Cool Zooms, Part XXXV Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sugar cane

Is there any good use for a cane toad? Some people say it's good for improving their golf swing, but that's a bit extreme (it'd make a mess of the clubs!!)

The ugly varmint was introduced into Australia in 1935 to control the dermolepida albohirtum beetle (commonly called the cane beetle), a native Australian insect that is a parasite of sugarcane. Cane toads are native to South and Central America and while effective in controlling the cane beetle before the introduction of chemical agents, the cane toad also eats beneficial insects and other small prey. Their eggs are laid in still or slow-moving waters, from 8000-30 000 eggs at a time. Most Australian native frogs typically lay just 1000-2000 eggs per year.

Not content to occupy the sugar cane growing regions of Australia, the cane toads have now spread to inhabit nearly four-fifths of the Queensland landmass, and are present in the Northern Territory's Kakadu National Park, leading to a reduction in small native fauna and insects. They are steadily moving west into Western Australia.

Phoenix Rising's VegemiteKid looks forward to the continued efforts to reduce the numbers of cane toads by the humane disposal of adult creatures and their eggs before they affect too many more of Australia's precious endemic creatures.

Answer: Enigma

An enigma is defined as "anything that arouses curiosity or perplexes because it is unexplained, inexplicable, or secret" (Online Free Dictionary). It goes on to provide a list of synonyms which include conundrum, mystery, perplexity, puzzle and paradox. Perhaps the most famous enigma is the DC Comics supervillain the Riddler, an enduring enemy of the Batman. The Riddler's real name is Edward Nigma or E. Nigma.

This teaser was posed by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who has often left his mates scratching their heads.

Answer: 12

Elijah Wood's first TV/movie credit was as "Video Game Boys" in "Back to the Future II"; he was eight years old. It took 12 years for Mr Wood to be an overnight sensation when he became a star after "Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring" was released in 2001. To be fair he did receive third billing in 1998's "Deep Impact" in which he played Leo Biederman. He had 20 TV and movie credits between 1989 and 1998.

This question was carved into this quiz by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Little Shop of Horrors

The 1960s horror comedy film 'The little Shop of Horrors' has very long lineage. It starts with a novel called "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" by H.G.Wells from 1905; this inspired Arthur C. Clarke to write a short story, "The Reluctant Orchid" in 1956. This coupled with a short story by John Collier called 'Green Thoughts," from 1932 led to the 1960s film 'The Little Shop of Horrors' about a plant that hungered for human blood. This film eventually achieved a cult status and spawned a musical in 1982 which in turn was made into the even greater cult musical film of 1986 directed by Muppet stalwart Frank Oz, starring Rick Moranis as Seymour. The voice of Audrey 2 was provided by Levi Stubbs.

smpdit does an amazing rendition of 'Suddenly, Seymour' which generally does amaze people that she attempts to sing at all.

Answer: Winnie the Pooh

The "Pooh" part of his name is spelled out by the author A. A. Milne in the first chapter of his 1926 children's book "Winnie the Pooh". He indicates... "But his arms were so stiff ... they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think - but I am not sure - that that is why he is always called Pooh".

However, the more interesting part is how he came to be known as "Winnie". It started out in 1914 in Ontario, Canada, when a young soldier, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, purchased a six week old bear cub from a trapper. The trapper had shot the young bear's mother but didn't have the heart to kill the cub. Colebourn and the bear became inseparable and he named him Winnipeg, in honour of his hometown. When the soldier was transferred to England, the bear went with him. World War I broke out and Colebourn was called to service abroad so he left the bear in the care of the London Zoo where he became a major attraction. One of the regular visitors to see "Winnie" was a Christopher Milne, who was so taken by the bear that he raced home and changed the name of his teddy bear from Edward to Winnie. When his father came to put his stories to paper he used his son's toys (with the names his son had given them) as characters within the books.

It was rather appropriate that Phoenix Rising's own dancing bear, pollucci19, should write this question.

Answer: Curling

Curling is a game played on a sheet of ice, with the objective of sliding stones from one end of the sheet toward a target, called the house, painted on the other end. Brooms are used to sweep the ice ahead of the sliding stone, to reduce friction and enabling it to travel faster and straighter. Each team of four players take turns sliding or 'throwing' the stones toward the house. The team with the most stones closest to the centre of the house after all eight stones are thrown wins the end.

While curling has been depicted in 16th century paintings from Scotland, Belgium, Hungary and the Netherlands it is thought to have originated in Scotland. Two curling stones, dated 1511 and 1551 respectively, were found in a pond in Dunblane, Scotland, and the earliest mention of curling in print is from Scottish poet Henry Adamson around 1638. Kilsyth Curling Club in Scotland, founded in 1716, is the oldest curling club still operational today.

Curling was first played at the Chamonaix games in 1924, but the IOC did not ratify the results until 2006. The 1932 games held in Lake Placid featured curling as a demonstration sport, and it became an official sport at the 1998 Nagano games.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 swept the opposition aside to slide this question into the quiz.

