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Posted by Katy R (U14748743) on Friday, 27th May 2011
Hi everyone
Today's quiz question is:
Who was crowned King of Italy on May 26 1805?
Good Luck
Katy
It's got to be one of Napoleon's family. I think brother Joseph was made King of Spain and Napoleon's son, eventually, became King of Rome. Was Jerome King of Italy?
TP
Not quite right.... any other guesses?
Katy
Wasn't it the husband of one of his sisters? The one who was a marshall (the husband, not the sister!).
Possibly Eliza (the sister not the marshall!)
Old bony himself? Napoleon?
Congratulations the correct answer is indeed Napoleon Bonaparte.
Over to you...
Katy
1453 saw the end of the Hundred Years' War.
The Earl of Shrewsbury's English army was decisively beaten by the French under Jean Bureau, ending forever the English claims to the throne of France.
Where was the decisive battle? And, in what way was the battle a milestone in military history?
Some of this cropped up in a pub quiz I was in recently (or I must say I wouldn't have known). The Hundred Years War lasted 116 years and the last battle was Castillon.
The bad news is that nobody commented on its significance otherwise, and I'm hopeless at military history. It's too late for the first use of artillery (Crecy?); could it have marked the first use of hand-guns?
TP
TP, that;s good enough.
Indeed it was the battle of Castillon (strange how everyone in England has heard of Agincourt, but nobody's heard of Castillon!).
It was a milestone because it was the first DECISIVE use of artillery, or cannon fire in any European battle.
So, your go TP.
Very generous 1507.
What beautiful thing from the East End was made in the middle of the Hundred Years War and will soon be seen in a new light.
TP
Something stained glass perhaps? ("Seen in a new light....")
Absolutely right jenny. Can you be any more precise?
TP
Oh gosh, it was just a shot in the dark (or light...)
Um, would itr be some stained glass that was mentioned in records dating from teh middle ages, but which was apparently destroyed during the reformation or puritan era, but which has since been found either salvaged and screted, or else accidentally buried and dug up by, eg, the Olympic building lot???
Or maybe it's going to be mounted in the Olympic pavillions or whatever, having been stored in a museum till now?
But I am just guessing wildly! (as you can tell....)
I'll give you two clues: I live in West Yorkshire and it's not only London that has an east end!
Kind regards,
TP
Ah, then it must be something to do with York Minster having a stained glass window cleaned or restored???? If so, anythign do to with that fire some years ago (when the atheist archbishop was installed!!!!!)
Absolutely right Jenny. The Great East End Window at York Minster is undergoing conservation; 283 panels of magnificent medieval glass.
Now it's your turn.
Gosh, can't believe it, I'm right for a second time!
But, in all fairness, I bagged two questions last time, so I ought to hand my turn over to someone else this time around...
Come on Jenny,
Ask a question - any question - or this week's quiz will wither.
, in reply to message 18.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 27th May 2011
Okay - I'll ask a question.
Where does the 30th Regiment of Foot hide its colours under a lantern?
Well, the 30th were a Cambridgeshire Regiment, so I'd take a guess at Ely Cathedral - which has a famous lantern.
, in reply to message 20.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 27th May 2011
Well done Ur-Lugal.
Their colours from Quatre Bras and Waterloo still hang there.
Your turn.
Where in the UK can you see the remains of HMS Hood?
Assuming
a - you've got your diving gear
b - the underwater visibility is not zero
c - it's not blowing a force 10
Scapa Flow.
Does in a "UK Overseas Territory" count as "in the UK"? This could be a sly trick.
Could the rules on "research" please be clarified? It's cheating to google for answers at *any* time 10am - midnight on Fridays, but is it still acceptable to look things up/ask in the pub/research in any other intelligent way after the Friday night deadline?
I am not in the pub at the moment I hasten to add.
Hi ferval
Surely not. HMS Hood was sunk in the Denmark Strait and there were not previous warships of that name. Were you thinking of Royal Oak?
TP
Oops. Too early in the morning, after a rather late night, I should have known better TP! Of course you're right. I'll adjourn to the garden and chop up the storm debris instead.
