Cool Zooms, Part II Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spike Milligan

The answers were all performers in 'The Goon Show', a British radio comedy from the 1950s. This programme influenced many later comedies, including 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.

Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (1918-2002) was a comedian, actor, playwright, author and poet, born in India to British parents. Milligan did not like his first name and renamed himself after the band, 'Spike Jones and his City Slickers'.

Milligan was called up for military service in World War II. He saw action in North Africa and Italy as a signaller and gunner in an artillery battery. Milligan was wounded and suffered from Shell Shock (PTSD). He later wrote a series of memoirs, including the titles mentioned in the question.

Spike Milligan wrote an obituary for himself, repeatedly stating that he "wrote the Goon Show and died." His headstone bears the epitaph, "I told you I was ill", written in Gaelic.

"After forty-three years at school, young psnz returns to Phoenix Rising's Folly, the ancestral home, to find it empty save for a sinister oriental valet, a refugee heroin importer and Gravely Headstone, the butler. All psnz's queries are met with silence."
[With apologies to, 'The Canal', Goon Show #105, 1954.]

Answer: Church

The word 'kirk' survives as a northern England and Scottish dialectal word for church and originated there in around 1200 AD. Before that it was an old Norse word, 'kirkja', with the same meaning. Both 'kirk and 'church' come ultimately via mediaeval Greek (kyriakon), the Lord's (house) from Koine Greek.

This question was gathered into the fold by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: Bloemfontein

South Africa is the only country in the world with three national capitals. During the formation of the Union of South Africa, the government was divided into three branches of power located strategically in three major cities. Cape Town, the legislative capital, is the seat of Parliament. Pretoria, the administrative capital, is the seat of the Presidency and the Cabinet. Bloemfontein, the judicial capital, is the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal. 'Bloemfontein' means 'fountain of flowers' and is called "the city of roses" for the abundance of roses grown there.

Phoenix Rising member JCSon rose to the occasion knowing that his compatriot, the beloved author J.R.R. Tolkien, was born in Bloemfontein.

Answer: Paris

The decision to award the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games as part of the same process was taken after three of the five cities originally shortlisted as potential hosts for the 2024 Olympics pulled out of the process. Hamburg withdrew after more than half of its citizens voted against hosting the Games in a referendum in November 2015. The Mayor of Rome suspended their city's bid in October 2016, citing financial concerns; and the Budapest bid was withdrawn in February 2017 after hundreds of thousands of residents signed a petition against it. As that left just Paris and Los Angeles in the running, a deal was brokered for Los Angeles to switch their bid to 2028 without further competition and the two Games were then formally awarded to Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) in September 2017.

Phoenix Rising team member Fifiona81 unilaterally awarded herself the right to add this question to the quiz in May 2020.

Answer: Sorting Hat

Released in 1997, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' was the first novel in the extremely popular fantasy novel series 'Harry Potter' written by J. K. Rowling. In the novel the Sorting Hat is placed on the head of incoming first year students to determine into which of the four houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) each student should be placed. When the Sorting Hat was placed on Harry Potter's head it recommended House Slytherin but Harry Potter asked to be placed in Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat complied with his request.

This question was sorted into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member Triviaballer.

Answer: Blaise Pascal

As a teenager Pascal was already working on calculating machines, producing over fifty prototypes in only three years. Over the next ten years he'd built twenty different units, which he named 'Pascalines' and established himself as one of the fathers of the modern calculator. His contributions to science and mathematics were prodigious, bringing greater clarity to fields of pressure and vacuum, and providing significant research on progressive geometry and probability theory. Whilst conducting experiments on perpetual motion, he created a rudimentary roulette wheel.

Pascal was never in good health and succumbed to his ailments at the tender age of thirty nine. So profound were his discoveries that many items have his name applied to them, among them the Pascal triangle and an SI unit of pressure.

This question was created by pollucci19 who many believe could have helped Pascal with his study on perpetual motion. Those same people will claim that pollucci19 never shuts up.

