Bit of This and That 7 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human male testicles

This took place while Voronoff (1866-1951) was working in France during the early 1900s. He worked in Egypt prior to this, where he studied the effects of castration on eunuchs there. Formulating his theory on reversing the ageing process, he initially tried injecting himself with the ground up testicles of dogs and guinea pigs to test same. When this had no effect, he came to the conclusion that grafting living tissue would be more effective. He initially experimented on grafting the testicles of younger animals onto older animals with a degree of success, and, upon announcing his findings to the world, he and his technique became an overnight sensation.

Voronoff's first human customers in search of their lost youth were millionaires. They were the only ones who could afford it. He grafted testicle tissue from executed criminals into their scrotums. When he ran out of executed criminals, he switched to using monkey testicles instead, setting up his own monkey farm in Italy as a source of ready supply. He insisted his method could not only restore lost youth, it could also reverse senility, and, what's more, cure schizophrenia as well. Seven hundred of the top leading medical men in the world, impressed with his results, endorsed his work enthusiastically, and Voronoff was swamped with eager clients. His customers included not only many of the world's leading men, but also members of several football teams as well.

And then it was found that his results were not what he claimed, and that any success, if any, was merely the result of the placebo effect. Voronoff then became an object of ridicule overnight instead, and all his medical supporters almost broke speed records in their haste to distance themselves from him. Voronoff didn't care. He was by then enormously wealthy and could afford all the bananas he wanted. You may be interested to learn, though, that in the late 1990s, scientists began tentatively investigating Voronoff's methods once again. Anthropologists, one imagines, were probably very interested as well. So you never know, gentlemen. One day you could all be swinging through the trees once again.

Answer: Old pennies

Big Ben is the name of the bell in that famous clock tower, and not the clock at all, as many people mistakenly believe. However, the name has so long been associated with the clock that is has become synonymous with it instead. The pendulum which keep such accurate time is thirteen feet long, weighs 660 pounds, and is driven by a giant mechanism below which weighs some five tons. On top of that famous pendulum rests a stack of old pennies with a great claim to fame, for it is these that are responsible for maintaining Big Ben's notable accuracy. If the pendulum needs to be sped up, an extra penny is added to the pile - and vice versa. That top penny difference, one way or another, is the equivalent to a difference of 0.4 of a second in a twenty-four hour period. Amazing, isn't it?

Answer: Gary Burghoff

Born in Connecticut in 1943, Gary Burghoff is well known for his role as the perpetually naïve corporal Radar O'Reilly in the long running television series "M*A*S*H" (1972-1983). He left the series in the 8th season, citing burnout and missing time with his family as the reason. Though in real life, Gary's fellow cast members admired his acting abilities wholeheartedly, his real life personality was abrasive and argumentative, and he was prone to throwing king size tantrums if he didn't get his way. Who knows if this is true or not. Perhaps Alan Alda's nasally voice just got on his nerves as much as it did, most heartily, on mine.

Gary paints nature scenes and animals for a hobby, is a keen stamp collector, and is qualified in the skill of handling and caring for injured wildlife. He is also a skilled tap dancer, drummer and an inventor of equipment such as a new fishing rod, the Chum Magic fishing lure device, and a toilet seat with a handle so that hands do not have to touch the toilet at all. In short, Gary Burghoff hasn't let his congenital deformities of a club foot and three very short fingers on his left hand hold him back from doing anything he chooses. His foot has since been corrected, but he uses props in one way or another during acting scenes to conceal his left hand. In "M*A*S*H", this was usually a clipboard of some sort.

Answer: Holy water

Once can get a wide variety of goods in the modern age from vending machines, simply by inserting a money or card, making a selection, and waiting for the purchased goods to drop down into the tray below. The first modern machines of this kind appeared in England at the beginning of the 1900s. These gave the buyers postcards from whichever area they were visiting. Yet vending machines have been around, in one form or another, since the first century AD. That was when Hero of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician and engineer from that period of history, came up with the notion of designing one to dispense, of all things, holy water.

Hero, who wrote many works on engineering principles and design, also invented early forms of steam powered devices, a wheel driven by wind, the first semi-automatic opening doors, mechanical puppets, acoustic devices, an early syringe, a standalone fountain, investigated reflection and refraction in his "Principle of the Shortest Path of Light", designed the force pump used in early fire engines, described how to work out square roots, and even began early investigations into atoms. What a brilliant mind!

Answer: Human faeces

The Bristol stool chart sprang from the mind, and apparently the nether regions, of one Doctor Ken Heaton from the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom. It was first published in 1997 in the "Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology". This chart, complete with delightful images of the subject matter, is used to help diagnose various bowel conditions. It states that it is also a "clinical communication aid". Clinical communication of stools? How does a stool communicate? (Oops, pardon me).