Oh dear. After further research (cheating) I realise that I am destined to become renowned for making foolish assumptions. I shall now withdraw and propel myself off to Sainsbury's.
Not Scapa - not Royal Oak.
hint - you may be thinking of a different HMS Hood, though this one was a popular dive site for many years ....
So your HMS Hood is not the HMS Hood that bumped into the HMS Renown in 1935?
I knew there was a wreck diving connection somewhere, I'm sure I've seen a programme showing the dive. Was it down on the south coast of England during the 1st WW?
It's all very vague and I'm resisting the urge to google!
It's all very vague and I'm resisting the urge to google. Β
Oh, go , ferval. Then I won't feel such a pathetic cheat.
That should read:
Oh go on, ferval. Then I won't feel such a pathetic cheat.
He's avoided answering my question. Does that tell us anything?
Probably not.
Feel free to google - or goggle if you wish.
South Coast and WWI is getting warm!
Hi SST
I couldn't wait any longer so I cheated too. At the moment the military historians seem to have taken their bats home and there is a limit to the length of time that people my age can risk waiting.
It seems that the famous HMS Hood was not named after Horace Hood, killed at Jutland (as I assumed), but after his illustrious ancestor Samuel, Lord Hood an 18th C admiral.
This raises the possibility of earlier HMS Hoods, and it seems there were two. One of them, a Royal Sovereign Class Battleship, was sunk as a block-ship at Portland Harbour at the beginning of the Great War. This must surely have been the vessel concerned and perhaps (if you are brave enough) you can dive on it today.
All this seems a bit specialised, but then after the gladius became obsolete I rather lost interest in weapons systems.
Best wishes,
TP
It finally dawned on me that I had been frantically googling the wrong HMS Hood.
Does the HMS Hood in the question refer to the ship that was deliberately scuttled in 1914? She now lies at the bottom of Portland Harbour.
But it is amazing what you discover, even when you're on a wild goose chase. I'm not usually in the least bit interested in battleships and I knew nothing about the story of the more famous HMS Hood and of her terrible German foe, the Bismark. The account of what Admiral John Tovey called this "gallant fight" has really gripped me - so much so that I've just ordered the film "The Sinking of the Bismark" (only Β£3.99 and it's got excellent reviews - apparently it's historically very accurate).
The most moving thing I read yesterday was that the three survivors of the Hood (3 out of 1418 crew) did not rejoice at the news that the Bismark had gone down because "they understood what her crew had gone through" (1995 out of the ship's crew of 2,200 died). A "gallant fight" indeed, and a great victory for the Royal Navy, but a tragic waste of lives, both British and German.
SST.
PS Bits of the more famous HMS Hood survive - but only because she collided with HMS Renown off the coast of Spain in 1935. (Or did the Renown collide with her - I'm not sure?) Parts of the Hood's propellor were retrieved from the bilge room of the Renown and are presumably now in Worcester(?) at the headquarters of the HMS Hood Association. They were given to the Association by the Hood family. Two of her guns (after her 1935 refit) ended up on Ascension Island (UK Overseas Territory.)
Snap!
TP
Hi TP,
Now that is a photo finish! You have it by the "w" on Just Now!
SST.
PS Glad you're back by the way!
Yes, by a nose, TP has it.
The ship in question was the last turret-armed* British battleship, and was named for Admiral Sir Arthur William Acland Hood, First Lord of the Admiralty 1885–1889. The other two Hoods were named after an earlier and much more distiguished relative, Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood., whose younger brother, Alexander, who became Viscount Bridport, was perhaps the most distinguished member of this distinguished Naval family.
*Turret armed ships had a rotating armoured turret stretching down into the ship, which was much more massive, and thus led to a much lower freeboard, than ships with a fixed armoured "barbette" within which the guns rotated. Everything referred to as a "turret" in the RN after this particular ship was in fact a turntable barbette.
Thanks. You've made that very clear. I have to admit I've often seen the word barbette with the slightest idea of what it meant.
TP
Any chance of another question, TP? Looks like being a dreary, drizzly and cold Bank Holiday, so we could do with keeping the Quiz going.
