Not Many People Know This Trivia Quiz

Answer: Traditionally, printers manually stored the capital letters above the others.

Johannes Gutenberg's Letterpress printing method involved using individually cast, reusable letters that were clamped together in a frame. For convenience, the workers, called typesetters, who set the letters in the frames placed all the individual capital letter characters in separate drawers (or cases).

Because they were used less frequently, this led to the practice of always storing the cases containing the capital letters on higher shelves than the other letters. Therefore, capital letters were always found in the upper cases/drawers. (Question posed by odo5435)

Answer: Early Modern English

There is not universal agreement among scholars (surprise!) when it comes to when the various periods started and ended. Very roughly, Old English lasted until some time in the first half of the 12th century.

Early Modern began around 1500, while Modern English, which is still around, began round about 1800.
(Question posed by einhardno)

Answer: Over 350 years later

In 1633 Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, was sentenced to house arrest by the Inquisition. He was judged to have been "vehemently suspect of heresy" for publishing his evidence that Earth was not at the centre of the universe. All his other published works were also banned. Over the next 150 years the bans on publication and distribution of his writings were gradually lifted.

However, it was not until 1992 that Pope John Paul II "rehabilitated" the scientist recognizing that his condemnation was the result of "a tragic reciprocal misunderstanding between the scientist from Pisa and the judges of the Inquisition". (Question posed by odo5435)

Answer: Dressed in white

The Latin adjective "candidus" means "white", and more specifically "shining white", rather then greyish white, which is "albus". The suffix "-at" with a further gender suffix ("-us" for the masculine, "-a" for the feminine, and "-um" for the neuter) makes it a noun.

In Roman antiquity, candidates for elected office would often wear white togas (whiter than normal, that is) to evoke trust among the electorate. They knew about visual rhetoric back then, too. (Question posed by einhardno)

Answer: Shannon Airport, Ireland

In the beginnings of travel by air, Shannon Airport (near Limerick, County Clare, Ireland) typically serviced trans-Atlantic flights en route from New York (U.S.A.) to Paris (France). Entrepreneur Brendan O'Regan saw an opportunity and established the world's first duty free shop within the airport in 1947. (Question posed by odo5435 on behalf of his friend alikadoo)

Answer: Magister artium

The Paris system became quite influential in Western Europe for some time. They had four faculties: theology, medicine, law and the "artes"-faculty, which taught the "septem liberales artes" or the seven liberal arts. All students would enrol in the artes-faculty, and study either the "trivium" (the "three ways" of grammar, rhetoric and logic) or the "quadrivium" (the "four ways" of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). Astronomy was really astrology, as we see it today.

Students who graduated from the artes-faculty received the degree of magister artium (master of arts). Only those with such a degree were qualified to go on to a professional degree at one of the other faculties, which would then lead to the degree of "Doctor Theologiae/Medicinae/Juris".

It is commonly believed that "trivia(l)" comes from the trivium, which some came to see as a soft option, as opposed to the tougher quadrivium. (Question posed by einhardno)

Answer: They ran out of ale.

During the period, ale (beer) was recognized as a more nutritious drink than water, and ale was stored on board for the passengers and crew. About the same time that land was first sighted in present-day Massachusetts, the passengers' inventory of ale was depleted. The captain encouraged the passengers to go ashore to find fresh water so that he could preserve the crew's drinking inventory.

Bad winter weather and illness prevented them from continuing south to Virginia. (Question posed by tadpoles_uk.)

Answer: Lewis had only heard the name, never seen it in writing

Lewis mentions "Numinor" in his preface to "That Hideous Strength" (1945). At the time, nothing of Tolkien's about Númenor was in print, and Lewis had never read the name. He had only heard it read, and it probably sounded like "Numinor". This was a quite common practice in the Inklings, the informal club to which both Lewis and Tolkien belonged; they would read their own works to each other. Lewis, apparently, enjoyed being read to.

Tolkien refers to Lewis' version of the name in two of his published letters. One is a long letter to the publisher Milton Waldman, probably in late 1951. The other is a letter to one Hugh Brogan in 1955. Only an excerpt of this latter is published, and the "Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" does not say much about Mr Brogan, but it appears this is the same person (b. 1936) who later became professor Hugh Brogan, an historian.

Answer: True

Drinking too much water (polydipsia) can lead to a life-threatening condition called hyponatremia (or water intoxication) which is a low sodium concentration in the blood. Several factors, such as diabetes or extended strenuous exercise, can cause excessive thirst which could lead to hyponatremia.

There have been high profile cases of marathon runners who have died due to excessive water consumption. (Question posed by odo5435)

Answer: January 4th

Several World Wide Web sites (including daysoftheyear.com and timeanddate.com) list January 4th as World Trivia Day. So, if that happens to be the day you are completing this quiz, gather some like-minded friends and indulge your passion for "insignificant trifles of little importance, especially items of unimportant information" (definition of 'trivia' from The Century Dictionary). (Question posed by odo5435)