Paint It Black! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red

"I see a red door and I want it painted black" is the first line of the lyrics of "Paint It, Black" by the Rolling Stones.

The song was originally released on the 1966 "Aftermath" album, and has since appeared in other Rolling Stones albums: "Through the Past Darkly" (1969); "Hot Rocks" (1972); "Flashpoint" (1991); "Forty Licks" (2002); and "Live Licks" (2004).

Although Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were credited for it, all of the band members contributed. Supposedly, it was going to be a slow, soul number, but the driving upbeat rhythm with its twangy sitar accompaniment went a long way to counteract the depressing lyrics. According to Keith Richards the original title did not have a comma but, for some unknown reason, the Decca record company put it in.

"Paint It, Black" has been covered by many bands and artists, including R.E.M., Rush, Blondie, Deep Purple, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Duran Duran, to name but a few.

Answer: He was blackballed

Admission to membership of many of the old private gentlemen's clubs of London (and elsewhere) was by invitation only: an established member would put your name forward and the other club members would vote by either putting a black ball or a white ball in a receptacle.

If there were more black than white balls then you weren't admitted to membership: you were "blackballed". In some cases the presence of even a single black ball was enough to exclude the applicant. The term has now come to mean any membership rejection arrived at by voting.

"Blackleg" refers to a person who breaks a strike (industrial action), either by refusing to join it or by working in a striker's place; or to one who refuses to join a trade union, or breaks union or trade rules.

"Blacklead" was the graphite-based paste used to clean cast iron grates and cooking ranges, so called because it made lead-coloured marks. It was also a term for graphite itself, or for a "lead" pencil.

A "blackjack" is a blunt instrument for use as an offensive weapon. The Oxford English Dictionary definition is a "flexible loaded bludgeon". Blackjack is also the black flag flown by pirates; a card game (known in the UK as "Pontoon", "Twentyone" or "Vingt-et-un"); or "a tarred-leather vessel for alcoholic liquor". Uncle Algy might have been partial to the cards or the drink, but I doubt he would have relished a run-in with bludgeon-wielding pirates!

Answer: Black dog

The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) was a remarkable man of many achievements, including a Nobel Prize for Literature, but is probably most widely remembered as Britain's Prime Minister during the Second World War. He was voted out of office at the end of the war in 1945, but returned for a second premiership from 1951-55.

Although a doughty, capable and charismatic leader, Churchill was often "hounded" by what he called his "black dog": periods of crushing depression during which he seemed to lose all confidence in his own considerable abilities. In those days there was little or no medication for such afflictions and it has been speculated that Churchill's gritty determination to overcome his condition helped him, and consequently Britain, to hold fast during the grim war years.

Answer: Kale

Cavolo nero is a very dark green variety of kale - a loose-leaved member of the brassica family; it is also known as Black Cabbage, Tuscan Black Cabbage, Tuscan kale, Lacinato, or Nero de Toscana. It is rich in minerals and vitamins and is ideal in robust mixed vegetable soups and other winter dishes. "Cavolo" means "cabbage".

Scorzonera, or Black Salsify, is a root vegetable of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) whose Italian name translates as "black bark". The outer layer is black and the inner part of the root is white.

Before selective breeding produced the sweet orange vegetable we know today, there were various colours of carrot including white, yellow, purple and black. Apparently these early carrots had quite a bitter flavour.

"Black" potato varieties do exist: they are actually either dark blue (there's a variety called "Blue Kongo") or purple (a Peruvian variety).

Answer: The Black Watch

The Black Watch Regiment, now officially known as "The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland", is the oldest Highland regiment in the British Army and can trace its origins back to the mid-17th century.

At this time and later, after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, independent companies were raised from the loyal Highland clans and were set to police their more troublesome neighbours. In 1739, King George II authorised the recruitment of more companies and directed that they should be formed into a regular army regiment. The first muster of the new regiment was in 1740 at Aberfeldy (not far from Pitlochry in Scotland) and is commemorated by a monument on the site of the muster.

