10 Interesting Facts Trivia Quiz

Answer: Horse

The Snickers bar which has sales of over $2 billion dollars annually - oh my aching dental fillings - is a block of nougat within a coating of peanuts and caramel, which is then finished off with the obligatory chocolate covering. Introduced to the dentist-loving world in 1930, this treat was named after the Mars family's favourite horse. By 2004, with a health conscious world becoming more than aware of the increasing global obesity epidemic in the affluent parts of the globe, Mars Incorporated set about creating a more health-based Snickers bar.

The new bar has reduced portion sizes (though the price hasn't followed suit), labels stating what each bar contains are more clearly marked (oh big deal), and, more importantly, fat, sugar and salt contents have been reduced. This probably makes the new Snickers taste like something the horse himself would delight in eating, but at least it allows the health conscious to munch into one with a clear conscience. A far better solution, perhaps, would be to not eat one at all.

Answer: Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson

The absolutely delightful television show "Little House on the Prairie" filled our screens with laughter, a little bit of sorrow, drama, and heart warming stories from 1974 until 1982. The series is based around a young family living on a farm not far from a nearby village in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The time period is between the 1870s and 1880s. Nellie Oleson, played to perfection by Alison Angrim (born 1962), is the daughter of the village's main store owners, the Olesons. She is blonde and pretty, but spoiled rotten, nasty, mean and very jealous of anything that the heroine of the show, Laura Ingalls, accomplishes. Her character is so bad that it's hilarious. Of course, she almost always meets her comeuppance at the hands of Laura, who is played so adeptly by Melissa Gilbert.

Nellie's character improves somewhat in the later series of this lovable show, but to tell the truth, she was far more entertaining in her original manifestation. After Allison, who won a Young Artists Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in this series, left the show, her career took the path of further acting roles, stand-up comedian and author. She is also quite well known for the various charities she supports, and it was at one of these fund-raisers that she met her second husband, to whom she has been married since 1993. This followed a very brief fling at matrimony during the 1980s. You may be interested to also know that Alison and Melissa Gilbert are good friends in real life and have kept in regular contact with each other ever since the show ceased production.

Answer: The dining room table of the family home

Oh poor Lizzie. Though acquitted of the brutal murders of her father and stepmother at the trial which took place in 1893, the public remained convinced until the day she died that she had indeed committed this foul deed. Lizzie's behaviour during the earlier inquest hearing in August, 1892, was described as erratic and unstable and, on occasion, she either contradicted herself or refused to answer altogether, staring instead at her questioners with a blank expression on her face. Nobody thought to inform those present that the family doctor had prescribed morphine tablets for Lizzie to calm her nerves after the murder and the autopsy. Instead, they whispered that this was the behaviour of a seasoned murderess.

The details leading up to the murders are too long and detailed to include in this quiz. It was the autopsy that was absolutely bizarre and quite possibly pushed Lizzie over the edge. This was carried out, unbelievably, on the family dining room table. It's a wonder Lizzie didn't develop an eating disorder as a result of that bit of bizarreness. Peculiarly so, the heads of the murder victims were removed during the autopsy, then suddenly produced, without warning, at Lizzie's trial. She fainted upon witnessing that dreadful piece of showmanship. Though ultimately acquitted of the murders, Lizzie's life was never the same afterwards. She was completely ostracised by the society of the town in which she lived. Her sister stayed with her for ten years after the terrible events that took place, but, in 1905, she moved out of the new house they had purchased together, and never saw Lizzie again. Lizzie spent the remainder of her life (1860-1927), though surrounded by domestic servants, lonely and shunned, unloved and unwanted, indelibly marked as guilty by the world, although proven innocent by her peers.

Answer: It represented the crown of thorns of Jesus

The tonsure was the early Christian practice of shaving the major part of the head of Catholic monks and other devotees of this Christian faith, so that only a fringe of hair was left around the perimeter of the scalp. This somewhat peculiar practice emerged some time between 700-800 AD, and continued for the next twelve centuries until it was banned by Papal decree in 1972. One wonders if that had anything to do with the influence of the internationally famous group, the Beatles, and their long, unshorn heads of hair, a hair style fashion that raced through the ranks of men and boys everywhere with the speed of a wildfire. If a Catholic devotee particularly wishes to reclaim this practice, however, and if his reasons are sound enough for doing so, special Papal permission can be (somewhat reluctantly) granted.

