Random Musings Trivia Quiz

Answer: George VI

George VI visited the United States in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of WWII. The father of Queen Elizabeth II, he sat on the English throne from 1936 until his death in 1952. He was seen by many British citizens as a stalwart leader during the difficult years of World War II.

Answer: Australia

'000' was first introduced as the emergency number in Australia in 1961 and now covers 100% of telephone services. The emergency number for both the United States and Canada is 911, while the one for Britain is 999. Kiwis use the number 111 to dial up an emergency in New Zealand.

Answer: Liffey

The Liffey is a river of only 50 miles, but is rather significant considering that it flows through the Irish capital. The Shannon is the longest river in Ireland (and the British Isles) at 240 miles...I was hoping to trick some of you by its inclusion here!

Answer: Cookbook

Apicius was quite the gourmand, some would say debauched. He frittered away his entire fortune on gastronomical orgies until it had nearly disappeared, then he proceeded to kill himself! His work, called 'De Re Coquinaria' contains authentic Roman recipes which can be followed in the modern day...there are English translations. Beware, though...at least one of the recipes is toxic!

Answer: Brahmi

Not only is the Brahmi script important as the evolutionary source of all native south Asian writing systems, it also serves as the source for the Burmese, Thai and Tibetan scripts as well. In fact, it has been theorized that some elements of Japanese writing arise originally from Brahmi.

Answer: Prayer

The old English forms of the word were both 'bead' and 'bede', while the Anglo-Saxon version was 'biddan' (or 'bed' and 'gebed'), also meaning 'to ask'. The word 'bid' is likewise derived from this source.

Answer: Arthur Fiedler

Fiedler took over the conducting duties at the Boston Pops in 1930 as its 18th conductor. He presided over this well-regarded orchestra until his death in 1979, nearly 50 years time! Fiedler holds the distinction of conducting the world's most attended classical music concert, held July 4, 1976. Over 400,000 people were in attendance.

Answer: mole

A mole (emphasis on the second syllable...moh-lay) is a Mexican term for a sauce, most famously using chocolate. There is also an animal called a mole, a little insect eating mammal that loves to burrow. In addition, most of us have annoying, or delightful, little brown moles on our skin! The word 'mole' is also a chemistry term, related to a fellow named Avogadro, and is also defined as a 'massive breakwater or jetty'.

Answer: Moroni

Moroni is the capital of the tiny African island country called Comoros, located between mainland Africa and Madagascar. The name is shared by an angel who appeared before Joseph Smith in upstate New York, allegedly delivering to the Mormon prophet a pair of golden plates from which Smith translated what is now the 'Book of Mormon'.

Answer: Tennis

Tennis is the answer, by a wide margin. For a standard professional singles match in tennis thirteen officials are required to only two players, a ratio of 6.5 to 1! In a regulation tennis match, there must be ten linesmen, one referee at net, one observing foot faults and of course, the umpire, to take all the abuse. The number of officials differs according to the tournament played, but the ratio in all cases far outstrips other games.

Thanks for joining in, I hope you enjoyed it...please try my other general knowledge quizzes if this one was to your liking (there are quite a few!).