My True Love Guild to Me - 5th Day Quiz

Answer: 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' by the Jackson Five

George Hall and the Hotel Taft Orchestra (featuring Sonny Schuyler on vocals) first recorded this song in 1934. Although this was long before the Hit Parade, 100,000 orders were placed for the sheet music the next day and over 400,000 copies sold by Christmas, making it number one in sales, although strangely there were no record-breaking sales of any 1934 recorded version. People made their own entertainment in those days! Five Star were a 'British version of the Jackson Five' (being siblings who wore matching outfits and danced) but sadly without the talent.

As far as I know they never recorded 'Silent Night'. Hi-5 is an Australian children's pop group who have recorded 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', but not in 1970, as they weren't born then...'Rocking around the Christmas Tree' was recorded by Mel (Smith, a British comedian) and Kim (Wilde, a pop star turned gardener) and not by 'Five Go Mad in Dorset', which is not a pop group, but a comedy show by 'The Comic Strip' - a group of British comedians who have worked with Mel Smith on other projects. With your fifth day Christmas gift, you have one ring each for Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.

Answer: Gold Hallmarks

Hallmarking is one of the earliest English statutes, dating back to 1300 when Edward I started the assaying (testing) and marking of precious metals. Before then, unscrupulous gold and silversmiths could cheat their customers by replacing gold or silver with copper, so the statute was brought in to assay gold and silver and mark it, so you know that those five gold rings are exactly what you paid for!

Answer: Ring

These four operas comprise Wagner's 'Ring' Cycle ("Der Ring des Nibelungen"). Composed by Richard Wagner between approximately 1848 to 1874, it comprises a mammoth 15 hours of music, designed to be listened to over four successive performances. The story is an epic about gods, heroes, and mythical beasts, fighting over a magic Ring, created by the dwarf Alberich, that grants domination over the entire world. Hmm, remind anyone of anything? Wagner was a notorious anti-Semite and his music was greatly loved by Hitler.

Some of you may remember the helicopter scene in 'Apocalypse Now', set to 'The Ride of the Valkyries'.

Answer: Robert Newton

Gert Fröbe played Auric Goldfinger in 'Goldfinger', Frank Sinatra played Frankie Machine in 'The Man with the Golden Arm' and Mike Myers played 'Goldmember' in the Austin Powers film. Robert Newton played Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney film 'Treasure Island'. Clutching our five gold rings, we don't want anything to do with silver!

Answer: Ducati Twin

We are now talking about 'rings' in the grand English pursuit of bell-ringing. Unlike the continentals, who believe the best thing to do with a set of bells is play tunes, the English branch of campanology - the Art and Science of bell-ringing - is change-ringing.

It is designed to make each bell sound clearly and is very mathematical and precise. I am afraid it is completely beyond me and I am very glad that I was not in earshot of the record peal of tower bells - set in 1963 by a Loughborough peal of Plain Bob Major which lasted 40,320 changes. Kent Treble Bob Major, Grandsire Caters and Stedman Triples are all change-rings.

A Ducati twin is an Italian motorbike.

Answer: Vier

In French I counted un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq. In Russian odin, dva, tri, chetyre, pyat'. In the ancient counting system (still used by some shepherds on their sheep) I counted yan, tan, tether, mether, pip. It was a good job that I didn't count them in German, as 'vier' is counting only up to four!

Answer: Washington _____

'Ring of Bright Water' is a charming book about befriending an otter by Gavin Maxwell (made into a film with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna), The Ring O'Bells Mystery is an Enid Blyton 'Barney' mystery, 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is the first book in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and the odd one out is 'Washington Square' by Henry James.

Answer: Five

The first is from a cumulative song whose origins (and meaning!) is shrouded in mystery. The last verse reads

I'll sing you twelve, oh
Green grow the rushes, oh
What are your twelve, oh?
Twelve for the twelve Apostles
Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven,
Ten for the ten commandments,
Nine for the nine bright shiners,
Eight for the April Rainers,
Seven for the seven stars in the sky,
Six for the six proud walkers,
Five for the symbols at your door,
Four for the Gospel makers,
Three, three, the rivals,
Two, two, the lily-white boys,
Clothèd all in green, oh ho
One is one and all alone
And evermore shall be so.

The second song is from a child's counting song and verses one to five go:

This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb;
Knick-knack paddywhack,
Give a dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.

This old man, he played two,
He played knick-knack on my shoe;

This old man, he played three,
He played knick-knack on my knee;

This old man, he played four,
He played knick-knack on my door;

This old man, he played five,
He played knick-knack on my hive;
Knick-knack paddywhack,
Give a dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.

I am fully aware that both these songs have more than one version, and this does not pretend to be definitive! Now, 'On the first day of Christmas..'

Answer: Both of these

Strange but true! Volcanoes have been known to blow smoke or steam rings which last for about 10 minutes in the sky. Dolphins and some whales can create 'bubble rings', either by exhaling through their blow holes or by creating a water vortex ring and then blowing air in the vortex ring. If you do a bit of searching, there is footage out there of both amazing events!

Answer: It can easily be extracted from seawater

Although there is a lot of gold in the sea, it is at an incredibly low solution (approximately perhaps 1-2 parts per 10 billion) and, like the alchemists dream of turning lead into gold, dreams of obtaining gold from seawater remain dreams! Gold leaf is often added as decoration to food and alcoholic drinks such as Goldschläger (a schnapps), Gold Strike (a cinnamon liqueur), and Goldwasser (a Polish liqueur) all contain gold. Gold is the most malleable and ductile (able to be deformed under both tensile and compressive stress - i.e. can be stretched and squashed without breaking) of metals, hence it can be hammered or stretched so thinly that it actually becomes translucent. Gold may have been the first metal used by the ancients and the Turin Papyrus, considered to be the world's oldest map, shows the location of ancient gold mines. Studying more about gold is recommended. So, if you were lucky enough to be given five gold rings at Christmas, rejoice!