ten Mariner probes altogether, and while Mariner 1 failed its mission and had to be destroyed, Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly past another planet.

It was launched into space at Cape Canaveral on 27th August 1962, passing by Venus four months later and measuring the planet's magnetic field and solar wind (a stream of particles flowing from the Sun).

It was able to confirm that the surface of Venus was extremely hot. The probe later began to orbit the Sun.

Answer: Black

Venus rice is a black rice variant that was created by crossing Italian risotto rice with Asian black rice. It is gluten-free and high in minerals, and said to go well with vegetables, white meat and shellfish, as well as being great in a risotto. It has a nutty taste and chewy texture, similar to brown rice, and gets its colour from natural colourants called anthocyanins.

When it is cooked, it turns a deep purplish-black colour.

Answer: Sailor Venus

The friend in question is Sailor Moon, the heroine of the anime of the same name, and Sailor Venus is the last of the five Sailor Senshi (Scouts) to join Sailor Moon's team. Her real name is Minako Aino (Mina in the dub) and she has more fighting experience than Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, due to her previous career as Sailor V, where she met her cat and partner Artemis.

When Sailor Venus first appears, she wears a mask and pretends to be the Moon Princess, but is actually acting as a decoy to distract the Dark Moon Kingdom from Sailor Moon, who is the real thing.

She fights with a chain whip made of heart-shaped links and manipulates light.

Answer: Venus clam

Venus clams, or venerids, are saltwater clams, many of which are edible. There are over 400 species of Venus clam; some of them, such as the quahog, sunray Venus clam or the striped Venus clam, are in the Veneridae family but different genera. To be classified as a Venus clam, the clam must be a bivalve mollusc with an external ligament or lunule, which can be found near the hinge line of the clam shell, and three cardinal teeth at the top of each valve.

Their shells are prized by shell collectors; many of them have a smooth, white inner layer and can be triangular or ovoid, as well as the archetypal rounder clam shell.

They can usually be found on the sandy bottom of the sea.

Answer: Dali

In pre-Christian Georgian mythology, the universe is a sphere divided into three parts: Zeskneli, the top part, which is white and the home of the gods; Earth, which is red; and Kveskneli, which is black and the bottom part where demons and monsters live. Dali, not to be confused with Spanish artist Salvador, is the goddess of the hunt and the planet Venus. She had blonde hair and pale skin, and lived in a cave; she was the patron of hoofed mountain animals, such as deer and ibex, and allowed hunters to hunt them as long as they obeyed her conditions, such as not overhunting or committing adultery. Hunters would sacrifice bread to Dali and consecrate an animal's horns to her after a hunt. She also took mortal lovers.

Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of Venus, Zorya is from Slavic myth and Ausrine is a Lithuanian goddess.

Answer: Shocking Blue

Shocking Blue were the band behind 'Venus' (and as much as I love Bananarama, I prefer the original) and 'Love Buzz', famously covered by Nirvana on their debut album Bleach. They were part of the Nederbeat movement, a type of Dutch rock music influenced by British bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

They came from the Hague and were founded by guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen; Mariska Veres, formerly of Les Mysteres, replaced original singer Fred de Wilde after he joined the army, and sang on 'Venus', released in 1969. Of note, Veres pronounced 'goddess' as 'godness' when recording the song.