Inge by Inge (Punny You Should Say That) Quiz

Answer: Shirt

"Ing" means "shirt" in Hungarian. The proverb literally means: "If the shirt doesn't fit don't wear it". Precisely, "ing" is shirt, "inge" is genitive case, a noun case used to show possession, meaning "the shirt of somebody".

The genitive case is used in Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, German, Greek, Gothic, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Sanskrit, Scottish Gaelic, Swedish, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Turkish and all Slavic languages except Macedonian.

The (modern) English language uses the possessive case rather than genitive.

(Submitted by urbankheki)

Answer: Her billiard table had been taken away

The first recorded game of billiards was in 14th century France played as a lawn game. King Louis XI owned the first known indoor billiards table. Since Mary was married to the Dauphin she may have acquired her love of the game while living in France and remained an avid player throughout her life. Reports of her execution claim her headless body was wrapped in the velvet cloth from her billiards table.

Mary was a dog lover and her little dog was said to have hidden under her skirts during her execution. The former Queen was in the (expensive) habit of washing her face with white wine, believing it beneficial to her pale white complexion. When the executioner lifted her severed head it was revealed that under an auburn wig, the Queen's hair was white. Her letter of complaint, however, made no mention of the dog's food, her wine "allowance", nor her wigs.

(Submitted by sally0malley)

Answer: John Paul Getty

John Paul Getty Sr (1892-1975), was the founder of the Getty Oil Company, and at one time considered the richest man in America (1957) - and he did not grow rich from being free with his money. To call him stingy was complimentary. This man was an utter Scrooge.

Some examples of his avarice include having a pay phone installed in his place of residence for everyone to pay for their calls; doing his own laundry by hand to save paying for a service; cutting frayed bits off his shirts so he could continue wearing them; replying to any correspondence by writing on the sides of the original letters and posting them back that way; making guests at one rare event to which he invited them, walk around the block until the five shillings-a-head tickets dropped to half-price; and making guests use outside portable toilets. It was his treatment of one of his sons and a grandson, however, that revealed the extent of his obsession with money.

When his six year old son, Timothy, went blind at the age of six from a brain tumour, Getty objected strongly to his wife spending so much money on the child's treatment - and when Timothy died six years later, Getty did not attend his funeral. Then, in 1973, when his grandson, John Paul Getty III, was abducted, and the kidnappers demanded seventeen million dollars ransom, Getty, although worth several billion by then, initially refused to pay, so the kidnappers promptly cut off one of the boy's ears and threatened to send the rest of him back in pieces if Getty didn't shell out. Over the following days, he then haggled over the price - got the kidnappers down to three million - but only paid just over two million instead to conclude the deal. His grandson was completely traumatised by the experience, became a drug addict, had a stroke, lost most of his vision, and was paralysed for the rest of his life. Multi billionaire John Paul Getty, then, must surely receive the Stinge Award for the meanest man in America.

(Submitted by Creedy)

Answer: Ginge

Lucille, or Lucy, was actually a natural brunette. She was urged to change her hair color to further her film career. She chose a color called "golden apricot".

Lucy's hair stylist, Irma Kusely, described the painstaking process of alternating hair dye with henna rinse to achieve the famous shade of red. "I used regular hair dye [to color it], and then a henna rinse, which she was famous for".

Lucy met a wealthy man who had heard about her problem achieving the perfect color and he sent her a lifetime supply of henna rinse which was kept under lock and key in Kusely's garage.

Other famous "ginges" (natural or not) are Debra Messing, Emma Stone, Cynthia Nixon, Amy Adams and Nicole Kidman to name a few!

(Submitted by debbitts)

Answer: Iran

Haji, whose real name was unknown, died at age 94 in the village of Dejgah, Iran. He lived for decades in a cinder-block shack surviving largely on roadkill, with porcupine being a favorite. Believing soap and water to be potentially dangerous, he was also well known for smoking animal dung and drinking from puddles.

Perhaps coincidentally, his death occurred just a few months after his neighbors convinced him to bathe for the first time in more than half a century. For those wanting more about this story, or to clean up a few facts, a 2013 documentary titled 'The Strange Life of Amou Haji' is available.

(Submitted by bubblesfun)

Answer: Plucked their hair out up past the hairline

Hair draped across the forehead for both men and women was the way it was worn as far back as Ancient Egypt. This was also the case in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire as well. It was the fashion. As far as beauty went, though, a lovely clear skin was the desirable look people sought in a girl in some eras - and in others, a set of fine healthy teeth. During the Elizabethan age in particular, a hallmark of beauty for women and girls was a high unadorned forehead.