At one stage, the tonsure was held in such regard that it was considered almost sacrilegious to wish to abandon it, and anyone rash enough to defy this practice could find himself expelled from his clerical order. Today in the Eastern Orthodox churches, three types of tonsure are still practised. The first of these is the Baptismal shave which is considered a sacrificial offering. The second is the Monastic cut which symbolises the surrendering of one's will to the Lord upon first entering any particular order. The third is known as the Clerical tonsure which is carried out prior to the final ordination process. The tonsure we would perhaps most easily recognise today from old literature or films is the common or St Peter's tonsure. This is the one that is symbolic of the crown of thorns placed on the head of Jesus during the terrible ordeal of the crucifixion.

Answer: An obscenity had been surreptiously added by an engraver

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was initially published in the United Kingdom and Canada in 1884, a year before it was published in the United States. Set along the Mississippi, it traces the adventures of young Huck Finn after he has fled from the attempts of the Widow Douglas to civilise him. Many themes can be read in this book, depending on the age bracket of the reader. For boys it is a ripping good yarn, for adults it raised and still raises a few eyebrows, it is rather heavily criticised today for its racist overtones, and of course academics see it as the last hoorah of savage man trying to hold his own against the moulding and reshaping influences of society. Its initial reception in Twain's own country ranged from enthusiastic to shocked to lukewarm, and it was roundly criticised for its coarse language. Had the readers of the day known of the hastily corrected error found after the first edition had been printed, there would have been an outcry.

This "error" was the result of a last minute change made to one of the illustrated plates by an unknown engraver, before the book went to the printers, and after it had already been approved. Nobody knows why the engraver did this, but when discovered, it caused an uproar. The correct image should have been Uncle Silas Phelps and a smiling Aunt Sally talking to a boy, with the caption underneath reading "Who do you reckon it is?". The engraver left everything else as it was, but endowed Uncle Silas with an extra part of his anatomy, in a state other than resting, emerging from his trousers. Can you imagine the absolute shock to the sensibilities of the ladies and the outrage of the gentlemen of the time if this gutter art had remained undetected? The image, in a book that children read, would be disgusting even in today's world.

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

How romantic. Apparently the male of the species had genes that were already considered superior for he made no comment about the same. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) certainly spread his genes far and wide, that's for sure. Apart from the healthy breeder to which he was legally married, he fathered children with three other women in both Switzerland and Germany as well. To be fair to the man, he loved and provided for them all, for the relationships continued over many years. They weren't just (oh dear, this is irresistible) fly-by-night flings.

Lindbergh, the famous airman who flew solo on a non-stop flight from the United States to France in 1927, was also an author, inventor, explorer, social activist and environmentalist. He inspired many, his various flights were the stuff that legends are made of, he was immensely intelligent and far-sighted, he created controversy on more than one occasion, he was a hero, father, and husband, he was fascinated with genetics, and he held very different and provocative views on many subjects that were almost considered taboo for the times. He detested womanising men, yet, peculiarly so, was one himself. What a fascinating genetic bunch of contradictions. Of women he stated "that the ideal romance was stable and long term, with a woman with keen intellect, good health, and strong genes" and added that his "experience in breeding animals on our farm had taught me the importance of good heredity."

Here's an historically interesting fact: In December 1968, on the day before they took off on the first manned lunar mission, Charles Lindbergh visited the crew of Apollo 8 to wish them well. He was also present at the launch of the successful moon landing of the crew of Apollo 11 in 1969, almost as though he was handing the baton on to the next generation of the world's aviation heroes. The endlessly intriguing Charles Lindbergh is buried on an isolated and lonely but beautiful part of the Hawaiian island of Maui. There he rests eternally, waiting for his ultimate flight. His lovely, haunting epitaph, psalm 139:9, taken from the English standard version of the Bible psalm 139:9, says simply "...If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ... C.A.L".

Answer: Tobacco enemas

Native Americans used tobacco for a variety of purposes. These included religious worship (many smokers today would heartily endorse that), pain-relieving poultices, treatments for cancer, cramps, gout, intestinal worms, breathing problems (breathing problems!?), that most insulting of all terms, "female diseases", and, of all things, enemas. The belief behind this practice was that it soaked up moisture, warmed the body, and maintained a healthy and balanced system. The western world, never content to leave anything undeveloped further, also used the tobacco enema to cure bowel blockages, for fumigating buildings to prevent the spread of disease, to revive drowning victims, as a cure for convulsions, and to treat cholera and hernias. The patient, it was stated, should of course be first bled before having smoke blown up their backsides. Oh to live in Europe in the happy, happy days of 17th and 18th century medical practice.

