From the Mixed up Mind of Sallyo Quiz

Answer: Any of these.

Snowball is a common name for the guelder rose. (My granny taught me that). A snowball is a cocktail. (My perusal of Folly (Fans Of Light Literature for the Young) Magazine taught me that.) A snowball is also a ball of snow. (Countless films and books taught me that.)

Answer: True

These names are indeed closely connected. Louis is the French form of a German name, and the same name occurs in several other versions. Here are some of them; Aloysius, Clovis, Lewis, Lodovico, Ludovic, Ludovicus, Luigi, and Luis. When you look at the other variants, you begin to see how one thing leads to another. I encountered the name Clovis in Christopher Stasheff's "The Warlock in Spite of Himself" when I was nineteen. I had never seen the name before and looked it up, thus discovering its many cousins.

Answer: Cannon and cathedral bells

The wonderful 1812 includes the sound of cannon and also the cathedral bells. These symbolise a battle and a coronation. I discovered this from the sleeve notes of the SACD version of the 1812 when my husband belatedly (we're in our 40s) acquired a taste for classical music.

Answer: James Cleveland Owens

Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland Owens in Oakville, Alabama in 1913. He moved to Cleveland when he was still quite young. His nickname, Jesse, came about when a school teacher misheard J.C. Owens as Jesse Owens. I discovered this when researching a writing job.

Answer: Pericles

Pericles (c.495-429 BC) was a political leader in Athens. I learned something about him from reading "The Secret Arrow" by Kenneth Lillington and "The Crown of Violet" by Geoffrey Trease when I was a child. Peric is a character from the comic strip "The Trigan Empire", Aristophanes was a playwright (he was in Trease too) and Socrates was a philosopher... yes, he was a major character in "Violet".

Answer: They have no living descendents.

None of them has any living descendents.

William Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway. He had a son and two daughters. The son died as a child, one daughter never married and the other did marry, but had no children. I've never found any mention of a "natural" child, either.

Jane Austen never married and had no children.

Leonardo da Vinci never married and had no children. He was not born in the United Kingdom.

Elizabeth 1st of England never married and had no children.

Charlotte Bronte married, but died before her first child was born. Emily and Anne Bronte never married and had no children.

Makes you think, doesn't it? All those genius genes gone to waste...

I found this out over several years of reading, and then researched it specifically for a book I was writing.

Answer: Bast

Bast (or Bastet) was the goddess of cats, pleasure and dancing. Isis was the consort of Osirus. Hathor was a love goddess and Nut was the sky goddess. I picked up information about Bast from Paul Gallico's "Thomasina", and rediscovered the name in Rosemary Edghill's "Bast" books and also in Elizabeth Peters' "Amelia" books, which include a character always termed "the cat, Bastet".

Answer: Two definitions of the word fawn are - a young deer and a colour.

A fawn is a young deer. Fawn is a yellowish-brown colour. To fawn is to toady or flatter. A faun is a mythical character with legs and horns like a goat and a body like a man. I picked this up from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and assorted Greek myths.

Answer: True

Apparently you can eat lotus roots. I learned this from Eloise Jarvis McGraw's book "The Golden Goblet", which I read as a child. I recall she said they had an aniseed taste.

Answer: All of them

Moonee Ponds is famed for its connection with Dame Edna Everidge, but was also a partial setting for Eugene Lumbers' "Smocker". Yarrahapinni appears in "Seven Little Australians", by Ethel Turner, and Jamberoo is from "Jamberoo Road", by Eleanor Spence.

When I read these books in my childhood, I accepted that the settings were made up. Many years later I actually drove through Moonee Ponds (a Melbourne suburb). I WAS surprised. Since then I've discovered quite a few places I thought were fictional. Spotswood, for example...

This is the setting for "Spotswood" (aka "The Efficiency Expert"), a film starring Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins. During a train trip (I think I was going to Swan Hill) I was amazed to pass through Spotswood Station.