So what did those foolish ladies do? No matter how painful it was, they plucked all the hair out of their foreheads, as high up as they could, to achieve the desired effect. If you look at paintings of Elizabethan women online or in literature, you will see this is the case, and none more so, than Good Queen Bess. In the famous Darnley portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (circa 1575), her denuded forehead bears somewhat of a resemblance to a plucked fowl.

Another contributing factor as to why women during this period removed any sign of hair on their foreheads, such as a fringe for example - as discussed in Victoria Sherrow's "Encyclopedia of Hair" (2006) - was the fact that the clergymen of the time decided it was sinful and thundered from the pulpit that this was a sign of vanity and "a slide into mortal sin". Oh, what nonsense, forsooth!

(Submitted by Creedy)

Answer: A type of beard

Newgate was a notorious prison in London built in the 12th century. It became the site of public hangings in the 18th century when executions (by hanging) were moved there from Tyburn.

Newgate Fringe was a style of beard where the "collar" of the beard is under the chin, roughly the same position as a hangman's noose around the criminal's neck which gave the appearance of a white beard.

Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian nobleman and politician, as well as Abraham Lincoln, wore this type of beard under the chin and jaw.

The phrase "Newgate Fringe" can be traced back to Charles Dickens, "I seized my best razor, and, as a great example, shaved off the whole of the Newgate Fringe from under my chin!" (from a letter written Oct. 25, 1853). (As sited in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

(Submitted by urbankheki)

Answer: George Hamilton

Known for movies from "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing" to a hilarious performance as Dracula in "Love at First Bite" to "The Godfather III", and tv including "Dynasty" and showing an elegant style on "Dancing with the Stars", he was even rumored to have been leading the running to replace Bob Barker on "The Price is Right" when Barker retired. Hamilton has long been a part of the international jet set as well as a staple on the Hollywood social scene, and always with a golden tan.

As for the tan, according to a 2012 interview with the "Tampa Bay Times", he once said, "While I put forth the suntan and the teeth and the cavalier attitude, I've survived under the worst of eras and times, and I've always had a good time doing it, because I never really took myself seriously, nor did I take life seriously because it is already terribly serious."

(Submitted by Bubblesfun)

Answer: Persian

For its 2500th anniversary in 1971, the Persian Empire threw a party that lasted for three days. It was attended by royalty and the Hollywood elite.

Planning for the event took well over a decade! In her memoir, "Kohan Diara: The Memoirs of Farah Pahlavi", the Shah's wife wrote that the party was part of the royal family's campaign to prove that the Pahlavi era was "a period of renaissance for Iranian civilization".

Though the aim of the celebration was to demonstrate Iran's long history, the menu was mainly French, as the Shah wished to express Iran's refinement and its contemporary advancements under his rule. Maxim's of Paris was in charge of the menu which included 2700 kg of beef, pork and lamb, 1280 kg of fowl and game, 30 kg of caviar, and a truckload of ice. Additionally, 2500 bottles of champagne, 100 bottles of Burgundy and 2000 bottles of whiskey were served.

The Shah's dinner party lasted over five and a half hours, making it the longest and most lavish official banquet in modern history (certified by the Guinness Book of World Records).

Because it was thrown far from the public eye, celebrated without the people, discontent ensued. Some historians claimed this massive expenditure exacerbated the people's dissatisfaction with the Shah, which would lead to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Others suggest figures were overstated to discredit the Shah's regime.

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had ruled for 40 years, was forced from power in 1979 and died in exile.

(submitted by debbitts)

Answer: Orange

Harley spent four years in the hospital between the ages of three and 16. While recovering from surgeries for polio, he became an avid reader. At the age of 12 he was reading D. H. Lawrence and listening to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. By his own admission he was "preoccupied with words and music".

Praised by Rod Stewart as "one of the finest lyricists Britain has ever produced", Harley's lyrics in "The Mad Moonlight" vividly describe a unusual encounter at a party.

The song begins :
"It was just like a dream - yeah a surreal scene - like a blue orange
I thought my senses had gone - like writing a song about a foot-long syringe."

"Orange" is a two-syllable word stressing the last syllable so it needs a two-syllable word rhyme . One word would be "sporange", an old English word for a spore sac, and another would be "Blorenge", a mountain in Wales. I don't imagine there would have been much of a need for either of those words in 1970s song!

(submitted by sally0malley)