Patchwork Quilt 6 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

Following the rebellious acts surrounding the Boston Tea Party in 1773 by the American colonists, the British government sent forces to occupy Boston in order to try to calm things down and resolve the situation. British General Thomas Gage, following representations from the town leaders, agreed to grant permission for any Bostonians who wished to leave the town with their families and goods could do so if they wished - but only if they handed in all their weapons first.

The vast majority of the town residents stayed put and handed in 2,000 muskets while they were at it. Of those who shook the dust of Boston off their heels, leaving their weapons behind, that stockpile amounted to 1,778 long arms, 634 pistols, 273 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses.

Answer: It is roughly the same height as its user

Longbows date right back to the Paleolithic age in Europe, and although different cultures manufactured these weapons from the wood of various trees over time, the most popular wood used after the Bronze age was yew. These long instruments lacked the distinctive curve of smaller bows and enabled the archer to have a fairly long draw back to their jaw. This increased the force of the shot considerably and made the longbow a formidable weapon both in hunting and during times of war. They were used with devastating effect by the English during the Hundred Years War with France (1337-1453), particularly so at the Battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Argincourt. Each bow was customised to the same height of the shooter, and was relatively easy to make. An experienced archer could create one in a few hours.

The 1513 Battle of Flodden between England and Scotland, fought in Northumberland, was the last battle to be fought on English soil principally with the aid of the longbow. It gradually was replaced with cannon and firearms from this period. However, and very interestingly, the last time this weapon was used in battle was during the Second World War (1939-1945). "Mad Jack" Churchill, a British army officer, shot an enemy soldier with his longbow. He always took that weapon, a set of bagpipes and a broadsword with him into battle - regularly using all three. His life makes rather fascinating reading.

Answer: X-raying her ovaries in order to kill off her libido

Honestly, Sigmund Freud and his obsession with sex! He'd even turn a jar of Vegemite into a phallic symbol. Princess Alice of Battenberg lived from 25 February, 1885, until 5 December, 1969. This great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, born congenitally deaf, married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, becoming known as Princess Andrew from that time on. The couple had five children. One of those offspring, Prince Philip, married Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (before she became Queen) on 20 November, 1947.

With all the upheavals that took part during her life, including the exile of the Royal Greek family in 1917, the murders of two of her aunts by the Bolsheviks, and the later tragic deaths of several other members of her family, Princess Andrew turned to religion for comfort in the late 1920s. She soon afterwards claimed she was being given divine revelations and the power of healing, and then suffered a complete mental breakdown, during which the doctors diagnosed her as having paranoid schizophrenia. She was admitted to a sanatorium in Switzerland where her doctors consulted Sigmund Freud as to which form her treatment should take.

Unfortunately, he stated that Princess Andrew was undoubtedly suffering from sexual frustration, and recommended giving her ovaries large doses of x-rays to kill off her libido. The rest of her life was troubled and unsettled, including her attempt to found an order of Greek Orthodox nuns (she attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth wearing her nun's habit), until finally she accepted an open invitation from her son and the Queen to come and live with them in Buckingham Palace. There she died in 1969, completely impoverished, after having given all her worldly possessions to the poor, but still, it is to be hoped, with her ovaries intact.

Answer: Because her daring tennis outfit revealed her knickers

American born Gertrude Augusta Moran (1923-2013) caused an absolute uproar in England during her first Wimbledon appearance in the 1940s because of her outfit. She had requested famous Wimbledon host and fashion designer, Ted Tinling (1910-1990) to design her a multi-coloured outfit for the tournament. As the tournament rules stated that all players had to wear white to play, Tinling couldn't oblige Gussie, but he got around those rules by designing her a short dress instead - underneath of which he created a pair of ruffled lace panties - and which were very clearly visible with her every stroke.

There was an absolute uproar. The papers began referring to Moran as "Gorgeous Gussie"; reporters, squatting low on the ground, jockeyed for position to try to get the best photographs of her nether regions; Wimbledon officials were absolutely scandalised and accused Moran of "bringing vulgarity and sin" into the game; and the matter was even debated in parliament! Tinling himself was cold-shouldered by Wimbledon officials for the next thirty-three years. Incidentally, that unusual man had also been a spy for Britain during the Second World War. All things considered following the outcry over his sinful design for Gussy Moran, he probably thought that was the safer job.

Answer: Placenta

What a gruesome image to place in one's mind, but such an incentive to maintain the diet. "Would you like a slice of placenta with your coffee, my dear?" No doubt however, the Ancient Greeks had a different word to describe the after birth expulsion following the arrival of a new baby into the world. Our English-speaking use of the word "cake" itself derives from the Viking word for same. That word was "kaka" - but, to be honest, that's almost as bad, particularly if you use a crisp shortened vowel.