Answer: South Africa

Zaaihoek Dam is a gravity dam located east of Volkrust on the Slang River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Built in 1988 with a capacity of 185 million cubic meters, the dam is fed by the Wakkerstroom and Slang rivers. The Afrikaans word 'slang' (pronounced "slung") means "snake".

Phoenix Rising's JCSon couldn't stop this dam question from slithering into the quiz.

Answer: Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS (1633-1703) was a Member of Parliament (1673-1679 and 1685-1689) and Chief Secretary to the Admiralty (1685-1688). He is best known as a diarist, having kept a detailed account of the English Restoration from 1660-1669, including London's Great Fire and Plague. Pepys' advancement in the Admiralty was due to his diligence and administrative abilities. To make up for his lack of maritime experience, he used models of ships to help him gain understanding and insights.

The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Thomas Hayter FRS (1702-1762) was an English clergyman, scholar and royal chaplain. He was Lord Bishop of London in 1761 and 1762, having previously served as Bishop of Norwich.

Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant (1899-1985) was an English historian and columnist. He wrote more than forty books, including studies of Samuel Pepys. With W. P. Lipscomb he collaborated on a play about Pepys' life, performed 150 times in London. Bryant's three-volume biography remains a significant contribution to modern understanding of Pepys' career.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) was a Royal Navy Officer who led two expeditions to Antarctica in 1901 and 1910. Early in 1912 with five others, he reached the South Pole five weeks after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's party. Scott and his companions perished on their return journey.

Phoenix Rising's psnz always struggled with diary-keeping efforts and is pleased that none of his chicken scratch will be inflicted on an unsuspecting world.

Answer: Hedge mazes

The common factor is hedge mazes. A maze is a collection of paths through hedges or vegetation which forms a physical puzzle. To solve it, participants need to find a route from the maze's entrance to some goal.

Hampton Court Maze at Hampton Court Palace near London is the United Kingdom's oldest hedge maze. King William III (1650-1702), also known as William of Orange, had it planted between 1689 and 1695. Originally grown with hornbeam trees but now utilising yew, it is a fairly small maze (0.33 acres, 0.13 hectares) and is trapezoidal in shape.

The Reignac-sur-Indre maze is in France's Loire Valley. Constructed from corn and sunflowers, the maze opened in 1996 and is 4 hectares (9.9 acres) in size. It is claimed to be one of the world's largest mazes.

Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens, located on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia contains 25 acres (10 hectares) of gardens. Included on this site are Australia's oldest and best-known hedge maze, a circular rose maze and a Lavender Labyrinth.

The town of Sterling, MA is home to Davis Mega Maze, described as "New England's only world class adventure cornfield maze." Occupying some 8 acres (3.2 hectares) of corn and with 3 miles (4.8km) of tracks, the maze is physically and mentally challenging.

After wandering about for some time, Phoenix Rising's psnz finally managed to find his way and guide this question into the middle of the quiz.

Answer: Cats

The characters in "Cats", which premiered in London in 1981, are each unique and very distinctive. To ensure that they were clearly defined there was a need for specialist wigs to be created. In the majority of them yak-hair was used, with each hair being sewn to the base by hand. Each wig took about forty hours to create and their value for the UK tour was estimated at approximately £1,800 each. I did say most of them were made using yak-hair, the exception here was Grizabella's which, because of its length and softer styling was created using human hair.

Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 was inspired to write this question after coughing up a fur-ball.

Answer: Murder in the Calais Coach

The "Collins Crime Club" published "Murder on the Orient Express" at the beginning of 1934 in the United Kingdom. Two months later, United States publishers Dodd, Mead and Company titled their edition "Murder in the Calais Coach".

In this piece of detective fiction, the luxury Orient Express train is stopped by snow and it is discovered that a passenger has been murdered. Belgian Hercule Poirot is one of the travellers and he manages to solve the crime.

English novelist Graham Greene wrote a novel in 1932 called "Stamboul Train" involving passengers travelling from Ostend in Belgium to Istanbul (Turkey) aboard a luxury express train. When published in the United States, Greene's book was renamed "Orient Express". To avoid confusion with this earlier work, Christie's book was retitled.

With minimal drama, Phoenix Rising's psnz published this question for the quiz.

Answer: Back to the Future

This information came to light with the surfacing of an inter-office memo from MCA/Universal executive Sid Sheinberg to the film's writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. In the note Sheinberg indicates that the current title, "Back to the Future" left a lot to be desired, with his primary concern being that it would set the film in a specific genre.

After suggesting his new title, he then proposed changes be made to the script to accommodate this change. Amongst those changes related to page 77 of the script where Marty should identify himself as the "spaceman from the planet Pluto" instead of "Darth Vader from Vulcan".

This question was written by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who still claims that he lives in the future.

Answer: "Moon River" ("Breakfast at Tiffany's")

Whilst the theme appears at the start of the 1961 song its lyric form is first heard when we see Audrey Hepburn (as Holly Golightly) sitting on the fire escape of her apartment, singing while strumming her guitar. There was a push, after a poor preview of the scene, to have the number removed. Hepburn's response was "Over my dead body", though some reports indicate that her language was decidedly more colourful than that.

