Monday's Child Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

This bit of doggerel that purports to predict a baby's future no doubt originated in the late 16th century England when there was a wide interest in fortune telling and divining wisdom. While the poem was around in Shakespeare's time, it never appears in any of his plays.

The poem appeared in print courtesy of Mrs. Anna Eliza Bray who wrote: "The poor people here have many superstitious ideas about the days of the week. To begin to do anything on a Friday, or to make a journey, or a bargain on that day, is held such bad luck, that I have known persons, even of the better order, put off an affair because they would not enter on it with an ill omen.

The fortunes of children are likewise considered to be very much regulated by the day on which they were born." This quote was found in the 1836 text entitled "A description of the part of Devonshire bordering on the Tamar and the Tavy; its natural history, manners, customs, superstitions, scenery, antiquities, biography of eminent persons, etc. in a series of letters to Robert Southey".

A prohibitive title, no doubt conceived on a Friday. The rhyme was published to a much wider audience for the first time in 'Harper's Weekly' on September 17, 1887.

Answer: Iman

Iman, born on Monday, July 25, 1955, is a Somali model. She married singer David Bowie in 1992. Yves Saint-Laurent called her "my dream woman". Kim Alexis was born on Friday, July 15, 1960 and supplanted Lauren Hutton with Revlon in 1983. Proving that she was much more than a pretty face, Alexis went on to spokes model for Preparation H hemorrhoid cream and Monistat yeast infection ointment later in her career.

Christie Brinkley was born on Groundhog Day - Tuesday, February 2, 1954. In 1976, she signed a record 20-year contract with Cover Girl cosmetics. Paulina Porizkova was born in Czechoslovakia on Friday, April 9,1965. After escaping the restrictive communist regime of her homeland, she made all Czech women look good by appearing on the cover of the "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue on back to back years, 1984-5.

Answer: Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II (served 1978-2005) was one of the most influential leaders of his time. He was a force in ending communism in eastern Europe, and reached out to all sorts of Christians the world over. Truly filled with grace, according to all who met him, he was born on Tuesday, May 18, 1920. Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), was a Borgia Pope who appointed family members to the highest paying and most privileged church positions.

He was so corrupt and so despised that nobody wanted to even bury him when he died.

He was born on Saturday January 1, 1431. Pope Leo X (1513-1521), was no stranger to the hard work of spending down the Vatican treasury on pomp and ceremony. He worked at putting together a good parade. Whenever he was out and about in the streets of Rome, his retinue included a panther, jesters and a white elephant.

He was born on Saturday, December 11, 1475. Pope Julius III (1550-1555), picked up a 14-year old boy beggar in Parma and had a sexual affair with him, ending up elevating him to Cardinal. Julius was born on Saturday, September 10, 1487. Popes born on Saturday...hmmm.

Answer: Isadora Duncan

British writer Virginia Woolf was born on Wednesday, January 25, 1882. She committed suicide, by filling her pockets with rocks and drowning herself in the Ouse River. The suicide note she left said "I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer." Amy Vanderbilt was born on Wednesday, July 22, 1908.

She was the authoritative word in etiquette. Vanderbilt slipped from a second-floor window in her Upper East Side townhouse in an apparent 1974 suicide. Vincent van Gogh was born on Wednesday, March 30, 1853.

He sold one painting in his lifetime and, dogged by unrequited love, he shot himself in the chest on July 27, 1890. Isadora Duncan was a famous American dancer born on Saturday, May 26, 1877.

While living in Paris in 1927, Duncan, sporting her trademark flowing scarf, took a ride in an open roadster with an Italian paramour. Her scarf became entangled in the car's spoke wheels, and she was brutally strangled to death -a woeful ending, to be sure - but at least an unplanned one.

Answer: Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii

Irony of ironies - Queen Liliuokalani (born Sunday, Sep. 2, was the last sovereign to rule Hawaii. Her monarchy was overthrown by political and economic opportunists from the United States, which later annexed her country after Sanford B. Dole (think pineapples), became President. After release from house arrest, the former Queen made many trips to the U.S. mainland to protest the abolition of her monarchy and the annexation of her country.

The three who were born on Thursdays ("far to go") were John Wilkes Booth, (Thursday May 10) assassin of President Abraham Lincoln who escaped a mere 60 miles to Port Royal Virginia before being caught; General Tom Thumb, (Thursday, Jan. 4) who, while he was a 9 pound, 8 ounce baby, grew only to 2 feet 11 inches as an adult; and Georges Bizet (Thursday, Oct 25) who, while he entered university at the age of nine, died from a heart attack at the age of 36.

