Am I Pulling Your Leg? Online Trivia | General

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A Dutch bishop sparked a row with the government after he admitted the Catholic Church accepted alms from drug traffickers and that they were "purified" when they reached its coffers.

Answer: False

The bishop was actually from Mexico! At least the money was put to good use. The controversy began with a recent sermon at Mexico's main Catholic shrine, the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. A priest, Father Jose Raul Soto Vazquez, said Catholics should be more generous, like the drug traffickers, who on occasion gave money to the church.

This, of course, led to a media outcry, and the Catholic Church was quick to deny knowingly accepting "dirty" money.

2. A light bulb at a fire station in Livermore, California, has been burning since 1901.

Answer: True

The bulb was first installed at the fire department hose cart house in 1901. It was then moved to the fire station at First and McLeod, then to its present site in 1976 at the fire station, 4550 East Ave., Livermore, California. The bulb was made by the Shelby Electric Company, and is a hand-blown bulb with carbon filament.

Its approximate wattage is 4 watts. It is left burning continuously in the firehouse as a night-light over the firetrucks. It is a tourist attraction.

3. In Britain, you can only shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside the city walls and after midnight.

Answer: True

This law applies to County Chester; however, in York, it is perfectly legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow, except on Sundays. Another fine law: It is illegal to sell most goods on a Sunday. It is, however, legal to sell a carrot. It is also legal to sell that carrot at any price, and to offer free gifts with it, such as anything else one might want to buy on a Sunday!

4. The Main Library at Harvard University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

Answer: False

This is an urban myth that has actually been attributed to Indiana University! The myth was so persistent that the architect had to make a public statement to prove why the building was not sinking. Apparently, five feet (1.5 metres) below the Bloomington campus is a 330-million-year old, 94-foot (28 metre) thick layer of solid limestone.

5. "The Muppet Show" was banned from TV in Saudi Arabia because one of its stars was a pig.

Answer: True

Muslims, of course, consider the pig an unclean animal, and therefore, offensive. This fact was even included in the lyrics of a song by a band called Lazy Boy. The song is "We Only Read the Headlines". The classic George Orwell novel "Animal Farm" is also banned since it features pigs as characters.

6. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a fifty thousand-word novel, "Gadsby", without any word containing the letter "e".

Answer: True

A work of writing that deliberately excludes particular letters is called a lipogram. Wright accomplished this feat in 165 days, and it was released in 1937. The stress must have been great, because Ernest Vincent Wright died the day that "Gadsby" was published, at the age of 66.

7. The origin of the term "scot free" refers to the times when English inns charged customers according to their place of birth. If you were a Scot, you didn't pay.

Answer: False

English inns once were required to pay a business tax known as a scot. Scot derives from a Scandinavian word meaning "payment". Customers who left town to drink in rural taverns rather than their local ones were said to be drinking "scot free".

8. Gilligan, of "Gilligan's Island", had a first name that was never mentioned on air. His first name was Willy.

Answer: True

Sherwood Schwartz once said that if ever Gilligan needed a first name, it would be Willy. The skipper's real name was Jonas Grumby. The professor was Roy Hinkley. The other castaways were millionaire Thurston Howell III, his wife Eunice (aka Lovey), the movie star Ginger Grant, and the Kansas farm girl Mary-Ann Summers.

Gilligan was played by Bob Denver. Born: January 9, 1935 Rochelle, New York; Died: September 2, 2005 Winston-Salem, North Carolina of complications following surgery for throat cancer (www.imdb.com)

9. Guinness is considered an aphrodisiac in Ireland, and is marketed under the slogan "a baby in every bottle."

Answer: False

Apparently, though, Guinness has been marketed that way in some African countries! Guinness was developed by Arthur Guinness at James' Gate Brewery in the heart of Dublin, Ireland in 1759. Another interesting Guinness tale - the definition of an Irishman: "a complex mechanism for turning Guinness into urine." - "The Stout Book" by Brendan O'Brien.

10. The skin that peels off after a bad sunburn is called blype.

Answer: True

The word blype originates in Scotland and is defined as a thin skin or membrane, esp. a small piece of skin. Most lexicological sources specify "a piece of skin that peels off after a sunburn". The following poem by the Scot bard, Robbie Burns, demonstrates the word in usage, along with the English translation.

He taks a swirlie, auld moss-oak
For some black gruesome carlin;
An' loot a winze, an' drew a stroke,
Till skin in blypes cam haurlin
Aff 's nieves that night.
- Robert Burns, Halloween

(He takes a twisted, old moss-oak
For some black gruesome old woman;
And uttered a curse, and made a hit,
Till skin in shreds came hurling
Off his fists that night.)

From Stanza 23 "Halloween" by Robbie Burns
http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/halloween.htm

Thank you for playing my quiz, I hope you learned a little tidbit of useless trivia. If you liked it, rate me; if not, tell me!

Source: Author vogon

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LeoDaVinci before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Am I Pulling Your Leg? Trivia Quiz

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