Querulous Questions - the "Q" Quiz

Answer: Queen danio

The Queen danio, Devario Regina, is a quiet, peaceful fish originating from India and South-east Asia. It likes warm, fast-moving rivers and eats worms and bugs.

The Queen triggerfish, or Balistes, is much larger, at 8-24 inches in length. It has a sickle-shaped tail and two bright blue stripes on its face. It is found in coral reefs, and prefers to dine on crabs, clams and sea urchins.

The Quillback is even longer, at 26 inches. It's a carpsucker with a mean-looking dorsal fin. Its favourite meal is insect larva found in river sediment.

The Quillfish looks like an eel. It reaches a maximum length of about 16 inches. Found in the north Pacific, it apparently stays deep during the day, coming near the surface only at night. Not much is known about its habits, including its preferred lunch.

Answer: Johann Joachim Quantz

Johann Joachim Quantz was born in Oberscheden, Germany, in 1697, the son of a blacksmith. Upon his father's death he went to live with an uncle who ensured he had musical training. He played many instruments, and became oboist to the Dresden court ensemble, but then chose to focus on the flute. His skill was such that he taught Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great), made flutes and composed for them. His most important contribution to music was his 1752 treatise on the methodology of playing the flute. He died in Potsdam in 1773.

Francis Quarles was born around 1592 in Romford, Essex, England. He was a poet, and he (or someone unknown) set some of his works to music. He married and had eighteen children. His best known work was his "Emblems", a series of works with illustrations which were largely considered grotesque. He was immortalised when quoted by John Fitzgerald Kennedy in a speech to soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia in 1962. Quarles died in 1644.

Howard "Howdy" Quicksell was a banjoist, born in 1901. He played with the Jean Goldkette orchestra, and also recorded with luminaries such as Bix Beiderbecke and Tommy Dorsey. He left the music world at the age of about 29 and worked in a distillery. He died in 1953.

Roger Quilter was born in 1877 into the lesser nobility, his father being the baronet Sir Cuthbert Quilter. He studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany, along with composers such as Percy Grainger. His compositions were largely light in nature, some involving children's tunes. He died in 1953 in London.

Answer: Qafzeh

Qafzeh in Israel is near Nazareth. Excavations dating back to the 1930s have found the skeletons of homo sapiens, including one skull which exhibits the jaw and brow ridge common to Neanderthal man. As there was a colony of Neanderthals nearby, it is quite possible that they interbred. So far eleven skeletons have been found, only one having the dual features. The remains are estimated to be between 90,000 and 100,000 years old.

Quanterness is in Scotland, in the Orkneys. The site has the remains of a round structure, possibly a cairn with several chambers. It is probably Neolithic, but lacks artifacts which could be used to more precisely determine its age and function.

Qatna, in Syria, is the site of a Bronze-age town. There are still remains of the town walls, with a ditch running along outside rather like a moat, and four gates. The site lies near an old trade route.

Qaleh Bozi ia a cave in Iran near Isfahan, where middle Paleolithic tools have been found. Unfortunately it has been the site of illegal excavations, probably by looters.

Answer: Q is for Quarry

It's about a body dumped 18 years ago in a quarry... and it's based on an actual case from Santa Barbara, California. The real case remains unsolved. The fictional one, however, does get solved, but I'll leave it to you to read it to find out how!

Answer: Queyu

Qaqet (no, this is not a typo!) is found in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea, spoken by about 6,300 people - and taught in local primary schools. It has two dialects.

Quileute is nearly extinct. It is found in Washington state, USA, on the ocean side of the Olympic peninsula. About 10 people still spoke in 1977 it out of an ethnic population of 300, so it may well already be a dead language.

Qawasqar is also near extinction. In 1996 it was still being used by 20 people in Chile, although some of them were quite young so there is still a possibility of the language being revived.

Answer: Quarrel Picker

A quarrel picker was a glazier - a quarrel being a piece of glass set at a diagonal in a pane.

