|
 Here are
the answers to the questions in Kwizz Gig 2 of Issue 31, May 2002 (erroneously printed with the title
“Kwizz Gig 1”).
1.
Which composer wrote the March-Past of the Kitchen Utensils?
— Ralph
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). It is the 3rd movement of his 1909
Aristophanic Suite The Wasps.
2.
According to legend, which European queen was crowned five years after her
death?
— Inez
de Castro, mistress of Dom Pedro, son of King Alfonso IV of Portugal (14th
century). She was the cousin of Pedro’s legal wife Constança, and was
killed on the orders of certain advisors to Alfonso. When the latter died
and Pedro became king, he hatched the plan that, since he had already
secretly and with papal dispensation married Inez (or so he claimed), she
should be exhumed and crowned his Queen posthumously.
3. A
certain mnemonic verse begins:
Sir,
— I send a rhyme excelling
In
sacred truth and rigid spelling.
Numerical
sprites elucidate
For
me the lexicon’s dull weight.
What
does it help us remember?
— Pi
(here given to 20 decimal places, though the verse in question goes on for
10 more).
4. Who
was the only Englishman ever to become Pope?
—
Nicholas Breakspear (born c.1100 in Langley, near St. Albans). When
elected Pope in 1154 he took the name Adrian IV. He died in 1159.
5. His
transatlantic namesake and contemporary wrote several historical novels,
but this historian wrote only one — Savrola. Who was he?
—
Winston [Leonard Spencer] Churchill (1874-1965). His American namesake
lived from 1871 to 1947.
6.
Which historian and scientist was asphyxiated while investigating an
erupting volcano?
— Pliny
the Elder (AD. 23-79), who was sailing towards a mysterious smoke cloud,
about the origin of which he was curious. He didn’t know it, but Vesuvius
was about to bury Pompeii and kill thousands, including himself.
7. The
ending of which American novel underwent 39 rewrites before publication?
—
Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929).
8.
Which 1972 rock classic begins with the words “Really don’t mind if you
sit this one out”?
—
Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick.
9.
Which nineteenth century artist painted 70 paintings in the last 70 days
of his life?
—
Vincent Van Gogh (1835-90).
10. Her
clergyman uncle was a best-selling Victorian author, and she was a
spinster who walked for a week through hitherto unexplored West African
territory and made friends with the cannibal Fang tribe of Gabon. What was
her name?
— Mary
Kingsley (1862-1900), niece of Charles Kingsley.
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