Oh, will you just read this piece of fiddle-dee-dee! When the idea of packeted cake mixes were first introduced to American housewives post World War One, the sale of same dropped heavily post World War Two. Marketers announced that this was because women, who had taken on much of the men's work during the war while they were overseas fighting, were forced back into the domestic sphere when the men returned home and reclaimed their jobs. Women, so the marketing firms announced, found the cake mixes dispiriting because they really, really, really loved slaving over a hot oven cooking proper cakes instead. And so, successfully chaining women back to the stove once more, the marketers announced a new way to make the obedient little housewife sing with delight again in front of the mixing bowl - frosting! Yes, ladies, frosting. This way, they stated, the ladies could still use their cake mixes, but then spend as much time as they liked doing cake decorating and adornment as a reward! What an astonishing lack of knowledge of the female psyche and intelligence.

Answer: Lady Caroline performed the dagger scene

Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) was an Anglo-Irish member of the aristocratic class and a part time novelist. She was married in 1805 in a genuine love match, to William Lamb, the man who would one day become known as Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but the couple eventually drifted apart. Right from the early days of her childhood, the very lovely, witty and intelligent Caroline was extremely unbalanced. She was wild, tempestuous, and untamed and often had to be sedated to control her behaviour. Her in-laws absolutely detested her, constantly referring to her as the little beast, a fact which hurt her deeply but only increased her extremes of mood and actions.

Meeting the "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Lord Byron in 1812, the two were like bright, beautiful moths drawn to a perilous flame. They fell in love and commenced a wild and passionate affair in full view of the public eye - before he cruelly and humiliatingly called an end to the relationship. Was Lady Caroline to be cast off so easily? Not likely. Emotionally distraught, she pursued him endlessly, turning up on his doorstep in various disguises, deluging him with letters, and following him to the upper class social events of the day. It was at one such, and after he cruelly insulted her in front of her peers, that Caroline grabbed a wine glass and attempted to slash her wrists. Society was shocked and her mental capacity was called into question once again. Byron, however, was completely unmoved, and, in a reference to Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, he heartlessly remarked to his friends that "Lady Caroline performed the dagger scene".

Caroline herself was totally unrepentant, and, for the next few years, she and Byron went on to constantly insult one another in their literary works. She so scandalised one of her cousins, Lady Granville, with her ongoing shenanigans that Lady Granville wrote in a letter to her sister, following a shocked visit to Caroline, that "I mean my (future) visits to be annual". The end to this tale of passion was not happy. William Lamb, who was just as unfaithful to Caroline as she was to him, continued to support her until her death however, even though by then they were both living in separate establishments, and he genuinely mourned her passing. Lord Byron went on to live his famously dramatic show pony life on the continent, and was dead by the age of 36. He predeceased Caroline by three years. Caroline herself, with her mental health (assisted by her abuse of alcohol and laudanum) deteriorating more and more with each passing year, spent the last months of her life in the care of a full time physician, before her death in 1828. As Shakespeare once wrote, "Golden lad and girls all must, as chimney sweepers, come to dust". They were golden indeed, full of life, beauty and passion, they flickered brightly and briefly far above the heads of the mundane crowds below, but the dust covered book on their destructive love had finally reached its concluding chapter.

Answer: Goats

A mighty god being towed along in his war chariot by a couple of goats seems more comical than impressive. Thor's two goats are named Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjopstr. The legend has it that every night when he stops trotting around with his billy and nanny, and sets up camp for the evening, the ungrateful fellow then proceeds to eat them! But, butt, butt - this is terrible! The very height of ingratitude! Thor then carefully wraps up the bones of his faithful servants after each evening meal, and, lo and behold, when he wakes up in the morning, the goats have come back to life once more. Baaa to that. Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjopstr, if they had any sense at all, should apply for early retirement - on a vegetarian's farm.

Answer: Led them to hidden food supplies

And no, they didn't eat him. In 1855, after almost a year long siege of the city Sevastapol (the largest on the Crimean Peninsula), and because the British forces were in danger of starvation, Lieutenant William Gair took a group of men to search the cellars of the captured city for any food supplies. During the almost fruitless search, Gair spotted a dust covered cat sitting on top of a pile of rubbish, placidly surveying the soldiers. To his surprise, instead of running away when he approached it, the animal let Gair pick it up, and, taking pity on it, he took it back to his quarters, named it Tom (afterwards Crimean Tom), and fed it portions of his scanty meals.