Answer: Swimming centre

Harold Holt became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, assuming the position in January of 1966. Holt had a strong affinity with the ocean and, in particular, enjoyed a spot of spearfishing. He also acquired two holiday homes, both nestled near the sea, to indulge this pastime in his downtime. On December 17, 1967, whilst at one of those homes, his Portsea residence in Victoria, he and some friends went for a swim at the nearby Cheviot Beach. The seas were rough and Holt and one other ventured in. It is believed that Holt was caught in a rip, carried out to sea and was never sighted again. Many conspiracy theories soon surfaced, amongst these that he took his own life, was assassinated by the CIA and that he was taken away by a submarine and whisked away to China.

At the time of his disappearance, a swimming pool was under construction in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris, the area for which he was the local member. The centre was named the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre, in his honour.

This question first surfaced in the South China Sea where it was retrieved by pollucci19.

Answer: Copper and zinc

Brass and bronze are similar, both copper alloys with the major second component of brass being zinc. In bronze it is tin.

Brass has been known and cast since at least 3000 years BC. The early brasses were probably natural alloys made by smelting zinc-rich copper ores.

Brass has a relatively low melting point and is more malleable than bronze or zinc. It is not ferromagnetic. It is therefore an excellent material for making musical instruments (obviously in the brass section of the orchestra but also cymbals, gongs, and orchestral [i.e. tubular] bells) as brass also has anti-corrosion and good acoustic properties.

Brass has also antimicrobial properties, which in an era of increasing antibiotic resistance, has renewed scientific interest in this ancient metal alloy.

This question was bashed into shape by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Spiro Agnew

Spiro Agnew was born in Baltimore in 1918 and graduated from Johns Hopkins and the University of Baltimore with Arts and Law degrees. He practiced as a lawyer and was elected to the Baltimore County executive in 1962 and as Governor of Maryland in 1966. Richard Nixon chose him as his running mate at the 1968 Republican National Convention and they were elected in November of that year.

The United States Attorney for the District of Maryland investigated Agnew for criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud. Agnew received kickbacks from contractors whilst in the Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland offices. The payments had continued when he was Vice President. He pleaded 'No Contest' to tax evasion and resigned from office. He was rarely seen in public again but published his memoir and a novel.

Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1 received no kickbacks for this question and has never been asked to be a running mate for a US presidential candidate.

Answer: Little tongues

Linguine is similar to fettuccine but elliptical in section rather than flat. It is wider than spaghetti but not as wide as fettuccine. The name linguine means 'little tongues' in Italian, where it is a plural of the feminine linguina. Linguine are usually matched with fish sauces or pesto.

Vermicelli translates to little worms and spaghetti to little strings. As far as I know there is no pasta name that translates to long eels.

This tasty little question was kneaded into shape by lg549.

Answer: Whistler's Mother

This painting is an American icon, and probably one of the most recognisable to the layperson. It was completed in 1871 and portrays Anna McNeill Whistler. The Whistler family moved around quite a bit, shifting from US to Russia, back to the US before finally settling in London.

The painting has also been a bit nomadic, being displayed in London, where it was created, before touring various US exhibitions and galleries, and a gallery in Abu Dhabi. It is now on permanent display in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris. Together with Wood's 'American Gothic', it is one of the most parodied American artworks, ranging from memes to television commercials.

One of Whistler's other works is 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', which portrays a friend, Thomas Carlyle, in a similar pose to his mother. 'Arrangement in Black, No. 3: Sir Henry Irving as Philip II of Spain' was painted a couple of years later, in 1865, and Whistler was still painting at the time of his death in 1903.

'Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq' is not American - it is better known as 'The Night Watch', a 1642 painting by the Dutch Master, Rembrandt van Rijn.

This question is now known as 'ozzz2002's Arrangement of Words, No. 1'.

Answer: Sheremetyevo

Planned in 1953 and receiving its first military flight four years later, Sheremetyevo airport was converted to civilian use in 1959. It is located near the village of Khimki, a convenient 29km (18 miles) from the centre of Moscow and easily accessed by public transport (Metro express train). In 2019, after a public contest, the airport was renamed Alexander S. Pushkin Airport in honor of the great Russian poet. Two other major airports (Domodedovo and Vnukovo) also serve the Russian capital.

