Why is it Good to Ask Questions? Quiz

Answer: Monday

Why Bird was a colourful bird who lived in a Lost Property office, where objects that had been left on the Playbus would be deposited. She had a magic computer called the Why-Tech, and her stop revolved around finding out how things worked or were made. (The first episode I saw featuring Why Bird was set in a chocolate factory.) She also sometimes appeared in the Patch Stop on Thursdays, which was often associated with nature and the outdoors, and featured the rag doll Peggy Patch.

Answer: Henry II

Thomas Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury, elected in 1162. His religious beliefs - such as the belief that clergy should be dealt with by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and not by secular powers, and excommunicating various officials - caused conflict with the king. Becket was exiled to France, but returned to England in 1170, and Henry II supposedly uttered the above quote. Four knights took the comment literally, confronted Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, and stabbed him to death. Three years later, Becket was canonised as a saint; his feast day is 29th December.

Answer: Sanniang Hu

Sanniang Hu, or Hu Sanniang, is the odd one out, being a fictional character in the Chinese novel 'The Water Margin', by Shi Nai'an. She is a female warrior, one of the 108 heroes known as the 108 stars of Destiny.

As for the others, Albert 'Alby' Why was an Rugby League footballer. Eddie Howe is an English footballer-turned-manager, who oversaw AFC Bournemouth's promotion into the English Premier League. James Watt was a Scottish engineer who played an important role in the development of steam engines; fittingly the watt, a unit of power, is named after him.

Answer: Jodie Whittaker

Jodie Whittaker was the first female Doctor, but the Thirteenth Doctor overall. She debuted in the 2017 Christmas special 'Twice Upon a Time', replacing Peter Capaldi.

Michelle Gomez was the first woman to play the Doctor's arch nemesis, the Master (or 'Missy', as she called herself - it's short for 'Mistress', get it?) Kate O'Mara played the Rani, an evil Time Lady, during the Sixth and Seventh Doctors' eras. Freema Agyeman played Martha Jones, a companion of the Tenth Doctor, who later joined UNIT.

Answer: Guess Who?

'Guess Who' is a two-player game where each player has a set of pop-up plastic frames, each with a picture of a different character's face on them. One player picks a character, and the other has to narrow down who it is by asking closed questions like 'Is your character a man?' or 'Do they wear glasses?' So, for instance, if Player 1 asks if the character has red hair and Player 2 says no, Player 1 flips down all the frames with red-haired characters on them.

And yes, the American rock band fronted by Bob Mould are named after the game ('husker du?' means 'do you remember?' in Norwegian).

Answer: Keith Moon

Keith Moon was as well-known for his pranks and love of alcohol and drugs as he was for his drumming skills. As well as cherry bombs, he would also flush sticks of dynamite down toilets, drove a car into a swimming pool, and started a food fight that culminated in a large amount of property at the Holiday Inn in Flint being damaged, and the police being called. Who manager Bill Curbishley, who once saved Moon's life when he cut himself after trashing a hotel room, described Moon as an 'attention seeker'.

He died of a drug overdose on 6th September 1978; his body was found by his then girlfriend, Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax.

Answer: Carmen Sandiego

'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?' was released in 1986, and had a geographical theme; the original game was distributed with 'The World Almanac', which was intended as a helpful resource for the player. The player took on the role of a detective working for the ACME Detective Agency, tasked with hunting down members of the criminal organisation VILE, who had stolen famous works from around the world. Carmen Sandiego was their leader and the final boss of the game.

It featured thirty different locations around the world, such as Singapore, Moscow and Bamako (the capital of Mali).

Other games in the series, such as 'Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego?' focused on specific countries or continents.

Answer: Interrogative words

Interrogative words are used to ask direct or indirect questions, and are sometimes known as the 'Five Ws' (plus 'how'). Kipling's poem is sometimes known as the 'Journalist's Poem', as journalists have to ask a lot of questions! Some languages have interrogative particles, words which can be used to turn a statement into a question, but have no other purpose. These include 'est-ce que' in French, 'czy' in Polish, and 'ka' in Japanese.

(A side note: if you're one of Funtrivia's Aussie contingent, you'll be familiar with diminutive words, shortened forms of regular words, such as 'arvo' for 'afternoon'. Wikipedia has a whole article on Australian English's use of diminutives.)

Answer: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' was based on the book of the same name by Henry Farrell. Blanche (Joan Crawford) and 'Baby' Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) are a pair of feuding actresses, much like the two women who played them, with the added twist that they are sisters. Jane is a famous child actress, but as they grow older, Blanche becomes the more famous one, while Jane lives in the past and struggles with a drink problem. Blanche becomes paralysed from the waist down in a car crash, and is kept prisoner and abused by Jane. Davis created the hideous make-up she wore as Jane.

She also reportedly said to Crawford when Crawford asked her what she thought of the film, "You were so right, Joan. The picture is good. And I was terrific."

Answer: Warum ist das Huhn ueber die Strasse gegangen?

As for the other answers, 'warum ist mein Dachs so langweilig?' means 'why is my badger so boring?' 'Wie lange ist die Schlange?' means 'how long is the snake/queue?' 'Wer hat meinen Käse geklaut?' is the German for 'Who Moved My Cheese?', a popular self-help book.