Answer: Annabelle Battistella

Frances "Peaches" Heenan, born Thursday, June 23, 1910 didn't have far to go to meet wealthy New York architect Edward W. Browning in 1925. He showed up at her New York sorority dance when she was 15 and he was 51. Browning had been advertising to adopt a "young, wholesome" teenage girl to live with him and his childless wife. Within months, "Peaches" became the new Mrs. Browning following his hasty divorce. The marriage lasted only months, however, and she sued "Daddy" Browning for millions in their divorce trial. The sensational proceedings gave rise to the kind of tabloid journalism commonplace in the post modern era.

Texas teen Vicky Lynn Marshall was born on Tuesday, November 28, 1967, and had the good grace to marry a billionaire 63 years her senior. Better known by her professional name (under which she had appeared in "Playboy" magazine) - Anna Nicole Smith, she became embroiled in a morass of legal battles, attempting to stake a claim to her deceased loved one's billions. Monica Lewinsky was born on Monday, July 23, 1973, and, as a 19 year old White House Intern, was fair enough of face to catch the roving eye of the Chief Executive enough so that a little doggerel in the Oval Office put an entire administration in the doghouse.

Annabelle Battistella was actually born, auspiciously, on Valentines Day, 1936 - which was a Friday. She made her way from her native Argentina to the United States where she performed a striptease act as "The Argentine Firecracker". Her most famous performance of all came at 2:00 A.M., October 7, 1974 when she beat Congressman Wilbur Mills (D-Arkansas) with her shoe and leapt from his car into the Washington D.C. Tidal Basin. Her exposure, so to speak, of Mills' drinking and carousing cost him the Chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee and, ultimately, his political career. She is better remembered by her stage name Fanne Foxe.

Answer: "Shoeless" Joe Jackson

While all were in diapers at the same time, only one was born on a Saturday. Ed "Cocky" Collins was born on Monday, May 2, 1887 played second base as part of the Philadelphia A's vaunted "$100,000 infield". During his tenure, the Athletics won four American League pennants. Three of those years, they won the World Series as well. Collins was the league's MVP in 1914.

"Shoeless" Joe Jackson was born on Saturday, July 16, 1887. He played for the Chicago White Sox and was a talented hitter with speed on the base paths. He is chiefly known for having been banned from baseball for allegedly fixing games in the 1919 World Series which was coined "the Black Sox Scandal." He was depicted in the 1989 film "Field of Dreams". Jackson got his nickname after a blister forced him to play a pick-up game in his stocking feet early in his baseball playing days.

Harry Hooper was born next, Wednesday, August 24, 1887. Hooper was a standout lead off hitter and speedy right fielder for the Boston Red Sox. During the Sox' glory years, Hooper patrolled the Fenway Park outfield with Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis, together comprising a legendary outfield in baseball history. "Big Train" Walter Johnson was born on Sunday, November 6, 1887. He pitched his entire career for the Washington Senators, and was one of the greatest pitchers (right-handed) of his era (1907-1927). Ty Cobb once referred to Johnson's fastball as "the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field". His sidearm fastball was clocked at 90 plus mph, truly an object of terror in an era with dirty baseballs and no batting helmets. Speeds would not reach the 90's again until decades later.

Answer: False

The poem is a codification of oral tradition which predates, by centuries, the first appearance of the poem in print. As a result, there are many variations in the poem that depend upon the location of the teller. In some, the final doublet addresses 'Christmas Day' instead of the 'Sabbath Day'.

In another, it is Thursday's child who works hard for a living while Saturday's child has far to go. There are modern edits of the poem that abandon the words bonny, blithe and gay as archaic.

Answer: Friday

In Elizabethan days, "woe" was used to describe the condition of bearing heavy responsibility or care. The Bible's Job, in chapter 10 makes the comment "If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head." Correspondingly, we have the maxim "Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown." Friday having long been considered an unlucky day, some variations of the poem have attributed Fridays child to being worn down with the care and concern of a king or that of Job.

Answer: the names of the pagan gods for whom the days are named

The complete poem is: "Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living, But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blithe and good and gay."

Monday is the day of the moon, dedicated to moon goddess who was fair of face. Tuesday the day of Mars who was graceful and swift. Wednesday is named for Woden, the chief god of Norse mythology. It was his job to keep all the others in line - a heavy responsibility indeed. Thursday is Thor's Day, the god of thunder who visited the land of the giants. He had far to go, traveling in a chariot. Friday is named for Wodin's mother Frigga, and her name means beloved. Saturday is named for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. Farmers work hard for a living. Someone who is bonny, blithe, good and gay" brings joy to all people much like the principle deities who are all associated with the sun.

The seven virtues named by Pope Gregory are Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Temperance. The seven kings referred to in the Book of Revelations ("And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space". -Rev. 17:10) are considered by some to be Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Galba. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists the following seven traits: "haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief, a deceitful witness that uttereth lies and him that soweth discord among brethren."

Quiz crafter Sidnobls was born on Good Friday and is well known for being loving and giving.