A Nice Hot Cup of Coffee Trivia Quiz

Answer: Austen

"Mansfield Park" is a Cinderella-type story of a poor girl, Fanny Price, who went to live with wealthy relations, Sir Thomas Bertram and his family, who live at Mansfield Park. Shy, self-deprecating Fanny grows up and falls in love with her cousin Edmund, but alas, he's in love with pretty, witty, wealthy Mary Crawford. The plot thickens....

Answer: Nottingham

Nottingham is a real city in central England. Other communities in Nottinghamshire include Mansfield and Newark. (Narnia is C.S. Lewis's mythical kingdom.)

Answer: Iris

The colored part of your eye is called an iris, too. And of course, iris flowers come in many different colors, most notably deep blue. In Egyptian mythology, Isis was sister to Osiris, god of the dead--she was also his wife! After his brother Seth murdered Osiris, Isis took 14 dismembered bits of him and put him back together.

Answer: charlotte

Charlotte russe is a Russian charlotte. Charlotte Bronte wrote "Jane Eyre."

Answer: Elizabeth

Elizabeth may be the liveliest, wittiest Austen heroine. Elinor is one of the heroines of "Sense and Sensibility." Emma is the heroine of (you guessed it) "Emma." Eugenia is an ancestress of mine.

Answer: Holes

The movie stars Shia LeBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, and Jon Voigt. It's almost as good as the book, in this quiz writer's opinion.

Answer: Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland also starred in "The Heiress," 1949 (based on "Washington Square" by Henry James) and with Bette Davis in the 1964 horror film "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Olivia Hussey starred in Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet," in 1968, with Leonard Whiting. Olivia Twist is the name of a musical comedy written by Gerald P. Murphy.

Answer: thirteen

Player aislina supplied this explanation of why a baker's dozen is 13: In the mid-13th century, British law imposed strict regulations on bakers regarding the weight of bread, as bakers were widely regarded the way we do used-car salesmen now, (a necessary evil) and often were accused of short-weighting each loaf they sold.

The bakers wanted to ensure they met the regulations at all times, never knowing when the inspector would arrive (and wanting to avoid the embarrassment of the pillory and a steep fine, not to mention a ruined reputation.) It was impossible to guarantee loaves of uniform weight in those days before automation, so a 13th item was added to every twelve as a little lagniappe (gift given to a purchaser) to push the weight comfortably into the safe zone. Thus "a baker's dozen" meant 13. Thanks, aislina, for that interesting explanation!

Answer: Catherine Morland

Cathy Earnshaw is the heroine of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." (She's the one who's always yelling "Heathcliff! Heathcliff!") Caroline Bingley is Jane Bennet's suitor's ill-natured sister in "Pride and Prejudice." Caroline Ingalls was children's author Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother aka "Ma" of the Little House books.

Answer: unicorn

Each has a single horn. A narwhal is a kind of whale with a long, twisted tusk. A minotaur is part man, part bull; a griffin is part lion, part eagle; and a centaur is a cross between a human being and a horse.

Answer: Politi

When I was little I went to a book signing and Leo Politi signed his name in my copy of his book. He embellished his beautiful signature with watercolor decorations. Politi won Caldecott Honor awards in 1947 and 1949. He won the Caldecott Medal for "Song of the Swallows" in 1950. Leo G. Carroll played Alexander Waverly on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." Garth Williams is another celebrated children's illustrator. Leo Goldstein Safir is my friends' son.

Answer: Oz

It's a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" with two protagonists: The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, the Good Witch. It begins when the two are teenagers and they're assigned to room together at a Hogwarts-like boarding school.

Answer: Forster

E.M. Forster also wrote "A Room with a View" and "Howard's End." George Orwell wrote "Burmese Days." Paul Scott wrote "The Raj Quartet," and Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Jungle Book."

Answer: Carrie

All four are based on Stephen King novels. The original "Carrie" stars Sissy Spacek as a teenaged outcast with telekinetic powers.

Answer: orange

In French, red is rouge, yellow is jaune, blue is bleu, and orange is orange (it's pronounced oh-RAWNGE, however). There's a French soft drink called "Orangina."

Answer: Fourth

His great-grandpa, grandpa, and dad were all named Stanley Yelnats, too.

Answer: Fred

Rosamund Vincy forms an unhappy union with Dr. Tertius Lydgate. Will Ladislaw is in love with his cousin's wife, Dorothea Brooke Casaubon. Caleb Garth is Mary's father, and Mary marries Rosamund's brother, Fred Vincy. If you've not read this masterpiece, you should. The second best choice is to rent the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation.

Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt (nee Anna Eleanor Roosevelt) was Teddy Roosevelt's niece. She married her cousin Franklin. A civil rights activist, Mrs. Roosevelt was the head of a United Nations human rights committee after her husband's death. Edith Wilson was Woodrow Wilson's second wife. Bess Truman became First Lady when FDR died in office. Betty Ford helped to establish the Betty Ford Center for treatment of alcohol and drug dependency.

Answer: Emma

Gwyneth Paltrow starred in the movie "Emma." Alicia Silverstone starred in "Clueless," a modern-day version of the story. The Jane Austen book has some great comic characters such as Mr. Woodhouse, an elderly invalid whose idea of a good time is to settle down in front of a warm fire with "a nice basin of gruel."

Answer: A nice hot cup of coffee

That's what I'd like right now: a steaming mug of fresh-ground French roast coffee, with milk, or even cream. And maybe some French bread toast with butter and ginger jam.