A Sandwich Short of a Picnic Trivia Quiz

Answer: Demosthenes

Demosthenes was a famous Greek orator and speech-writer who lived from 382 to 322 BC. What usually comes to mind first when thinking of him is the story the Greek historian Plutarch recounted of how Demosthenes overcame a childhood stutter by speaking with pebbles in his mouth. Plutarch also wrote that Demosthenes wrote many of his speeches in an underground bunker and that he shaved half of his head so he would not be tempted to abandon his work to go outside.

Answer: Pythagoras

Pythagoras was the Greek philosopher and mathematician credited with discovering the relationship between the lengths of the three sides of a right triangle. He and his followers were some of the earliest recorded vegetarians. Pythagoras believed that human souls transmigrate into the bodies of animals after death. What is strange is that he also forbade his followers from eating fava beans.

He thought that the gas that resulted from eating them took away part of the soul or breath of life. His followers had to adhere to other strange rules, from always having to put on the right shoe first to requiring new initiates to pass the first five years in silence.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790} was a true Renaissance man - diplomat, politician, scientist, inventor, writer, and philanthropist. He was one of the drafters of Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Paris. He raised funds for the first public hospital and helped to start both the first lending library and the first all-volunteer fire brigade in the USA. His inventions ranged from bifocals, a lightning rod, a flexible urinary catheter, and swim fins to the "Franklin stove" a metal-lined fireplace that reduced smoke.

In addition to his "air baths", some of his scientific experiments raised more than a few eyebrows. The most famous is when he ventured into a storm armed with a kite and a metal key to prove the existence of electricity. Another, which almost cost him his life, was when he tried to kill and cook a turkey for guests using electrocution. Unfortunately, he was holding some of the wires; instead of electrocuting the turkey, he sent the current through his own body. He often carried out electrical experiments with guests and is said to have once rigged a portrait of King George to give those touching it a jolt.

Answer: Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linneaus (1707-1778) first published "Systema Naturae" in 1735. Among the categories he presented was Paradoxa" covering mythical, magical and suspect animals. Among said creatures were hydra, unicorns, satyrs, phoenix, and draco, a sort of winged lizard.

A few, like the pelican, were subsequently proved to exist. The "Paradoxa" category was eliminated from the 1948 and subsequent editions.

Answer: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was a talented British poet and artist, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1860, he married Elizabeth Siddal, a poet and his most important muse. Desolate when she died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, Rosetti buried all of his unpublished manuscripts with her. Several years later, he wanted to recreate the poems, but could not.

After suffering from writer's block for months, he finally dug up the casket in 1869 and retrieved the worm-eaten fragments, which he later published in "Poems". Rossetti subsequently developed a fixation with wombats, keeping two as pets and allowing them to sleep on the table during dinners.

He is also said to have kept a toucan, which he dressed in a cowboy hat and had ride a llama around the dining table.

Answer: Nicola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is best known for his work with modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply systems, helping to build one of the first hydroelectric plants, and developing the Tesla Coil, a precursor to wireless transmissions.

Tesla suffered much of his life from severe insomnia, claiming to sleep little more than two hours per night. In addition to his regimen of wiggling his toes, some of his other quirks included refusing to talk to women wearing pearls and being fixated on the number three and circling a building three times before entering it. He is also said to have fallen in love with a pigeon.

Answer: Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison (1876-1935), known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, is credited with a wide range of inventions. These included an electrographic vote recorder, an incandescent light bulb, and a motion pictures kinetoscope. When choosing a new assistant, he would first serve candidates a bowl of soup. If they salted the soup before tasting it, he rejected them automatically. Edison reasoned that such behaviour reflected too many preconceived assumptions.

Answer: Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali (1904-1989), one of the best known Surrealists, was as flamboyant as his paintings. From his curved moustache to the flowing capes he preferred, he was a distinctive dresser. One of his most bizarre outfits included a glass case with a brassiere inside which he wore to a ball in his honour. Dali kept an anteater as a pet and was once interviewed while sitting in a tree.

He also took cat naps in a chair while holding a heavy key to gain inspiration from dreams that he glimpsed when the key hit the floor.

He was eccentric to the end, specifying in his will that he be buried where people could walk on his grave.

Answer: Frederick T. Zugibe

Frederick T. Zugibe (1928-2013) was a well-known cardiologist who specialized in cardiovascular research. He was chief medical examiner in Rockland County, New York from 1969-2003. For much of his life, he was obsessed with the crucifixtion of Jesus. In his attempt to determine how crucifixtion kills, he tied both himself and assistants upside down on crosses.

Answer: Yoshiro Nakamatsu

Yoshiro Nakamatsu, born in 1928, is credited with over 3000 inventions, among them the floppy disk. Nakamatsu was known for taking regular airless deep dives to allow water pressure to deprive his brain of blood. Seconds before death, he would visualize an invention and write the idea down on an underwater notepad.

Some of his devices contributed to his quirky reputation, among them an armchair designed to improve mental function by simultaneously cooling the head and heating the feet, a CD to improve sexual function, and a self-defence wig to swing at would-be attackers.