Patchwork Quilt 10 Trivia Quiz

Answer: They can draw up gold through their roots

Eucalyptus trees in Australia have roots that can detect gold from deep down under the ground and draw it up to spread it throughout their leaves and branches in extremely small particles. While these particles of gold on the foliage are not worth amassing, they are a very reliable indication that gold deposits may exist deep underground. Remarkable, isn't it?

Eucalyptus trees are very fast growing gifts from nature, so they're always a readily available source of wood, and the copious amounts of delightfully scented oil they produce is used to produce insecticides, disinfectants and other cleaning goods, cough lollies, decongestants, toothpaste and insect repellent. The multi-gifted eucalyptus also produces a delicious tasting nectar which is used to manufacture honey. The downside to Australia's lovely eucalyptus tree however, is that, because of the natural oil it contains, it more or less explodes in a terrifyingly short time when it catches on fire. So never stand around one admiring the crackling and the sparks. Its falling branches are nicknamed Widow-makers.

Answer: Direct routes to the nearest cemetery

The historical reason behind the construction of these ghoulish highways and byways took place in medieval times when the population of Great Britain began to rapidly grow. During those heady days when folk regularly attended church, but with those buildings now bulging at the seams, this resulted in an increase in the construction of churches in outlying areas in order to serve the spiritual needs of the people. That, however, eventually created a problem for the already established churches and minsters once the newer churches began demanding autonomy. They didn't like their parishioners being lured away to hallowed buildings more conveniently located to their places of abode - but in particular they objected to the loss of revenue from those parishioners who now began to open their scanty purses elsewhere.

However, the one advantage the older establishments had over those newer religious Johnnies-come-lately was that they still held the sole burial rights for the established cemeteries in each area. So in order to lure parishioners back into their fold, and with the added incentive of those burial rights, their solution was to build funeral way roads connecting outlying locations direct to the heart of the older parishes and their cemeteries. These became known as corpse roads. It was still a long journey though, and many parishioners, too poor to order a carriage, had to lug their coffin-encased deceased family members along on their shoulders as they trudged to those distant burial grounds. To make it easier in this regard, the older establishments had large coffin stones placed along the way in order for the mourners to have a break and rest their coffins on same. Some of those old roads still exist today as footpaths, along which the occasional signs of "Kirk Way Field" or "Church Way" can be seen, and at least one remaining coffin stone can be seen on the path from Rydal to Ambleside in the Lake District at Cumbria.

Interesting as well is the old belief (based on ley lines) that spirits of the dead liked to move along straight lines straight to their place of rest, so any obstacles, such as fences or walls had to be avoided during the construction of those funeral ways. Accordingly, if the ley line led through a small village or town, the corpse road either went as close to a home as possible - or even straight through it! How would you like a funeral procession wailing by as you ate your toast and marmalade at the breakfast table?

Answer: Teeth

Sage is one amazing little plant. There are many varieties of this herb, but the common or garden one, known as "salvia officinalis", has been used by man for hundreds of years for many purposes. In the culinary arts, it has been, and still is, used to flavour fish, chicken, turkey, casseroles, soups, sauces, sausages and even cheeses. In Egypt in particular, it is also used to give extra flavour to hot black tea. Medicinally speaking, sage over time has been used in the manufacture of many folk medicines, especially those used by monks and early physicians. These uses include the treatment of snakebites, as a diuretic, to stop bleeding, as a local anaesthetic, to stimulate menstrual flow and increase fertility, to strengthen the memory and the brain, to stop the tremors associated with palsy, to treat sore throats and inflammations of the mouth, and to reduce fever.

On a more personal level, the miracle plant has been used as a hair rinse, as a hand wash when mixed in water, and, combined with salt, as a fresh smelling, pleasant tasting early toothpaste. Though no firm conclusions have been reached - as yet - sage's claim to improve brain function is still being investigated by medical researchers. All this in addition to producing a lovely delicate flower and possessing leaves that smell delightful in one's garden.

Answer: Shooting and eating a bald eagle

That article appeared in an article in the Empire News on 11 May, 2015 and resurfaced on the net late December, 2018. The villainous criminal in question, one Larry Tucker, not only shot an animal very symbolic of the United States, but then cooked and ate it as well! The article went on to say that "Texans are calling for the death penalty for a man accused of disrespecting America in the worst possible way, shooting and eating a bald eagle."

