Trivia Question of the Day

[Hydromet]

I heard that Michael Jackson was always blowing Bubbles.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

I'm sure youv'e all heard of the big five african animals and maybe the little five; but can anyone name the ugly five?

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

So no-one can think of a single ugly african animal or bird

[talmacapt]

I'll give it a go.

How about hyena, warthog (I quite like them though), toucan, dung beetle, vulture.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

I'll give it a go.

How about hyena, warthog (I quite like them though), toucan, dung beetle, vulture.

I'll give it to talmacapt who got 3 out of 5.
The ugly five are; hyena,marabu stork, vulture, warthog and finally wildebeest. None of which I find particularly ugly really.

[talmacapt]

OHL may know this.

Who were the "Maids of Biddenden".

[Karearea]

They were conjoined twins, were they not?
From Biddenden.
Cookies baked in their semblance I think.

That's all I know.

[talmacapt]

Absolutely correct, your go.

Their names were Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst and they lived in the 1100s.

I lived by the Three Chimneys Pub, Biddenden from 1988 to 2000, whilst I was based at Gatwick and later Heathrow.

It is quite close to Headcorn, where, I think, OHL sometimes flies from.

[Karearea]

Thank you, talmacapt.

Q: Who nipped the devil's nose with red-hot pincers?

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

Haven't a clue, but something biblical?

[Karearea]

Haven't a clue, but something biblical?

This man became Archbishop of Canterbury and officiated at the coronation of King Edgar, was canonised in 1029; patron saint of, among other things, blacksmiths; mentioned in Dickens' A Christmas Carol:

"Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint ******* had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then, indeed, he would have roared to lusty purpose"

[talmacapt]

Haven't a clue but to keep it going.

I am sure I can ask google, but I refuse to do that.

If the number of asterisks is correct, I will go for St Stephen.

A likely name for the time.

My initial thought is that it is a line from a Shakespeare play, "A Winter's Tale" perhaps?

[Karearea]

Not St Stephen.

You would be permitted to look up your copy of A Christmas Carol I think.
The passage I quoted is from Stave I.

[talmacapt]

I did as you suggested and the answer is Dunstan.

Caused me to begin reading the rest of it.

[Karearea]

Well done talmacapt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunstan#I ... d_folklore

I've read A Christmas Carol annually for years, so many insights, references and nuances in it. Used to read it aloud to my children and took something different from it each time.

The hammer and anvil are yours.

[talmacapt]

Thankyou.

Staying on the literary theme.

What begins "Today we have naming of parts".

[Hydromet]

I'd read it and knew the theme of it, but my guess of possibly two writers of the genre were both wrong.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

So not Grey's anatomy then.

[talmacapt]

Hydro.

If you know the theme of it, you may guess when it was written.

Mrs Ex.

Not Grey's anatomy.

Early-ish 20th Century, if it helps.

[talmacapt]

Re 3033.

I was interested in your use of the word "stave".

I cannot remember hearing the word used in that context before but my OED (Oxford English Dictionary for the heathens among us) tells me that it is an acceptible use.

One learns something new every day.