It wasn't too long after this that Gair noticed Tom was gaining weight. Reasoning that he must have access to mice, and that mice were probably feeding off hidden stocks of food, he followed Tom when he next wandered off - and Tom led him straight to a large hidden storeroom packed with food. It was amazing. The food helped save the British forces from almost certain starvation - and it didn't stop there. Tom led Gair to several other sources of food from that time, until the war was over.

Not wishing to be parted from the furry little ball he had grown to love, Gair took Tom back to England with him when he returned home, but alas his four-footed friend didn't survive the climate in that country, and died not long after his arrival. Gair, wishing to honour the contribution Tom had made to saving the life of his soldiers, then had him stuffed, and presented, with a record of his life-saving deeds, to the Royal United Services Institute.

Answer: False

In fact they detested one another and carried on this dislike until they died. Read on for this hilarious account. In 1824, the governor of the colony of New South Wales commissioned Hamilton Hume (1797-1873) and William Hovell (1786-1875), who barely knew one another, to find new lands in the colony's unexplored areas and to try to solve the mystery as to where the western rivers flowed. Government funding for this journey of exploration fell through however, and the two men decided to go ahead anyhow, funding the trip together, but with supplies issued from government stores. Hume, who was Australian born, was a noted bushman right from his boyhood days, and knew the country well. Hovell, who was born in England, only arrived in Australia eleven years prior to the expedition, but had done some exploration around Sydney in the interim. They took three men each with them for the journey, and set off on 2 October. And it was a disaster.

The pair argued right from the beginning as to whom was in charge of the expedition, they argued all the way through the journey about any bone of contention that cropped up, and, even though they periodically settled each argument during the trip, they maintained their later detestation of one another right up until they both eventually passed away. The first argument took place three weeks into the journey when they came to a mountain barrier and couldn't decide which route to take, with Hume arguing for one direction and Hovel the other. This disagreement became so violent that the parties decided to split the supplies and go their separate ways, but so stubborn and determined were they not to give an inch to one another, that they even cut their tent in half, They followed this up with a violent tug of war over the only frying pan, pulling at it so hard that it came apart. One grimly then took the handle, the other the pan.

When they reunited later, with Hovell having made the directional error of judgement, they then argued about the means by which they'd cross a new river they came upon. Hume threatened to throw Hovell in the drink unless he did what he was told regarding the crossing procedure. And on it went from there. It was a lengthy and important trek of exploration of several months, vast amount of new land were discovered, and many were the debates and disagreements along the way - and nor did it end amicably. When the two men decided to return to Sydney to report their findings, this also developed into a falling out. Each man tried to beat the other back to Sydney first to claim the credit for their findings and took off at the gallop. The governor at the time wisely gave both men large grants of land as a reward - not close to one another - whereupon they both subsequently published completely conflicting stores of the journey and with each claiming leadership.

Today, there are several sites in Australia honouring Hume - a highway, a dam, a lake, a suburb in Canberra, a federal political division, and a city. What with Hovell's rather unfortunate surname, however, the same cannot be said for that feisty directionally challenged explorer as well. Now that is definitely worth an argument.

Answer: Civil War of 1861 to 1865

The original expression of this famous saying was "Damn the torpedoes, four bells Captain Drayton, go ahead. Jouett, full speed", but over time it has been paraphrased into "Damn the torpedoes! Full spead ahead" instead. It was made by one David Farragut, who was an officer in the US Navy during that country's famous Civil War (1861-1865), and was said during the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Gulf of Mexico in 1864. That was the last open fort held by the Confederate forces and the area was very heavily defended with mines. Mines were referred to as torpedoes at that stage of history. Farragut, in charge of a large flotilla of ships, and regardless of the consequences, ordered his fleet to charge the bay. When the first ship hit a mine and sank, the other ships began to retreat - and that was when Farragut gave his famous order over the trumpet. The bulk of the fleet were successful in taking the bay.

Don't be too hasty in admiring such bravado and derring-do, however. At the earlier Siege of Port Hudson, when the Union forces took on a stronghold held by the Confederate army, Farragut was supposed to wait for a diversionary attack by the Union land army before bringing his flotilla of 38 ships into play, but refused to do so, taking off one hour beforehand. Although he was able to subsequently blockade the mouth of the Red river, it was at a terrible price, with the combined Union forces suffering their highest losses at this battle.

Today, this saying has come to mean an act of defiance in spite of all cautionary advice indicating otherwise. So, on that note, and in spite of the diet, please hand me another large slice of chocolate cake. "Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!"