Larry Tucker, however, said that the eagle asked for it. "Damn bird kept picking off my chickens so I shot it. A man has a right to protect his livestock from predators" said he, picking his teeth with a bald eagle feather. Larry Tucker added that "the damn thing didn't even taste that good".

So, to the the moral of this tale: Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, and, if you live in Texas and want to stay alive, don't especially count them AFTER they're hatched.

Answer: She said 'damn'

British socialite and novelist, Lady Angela Forbes (1876-1950) was an interesting character. Born into an upper class society where every whim was granted for the wealthy, and when women were still expected to be demure little creatures hanging off the arms of suitable gentlemen, Angela was almost six foot tall, strode about like a farmer, could shoot and hunt like a man, was outspoken, forthright and a little abrasive, and didn't have the slightest problem with flirting and having the occasional affair. In this regard, she was later described by one of her rivals as "an elderly gorilla with sex appeal".

Angela was also deeply compassionate and prepared to follow through on her convictions. On a visit to Paris during World War I, she was aghast at all the wounded soldiers coming in from the front being left on the quay for hours at a stretch without any food or drink - and made up her mind to do something about it. By November, 2014, she had started a canteen in a station waiting room for soldiers both returning from battle or heading out to it, and, staffed by volunteers, this soon turned into a string of canteens all supervised by her. These were known unofficially as "Angelinas" by the grateful and exhausted men, but met with the disapproval of senior officers, particularly the Commander of the British Expeditionary Forces, Sir Douglas "Butcher" Haig - mainly because he couldn't deal with Angela's forthright and abrasive personality. In September 1917, after three years of service, she was accordingly ordered off the British base without any explanation. Of course she fought the order, and the matter was raised in Parliament by one of her former lovers, Lord Ribblesdale, and Lord Wymness, another former lover, with the result being a government recognition of her valuable work. Oh - and her crime? It turned out that not only had she washed her hair in the canteen one day, but she had also had the audacity to say "Damn!"

After the war, Angela set up a training organisation for permanently disabled soldiers, ran an upper class hotel for a time (a converted home of a former lover), travelled widely, and became quite a well known writer. In short, you could say Lady Angela Forbes had a "damn" interesting life.

Answer: Yes

The Reverend Samuel Peters (1735-1821) was born in the Connecticut colony, and educated at Yale College. He was ordained into the Anglican priesthood in 1759, and placed in charge of the parish church at Hebron in that colony. Peters was a Loyalist and strongly opposed the push for American independence from Britain. This resulted in several acrimonious visits from the Sons of Liberty, and Peters was forced to flee to England for his own safety. Brooding over his treatment while in that country, he wrote a work filled with very unflattering descriptions of the colonists back in America, and then included in it a deliberate misrepresentation of the existing laws in the colony at that time. This work became known as the "Connecticut Blue Laws" - and a few of these laws are included below:

"...

17. No one to cross a river, but with an authorized ferryman
18. No one shall run on the Sabbath day, or walk in his garden or elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting.
19. No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave, on the Sabbath day.
20. No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath or fasting day
35. No one shall read Common-Prayer, keep Christmas or saints-days, make minced pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument of music, except the drum, trumpet, and the jaw harp.
41. A man that strikes his wife shall pay a fine of £10; a woman that strikes her husband shall be punished as the Court directs
45. Every male shall have his hair cut round according to a cap"...

Answer: Taken off quickly usually to avoid trouble

Referring to anyone as having shot through like a Bondi trams means that this person has taken off for the lick of his or her life in order to escape the consequences of some usually illegal, or revenge promoting, action. This expression dates back to the days when Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, was serviced by passenger-carrying electric trams. Bondi itself is a surf side suburb in Sydney that is famous for it popular beach. It is a mecca for tourists, swimmers and surfers. So popular in fact, is this suburb, and always has been, that two tram services ran between the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst and Bondi on a regular basis.

One of these services took quite a time to get to the beachside suburb because of its regular stops along the way to pick up passengers. The other, however, was an express service that went from Darlinghurst to Bondi non-stop. It shot straight through in other words. The Sydney tram service to Bondi Beach ran from 1894 until 1960 when it ceased operations, and trams stopped operating in Sydney altogether in 1961 - and another era passed into the history books.