Strangely enough, it was England's King James I who was the strongest opponent of this bizarre practice. Other brave souls who spoke out against it said that tobacco enemas just made the brain sooty, and that the elderly shouldn't be given them (thank heavens for longevity) because they were dried up anyway! The practice of colonic lighting up fell into disuse after 1811 when it was discovered that the nicotine contained in tobacco was actually poisonous. Unfortunately, this dire discovery had no effect on the rebellious minds of mankind at all. It merely shifted locations for the continuous consumption of tobacco instead.

Answer: Shirley Temple

Poor Shirley. There is no resemblance at all, rest assured of that. Pattycake, however, was just as beautiful in her own right. She was born in the Central Park Zoo in New York in 1972. Her parents, named Lulu and Kongo, were African western lowland gorillas, and, such was the fame surrounding the little girl's birth, and the intense media following that ensued, people flocked to the zoo in their thousands to see the small gorilla nestled so protectively in her mother's arms.

At one stage Pattycake's arm was broken when it was somehow caught in the cage when Lulu snatched the baby back from Kongo who was demanding equal parental rights. This incident was highlighted out of all proportion in the media as a domestic dispute between Pattycake's parents. What nonsense. However, and believe it or not, the incident, which involved Pattycake being treated at the Bronx Zoo, escalated to such an extent that an actual custody battle broke out between the two establishments for the rights to keep Pattycake. This was known as the Custody Battle of the Decade. I sadly fear, dear readers, that gorillas have far more sense than humans.

When Pattycake was born, she was at first thought to be male, and the zoo handlers weren't game to go close enough to the protective parents to check further, so for a time she was called Sonny Jim. When she subsequently and indignantly later revealed herself to be the most dainty of females, a city wide contest was held to give her a name. This was won by a New York fireman who named her after his wife and the daughter they planned to have. He was going to call his daughter Cake? The lovely Pattycake was moved to the Bronx Zoo when she was ten years old, separated forever from the parents who loved her. During the remaining years of her life, before she died in 2013, she gave birth to ten of her own babies, and lived long enough to see her first grandchild born. She died in her sleep at the age of forty, after having spent her entire life in captivity.

Answer: Corset wearing women made bad cadavers to study

Before bloomers became the height of fashion for women at that time in history, the current clothing styles for the fairer sex called for thick long skirts that dragged along the floor, and that had to be worn over several layers of thick petticoats to meet the required billowing effect. These were made even heavier by being stiffened by horsehair. Long, slender eighteen inch waists were also called for, and that diabolical fashion required the use of exceptionally tightly laced whale bone corsets. No wonder women were constantly swooning during this time. I'd be in a downright coma.

Bloomers saved our lives, our health and our sanity. There's nothing wrong with a healthy wobble, you must agree. To make it even better, ladies, bloomers were heartily endorsed by the medical profession at the time who were renowned throughout the world, my dears, for their gentlemanlike concern for our health. In the world of make believe, that is. In reality, ladies, those learned chaps hardly seemed to care one whit for our foolishly followed fashion related health problems at all. What they did care about however was that corsets were producing a female population whose internal organs were being distorted, distended and distressed. Corset wearing women, as stated in a medical journal of 1851, were of no use as corpses at all for medical students to study and practice upon during their anatomy classes.

Answer: Heredity can tend to run out of ideas

The famous German composer and musician, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) had twenty children in all. Music is such a very creative business, you see. Seven of these were with his first wife who passed away in 1730. Bach remarried a much younger woman in 1721 and had thirteen more children with her. Goodness me. The well known composers and musicians found among the twenty Bach children included Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), Gottfried Heinrich (1724-1763), Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795) and Johann Christian (1735-1782).

Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (1759-1845) was the eldest child of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and the only one of the great Johann Sebastian Bach's grandchildren to display any musical leanings. He received his musical training from two of his uncles and worked for a time in various posts in Germany, before finally settling down as musical director to the king of Prussia, Frederick William II (1744-1797). This is where, when asked if he had any musical cousins, that Bach responded in the negative with the statement that "Heredity can tend to run out of ideas". After the king's death Bach worked mainly as the city of Berlin's top musical director until his retirement. With the death of his only son in infancy, the musical genius of the Bach family ran out altogether. Their Bach, it seemed, was worse than their bite.