Henry Mancini and his orchestra released an instrumental version of song, as a single, in 1961, which was followed shortly after by the sung version of Jerry Butler. Both versions were hits for the artists. Across the waters, British singer, Danny Williams, would also release his version of the song just before the year closed out. It would reach number one on the UK Singles chart. Along with its 1962 Academy Award, the number would also earn Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who felt the line "two drifters off to see the world" aptly described he and his wife that the song became their wedding waltz.

Answer: St Edward's Crown

St Edward's Crown is named after Saint Edward the Confessor who ruled England from 1042 to 1066. Edward was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex.

The crown has been traditionally used to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations since the 13th century, however the current crown is not the original. The original crown was either sold or melted down when the monarchy was abolished in 1649, during the English Civil War.

According to the Royal Collection Trust website "The crown was commissioned from the Royal Goldsmith, Robert Vyner, in 1661. Although it is not an exact replica of the medieval design, it follows the original in having four crosses-pattée and four fleurs-de-lis, and two arches. It is composed of a solid gold frame set with semi-precious stones, including rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnet, topazes and tourmalines. The crown has a velvet cap with an ermine band."

After 1689, when William III (also known as William of Orange) became king, it was not used to crown a monarch until 1911 when the tradition was revived by George V. All subsequent monarchs have been crowned using St Edward's Crown.

When not in use, St Edward's Crown is on public display as the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

This jewel of a question was added to this quiz by Phoenix Rising member lg549, who is one of her majesty's subjects and has viewed the Crown Jewels.

Answer: Griffin

The griffin is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Early Christians adopted it as a symbol of Christ, perceiving that the griffin represented in itself the Hypostatic Union of Christ (the God-Man). The lion as the lord of the earth ("king of the beasts") represents His humanity, and the eagle as lord of the heavens His divinity.

This question contributed by JCSon who heard the way into Hogwarts is to slither in through the griffin door.

Answer: Orion

Canis Major (the greater dog) and Canis Minor (the lesser dog) are both located in the southern celestial hemisphere and are visible in the night sky between November and April (or a more limited period from December to March if you are in the northern hemisphere). The two constellations are depicted from Greek mythology as the dogs of the great hunter, Orion, and appear to follow Orion's constellation across the sky.

Canis Major is the easier of the two for anyone with an interest in stargazing to spot, as it is the larger and brighter of the two collections of stars and contains Sirius the Dog Star - the brightest star in the night sky.

This question about dog-related stars was walked into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81.

Answer: 6

Legendary sprinter Usain Bolt from Jamaica won both the 100 metres and 200 metres sprint events at three consecutive Olympic Games - Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016. This achievement marked the first time that a "triple" had been completed in either discipline and his 200 metres victory in 2012 marked the first time that title had ever been successfully defended. He also set world and Olympic records in both events and became known for his trademark "lightning bolt" victory pose.

Bolt announced his retirement from the sport after the 2017 World Championships. Therefore he ended his career with a tally of six individual Olympic gold medals and a further two team gold medals in the 4x100 relay events in 2012 and 2016. (He lost a third in 2008 when one of his team mates tested positive for a banned substance). In addition, he also claimed a total of 11 World Championship titles (seven individual and four from relay events).

This question was bolted into the quiz by Fifiona81 in less time than it would take her to run 100 metres.

Answer: Charles "Chuck" Cunningham

It is all rather mysterious, but Chuck disappeared without trace in Season 1 of the very successful 'Happy Days'. The rather vague storyline points to him going off to college somewhere, on a basketball scholarship, but he is never even mentioned again.

Chuck was played by Irish-born actor, Gavan O'Herlihy, who wanted to get out of his contract. O'Herlihy played several other small roles in Hollywood, in films such as 'Death Wish 3,' 'Never Say Never Again,' 'Superman III', and in a strange twist of fate, he was directed by his 'little brother', Ron Howard, in the film 'Willow' . Since then, he has lived in Wales and England, doing occasional stage work.

This question was chucked into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member, ozzz2002.

Answer: Pac-Man

"Pac-Man" was extremely popular when it was released to the North American and Japanese markets in 1980. In the game players control a circular, yellow character named Pac-Man who has an insatiable appetite for eating dots. Players work to clear increasingly more difficult levels by eating all of the dots on screen and avoiding ghosts.

The popularity of "Pac-Man" encouraged the development of a longstanding series that featured hit titles like "Ms. Pac-Man" (1982) and my personal favorite, "Pac-Man 256" (2016).

This question was gobbled up by Phoenix Rising team member Triviaballer who will have the "Pac-Man" sound effects stuck in his head for at least a week.

Answer: Canada

Full citizenship was conferred upon Santa Claus in 2008 by Canadian minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney. In addition Santa was given free clearance to fly over all Canadian air space. Whilst claims to ownership of the North Pole remain contentious, Canadians further cemented Mr Claus as a Canuck by issuing a passport in his name in 2013. Mrs Claus received her passport too.

Canadian post codes are all of the form Letter number Letter, space, number, Letter, number. The first letter indicates the province or territory. A first letter of 'H' indicates the Claus family actually is domiciled in Quebec!

This question inserted into the Christmas gift sack by MikeMaster99 who is now wondering whether their children are known as subordinate Clauses?