Answer: A bookkeeper

Cascade City, Columbia, was everything you've ever seen in movies about frontier towns in the wild, wild west. This town was a completely lawless boom town near the border with USA in the heady days of the Canadian Pacific Railway construction. Founded in 1896, it rose up at a very rapid rate from a few lots of land owned by Aaron Chandler from North Dakota. The construction of a hydro electric power plant and the development of a mining industry in 1897 saw the original town of two buildings (general store and restaurant) boom, and, within another year, fourteen hotels had been erected! It's mighty thirsty work in a boom town it would seem. By 1897, the township was also host to 60 prostitutes and assorted brothels where ladies of the night, such as Scrap Iron Minnie and Rough Lock Nell, also did a booming business.

The need for a permanent police service and jail became even more evident in 1897 when a group of thieves broke into the Mining company's store in the town and made off with 150 lbs of tobacco and a shotgun. The manager of the store realised that the thieves would then try to sell the tobacco back to the town's residents, and, when this proved to be the case, he deputised his alarmed bookkeeper, gave him a pistol, and sent him to arrest the thieves. Morgan, the sterling man of the books, managed to arrest three of the thieves - having to wrestle a long knife off one in the process - but another two escaped across the border. The erstwhile bookkeeper couldn't do much about that, so he closed the books on the case, and quite possibly went home to smoke his pipe.

Cascade City also didn't have a fire brigade in its early days, and when a rapidly spreading fire broke out in 1899, burning down six hotels in 30 minutes, the untrained men fighting the blaze decided to blow up some of the intact buildings as a type of firebreak. At the last minutes, one man rushed into a hotel to rescue its patrons before they were blown to smithereens. A Chinese cook managed to make it to safety on his own. Hilariously so, he emerged from his room, leaving his money behind, but carefully carrying a leg of ham instead.

Answer: That their delicate internal organs would be damaged

Andre-Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823) was an early French pioneer in the art of hot air ballooning. This method of flight fascinated him and he worked for many years in the field, eventually rising to the position of Official Aeronaut of France. In the fledgling days of ballooning, he staged several flights and demonstration around Paris, and then, in 1798, he announced that his next flight would include a woman as a passenger - in an untethered flight at that! His passenger of choice was a young, very beautiful girl named Citoyenne Henri. Gasps of shock and outrage echoed around Paris, and Garnerin found himself being summoned to appear in front of officials at the Federal of Bureau of Police to justify this planned attempt.

Their concerns were twofold. The first objection was physiological, and was that the air pressure so high up above the ground would damage the internal organs of the delicate body of a woman. This in spite of the fact that three other women had already been up in balloons elsewhere - two tethered and one untethered - and their organs remained intact. The second was on moral grounds. What if - oh they could barely say the words - what if the young girl fainted and was up there all alone in the clouds with a young lusty male? It was scandalous, sirrah, scandalous! An injunction was placed on the flight and Garnerin had to go to both the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of the Police to have the injunction overturned.

Finally the decision was handed down that "was no more scandal in seeing two people of different sexes ascend in a balloon than it is to see them jump into a carriage" - and the storm in a teacup flight went off without a hitch, ending safely nineteen miles away. Garnerin went on to fame and fortune, and Citoyenne, given a small gift of appreciation from him, went home to obscurity, safe in the knowledge that her organs hadn't budged an inch.

Answer: Had her cloned

The multi-talented American singer, actress, songwriter and film maker, Barbra Streisand, was born in New York City in 1942. Her unique voice saw her becoming famous as a singer before the movies snapped her up. Star of 19 films, two of which earned her Academy Awards (the 1968 "Funny Girl" and the 1976 "A Star is Born"), and with her recordings selling 150 millions albums and singles all over the world, Barbra is also well known for her stage performances, her concert tours, and her many television specials. She has won so many awards in various fields that it's astonishing.

On a more personal level, Barbra revealed in a New York Times article in 2018 that after she lost her most loved pet dog of fourteen years, Samantha, she was unable to bear the thought of her not running to meet her every day. So, based on her knowledge of Dolly the famous cloned sheep, and following a suggestion from Samantha's breeder, she had her vet take some cells from inside the curly-haired coton's cheeks and on her stomach just before she died. To her delight, that process produced four puppies, three of which survived. This is a clear case of life imitating art imitating life with the star of "Hello Dolly" giving a happy ever after nod to Dolly the cloned sheep who was indirectly connected to a loved family pet. Incidentally, Barbra, who gave one of the puppies to a close friend, takes the remaining two to visit the headstone of Samantha every so often. That must be rather confusing to the pups. They wouldn't know if they were here - or there.