10 Questions: Am I Blue? Multiple Choice Quiz | General

Answer: A junior British barrister

Barristers are the lawyers who handle court cases in the UK; lawyers who handle estates, wills, and all the other legal mundanities are called solicitors. A person can be both a barrister and a solicitor, of course. But why is a barrister called a priest of the blue bag? Traditionally, the junior barrister's court robes are carried to and from court in blue cotton damask bags (Q.C.'s have red cotton damask bags, because they're senior counsel!) The bag has a drawstring closing and is carried over the shoulder like a duffle bag.

This has been going on for centuries, and I have absolutely no idea (nor, seemingly, does anyone else) why the term "priest of the blue bag" came into use, or who first used it.

Answer: Excelled in an Oxford vs Cambridge sporting event

To earn a blue, one has to compete in an Oxford (dark blue)/Cambridge (light blue) sporting event - rowing or rugby, for instance. Both men and women are eligible to earn a blue. After the competition, they might enjoy a Labatt's Blue, a popular Canadian beer.

Answer: A learned woman

In 1750, Elizabeth Montagu, tired of being excluded from rational conversation because women weren't thought capable of it, founded an informal salon, and invited ladies and gentlemen of taste and intellect to foregather to discuss literature, art, and architecture, along with places and events of interest to them. Because the group met on an informal basis, they dressed down rather than up, and wore comfortable clothing, which, for the women, included the blue worsted stockings they would wear at their country homes.

The club became known as The Bluestocking Society. Later, any woman who had a brain and used it was referred to as a Bluestocking.

Answer: The Monday before Ash Wednesday

While Income Tax return day can make us feel a little blue, and the Monday of the Labour Day weekend signals an end to summer, which can make us blue, too, Blue Monday is actually the Monday before Ash Wednesday. Along With Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday), it is traditionally the last hurrah before the forty long days of Lent, with its fasting and emphasis on penitence. For some reason, Blue Monday was considered to be a day of dissipation, which might leave one feeling a little blue around the edges.

Answer: All of these

Scottish Highlanders are known as Bluebonnets because of the blue woollen caps worn by many Highlanders. The Bluebonnet flower, a member of the lupin family, is so called because its petals resemble the shape of the sunbonnets worn by pioneer women. Bluebonnet Margarine is a popular North American brand.

Answer: A pupil at a charity school

The first Bluecoat School was Christ's Hospital in London. Founded during the reign of Edward VI, the school provided an education for children whose parents could not afford to pay. There are now Bluecoat Schools all over Britain, and they have long since abandoned the charity school role, and tend to specialize in arts education for gifted students.

The term Bluecoat is a reference to the uniform of the students - originally a long blue coat (vaguely resembling a cassock), with yellow stockings and flat blue Tudor-period caps. White neckbands were added in the late 16th century, and knee breeches for boys and yellow petticoats for girls in the Georgian era.

The coats were blue, because in Tudor and Stuart times blue was the cheapest dye. Until relatively recent times, it was not uncommon to see boys (and girls) in this uniform, but nowadays it is worn only on special occasions.

Answer: People who live in Nova Scotia

I don't know about you, but my nose is usually red (from blowing it) when I have a cold, while people who take snuff are more likely to have yellowish-brown noses, and you'd have to be a very sloppy eater to get a blue nose from eating blueberry pie. Why are people from Nova Scotia called Bluenoses? One suggestion is that the nickname came about because at one time sailors wore blue mittens which, naturally, got wet and when they rubbed their noses the dye came off. Since most Nova Scotians live within sight and sound of the sea, and many derive their living from fishing and shipping, those blue mittens would be worn by most of the population.

Another theory is that it's because the hardy Nova Scotians face into stiff breezes blowing off the North Atlantic, and that would give anyone a blue nose!

Answer: Minerva, goddess of wisdom

In his translation of the Sixth Book of the Odysseys by Homer, Chapman describes Nausicaa's vision of Minerva. After giving Nausicaa some tips on how to treat Ulysses,
"away blue-eyed Minerva went,
up to Olympus, the firm continent
that bears in endless being
the deified kind."
Ah, those Greeks had a way with words!

One sharp-eyed quizzer pointed out that Minerva is actually the Roman goddess equivalent to Pallas Athena, who would have been much more familiar to Ulysses and Nausicaa, but Chapman refers to her as Minerva.

Answer: Australia

Why would a redhead be nicknamed Bluey? Must be an Antipodean thing. Mind you, in Australia, you have to be clear which Bluey you're referring to, since it can also mean a heavy wool or felt jacket worn by miners or construction workers, a blue cattle dog, a pack or equipment, a traffic ticket or a bluebottle jellyfish.

Answer: Paul Whiteman

In 1923, George Gershwin accomanied singer Eva Gautier for a concert she gave at the Aeolian Hall in New York. The program included jazz songs, and the orchestra leader, Paul Whiteman, impressed by Gershwin, approached the young composer and asked him to write a serious jazz piece for a concert that Whiteman and his orchestra were planning to introduce jazz to a serious music audience. Gershwin agreed to take on the commission, and then promptly forgot about it, and began work on the music for 'Sweet Little Devil" It wasn't until January, 1924, when he happened to read a newspaper piece about Whiteman's forthcoming concert, entitled 'Experiment in Modern Music', scheduled for February 12, that he recalled his promise.

In a panic, Gershwin got in touch with Whiteman, who assured him that all he would need was a piano copy, and Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofe would write the orchestration. (Grofe later went on to fame as the composer of 'The Grand Canyon Suite'.) The idea for the piece came to him when Gershwin was on the train to Boston to attend the out-of-town tryouts for 'Sweet Little Devil', and he wrote the score in just a week, passing each of the pages to Grofe as soon as he finished one. (It was George's brother Ira who came up with the title.) Gershwin improvised the piano part for that first performance of 'Rhapsody in Blue', which was enthusiastically received by the audience, although critics remained sharply divided about whether or not it was 'serious' music.

The signature opening glissando on the clarinet was an improvisation by Whiteman's lead clarinetist Russ Gorman and was not part of Grofe's orchestration. However, Gershwin was so delighted by that soaring sound that he included it in the final published arrangement for piano and orchestra (which has given clarinetists the cold sweats ever since, or so I'm told. I'm not a clarinetist, so I love it.)