This question was flown in at his own expense by MikeMaster99.

Answer: Leveret

The word 'leveret' originates in the 15th Century from Norman French levrete, diminutive of levre, from the Latin lepus meaning hare. Unlike rabbit kits (or kittens), young hares are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth rather than emerging blind and helpless.

This question hopped into the quiz with the help of team member lg549.

Answer: Reebok

Joseph William Foster founded Reebok's predecessor company in 1895 in Bolton, England pioneering spiked running shoes and building a legacy on high quality athletic footwear. His grandsons, Joe and Jeff Foster would go on to found Mercury Sports Footwear in 1958. In the interest of protecting the company name, and because 'Mercury' was already registered, Joe Foster leafed through an American Webster's dictionary he had won in a foot race in Bolton as a boy until he landed on 'reebok'. An English dictionary would have spelled the word 'rhebok'. The grey rhebok (derived from Dutch/Afrikaans for "roe buck") is a small gazelle native to southern Africa.

Phoenix Rising member JCSon ran away with this one.

Answer: Crown

The word 'corona' is Latin for 'crown' that came to us from the original Greek word 'korunč', meaning 'garland', or 'wreath'. This word refers to the visible circlet during a solar eclipse - it looks very much like a crown. When any of the various coronavirus particles is viewed under a microscope, its projections are reminiscent of a solar corona, hence its name. We are familiar with SARS and COVID-19, but others in species in the group include Human coronavirus HKU1, MERS-CoV, Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 and London1 novel CoV/2012.

This question was handled with due respect and the required PPE by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: Paul McCartney

Though released first, chronologically, this is the second collaboration between the two musical geniuses. The first was 'Say, Say, Say'. The latter was written by the pair in 1981 when Paul was working on his 'Tug of War' album (1982). 'Say, Say, Say' would be the lead single off McCartney's follow up album 'Pipes of Peace' (1983). 'The Girl is Mine' would be the lead single from Jackson's monster album 'Thriller' (1982), would peak at number two on Billboards' Hot 100 and be the subject to two court cases for plagiarism.

Pollucci19 thought a collaboration with the Wolfman on this question would prove to be a howling success but, when the Canidae decided to go 'Lone Wolf McQuade', Poll went solo as well.

Answer: The USSR

Winston Churchill delivered this memorable line during a speech broadcast on BBC Radio, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, about the likely intentions and actions of Russia in the fight against Nazi Germany. In it he said that "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." - Essentially he was stating that Russian politics were extremely difficult to understand, but that it would make sense from a practical point of view for them to oppose Hitler gaining control over Eastern Europe. At the time he held the position of First Lord of the Admiralty (the political head of the Royal Navy) in a government led by Neville Chamberlain.

Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81 managed to write this question without any blood, toil, tears or sweat.

Answer: MMXX

The number 2020 represented in Roman numerals is MMXX. Roman numerals suffer from not having a zero, so could not incorporate placeholders and were therefore subject to getting long and unmanageable when representing large numbers.

PR member mike32768 is glad his FT moniker is not being represented in any of the several Roman forms for large numbers.

Answer: South Sudan

South Sudan gained its independence from the Republic of Sudan on July 9, 2011 and it was admitted as a member state of the United Nations four days later. Its capital and largest city at the time of formation was Juba. Sadly, shortly after independence, the people of South Sudan endured a civil war that lasted from December 2013 to February 2020.

After a short referendum vote, this question was placed into the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member Triviaballer.

Answer: The Mystery of Edwin Drood

All the answers are Dickens' serials.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author. He has a reputation of being the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

'Barnaby Rudge' was a weekly serial written in 1841, followed by 'Martin Chuzzlewit' (1842-1844) in monthly installments. 'Dombey and Son' also was a monthly serial, published from 1846 to 1848.

Dickens began work on 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' in 1870 but only six of the planned twelve monthly numbers were written. He died from a stroke and is buried in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

New Phoenix Rising team member, psnz, had great expectations for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'. However, after the author's demise, he was left twisting in the wind and wanting more.