Nice bit of tautology in my message above - "deliberately scuttled" - *and* a spelling mistake to boot.
propeller propeller propeller
yet again.
Hi SST
I always feel that the white hot heat of the Friday quiz dissipates once it is not Friday. But since it is you asking:
How does Barr's body distinguish: Eustache Dauger (perhaps), Operation Mincemeat, Pithecanthropus erectus, performer Charles Coborn, and the the capacity of a occupant of a south London public service vehicle to test public opinion, from the English titles of the novels of Stieg Larsson?
Happy Bank Holiday (it's raining here in West Yorks).
TP
I suspect that this question is more than enough to send an army of eminent crossword boffins and historians rushing for the sanctity of a darkened room, and since I haven't contributed much to this for a while, I'll write down what I know.
So -
Barr's body - no idea, unless it's Irn Bru.
Eustache Dauger - no idea.
Operation Mincemeat - WWII Allied trick to fool Germans into thinking Allied landing in Europe would be Sardinia and Greece, rather than Sicily.
Pithecanthropus erectus - no idea.
Charles Coburn - actor
Public opinion surveys - Neilsen?
English titles of Larsson - girl who played with fire, kicked hornets' nest etc.
OK, I've done the all spade work, someone else can just add the finishing touches. :->
Oh Lord, TP.
Is this something to do with fakes? People who never were? Dummies?
But how does Charles Coborn fit in?
The only thing I know about the English titles of Larsson's books is that they bear no resemblance to the corresponding Swedish ones.
Haven't a clue. That'll teach me to ask for another question.
The Barr's body thingy is used to test if something is genetically female, isn't it? Oh I don't know.
Hi 1507George,
I'm glad it's not just me.
Eustache Dauger was the Man in the Iron Mask?
Operation Mincemeat used an unidentifiable corpse?
Pithecanthropus erectus is Java Man or is it Java Woman? Java Person at any rate - but I think he/she/it was a fake.
That public service vehicle thing - I've got in my mind something about a dummy, but I don't know why. I'm sure it's me who's the dummy.
Clever old TP. He'll have us chewing over this for hours.
Well done Temps,
Dauger was indeed the man in the iron mask.
Can't help with the rest though - sorry. I'll leave you to wrestle with it - good luck.
TP should have been one of those baddies in the James Bond films, plotting to takeover the world while we struggle to answer his questions.
, in reply to message 45.
Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Monday, 30th May 2011
The public service vehicle thingy is "The man on the Clapham Omnibus", I feel.
Charles Coborn (as opposed to Coburn) was the vaudeville singer who sang of "Two Lovely Black Eyes" and "The Man Who Broke The Bank In Monte Carlo".
A Barr Body is the chromosome which is left over after the sex of a mammal has been determined in its sub-embryonic state.
Larsson's books all have "girl" in their English titles.
This is something to do with "man" versus "girl", I think. though I'm struggling with why a Barr Body became "Barr's body" in the question. Was Murray Barr actually a dead girl?
Hi 1507 & SST
Your're there really - and I have to go out!
You've got the Man in the Iron Mask, Java man and 'the Man who Never Was'.
You haven't got the singer of 'The Man that Broke the bank at Monte Carlo', nor the 'man in the Clapham omnibus' who is the arbiter of what is sensible.
Stieg Larsson's books have English titles which begin 'The girl....'
The Barr Body (an inactivated X-Chromosome) will reliably distinguish the men from the girls on cellular microscopy as SST knows.
Simples!
TP
Hi Nordmann
If I recall correctly: "and still they gazed, and still the wonder grew that on esmall head could carry all it knew".
My apologies for not waiting those few extra seconds. Well done indeed; very impressive.
TP
Although the book and film of 'The Man who Never Was' give the impression that the corpse was an unknown down-and-out, the recent book 'Operation Mincemeat' makes it clear that his identity was known, and his father had to give permission.
That isn't the case. If Glyndwr Owen was the corpse used - and this is open to question - his natural father died in 1925.
The poor man's body was unclaimed after he died of (suspected) rat poisoning.
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