Quiz Questions 41 to 50
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Round 41 - 4 April 2000 As "Dubya" Bush and "Skippy", his father before him, know too well, schoolboy nicknames are a hard thing to shake. Although the years may pass, sooner or later, the lurking nom de boyhood springs out from the underbrush. Here are some examples of sobriquets from the past that certain semi-respectable characters have tried to forget. Points for speakers, subjects, and books or stories. 1. "In some way, I associate you with a side of beef. Shorty Smith? Stumpy Whiting? ... No, I've got it, by Gad. STINKER ..." 2. "MUGSY, we used to call him. He was younger than me by some three years, one of those tough, chunky, beetle-browed kids who scowl at their seniors and bully their juniors." 3. "God bless my soul! Why, it's PIMPLES ..." 4. "It is useless for you to pretend that you do not owe me that sum, BIMBO. You took it off me forty-three years ago as we were crossing the cricket field one lovely summer evening. 'BARMY', you said, would you like to lend me two bob?' And I said, 'No, but I suppose I'll have to,' and the money changed hands." 5. "At school, they called him BUNGLER ..." 6. "Sorry, PIEFACE" ... "Shouldn't have spoken as I did, BOKO" ... Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 42 - 17 April 2000 One of the most common complaints about the works of PGW (one of the few complaints, actually) is this business of dual titles, one for the UK, another in the USA. Why did Something Fresh become Something New? Why Mostly Sally and The Adventures of Sally? Why did our friend Peter Schwed change so many titles when he was Plum's editor at Simon & Schuster? And most important, could you do better? Below are four of Plum's least inspired titles. Come up with your own titles, and win our undying respect. Bonus points for a really good defense of your choice. 1. The Girl on the Boat aka Three Men and a Maid 2. Full Moon 3. The Mating Season 4. Biffen's Millions aka Frozen Assets Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 43 - 26 April 2000 "It was just as I feared. He was in for another attack of
poetry." Many Wodehouse characters have fancied themselves filled with the divine fire. Identify the following snippets from various parabolas of joy, and their authors. As always, extra credit for context. 1. "Gaped like some dull-witted animal" 2. "I am a worm that wriggles in a swamp of Disillusionment" 3. "Imposing pile, reared up 'midst pleasant grounds, The scene of many a battle, lost or won" 4. "The champion was a willing lad. He gave the public all he had. His was a genuine fighting soul. He'd lots of speed and much control." Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 44 - 7 May 2000 Wodehouse often referred to characters who affect the action, but never actually appear onstage. Below are three such characters to identify - bonus points for knowing which one may have appeared elsewhere in the canon. 1. He sneaked Bertie Wooster's socks. 2. A poor substitute for Angus McAllister in all matters pumpkin. 3. This slushy authoress exercised a spell from beyond the grave, to the dismay of her nephew, a determined bachelor. Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 45 - 16 May 2000 Tragicomedy You are invited to provide as many as you can of four names, those of both policeman and canine Nemesis in 1., of the spot marked X (a country house) in 2., and of Y in 3. Bonus marks for references (short story title or title and chapter of novel). 1. ‘(...) up the road there was approaching a large, stout, moon-faced policeman on a bicycle. And he was, one could see, at peace with all the world. (...) His whole attitude was that of a policeman with nothing on his mind but his helmet. ‘And where the drama came in was that it was patent that his attention had not yet been drawn to the fact that he was being chivvied – in the strong, silent, earnest manner characteristic of this breed of animal – by a fine Aberdeen terrier. There he was, riding comfortably along, sniffing the fragrant evening breeze; and there was the Scottie, all whiskers and eyebrows, haring after him hell-for-leather. (...) The whole situation resembled some great moment in a Greek tragedy, where somebody is stepping high, wide and handsome, quite unconscious that all the while Nemesis is at his heels.’ 2. ‘There are critics to whom it will seem one of those strained coincidences which are so inartistic that on this troubled night no fewer than six of the residents of X should have been seized independently of each other with the idea of going to the drawing-room in order to establish contact with the decanter placed there earlier in the evening by Jane, the parlourmaid, while others will see in the thing that inevitability which was such a feature of the best Greek tragedy. Æschylus once said to Euripides "You can't beat inevitability," and Euripides said he had often thought so, too.’ 3. ‘I cannot hope to make clear to you all that Y endured in the next few weeks. And, even if I could, I doubt if I should do so. It is all very well to excite pity and terror, as Aristotle recommends, but there are limits. In the ancient Greek tragedies it was an ironclad rule that all the real rough stuff should take place off-stage, and I shall follow this admirable principle. It will suffice if I say merely that Y had a thin time.’ Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 46 - 24 May 2000 Classical mythology ‘The Gods who live for ever Classics again – mythology, this time. By the way, I would like to point out to any teacher who might catch his or her pupils pondering this Quiz that, far from playing truant from their studies, they are obviously earnest young scholars in the laudable process of widening their knowledge, and so to be praised, not censured. You are asked to identify three characters described in the short passages quoted below. I am helpfully appending a list of possible answers to each question. ‘Anon’ is included in the first two name lists to indicate that in either case the relevant person may be an anonymous – though not unimportant – character. Bonus marks for references and other relevant details (about any unnamed character, for instance). Do have a try! Don't give myths a miss! 1. ‘White and shining, he tripped along over the turf like a Theocritan shepherd hastening to keep an appointment with a nymph (...)’ Who was he? Anon, Bingo Little, Rollo Podmarsh, Freddie Threepwood, or Joss Weatherby? 2. "This won't do, you know!" he said austerely. "This sort o’ thing won't do, ’ere, you know!" "Take your hands off me!" (...) ‘A frown appeared on the Olympian brow. Jove reached for his thunderbolts. "’Ullo! ’Ullo! ’Ullo!" he said in a shocked voice, as of a god defied by a mortal. "’Ullo! ’Ullo! ’Ul-lo!"’ Who was this Jovian character? Anon, Stilton Cheesewright, Ernest Dobbs, Harold Potter, or Ernest Simms? 3. ‘He had puffed and panted like a racehorse at the conclusion of a stiff Grand National. He had also caused boards to creak and once, overbalancing, had brought his hand sharply against the panel of the door. Indeed, practically the only thing he had not done was to make a noise like an alarm clock, and he had been operating less than a minute and a half when X stirred on her pillow, sat up and finally, hearing the bang on the door, got up. With the air of an Amazon donning her armour before going into battle, she put on a dressing-gown and stood listening.’ Who was X? Lady Bassett, Mrs Adela Cork, Mrs Clarissa Cork, Jane Hubbard, or Lady Wickham? Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 47 - 1 June 2000 Rhetoric and poetics revisited Now, will (this too is a rhetorical question) the Voice of Conscience allow you to drop everything in order to immerse yourself in PGW-ian research? Of course it will. "Come on! Start now!" the Voice of Conscience is bound to tell you (prosopopoeia). "Should you cry off ... Tut!" (meiosis). You are asked to name X, Y and Z (with help from the name lists), and to identify the other three characters as well. As usual, you will be awarded bonus marks if you can provide references and other crucial details. 1. ‘He was roused from his trance by a tap on the door. "Who's that?" he cried, bounding up. His eye was wild. He was prepared to sell his life dearly. "It is I, sir, X." "What do you want?" The door opened a few inches. Through the gap there came a hand. In the hand was a silver salver. On the salver lay something squishy that writhed and wriggled. "Your serpent, sir," said the voice of X.’ Who was X? Beach, Jeeves, Keggs, Charlie Silversmith, or Simmons? And who was the other character? 2. ‘"It's about this business of your coming to the house as P." "Ah yes?" "You can't go on with it." Y raised his eyebrows. "Can't? A strange word to use to the last of a proud family. Did my ancestors say ‘Can't’ on the stricken fields of the Middle Ages, when told off to go and fight the Paynim? As a matter of fact," said Y confidentially, "I believe lots of them did, as you can verify by turning up Richard Cœur de Lion's dispatches, so perhaps it is a pity that I asked the question. Why do you say I can't go on with it?"’ [‘P.’ above is the initial of a name, that of a man Y was impersonating.] Who was Y? Sir Buckstone Abbott, the Duke of Dunstable, Lord Ickenham, the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, or Freddie Widgeon? And who uttered that timorous "You can't ..."? 3. ‘He looked like a man who has been poring over a clue in a crossword puzzle, at a loss to divine what "large Australian bird" can possibly be, and in an unexpected flash has had it come to him. Just as such a man will quiver in every limb and cry "Emu!", just as Archimedes on a well-known occasion quivered in every limb and cried "Eureka!" – so now did Z quiver in every limb and cry "Coo!" "Coo, sir!" cried Z. "I see it all now, sir. It was not love (...)"’ Who was Z? Frederick Mullett, Albert Peasemarch, James Phipps, Augustus Robb, or "Hash" Todhunter? And who was the speechless character Z addressed as "sir"? Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 48 - 10 June 2000 Figures of speech again In each quotation one character's name is replaced with X, Y or Z, and those are the characters you are invited to name. Bonus marks for references and other crucial details, such as other characters' names. 1. ‘"I think I know what's on your mind, X," I said. "If you were in those bushes during my conversation with the recent A., I dare say you heard what I was saying about you." "I did." "I see. Well, we won't go into the ethics of the thing. Eavesdropping, some people might call it, and I can imagine stern critics drawing in the breath to some extent. Considering it – I don't want to hurt your feelings, X – but considering it un-English. A bit un-English, X, old man, you must admit."’ [The initial ‘A.’ stands for a girl's name.] You will have identified the narrator, of course. But who was X? Stilton Cheesewright, Chuffy Chuffnell, Tuppy Glossop, or Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright? 2. ‘"(...) When he shows up, I'll have to ask him to stay, won't I?" "Of course." "For an indefinite visit." "Yes." "And (...) I don't suppose I can very well charge him anything, dash it. Crawling in, upsetting my home life, swigging my port – and not so much as five pounds a week out of it. Hell!" said Y, with old-fashioned English hospitality.’ Who was Y? Sir Buckstone Abbott, Crispin Scrope, Lord Shortlands, or Henry Paradene? 3. ‘(...) now he looked up; and there was a red glare in his eyes which sent a thrill of horror through J. G. The visitor reminded him of the Human Gorilla in his novel, The Mystery of the Severed Ear. "For two pins," said Z, displaying a more mercenary spirit than the Human Gorilla, who had required no cash payment for his crimes, "I would tear you into shreds." "Me?" asked J. G., blankly. "Yes, you. (...)" He rose, and, striding to the mantle-piece, broke off a corner of it and crumbled it in his fingers. "You have stolen her from me."’ [The initials ‘J. G.’ stand for the other character's name.] Who was Z? Stilton Cheesewright, Sidney McMurdo, Roderick Spode, or Ambrose Tennyson? Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 49 - 20 June 2000 One of the many things I love about PG Wodehouse is his appreciation of the important things in life. Not only does he understand the Thrip menace, but he also provides a remedy (although whale oil seems a little thin on the ground at present). I suspect Plum to have been a keen gardener, so this quiz has a horticultural theme. Extra points for references and mention of others involved. 1. "... X, when he had read the letter, had not given much thought to the decoration it would be necessary for him to wear; and it was only when, in reply to his demand for a chrysanthemum, the florist came forward almost hidden, like the army of Dunsinane, behind what looked like a small shrubbery, that he realised what he, a correct and fastidious dresser, was up against." Who was this dressy character? Freddie Widgeon, Psmith, Freddie Threepwood or Orlo Vosper? 2. "A simple soul, Y - mild and pleasant. Yet put him among the thrips and he became a dealer out of death and slaughter, a destroyer in the class of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. Thrips feed on the underside of Rose Leaves, sucking their juice and turning them yellow; and Y's views on these things were so rigid that he would have poured whale-oil solution on his grandmother if he had found her on the underside of one of his rose leaves sucking the juice." Who was the stern Y? 3. " And so it came that Z, crouched in his potting-shed like some dangerous beast in its den, beheld a sight which first froze his blood and then sent it boiling through his veins. Flitting to and fro through his sacred gardens, picking his sacred flowers, was a small girl in a velveteen frock." Who is Z? Click here to go to Quiz Answers Round 50 - 28 June 2000 As Gussie Fink-Nottle once said, I propose on this occasion to feel compelled to say a few auspicious words. Round 50 is a nice round number and I plan to honour it by introducing a few of Plum's more formidable women. Please supply the name or pseudonym of each character, with bonus points for references. 1. "X, you see, is one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welterweight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging over a tin bridge. A beastly thing to face over the breakfast table. Brainy, moreover." Who was this formidable female? Aurelia Cummerleigh, Agnes Flack, Vanessa Cook, Heloise Pringle or Honoria Glossop. 2. "She was a tall, rangy light-heavyweight, severe of aspect. She looked as if she might be on the staff of some well-known female convict establishment." Miss Brinkmeyer, Miss Mapleton, Aunt Agatha, Lady Malvern, or Mrs Peagrim. 3. "She was big, blonde skittish and exuberant; she wore a dress like the sunset of a fine summer evening, and she effervesced with spacious goodwill to all men. She was one of those girls who splash into public places like stones into quiet pools". Who was she? Click here to go to Quiz Answers |