The Black Watch was the first regiment in the British Army to wear the kilt and to use the bagpipes; tradition has it that the regimental name derives from the dark colour of the tartan and the fact that they "watched" the Highlands.

"The Black and Tans" was a joint military and police group put together to counter the activity of the Irish Sinn Fein organisation in the 1920s; the name stems from the colour of the uniform.

"The Black Devils" was the nickname for two regiments: the 1st Special Service Force (the Devil's Brigade) was a joint WW2 American-Canadian commando unit; and the Rhodesian Armoured Car Regiment got this nickname from their distinctive black uniform jumpsuits.

"The Black Adder" was the name adopted by Prince Edmund in the first "Blackadder" historical comedy television series starring the British comedian Rowan Atkinson.

Answer: Yes

"Dugald" is a variant spelling of the name "Dougal", a Celtic or Gaelic name whose meaning is "dark stranger", so it does have a connection with "black".

Famous "Dougals" include Dougal, the shaggy dog from the children's TV series and film "The Magic Roundabout"; Robert Dougall, whom older British members may recall from earlier days of the television news; Dugald Stewart, the Scottish philosopher who first compared the city of Edinburgh to Athens, spawning the descriptive phrase "the Athens of the North"; and Sir Dugald Clerk, the Glasgow-born engineer whose pioneering work on gas-engines was taken up by the early automobile industry.

Answer: China, Japan and India

The most familiar type of tea to many of us is "black" tea, the very dark leaf varieties that we usually buy in packets or teabags. When brewed it produces a reddish-brown liquid and is known as "red" tea in China, Japan and India. The leaves have been extensively fermented and exposed to sunlight before being dried. Note that this is not the same as the tea commonly sold in the UK as "red tea" or "red bush tea" (Ruibos) which is actually the dried leaves of a South African shrub and not the leaves of the tea plant.

Oolong, or wulong, has the aroma of black tea combined with the freshness of green tea; the processing of the leaves is not so long as that for black tea.

Green tea describes leaves that have been processed even less: they are high in antioxidant compounds and low in caffeine.

White tea is the least-processed leaf and has a fresh grassy flavour.

Answer: Black Mollies

The Black Molly (Poecilia sphenops) is a tropical aquarium fish related to the guppy (Poecilia reticulata); it originates from the coastal streams of Central America, but is now mainly supplied from commercial fish farms in the Far East. Did you spot the clue in the question? Molly rhymes with "Polly", a common name for a parrot.

Black Mollies are adaptable fish and are often advocated as ideal for tropical freshwater community tanks, but really do better as a small school in their own tank where some salt can be added to the water to reproduce their preferred habitat of brackish water.

The species was discovered in 1846 and subsequently imported into Germany in 1899; the name "Molly" comes from the original classification as Molliensa sphenops.

The other answers are all found in the natural world: the Black Pansy (Precis oenone) is an African butterfly; Black Nero is another name for the vegetable cavolo nero; Black Panther is a term applied to melanistic (black or very dark) leopards and jaguars.

Answer: Black gold

"Black gold" or "Texas tea" is a descriptive name for the crude oil that supplies the petrochemical (or oil) industry.

The earliest known oil wells were in 4th century China (possibly even earlier) and by the 8th century the industry was established in the Middle East; the first commercial oil well in North America was drilled in Canada at Oil Springs, Ontario.

The products of the petrochemical industry are everywhere: there are the obvious ones such as fuels for various types of internal combustion engine, engine lubricants and coolants, plastics and polymer fibres; there are those that may not be immediately obvious, such as the asphalt on roads, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and the paraffin wax used in the packaging of frozen foods.

Answer: Black Narcissus

"Black Narcissus" (1947) was based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, and told the story of the disastrous effects of isolation on a group of nuns established in a remote convent in the Himalayas. The title comes from the name of a scent used by the young local ruler.

Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, the film won an Academy Award for Jack Cardiff in the Best Photography category.

The English author Margaret Rumer Godden (1907-1998) was a prolific writer who spent much of her life on the Indian subcontinent. She wrote children's stories as well as adult novels and was still writing the year before her death.