A qwylwryghte is another name for a wheelwright.

A quister was the person who would bleach items, such as sheets.

Queed was another name for the devil.

Answer: Milky quartz

Milky quartz is (surprise) white, hard (7 on the Mohs scale) and often found with gold ore. It is sometimes found enclosed in a clear quartz, a state known as phanton quartz.

Rose quartz ranges in colour from pale pink to a rosy red. It gets its colour from the inclusion of iron, manganese or titanium in the crystals. It is fairly opaque and therefore not used as a gemstone, but is used in carvings. Once common, it now is mostly found in Brazil.

Smoky quartz comes in shades of brown and black. Its colour probably is due to it being exposed to radiation, particularly that coming from granite, which is usually where the quartz is found. It has several sub-varieties: Cairngorm, from Scotland; Morion, an opaque black form; Coon tail, with black and grey stripes; and Gwindel, a form with an unusual crystalline structure.

There isn't (to the best of my knowledge) a variety called yellow quartz, I just made it up...

Answer: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was born in 1863 in Cornwall and was educated at Newton Abbot, Clifton and Trinity College, Oxford, where he later became a lecturer. He became a professor of English at Cambridge University in 1912, two years after being knighted. He died in 1944.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) was an American philosopher whose works influenced his pupil Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Scientist movement. Quimby believed that all mental and most physical disease was caused by the mind, and also blamed religion for them.

George Quirk wrote a treatise on "The Isle of Man Charities" in 1831. I'm sure somebody has some information on him, but I couldn't find any!

James Edward Quibell was born in Shropshire, England, in 1867. He studied archaeology under Flinders Petrie when the field was in its infancy, and became an Egyptologist working at Saqqara, the Valley of the Kings and Hierakonpolis. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Egyptian Museum and in 1925 became Secretary-General of Egypt's Antiquities Service. He died in 1935.

Answer: Quisqualis indica

Quisqualis indica is a pretty plant, evergreen in warm climates. Its flowers are white when they first open, then darken until they are red. The plant is a creeping shrub, and requires support such as a trellis or a fence. The fruit of the plant, which tastes like almonds, is used to combat nephritis, a kidney infection, and to help clear up diarrhoea. The leaves can be used to help relieve fever, presumably by brewing into a tea. The seeds can be ingested to kill off roundworm or pinworm.

Quesnelia is a Bromeliad, indigenous to the Brazilian rainforest. The leaves are 'toothed', sawblade-edged and very stiff. Flowers run from red and blue to nearly black, and produce a dry berry.

Quamoclit, or more properly Ipomoea Quamoclit, is a morning-glorylike plant known as cypress vine, hummingbird vine, star glory or cardinal creeper. It is an annual, tropical plant and won't survive the cold. Climbing up to 20 foot tall, this vine produces trumpet-shaped white, pink or red flowers which attract hummingbirds.

Quaqua parviflora looks like something that arrived from another star system. An African plant, it is shrublike and quite poisonous. The tiny 'flowers' form close to the stem, and look like a green tiger-striped starfish.

Answer: Enguerrand Quarton

Enguerrand Quarton was born around 1410 in northern France. He later moved to Avignon in the south of France. His works in the late medieval style were distinctly French, and generally portrayed religious themes. Only six works survive, all religious, so it is not possible to determine if he did any secular works. He may have also designed some stained glass works. The Pieta is large, 5'4" by 7'2", and is painted in tempera on wood. It can be seen in the Louvre in Paris. Quarton died in or after 1466.

Matthias Quad, born in 1557 in the Netherlands, was a mapmaker and engraver. He died sometime after 1609.

Jan Quadt was born in the Netherlands, date unknown. His paintings were in the classical style. He died in 1696.

Pieter Quast was born in 1606, in Amsterdam, where he lived for most of his life. As well as painting, he worked as an illustrator and printmaker. His paintings were often of everyday people. He died in 1647.