Mixed People Bio-Limericks Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mark Twain

Mark Twain was one of the most celebrated figures in American literature. His novels included "The Prince and the Pauper" (1881), and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1885), in which the title character travels along the Mississippi on a raft with Jim, a slave.

He was a great generator of memorable quotes, including "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything", "...heaven for climate, hell for society", and, on the occasion of an incorrect newspaper story, "...the report of my death was an exaggeration".

Twain was born in 1835, two weeks after the appearance of Halley's comet. In 1909 he said: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together'". He died in 1910, one day after the comet's closest point to earth.

Answer: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was one of the most important physicists in history. His theory of relativity changed our understanding of space and time. Concepts he originated included black holes and gravitational waves. Special relativity was introduced by Einstein in 1905, part of his so-called Annus Mirabilis, in which the 26-year old also published ground-breaking papers on the photoelectric effect (which helped lead to quantum physics and was specifically mentioned in the citation when he won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics), Brownian motion, and matter-energy equivalence.

In a 1922 conference, Einstein memorably said: "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."

There are a few versions of Einstein's quote that I paraphrased in the Limerick. One is this: "To simplify the concept of relativity, I always use the following example: if you sit with a girl on a garden bench and the moon is shining, then for you the hour will be a minute. However, if you sit on a hot stove, the minute will be an hour."

Answer: Cary Grant

Cary Grant (1904-1986) was one of the leading Hollywood actors of the twentieth century. Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, in the West of England, he had a troubled childhood. He was expelled from school and joined a troupe of performers called the Penders, for whom he trained as a stilt walker and acted. They had a successful season at the New York Hippodrome in 1920, and Grant stayed in the USA when the troupe went back to England.

Grant's movies included "Topper" (1937), "Gunga Din" (1939) and "The Philadelphia Story" (1940). He made four movies for Alfred Hitchcock: "Suspicion" (1941), "Notorious" (1946), "To Catch a Thief" (1955), and "North by Northwest" (1959).

Answer: True

Shirley Crabtree Jr. (1930-1997) was a British wrestler who performed under the name Big Daddy. His father, also Shirley, had been a wrestler, and he followed him into the profession. A large man - he had a 64 inch chest, was 6 foot 6 tall and weighed 375 pounds - he took some time away from wrestling due to differences with another wrestler. He returned in the 1970s and developed the persona of Big Daddy, initially joining with Giant Haystacks as a villainous tag team. He became a crowd favourite, especially when unmasking Kendo Nagasaki, and transformed to a hero role. He took to wearing Union Jack clothing, and developed a feud with Giant Haystacks that made him the top wrestling draw in the UK - even said to have Margaret Thatcher and the Queen among his admirers.

Thanks to nannywoo for the subject.

Answer: Arnold Palmer

Arnold Palmer (1929-2016) was a very successful golfer, winning professionally 95 times, including seven major championships. His influence on the game was far greater than those statistics suggest.

His exciting style of play and winning personality made him adored by the public, whether in person or on TV, and he was followed around the golf course by "Arnie's Army", who were allegedly not always averse to helping his ball back onto the fairway when his shots went off line. The Arnie "Charge" became a thrilling part of golf tournaments such as the Masters in 1960 which he won with a flourish of three birdies on the last three holes.

His 1960 trip to Scotland to play in the Open Championship, and subsequent return visits, where he won in 1961 and 1962 were very important in reinstating that tournament in the eyes of the world of golf. American professionals had been reluctant to cross the Atlantic for a tournament with unattractive prize money played on unfamiliar courses.

His last tournament win was in 1973, but he continued playing and drawing crowds into the 1990s. Along with his manager, Mark McCormack, Palmer set the template for a modern sporting personality. He had his own tournament, designed hundreds of golf courses, marketed an Arnold Palmer line of drinks, and was sponsored by a raft of companies. He continued to be one of the top earners in sport well into retirement, making tens of millions of dollars per annum into the 21st century.

The great Jack Nicklaus, the "Golden Bear" gave this quote about "The King": "Arnold transcended the game of golf. He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend... He took the game from one level to a higher level, virtually by himself." Greg Norman, the "Great White Shark" said "... two [people] in the sporting world that actually impacted my life dramatically, and that would be Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer. Both of them had magnetism and charisma oozing out of their skin and he was a man of the people, for the people." Tiger Woods said: "... the game of the golf he transformed it from the dark ages to the television age. His personality, his charisma, his go-for-broke attitude and the style of play - it was all perfect for TV and he led us all to where we are now."

