Anything Goes Number Nine Trivia Quiz

Answer: Strawberries

Strawberries have grown wild since time began - perhaps they were even Eve's downfall - but it wasn't until the 14th century in France that they were cultivated in gardens. King Charles V of that country liked them so much that he had over 1,200 plants planted in the royal gardens. Over in England, when the cultivated plant was eventually grown there, it was Thomas Wolsey who came up with the idea of combining the fruit with cream for a special treat for the rapacious Henry VIII.

In addition to just being able to be eaten straight from the garden (after being rinsed thoroughly of course), strawberries are used today in a wide variety of other ways by man. These includes all kinds of fattening goodies - such as jams, chocolates, ice-cream, milkshakes (yum), jellies - and in the manufacture of beautifully scented soaps, perfumes, shampoos, face and body creams and the like. Strawberries contain 7,096 genes, but unfortunately because growers have cross bred this plant so much in order to produce even bigger fruits, strawberries could quite possibly be bred out of existence one day.

Answer: Nightcaps

One of the many unusual fashions from English Tudor times included the wearing of nightcaps under ordinary hats during the day. These could be embroidered to perfection to match current outfits, or, for the poor, made from simple basic materials. Embroidery on many of these nightcaps served to preserve them for posterity, long after their owners had gone to that great bedchamber in the sky. The reason for this fashion had a lot to do with the poor state of hygiene and cleanliness at the time, which, in turn, encouraged plagues of fleas, headlice, and other creepy crawlies. This often required the head to be shaved or be driven insane with itching.

Shaved heads were chilly. At night, this problem was easily solved by warm nightcaps, and the warmer the better, but come the daylight, the small day caps of the time were not warm enough in any way, particularly if the head had been shaved. The solution then, which gradually crept into a type of fashion, was to wear the nightcaps under the day caps. And that was when embroidered nightcaps began to make their appearance - often using the same embroidered patterns as those used on waistcoats, breeches and jackets.

Answer: A suggestion that he become king of the country

When George Washington and his troops were camped at Newburgh in New York during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), he received a letter from Colonel Lewis Nicola, an Irish born military officer serving in the colonial army. This took place shortly before the Treaty of Paris that signaled the end of the war, and in it, Nicola broached the subject of Washington taking up the office of King of the new nation. To be fair to Nicola, his troops hadn't been paid for months, because, although the Articles of Confederation allowed Congress to establish an army in times of war, they stated that Congress was obliged to levy taxes, and that taxes were the responsibility of individual states - but most of the states couldn't afford to maintain an army!

The suggestion didn't go down well at all with Washington as you can imagine. He was outraged, and replied straight away, stating that "No incident in the course of the war in me triggers painful feelings as your message, that such ideas are circulating in the army, as you expressed it"(Wikipedia). Washington went on to say that he couldn't imagine what part of his conduct could have given Nicola this ridiculous idea, and concluded by saying that such a notion would be a calamity for the country. So the man who wouldn't be king, became the President of the new Republic instead.

Answer: It had the same shaped bottom as her husband

Famous American film star, Bette Davis, lived from 1908 until 1989. Her acting career spanned an amazing sixty years, and she picked up two of its highest honours (Academy Awards) along the way. She was as tough and feisty in real life as many of the characters she portrayed in film. I don't care for that style of acting at all, but Bette's fans certainly did. Her list of famous movies are way too long to include here, but these should certainly include her role in the 1938 "Jezebel" as the independent and headstrong southern belle in the period leading up to the American War. Spoiler alert: It doesn't end happily.

Bette received her first Academy Award for her performance as a disturbed actress in the 1935 movie "Dangerous". Though thrilled, she often referred to it as a consolation prize. She, and many others, thought she should have won the award for her performance in the 1934 "Of Human Bondage" in which she plays a cruel and vulgar waitress who becomes the obsession of a self-doubting medical student. Of the Oscar, however, Bette insisted for the rest of her life that she gave it the name of Oscar, because the shape of the statue's bottom was identical to that of her then husband, musician Harmon Oscar Nelson. A quick peek at the back view of that statue is a bit disappointing, though. It looks rather clenched.

Answer: No

Thought by many to be the most northerly point of Great Britain, John o' Groats is a small village in Scotland, found on the north-eastern tip of that nation. A popular tourist trip in Great Britain is a journey from Land's End in the far "south" of England to John o' Groats in the far north - a distance of some 876 miles. However, John o' Groats is not the most northerly point of Great Britain at all - and nor is Land's End the most southerly. This is most annoying, considering everything we were taught at school. Is nothing sacred any more?

The most northerly point of Great Britain - on the mainland, that is - is a nearby peninsula to John o' Groats known as Dunnet Head. Also referred to as Easter Head, it lies some 11 miles west-northwest of John o' Groats. It contains a lighthouse - and some minor fortifications and an artillery range constructed during World War II. Land's End, on the other hand, is not the most southerly point of Great Britain. It's actually the most westerly point of Cornwall and England, but not Scotland. Scotland contains the most westerly point of UK on a headland called Corrachadh Mor. Lizard Point in Cornwall is the most southerly point on the mainland of this confusing nation. And, while we're at it, Lowestoft Ness, or Ness Point, is the mainland of Great Britain's most easterly point.

