Take This Job and Shove It To the History Books Quiz

Answer: Recited epic poetry

Rhapsodes were epic poetry performers in ancient Greece. Depicted wearing a cloak and carrying a staff, a rhapsode would recite major works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey.

This image is of a statue of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Answer: Person who delivered ice to homes and businesses

An iceman really did deliver ice. They would harvest ice, usually hauling it from a frozen lake or a homemade, often underground ice storage pod of sorts, and then deliver it to homes and businesses. Old homes today may still have the doors icemen would use. He would approach your wall, open a little door into your pantry, and place the ice of block there before closing the door. Inside, you would open a door on your side of the pantry to retrieve the ice.

This image is of a man made of ice.

Answer: Delivered gunpowder on navy ships

A powder monkey, also called a powder boy, would deliver gunpowder from its storage area to the artillery apparatus; sailors would keep the powder separate to avoid unexpected explosions. Powder monkeys were often teens, who were nimble and small enough to move around large pieces of equipment.

This image is of navel oranges - a homonym of "naval."

Answer: Woke people up

The profession of the knocker-up pretty much went extinct when alarm clocks become affordable and reliable to the common folk. Before then, a knocker-up would knock on your door or window with a stick, sometimes a very long one if he had to reach up to a high window, until you proved you were awake. Dickens' "Great Expectations" has a brief scene in which a character is cranky because he was knocked up early.

This is an image of old-timey London.

Answer: Printer's devil

No one seems to know why a printer's apprentice was called a printer's devil. Theories abound, including one in which the apprentice had to pull metals from a hellbox - the name given to the receptacle that held metal pieces - so he was given the moniker of a devil. Regardless, it was a fairly prestigious position, as it put workers in touch with literary types. Such influential writers as Ambrose Bierce, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain spent time as printer's devils.

This image is of a device used by printers and their apprentices to print out lines of text.

Answer: Scavenged for valuables in mud

People who dug in the muddy shores of the Thames in the 1800-1900s were called mudlarks. A mudlark is not to be confused with a grubber, who would scavenge in drains, or a tosher who combed specifically through sewers. Life in Victorian England did not seem easy if these professions are an indication.

This old picture is of Tower Bridge and the Thames.

Answer: Remind his master of people's names

A nomenclator would follow his boss around all day and remind him of the people he met and why he should talk to them. This was particularly helpful if the boss was drunk and needed reminding of just about everyone.

This image is of Grecian ruins.

Answer: Itinerant performers and composers of poetry

Troubadours were performers and composers of poetry who are thought to have originated on the Iberian Peninsula. Troubadours were part of a rich tradition of genres and styles.

This image is what a troubadour might have looked like.

Answer: Clerk

In Russia from the 15th to the 18 century, a podyachy was effectively a clerk or worker within a larger organization or bureaucracy. Although the word pertains somewhat to "assistant servant" in Greece, in Russia it referred to a desk job.

This image is of a Quick Stop convenience store, which was the setting of Kevin Smith's 1994 film "Clerks."

Answer: Someone who set up bowling pins

Bowling has been a sport since ancient times, and the people responsible for setting up bowled-over pins were called pinsetters. In more modern times, they had the rather dangerous job of staying below the bowling pit and avoiding the heavy balls and pins as they came roaring through. They would reset the pins and often hand-deliver the balls back to the bowlers. In 1941, an inventor created a mechanical version and human pinsetters had to find other work.

This image is of an old court used for handball, squash, or lawn bowling.