Answer: Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was a Dutch painter from Delft, whose known body of work is very small - only 34 have been definitively attributed. The work is of a limited range of subjects - there are no sketches, still lifes or nudes. There are two landscapes, including his "View of Delft" (1661), his largest work, but the vast majority (27) are scenes from daily life - interiors, often in the same rooms, with the same props and the same female models. Some of these works include "The Milkmaid" (1658) and "The Art of Painting" (1665-8), which includes the artist and is his most complex. He worked slowly, only producing two or three pictures a year, and it is speculated that his detailed art was helped by the use of the camera obscura. He used expensive materials, such as natural ultramarine. His work was bought by a few connoisseur patrons. Vermeer was not greatly successful, and left his family in debt when he died at the age of 43.

After some years of obscurity, the quality of Vermeer's work became rediscovered in the late nineteenth century. The very limited supply of Vermeer works has led to a number of forgeries and thefts, such as when "The Love Letter" was stolen and damaged in 1971, before being returned to the Rijksmuseum after a month.

His appeal to the modern sensibility is well summarised in Jonathan Richman's song "No-one Was Like Vermeer" (2008): "Vermeer was eerie \Vermeer was strange \He had a more modern colour range \As if born in another age \Like maybe a hundred or so years ago."

Answer: David Livingstone

David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a hero of Victorian Britain, a Scottish missionary who became famous for his feats of exploration. He was only recorded as making one conversion to Christianity - a chief from Botswana called Sechele. Livingstone felt that the best way to improve the lot of the Africans was to open up trade routes through exploration, and in that way, and through his fame, help bring about the abolition of the slave trade.

He was able to achieve more than other explorers because he didn't travel with a large armed entourage, and showed the local chiefs that he posed no threat.

He risked his life - he was attacked many times but kept these incidents from his sponsors. He lost his wife, Mary, to malaria in 1862. He preached a Christian message but didn't force it on people. Livingstone mapped nearly the whole route of the Zambezi and became the first westerner to see the natural wonder he called Victoria Falls, which he hoped would become a tourist destination.

He was one of the first Europeans to make a crossing of the continent, going from Luanda on the Atlantic coast across to near where the Zambezi met the Indian Ocean.

He led the first western expedition to Lake Malawi. His latter explorations ended in disappointment in a search for the source of the Nile, and he had been out of contact for several years when Stanley made his famous visit to find him in 1871.

Answer: Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a child prodigy born in Salzburg who went on to become a great composer. He was incredibly prolific, with works including 41 symphonies and 27 piano concertos. His operas have been consistently popular, including "Idomeneo " (1781), "Don Giovanni " (1787) and "The Magic Flute" ("Die Zauberflöte"), which was first staged in 1791, just two weeks before his death at the age of 35.

Niki Lauda, born in Vienna in 1949, was a three-time Formula One champion (1975, 1977 and 1984). He survived a horrendous crash, suffering burns and severe lung damage from inhaling fumes, when his Ferrari caught fire in 1976, and he returned to racing six weeks later. He went on to become an airline owner and F1 team boss.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria, and became the leader of the Nazi Germany and instigator of World War II.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in a village called Thal in 1947. He was a prominent body builder who became a Hollywood star most notably in the "Terminator" series of movies, and later Governor of California.

I wrote this question because I was tickled by a TV programme called "Niki Lauda: Tragedy in the Air" (2015) about a tragic accident involving a plane from Niki Lauda's airline. In it, one of the pundits called Lauda "the most famous Austrian since Mozart", and I had this nagging feeling that he'd forgotten someone.

Answer: Godiva

Lady Godiva was a real person, the wife of Leofric, the Earl of Mercia. Not a lot is known of her, apart from that she had a son called Aelfgar and she died in 1067. Godiva and her husband were generous benefactors to churches in the years leading up to the Norman Invasion.

The legend of her naked horse ride in protest against her husband's unfair tax regime, and the "Peeping Tom" who couldn't resist having a look at her, is probably a myth. It seems to have originated a couple of centuries after the alleged event.

Her story has become part of popular culture, with her name being used for a chocolate brand, and reference to her being made in songs by the likes of Queen and the Velvet Underground.

Answer: Robert Peel

Robert Peel (1788-1850) was a leading UK Conservative politician who made a mark as a reforming Home Secretary and in two terms as Prime Minister. He is best known for establishing the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829, while Home Secretary, for which act he is known as the father of modern British policing. The slang terms "bobby" and "peeler" for a police officer stem from his name.

He became Prime Minister between 1834 and 1835 in the reign of William IV, serving as his own Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He returned to the role in 1841, by which time Queen Victoria was on the throne. In this term he carried out a series of liberal legislation that was at variance with many of his party. A factory act restricted hours that children and women could work to 12 hours per day, and regulated factory machinery. The repeal of the Corn Laws, which had artificially kept food prices high - a move made all the more urgent by the Irish Potato Famine, and which he did with support of the opposition parties - ultimately meant he lost the support of his party. He resigned as Prime Minister in 1846.