There are seven different categories of stools covered in this work. These are as follows, with types 3 and 4 considered to be desirable:

"Type 1: Separate hard lumps, like nuts (hard to pass)
Type 2: Sausage-shaped, but lumpy
Type 3: Like a sausage but with cracks on its surface
Type 4: Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft
Type 5: Soft blobs with clear cut edges (passed easily)
Type 6: Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool
Type 7: Watery, no solid pieces, entirely liquid".

And now, can I offer you some lunch?

Answer: Sharp and skilled

The word "cute" was once known as "acute", and it wasn't until the late 1890s that its original meaning evolved into "innocent and appealing". That took place in the United States, and from there, gradually spread to the rest of the western world. That original meaning was completely different, however.

As defined in Nathan Bailey's 1731 "The Universal Etymological English Dictionary", it is stated that cute "...was a synonym for acute (and meant) sharp, quick-witted and shrewd". Have you heard the expression "As cute as a bug's ear"? Today, particularly in the south of the United States, this is used as a compliment.

Originally though, it meant that bugs, who actually don't possess ears, have very sharp hearing and detect sounds by a variety of other means. Though that also may have been used as a compliment, it would have had nothing to do with being physically appealing, but rather to possessing an excellent ability to detect sound.

Answer: True

They've got to be kidding, but both facts are true. Cockroaches, particularly if fed on fresh fruit and vegetables, can be either toasted, fried, sautéed or boiled, and are said to be delicious. Not in a million years, my friends, would I crunch into one of those disgusting creatures. In addition, the question has to be asked that if the silly dills have perfectly good fruit and vegetables on hand, then why, if they're starving, feed them to cockroaches?

Dating right back to the days of early Greece, cockroaches have also been used as medicine. This was recorded in the writings of philosophers and scientists such as Aristotle, Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides. Ground up with oil, for example, they were used to treat earache. A poultice of boiled cockies was used to treat wounds. Fried with garlic, they were used to cure indigestion. A drink of cockroach tea was given to treat tetanus.

Answer: Romans

The dormouse is a cute little beastie that can be found, to a degree, in Asia and Africa, but mostly in Europe. Quite possibly there'd be a lot more in Europe today too, if the Romans hadn't grown peckish. Dormice only breed once a year as a rule, occasionally twice, producing four offspring at the most when they do. Part of the reason for this is that the little creature hibernates in cold weather. Classed as a rodent, it is considered a pest in some areas.

Ancient Romans looked upon the dormouse quite a delicacy, and either ate it as an appetizer, or, when rolled in honey and poppy seeds, as a tasty dessert instead. One presumes these were eaten over in England as well, but this is not recorded. It is known though, that, during the Elizabethan age, dormouse fat was used by the people there as a relaxant and to bring about sleep. We wouldn't dream of eating these cuties today, now would we? Wrong. Slovenians look upon the dormouse as a very tasty bite even well into the 21st century, and regularly eat the little creatures there.

Answer: A cow

During World War I, American servicemen serving in France were so impressed by the actress Marie Dressler, and her outstanding efforts working for overseas personnel in France in particular, that they named a street - and that cow - after the very rotund comedienne.

When the poor old cow was later blown to smithereens by a bomb, newspaper headlines throughout the country, with the editorial staff mistakenly believing the actress had been dispatched instead, screamed the shocking news that she had been killed while bravely giving her all for the United States.

It took Marie quite some time to convince them that it was the cow, and not herself, that had been creamed.

Answer: The loudest burp ever recorded

Burping comes about when we swallow air while consuming solids or liquids. That excess air has to exit from the digestive trail, and comes out through the mouth when we burp. A burp is comprised of nitrogen and oxygen, or, if we consume carbonated liquids such as Coca Cola (excellent for producing a hearty belch), it emerges as carbon dioxide instead. According to the Guinness world records organisation, the loudest burp ever recorded was set by British born Paul Hunn in 2009. It measured an incredible 109.9 decibels, a degree of noise that is actually louder than standing next to a pneumatic drill going at full blast.

What a sterling achievement, by Jove. Paul, who now has his own website and all, and even appeared on Britain's Got Talent, began his worthy career when he was a school student, often practising behind the teacher's back in class. Of course he also practised at home, to the annoyance of his father. One presumes his mother had a hearing defect by then. Paul says that now, however, his father is secretly proud of him. By George any red-blooded male would be, sirrah! Oh, and there is no truth to the rumour whatsoever that when Paul's mother gave birth to him, she didn't have to push at all, because Paul just gave one hearty burp instead, and out he shot.