Answer: Two pigs that escaped death from an abattoir in Malmesbury

The Tamworth Two, as they were subsequently named by the popular press, were two pigs that escaped their destiny as part of a hearty British breakfast, when they managed to flee from a lorry unloading them at an abattoir in Malmesbury, England, in 1998. Squeezing through a fence, they then swam across the river Avon (how wonderfully Shakespearian) and were on the lam for over a week, causing huge public interest throughout the world. Butch and Sundance, as they were later labelled, were a brother and sister pair of oinkers from Staffordshire in England. For one glorious week, they tasted freedom in a thick thicket near Tetbury, hotly pursued by over 100 journalists, before being captured.

Their owner said he was still going to have them slaughtered as they were worth around fifty pounds each, but once that dastardly fate was revealed, offers poured in from everywhere to buy their freedom. Eventually they were purchased by the Daily Mail newspaper. Butch was captured first. She surrendered without a struggle, but it took several tranquillizing darts to bring Sundance down. When taken to a local vet for examination, the vet said that Sundance was a bit shaky at first, but would fully recover. In effect, he probably had a tranquillizer hangover. The pig, not the vet, that is. After all the excitement died down (with one excited member of Parliament along the way comparing the pigs to Conservatives), Butch and Sundance lived out the rest of their lives at an animal sanctuary near Kent. So ends the tale of two little pigs who didn't bring home the bacon after all.

Answer: She is descended from Oliver Cromwell

The Duchess of Kent (born 1933) is a member of the British Royal family through her marriage to Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent (born 1935). The Duke is Queen Elizabeth II's first cousin. The Kents were married in 1961 in York Minster, an interesting choice of location, for it was the first royal wedding in that cathedral in more than 630 years. The young couple went on to have three surviving children (1962, 1964, 1970), but then the Duchess, pregnant again in 1975, opted for an abortion of the unborn child after contracting German Measles. A final child, Patrick, was stillborn in 1977. This loss resulted in the Duchess suffering severe depression for some years afterwards.

In 1991, the Duchess made a personal decision (following the Queen's approval) to convert to Catholicism, a decision, as you can imagine, which created ripples in England at that time. So, although the long illnesses of the Duchess are certainly not amusing, the fact that she converted to Catholicism is not amusing, and the fact that she is a member of the British Royal Family is not amusing, what IS amusing in a darkly ironic kind of way, is that Katharine, the Duchess of Kent, is descended from Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), a repugnant historical figure, who not only replaced the monarchy in England with a republican commonwealth for a few short years, but also burned with an almost pathological hatred of anything to do with Catholicism, did his best to try to eliminate it in England, and almost succeeded in a complete genocide of every Catholic in Ireland.

Answer: Took bets on whether he would survive or not

Quite a few of England's early gentlemen's clubs (read: no women allowed) began life as chocolate houses, when that delicious new - hideously expensive - hot drink began to be served alongside the more traditional alcoholic fare. The exclusive White's of London was the oldest of these, having been set up as Mrs White's Chocolate House in 1693. Coffee, tea and cock ale (a heady brew of minced up rooster, various spices and very strong alcohol) were also served at these clubs, and it wasn't too long before they began to earn themselves a reputations as dens of vice and iniquity.

On one such occasion in 1750, when a passerby had a seizure outside White's Chocolate House, he was carried inside by the highly lubricated members of the club, where, instead of calling for medical assistance to aid in his recovery, those abandoned wretches within ran a gambling game during which they took bets on whether the unconscious victim would survive or not.

Answer: A search of all the passages below Parliament

This ceremonial duty carried out by the Queen's Body Guard - aka the Beefeaters - hearkens back to the days of the famous Gunpowder Plot in England in November, 1605, when a handful of conspirators planned to blow up King James I and the British Parliament, and replace the country's Protestant government with a Catholic one. It failed because one of the conspirators, the famous Guy Fawkes, was discovered hiding in the cellars below where the parliamentarians were to meet - alongside several barrels of gunpowder. Every November 5th since that time, the foiling of this plot is celebrated in England with Guy Fawkes night, a wonderful celebration of fireworks exploding everywhere.

Since that time, also, when the ruling monarch is on his or her way to attend the (usually) annual opening of Parliament each year, tradition calls for the Queen's Guards, dressed in their colorful historical costumes, to re-enact that discovery by searching the passages below the Houses of Parliament for gunpowder and villainous traitors. The Queen or King then proceeds to the Robing Room where ceremonial garb is donned, before completing a stately procession to the House of Lords. A senior officer from there has to then knock three times on the door of the House of Commons to request permission for the monarch to enter. This is to reinforce the idea that the real power of the country lies no longer with a ruling monarch, but with the House of Commons. Awful cheek, old boy, dontcha know.

Answer: Her father

It took Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) two years to write the engrossing story of "Alice in Wonderland". Complete with his own lovingly depicted illustrations, it was finally published in 1865 and relates the enthralling adventures of the heroine, Alice, who, after chasing a white rabbit, falls down a rabbit hole into Wonderland, a land of enchantment and adventure. The idea for the work was born in the mind of Carroll one day in 1862 when he, his friend Robinson Duckworth, the governess Mary Prickett, and the three little Liddell sisters were relaxing on the banks of the Isis/Thames river following a lovely summer's day rowing boat excursion.

Alice Liddell was the book's eponymous heroine, Alice; her sisters, Lorina and Edith, are the book's sulky Lory and Eaglet; Duckworth became - what else - the Duck; Dodgson was the Dodo; Dinah the kitten belonged to the children in real life; the governess of the three girls, Mary Prickett, is transformed into the Red Queen; and the White Rabbit was based on the father of the three girls, the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford - because he, too, was always running late.