Miscellaneous Madness X11 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Southern Gentleman

The Yankee Infidel would have defined it as "a man who rises to his feet when his wife comes in bearing the firewood." The term for the courtly, well-bred southerner has been around at least since the late 18th century.

Answer: Subways

Definition: "People who fear subways and other things underground". It is of 20th century coinage and is based on the Greek word "bathys" which means "deep". I've always been afraid of the deep ends of swimming pools and never once did I suspect that I was "bathysiderodromophobic".

Answer: Bastet

Hatshepsut was a great female politician who had herself named pharaoh and even had a tomb prepared for herself in the Valley of the Kings. Sopdet represents the "dog star" and it is said that the Egyptians may have correlated the rising of the dog star with the beginning of the solar year even in the early third millennium BC. Seshat is the goddess of writing and instruments and is usually represented by a woman in a long panther-skin dress.

Answer: Sports writer

Bat was born in 1853 and died in 1920. He is said to have "died at his desk gripping his pen with the tenacity with which he formerly clung to his six-shooter." He got the nickname of "Bat" when he was a sheriff in Kansas as he often batted down law-breakers with his cane instead of shooting them.

Answer: All are correct.

The early Christian church forbade mistletoe's use in church decorations because of the Druid use of the berries. Kissing under the mistletoe dates back to the early 17th century. It was an English custom and each kiss required the picking of a berry. When the berries had all been picked, the kissing was finished. Remember, the mistletoe berries are very poisonous!

Answer: Malaria

This disease was long associated with Rome because the marshes around the city were great breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The marshes were drained in 1939. The soldiers in the South Pacific during World War II had their share too. The mosquito has caused much pain, agony and death. Yellow fever certainly took a ghastly toll and now---West Nile virus! On the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, there is a 13 foot high brick wall enclosing the old hospital.

It was thought when the hospital was built that mosquitoes could not fly that high.

They could---and they did.

Answer: "Place of the bad smell"

Other Indian words (meaning about the same thing)are "place of skunk smells" or "skunktown". Having lived in Chicago, I can tell you that frequently, there are some pretty horrific smells for no apparent reason. No offense meant, Chicagoans.

Answer: Butch Cassidy

A fabled gunfighter. He, at one time, tried to make an honest living as a cattle butcher, but it didn't last too long. He was the leader of the "Wild Bunch" that included Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid". He supposedly was killed in a gunfight with Bolivian soldiers but his sister claimed that he visited her long after his alleged death. Do you suppose Butch Cassidy really rode a bicycle through the meadow?

Answer: Al Capp

The shmoo appeared in the comic strip "L'il Abner" and was quite a hit with the teenagers of the era.

Answer: African

Theodor Roosevelt's biographer, H.F.Pringle, in "Theodore Roosevelt" (1931) says Teddy was the first to record the use of the expression: "I have always been fond of the West African proverb 'speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.'" In a speech during the year 1901, Roosevelt prefaced the proverb with "There is a homely adage that runs---"