A Little Bit of Brown Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ursus arctos horribilis

As Bill Bryson said in 'A Walk in the Woods', the grizzly bear lives up to its name! The word 'grizzly' is thought to either be a reference to its shaggy fur, or 'grisly' as in 'gruesome'. Grizzly bears have long claws adapted for digging, and they are mainly found in Canada and the US, mainly in Alaska, though some live as far south as Yellowstone. Grizzlies are notoriously aggressive compared to black bears, and most of the attacks on humans are by angry mother grizzly bears defending their cubs.

The other answers are the Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), the Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos lasiotus) and the Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus).

Answer: Weapon Brown

'Weapon Brown' started life as a webcomic, and is a darker and edgier take on 'Peanuts', featuring parodies of characters from other comic strips such as 'Garfield' and 'Calvin & Hobbes'. It was released in comic book form in 2002. It is set in a post-apocalypse dystopia. Weapon Brown is a cyborg with a faithful dog, Snoop, and his arch-enemy is Linus van Pelt, who has an obsession with an eldritch abomination known as the Great Pumpkin.

Other 'Peanuts' parodies include Peppermint Patty as a brothel owner, Pigpen as a drug addict, and Lucy as a scientist who works for the mysterious Syndicate.

The comic even features spin-off stories based on 'Peanuts' stories, such as 'A Weapon Brown Christmas'. Yungbluth later wrote a sequel, 'Blockhead's War'.

Answer: The Ring and the Book

'The Ring and the Book' is a novel-length poem based on a real-life event involving an Italian nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, who was tried and convicted of murdering his wife Pompilia and her parents. He had suspected her of having an affair. Franceschini appealed to the Pope at the time, Pope Innocent XII, but his appeal was rejected and he was executed. Browning was on holiday in Italy when he bought a compilation of statements regarding the case at a flea market.

The poems consists of twelve 'books', narrated from various points of view; Browning himself is the narrator of the first and final books.

Answer: Khuren

'Khüren' (transliterated) is the Mongolian word for 'brown'. For instance, a 'khüren azarga' means a 'brown stallion'. 'Chairo' is Japanese, 'kahve rengi' (which literally means 'coffee colour') is Turkish, and 'bhūrā' is Punjabi.

Answer: Brendan O'Carroll

'Mrs Brown's Boys' started out as a radio play, 'Mrs Browne's Boys', on Irish radio. Brendan O'Carroll wrote four books based on the play; one of these, 'The Mammy', was adapted into the 1999 film 'Agnes Browne', which starred Anjelica Huston in the title role. O'Carroll then put together a theatre company, Mrs Brown's Boys, and dressed in drag to play the role of Agnes Brown (now dropping the 'e') himself as the original actress never turned up.

Other members of his family were also involved. In 2009, he was commissioned to turn the plays into a TV show, and 'Mrs Brown's Boys' was born.

A feature film, 'Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie', came out in 2014.

Answer: Pam Grier

'Jackie Brown' was a homage to classic blaxploitation movies such as 'Coffy' and 'Foxy Brown', both of which also starred Grier, and was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel 'Rum Punch'. It tells the story of Jackie, an air hostess who makes extra money on the side by smuggling money between Mexico and the US for gunrunner Ordell Robbie (Samuel L Jackson). She teams up with Max Cherry (Robert Forster), a bail bondsman, in a plan to cheat Ordell of his money.

Like many Tarantino films, 'Jackie Brown' has a soundtrack featuring many classic rock and soul tracks by artists such as Bill Withers and Minnie Riperton. Samuel L Jackson won the Silver Bear for his part in the film at the 1998 Berlin International Film Festival.

Answer: Heroin

Heroin has many nicknames, and one of them is 'brown' after the brown colour it can have in powder form; it resembles brown sugar (another nickname for heroin). It can be smoked, snorted or injected, and is considered a Class A drug due to its extremely addictive and dangerous properties.

In the UK, it is prescribed as a powerful pain medication under the name of diamorphine; diamorphine has also been used in other European countries to treat heroin addiction.

Answer: The Pogues - 'Brown-Eyed Girl'

'Brown-Eyed Girl' is the odd one out - it's by Van Morrison, not the Pogues! The Pogues did, however, have a song called 'A Pair of Brown Eyes', which is on the album 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash'.

'Brown Girl in the Ring' is a traditional children's song from Jamaica, the home country of Boney M singers Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett. The Boney M version was originally the B-side to 'Mary's Boy Child', and was later remixed as a 1993 single by producer Frank Farian.

'Golden Brown', allegedly about heroin (though the Stranglers said the lyrics were whatever people wanted them to be) was the Stranglers' highest-charting UK single at Number 2 in 1982.

'Brown Sugar' was the first single to be released from the Rolling Stones' album 'Sticky Fingers' in 1970. It was premiered live at the Stones' headline set at the notorious Altamont Free Concert in December 1969.

Answer: Heliotrope

Heliotrope is actually a type of purple, named for the flowers of the genus Heliotropium.

Sepia is the Latin name for cuttlefish, and the colour gets its name from the ink they produce, which is reddish-brown in colour.

Tan is a pale shade of brown which gets its name from tannum, oak bark used to tan leather (and the word 'tan' also has connotations of skin browning in the sun).

Mahogany is a type of precious hardwood with a reddish-brown colour. It comes from trees of the genus Swietenia.

Answer: Chancellor of the Exchequer

Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair as Prime Minister in June 2007. He had been appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e. the minister in charge of economic and financial matters, who runs Her Majesty's Treasury) ten years earlier, and had previously served as an MP for Dunfermline, and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

The 2008 recession proved costly for Labour, with the loss of 91 seats being their biggest since 1931, and Brown resigned as the leader of the Labour Party in 2010. He was replaced by Ed Miliband, while the Conservative David Cameron was elected Prime Minister.