Are You a Member of the Caterpillar Club? Quiz

Answer: That you have been unfaithful to your lover

In 1806, the British publisher Oliver & Company printed a list of funny and slightly bawdy ditties called "Comic Songs." One of them told the tale of...well, here's part of the song:
"Billy Taylor was a brisk young fellow
Full of mirth and full of glee.
And his mind he did discover
To a maid fair and free."
The rest of the song tells how Billy is captured by a group of thugs and pressed into service on a British ship. His lady love, however, does not give up on him and, disguised as a man named Richard Carr, goes in search of darling Billy. Poor Billy: his lady finds him in the arms of another woman and she dispatches him with one shot.

Answer: Failed to get a point in a game of cricket

In cricket, if a batman fails to score a run, he is said to 'get a duck', 'be out for a duck' or get a 'duck egg'. And when his game improves and he finally gets his first run -- he has 'broken his duck.' No information is available on why the poor duck is singled out for such opprobrium, and in the U.S. a 'goose egg' was substituted for a 'duck egg.'

Answer: It depends: it refers to a lover rather than a fighter

There were some knights --and gentlemen--who preferred the warmth and comfort of a lady's boudoir to the rough and tumble of the battlefield. During the American Civil war, Union Army general George McClellan said derisively in 1862: "There is a prodigious cry of 'on to Richmond' among the carpet knights in our city, who will not shed their blood to get there."

Answer: Gone bankrupt, lost your business, failed at commerce

Sorry, folks, your business is no more. The last act of closing your business for good is to put the shutters up. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used the term in his 1890 book "Captain Polestar": 'A few old established houses...put up their shutters and confessed...themselves beaten.'

Answer: Sad: You are being dominated by a mean-spirited person, usually a woman

The 'cat' in this British expression refers to a shrewish old woman who subjugates her henpecked husband to a life of shrill nagging. Francis Grose's 'A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' (second edition) defined it as a husband being 'under the dominion of a woman.' The expression is said to come from a cat's habit of playing with a captured mouse before devouring it; the mouse is unhappy throughout the whole ordeal.

Answer: Sow dragon's teeth

Cadmus, a Phoenician prince and the person credited with providing the Greeks with the basis for their alphabet, killed a sacred dragon that guarded a spring. The goddess Athena told him to sow the teeth, from which sprang a group of ferocious warriors called the 'spartoi'.

He threw a precious jewel into the midst of the warriors, who turned on each other in an attempt to seize the stone for themselves. Eventually everyone settled down and five survivors joined with Cadmus to found the city of Thebes. Cadmus felt so guilty about slaying the dragon that he and his wife, Harmonia, gradually turned into dragons.

Answer: Yes: It means you are in the right place at the right time to help someone in distress

'Jack' originally referred to a clergyman who had no assigned parish, but who wandered the countryside helping out anyone who needed assistance. It's an expression seldom heard today, but still refers to a helpful, generous person.

Answer: Perhaps: If you've stood at a pedestrian crosswalk and repeatedly pressed the button that supposedly changes the traffic signals so that you may cross the street safely

There you are, standing on the corner and traffic is roaring past you. There's a post with a button on it that says 'push to cross.' Yeah, right. You push it a hundred times...you lean on it...you mutter choice expletives under your breath..and FINALLY the 'red man' becomes the 'green man'. You, my friend, have just been at a 'pelican crossing.' The term comes from letters of the phrase 'PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled' and it originated in 1969 in the United Kingdom.

Answer: Goof off, goldbrick

To 'dodge the column' is to shirk your duties and 'goof off'. In the 1880s, a soldier who pretended to be sick did not take his regular place in the marching column. Another colorful expression indicating a goldbricking doughboy was to 'go between the moon and the milkman.'

Answer: Military personnel who made an emergency parachute jump during World War 2

The Irvin Airchute Company made a small pin in the shape of a caterpillar for the airmen who survived the emergency jump. Famous members include Charles Lindbergh and astronaut John Glenn. Another pin, this time shaped like a goldfish, was for members of the Goldfish Club...pilots who were forced to ditch their planes in the ocean.