Life's Little Mysteries Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

Would you sing if you had to lay eggs that size? The sounds emus make are most definitely not sweet in nature. They consist instead of loud drumming, booming and grunting noises. These sounds can be heard almost a mile away and the emus can tell if it is either a male or female. One would hope so.

Some calls are created by a pouch in the emu's neck that expands and collapses as the sounds issue forth. These booming and grunting sounds are often used during courtship in particular. Very loud booming sounds are made by the female ("Hurry up, will you, Bill!") and she does this by inflating and deflating her cervical sac. How unladylike.

The males, on the other hand, do a lot of grunting. You try staying balanced without hands to grip onto anything, doing your job at that precarious height, putting up with the missus hollering at you the entire time, and see if you too don't grunt.

It'd be jolly hard work.

Answer: To inform their enemies they were about to be eaten

The modern Maori haka dance is performed for various reasons - as a form of welcome for distinguished visitors, for amusement, or to honour great achievements, but its roots are soundly grounded in warfare. The Maoris were not the original people of New Zealand.

They came to the island and defeated the indigenous peoples living there by force, killing them all off - and eating their bodies. Displaying the tongue in the dance carried out before battle was to inform the enemy that not only were they about to be defeated, they were also going to be on the menu. So be careful not to annoy a Maori before a haka, will you? You could end up not only as "fush and chups", but also as a drumstick.

Answer: Yes

Just stay out of the way when they do - in case it stimulates their appetite. I think the image of a crocodile sneezing is rather comical. Apparently, these creatures are prone to getting runny noses and colds as well. Strangely enough, that fails to strike a sympathetic cord with me. Australian crocodiles are dangerous - and huge - so stay away from them if ever you visit our fair land. Various people over time have ended up on their dinner plates. Crocodiles are also prone to obesity if relocated to other countries and this in turn causes them to become impotent, as this very funny article found on the Fun Trivia site reveals:

(Source: deseretnews.com/article/595100303/China-crocs-are-crock-of-trouble.html)

Answer: Otto Rohwedder

Good old Otto was born in Iowa in 1880, and is believed to be the brains behind the invention of the automatic bread slicer in 1928. Prior to this, bread had to be sliced by hand, usually by the little woman of the house at meal times. Rohwedder's invention was ridiculed at first by other bakers who said his idea wouldn't last because sliced bread went stale too quickly if not eaten immediately. So in a fine display of one-up-manship, Otto then came up with the idea of inventing a machine that also wrapped the bread in a cover after it had been sliced.

This brilliant, yet so simple, idea made Otto a rather rich man. In fact, you could even say that he made a lot of bread out of it.

Answer: Beans

This is because passing wind when completely enclosed in a spacesuit is considered damaging to the spacesuit. I should imagine it wouldn't do any good for the astronaut either. Fortunately for all concerned, my ex-husband is not an astronaut.

Answer: Fred and Wilma Flintstone

Censorship rules used to be a lot stricter once, and to be honest, it probably wouldn't hurt to tighten up just a tad on them today. There's only just so many ways one can writhe around on a bed artistically after all - and as for live births being shown on screen, well eewww. Going back several decades, unmarried couples were never seen in bed together on screen at all, and if a husband and wife were ever filmed in bed in any scene, the husband always had to keep at least one leg, safely covered in pajamas, on the floor.

Answer: In its head

Now I just know you've always wanted to know that fishy fact. Shrimps are very high in calcium, protein and iodine, and apparently good for helping deal with cholesterol. I still think they taste revolting myself, but whatever gets your taste buds curling up their little toes in delight, I suppose. Oh, and by the way, where they got the idea that Australians toss shrimp on the barbie all the time, I'll never know, and can assure you that of all the thousands of barbecues I've attended, I've never once seen a shrimp tossed on one; plenty of steak, sausages, rissoles and onions, and the odd drunk or two - but nary a shrimp in sight.

Answer: Helicopter

How amazing was that inventor? Though this particular experiment did indeed turn out to be more perspiration than inspiration, Edison was able to demonstrate that helicopter flight would be a possibility one day. The reason it exploded was that he used guncotton to power the external combustion engine contained in the machine. What's guncotton I hear you ask? It's a highly flammable compound composed of nitrating cellulose which has been exposed to nitric acid.

It was used by workers in developing photographs, x-rays and motion pictures. I'm none the wiser of course and thought nitrating cellulose had something to do with being overweight.

Answer: Chef

This was held in the year 776 BC. The champion sprinter/chef's name was Corubus. The games were celebrated periodically until 393 AD when one Theodosius I had them suppressed in an attempt to bring in Christianity as a state wide religion. I'm not sure why the games had to be cancelled for this, but it undoubtedly was related to the fact that the games were held to honour the mythical God Zeus. What a killjoy Theodosius was, don't you think? He probably successfully ruined the career prospects of many a hopeful chef.

Answer: Nobody knows

The Scrambled Eggheads asked a question relating to this in their Christmas quiz and it's had me wondering ever since who was the first idiot to actually do this. Nobody knows, but if you're ever foolhardy enough to attempt to emulate this feat, be sure to keep warm water on hand, because the way to unstick your unfortunate tongue is by pouring this warm water upon it. Mind you don't pour too much however, or too quickly, or you could very well end up drowning yourself.