Potpourri Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Carbuncle Cup award

The Poole Methodist Church was built in the late 1800s to replace an old chapel that had been constructed there one hundred years earlier. Made from Purbeck and Bath stone, it is of Gothic design, and features a soaring and impressive tower on its north-west side.

The extension to this lovely building - which replaced a lovely old Georgian chapel - looks like a flat topped box, has no visual appeal at all, no recognisable architectural features, and is completely out of character with the rest of the church's design.

It's quite horrible in fact, and it is not at all surprising that it took out the 2016 Carbuncle Cup, an architectural "award" handed out annually for "ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months".

Answer: Liberty and Union

The Taunton Flag was adopted in October 1774, following the expulsion of British Loyalists from that city by the Sons of Liberty. It stood as a symbol of defiance by American colonists and their dissatisfaction with British rule and taxation. Featuring the words "Liberty and Union" on a startlingly red background, this flag of dissension also rather peculiarly featured the Union Jack in the top left hand corner as well, almost as if still being willing to negotiate. Still flown in front of various government buildings in Taunton today underneath the Stars and Stripes, there is some doubt whether the current design is a fully accurate copy of the original.

It is based on an incomplete article and sketch in a newspaper from that heady period leading up to the American Revolution.

Answer: Electric fish

Ancient Egyptians were well aware of the jolting power of electricity generating fish, and believed they were there to protect all the other fish in the Nile. By the time of the Ancient Greeks though, mankind was just beginning to wonder if that electricity could be used for other purposes, particularly so in the field of medicine. Unfortunately they looked to areas rather unsuited for such a cure. They recommended, for example, that anyone suffering from gout or migraine headaches, should touch one of these electric fish for a cure. With these creatures capable of delivering an electric shock of some 860 volts, that's some cure.

The history of the discovery of electricity and its capability is a fascinating one. Who knows where else mankind can go with it? Incidentally, did you know that an electric eel is not an eel at all, but instead is classified as a knifefish?

Answer: Overnight resting place for farmers and cattle

Made from straw, a boo was an old Saxon building, many of which could be seen dotted around the countryside in various European countries for many centuries. These places were used as overnight stopovers by farmers rounding up cattle that had strayed too far from home, when it was too late to return back home by nightfall.

They were also used as rough accommodation for farmhands (boo-heers) employed by wealthier farmers (broodheers). Amazingly, the last genuinely remaining boo from that historical time period only burned down in 2004; it was located in the Netherlands. Arson was the cause. Such a terrible thing to do. Boo comes to us from the German word "Bude", the translation of which is "shack".

Answer: To allow for the possible prevention of the marriage

Banns of forthcoming marriages between two people were announced in Christian churches throughout European society for many centuries. It had become church law from a meeting of the Lateran IV Council in 1215. The ultimate purpose of banns was the prevention of any clandestine marriages between unsuitable candidates.

It enabled any suitable authority to put in a notice of impediment to the wedding before it could take place. These impediments could include a pre-existing marriage, lack of consent, too close a relationship between the couple, or even a pre-existing vow of celibacy.

The words "banns" is an old Middle English word meaning "proclamation". Banns had to be read aloud to the congregation on three separate Sundays before a forthcoming wedding before that marriage, if legal, could take place.

Answer: The best sexual positions to use

It's unbelievable that people fell for this hoax, but this was indeed the case. Document 12-571-3570 was posted on the Usernet in 1989. In suitably couched scientific terms, it gravely discussed experiments carried out between men and women during space shuttle mission STS-75 on ten different sexual positions in zero gravity.

Its purpose, so the agog readers were informed, was to test which would be the most effective to use for future space missions. The real STS-75 mission didn't take place for another seven years - during which no women were present - but to NASA's annoyance, they have had to throw cold water on this hoax on quite a few occasions ever since.

The thought occurs, just in passing, that too energetic a performance of this nature on future space missions could possibly lead to a severe case of concussion for either party.

Answer: To allow a family of ducks to paddle across in front

Born in New South Wales, Australia, in 1905, Bobby Pearce not only won gold at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, he won the World Sculling Championships in 1933, 1934 and 1938. During the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, this champion rower stopped rowing half way through his gold medal performance to allow a family of ducks to paddle slowly past in front of him - but then went on to win in the fastest time of all the rowers throughout the elimination races leading up to the final. What a lovely thing to do, even though many spectators thought he was quackers at the time.

Answer: Not much bloody unitate about this place

George VI (1895-1952) was King of the United Kingdom from 1936 until his death. During an official tour of the very segregated South Africa in 1947, he was requested by the government of that country to only shake hands with white people. Shortly afterwards, while travelling about on the official train, he noticed that the white South African police, whom he called the Gestapo, were constantly pushing black people back from even getting a glimpse of him.

It was at this time that he also spotted the motto embroidered on the tablecloth adorning his table.

The king snorted in disgust and exclaimed "Not much bloody unitate about this place".

Answer: Umbrella

Htis are those beautifully carved, delicate architectural feature crowning the top of almost all pagodas in Myanmar. They do indeed look like lovely umbrellas that have been unfurled and held aloft. These could occasionally be seen on other buildings in pre-colonial Burma (as Myanmar was once known), and, because special permission was required from the king for this to take place, they were looked upon as a real social status symbol in that country. Only the king and his queen could have white htis on their buildings (and sometimes over their elephants), as they were a symbol of sovereignty. Very occasionally though, royal permission was granted to have one erected over a religious icon such as a statue of the Buddha. If anyone dared to put a white one on any other building elsewhere however, this was punishable by death.

The highest official in the land and royal princes were allowed to have golden htis on their abodes, and lower down officials were now and then regally granted the right to have a red hti. On the death of a king, his own particular white umbrellas were destroyed.

Answer: A computing machine

A Turing machine is an example of a busy beaver machine. This is a device described as a "mathematical model of computation" that, given any algorithm, is "capable of simulating that algorithm's logic". Hopefully you can understand those definitions. That particular busy beaver was invented by British born Alan Turing (1912-1954), who was a "computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist". That's one very impressive resume. Turing is also considered to be the father of artificial intelligence. Perhaps you may remember him more for his work on cracking the so called unbreakable German Enigma code machine during the World War II. Sorrowfully so though, in spite of his brilliant work, Turing was prosecuted in 1952, when the war was safely over, for his sexual preferences - by the very government he helped save during that war.

He agreed to undergo the barbaric "treatment" of chemical castration as a result, but was found dead of cyanide poisoning two years later, a sad conclusion to the life of a busy beaver who gave the world his own particular busy beaver.