Who Let the Dogs Out? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Don't do anything to disturb the status quo.

This one goes all the way back to Chaucer's epic poem 'Troilus and Criseyde', which was written in the mid-1380s and set at the time of the Trojan War. The poem is also the source of another well-known expression, "All good things must come to an end." Far be it from me to fault either Chaucer or, later, Shakespeare for writing about this couple, but to my mind Criseyde (or, in Shakespeare's play, Cressida) is one of the most irritating heroines in fiction, right up there with that most tiresome of teenagers Juliet Capulet, the mendacious Becky Sharp, and the supremely selfish Catherine Earnshaw!

Answer: 'Criminalese'

While many etymologists subscribe to the 'Peter Pan' theory, it is extremely unlikely that Mr. Darling spent any time in the dog house, since the term was not in use in Edwardian era England. J. M. Barrie consigned Mr. D to Nana's kennel. No, the term was first widely used in the U.S. - where dog kennels are known as dog houses - and its use as a term to describe one who has been cut off from enjoying the society of others because of some perceived misdoing is first recorded in James J. Finerty's 'Criminalese'. 'Criminalese' is a dictionary of underworld slang, published in 1926. Evidently, while there may be no honour among thieves, there is a form of a code of ethics and those who violated the code ended up "in the dog house". I tried to find out more about Mr. Finerty, but not one scintilla of information could I find. Maybe he was "rubbed out" by those who disliked having their slang translated for the general public.

Answer: His bouts of depression

Winston Churchill lived with bouts of depression for most of his life, a condition which he called his "black dog". It is interesting to note that two of the greatest political leaders of modern times - Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill - both suffered from depression. Churchill found that his hobby of painting helped him to deal with his "black dog". Clement Attlee, the Labour Party leader who succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1945, was never referred to by Churchill as a black dog, but Winnie did once say that Mr. Attlee was a sheep in wolf's clothing. Rufus wasn't a Lab; he was a miniature poodle, much beloved by Churchill, and, as far as I know, no ghostly hound haunts Chartwell, Churchill's home in Kent.

Answer: British naval slang

Dogsbody was originally used by British sailors to mean the rather tasteless meal of dried peas mixed with hard tack biscuits and boiled in a cloth bag that was one of the staples of the sailors' diet (no wonder they suffered from scurvy!). The use of 'dogsbody' to mean one who performs menial tasks aboard ship and is assigned those duties no one else will undertake was first recorded in 1818. Later, even if they weren't in the British navy, anyone who did jobs no one else would do because they were boring, dirty, repetitive, low-paid or unpaid, or any combination thereof, was called a dogsbody.

While Charles Dickens may have used the term, he didn't invent it, the Shakespearean Character is Dogberry, and a dogsbody in mediaeval England, while not called that, was anybody who wasn't a knight or more highly ranked.

Answer: Keeping order in church

There was a time when attending the Church of England was mandatory, and one could be fined if one didn't show up for Sunday services. For shepherds, ratcatchers, and the like, Sunday was not a day of rest, and they'd head for work right after worship.

This meant that their most important tools - i.e. their dogs - went to church with them. Dogwhippers were parish employees hired to keep the peace among the various canines who came to church with their masters. The last known dogwhipper was John Pickard, who served at Exeter Cathedral. With the rise of other denominations, churchgoing was no longer mandatory, and after 1856, dogwhippers were no longer employed by Church of England parishes.

Answer: A wrestling term

When two wrestlers touch the ground together, at the same time, without either one gaining an advantage, that is known as a dog fall. A weir is a low wall built in a river as a means of controlling the water level, and I suppose it forms a miniature water fall, but it is not known as a dog fall. I also made up the cravat-tying answer and the one about a dog fall being another term for a late autumn.

Answer: Apprentice watermen

In 1715 Irish actor Thomas Doggett, to honour the accession of George I, the first Hanoverian monarch, offered a prize for the winners of a rowing match on the River Thames Eligible rowers were drawn from the ranks of apprentice watermen. The winners were entitled to wear a reddish-orange livery coat, bearing a white badge emblazoned with the word 'Liberty'.

The first race was held under the auspices of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (established in 1272), and the Company continues to sponsor the races annually, making this match the oldest annual rowing competition extant.

It is also the longest race of its kind, beginning at the Swan Steps at London Bridge and ending at Cadogan Pier, Chelsea - a distance of 7,400 metres. Average time from start to finish is 30 minutes.

Answer: Katmir

The Seven Sleepers, so the story goes, were Christian youths who lived in Ephesus. Circa 250 C.E. the young men, with their dog Katmir, hid in a cave on the outskirts of the city to avoid persecution for their faith. After prolonged prayer, they fell into exhausted sleep. While they were sleeping, Roman soldiers discovered the cave and walled them in. Some 300 years later, a local farmer found the cave, and tore down the wall thinking that this would make a good cattle byre. Imagine his surprise when seven young men came out of the cave, wearing antiquated clothing, and offered to buy food from him, using ancient silver coins. The story has long been part of the Syrian church tradition, and is even mentioned in the Koran, where the boys are referred to as the Companions of the Cave, and are held up as examples of faith in that they resisted pressure to worship more than one God. Muslim tradition has it that Katmir was admitted to Paradise by Allah as a reward for his faithfulness in standing watch over the boys for all that time.

Answer: The elderly don't welcome change

I resent this saying. I was in my 60s when personal computers became available, and I had no trouble adapting to life on the world wide web. In the fast-paced and swiftly-changing world in which we live, people my age (I'm a pre-World War II model) have had to absorb more changes than their counterparts in any other era. Incidentally, any search-and-rescue outfit will tell you it's not the age of the dog that matters, but its intelligence that makes all the difference in training. I believe that is also true of the elderly. The saying dates from 1534, when it was included in 'The Boke of Husbandry', compiled by John Fitzherbert.

Answer: You are well-dressed, popular, a really good guy

This one dates back to U.S. college slang of the mid-nineteenth century. In his 'Four Years at Yale', Lyman H. Baggs recorded that to be doggy was to be attractive, with-it, a person everyone wanted to know. If you were putting on the dog, you were attempting to be doggy by making a show of your wealth, or your intellect, or your fashion sense, thereby proving that you weren't doggy at all.