Bit of This and That Trivia Quiz

Answer: "A woman could piss that out!"

How wrong was that worthy public servant? The fire lasted four days and destroyed 52 halls, 87 churches and 13,000 houses. Sixteen people also lost their lives in the flames. The only upside to this disaster was that it burned out many venues where plague-carrying rats bred freely, thus putting a halt, at least temporarily, to the Black Death which periodically ravaged London.

Historians have since raised the possibility that the fire was deliberately lit for this purpose - and to make way for the rebuilding of a greater, more beautiful capital city.

Answer: Euthanasia

Poor old Dr Freud Eggs was a very heavy smoker and eventually developed cancer of the jaw, for which he underwent thirty operations. The cancer grew much worse, however, and began to eat away his face. The pain was so bad that eventually Freud begged a medical friend of his, one Max Schur, to help him to die.

After discussing it with Freud's daughter, Schur administered several doses of morphine to the stricken man, and Freud passed away, one hopes peacefully, on 23 September 1939, at the age of 83.

Answer: Flowers

Good Queen Bess, who ruled England at the height of the Golden Age, did indeed have anthphobia, a fear of flowers. She lived from 1533 to 1603 and was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn - whom Henry had beheaded. She was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty and never married. On her death the throne passed to James I of England and VI of Scotland, who was the son of the beheaded Mary Queen of Scots. One would think, perhaps, given the bloody history of the times, that Elizabeth should more logically have developed a fear of axes.

Answer: Pig

This belief has been around for very many years and its origin is lost in antiquity. However, odd as it may seem, and with apparently no connection at all with fishing, it is indeed thought unlucky to say this "pig" when out fishing. One can only surmise as to its genesis. Perhaps it's because when describing the size of all the fish that got away, many fishermen are well and truly known to be telling porkies.

Answer: Their mothers carried them on their back as babies

It's true, I swear. I researched it. The belief was that Japanese people grew up with a very poor sense of direction and poor balance skills because, as children, they were carried everywhere on the backs of their mothers. One sincerely hopes that, since those days, the military powers that be have made the first commandment of any form of warfare to be one that clearly states, "First, Know Thy Enemy."

Answer: Banana shaped stamps

The Kingdom of Tonga comprises an archipelago in the South Pacific. Also known as "The Friendly Isles", this country certainly treated Captain Cook with great friendliness on his trip to that nation in 1773. Unfortunately, in 1779, he didn't have much follow up luck in Hawaiii, which was then known as the singularly inappropriate name of "The Sandwich Isles". Tonga's stamps also feature heart shapes and many other distinctive shapes - all of which are eagerly sought by philatelists worldwide.

Answer: Walk around naked

The exact routine to follow to lose weight was that one should only ever have one large meal a day - which was to be eaten directly after exercising while still feeling hot from all that hard work. The exercise must be very strenuous when it was carried out, any sleeping or rest should always be done on a hard surface, and one should always walk around nude.

The final instruction in this list was that no bathing was to be allowed. I'm sorry, but pooh-pooh to all that.

Answer: Having a drinking problem

It was true that Mrs Eisenhower was frugal, even going to the extent of cutting out coupons for the use of White House staff. It also has been stated in several biographies of Mrs Ike that she rather resented the idea of Jackie Kennedy moving into the White House after her, even going to the extent of failing to tell Jackie there was a wheelchair available during the younger woman's visit to the mansion, not long after Mrs Kennedy had had a caesarian birth - two weeks previously in fact.

When asked why she didn't offer the chair to Jackie, Mrs Eisenhower only replied, "She didn't ask." Nor was she a masculine dresser and instead had quite the reputation for her very feminine love of pretty dresses.

However, and because she was a very private person, it wasn't common knowledge that Mrs Eisenhower has Meniere's disease of the inner ear.

This affected her balance quite considerably at times and made her appear unsteady on her feet, hence her unfairly earned reputation for having a drinking problem.

Answer: She is infertile and displays masculine behaviour

Well, wouldn't Freud have a field day! The poor little female calf is always born infertile, always displays masculine behaviour and never has any ovaries. This unusual feature also shows up now and then in other mammals such as pigs or sheep, but always in cattle if the twins are male and female. The condition is known as Freemartin. I think it should be known as Free Betsy, don't you?

Answer: It was an actual board used for eating and sleeping upon

That's downright interesting I think. The person seeking to stop overnight and have something to eat was given a board as an aid in both. The board was placed across his or her knees and used as a table, and then afterwards the same board was used by the weary traveller to sleep upon. One hopes at least that pillows were provided.

In Elizabethan times, it was frowned upon if you took anyone in for the night unless you had a licence to do so. Even travelling around unnecessarily was somewhat of a no-no in that golden age.

The reason for this was that these were troubled times and the authorities weren't too keen at all on people (i.e. potential trouble makers) roaming around everywhere. The Elizabethans well and truly liked order in every aspect of their daily lives.