All That Glitters Is Not Guild Quiz

Answer: None of Shakespeare's plays contain this phrase

The answer is, of course, none of Shakespeare's plays, because the correct phrase is "all that GLISTERS is not gold".

The phrase is to be found on a scroll placed in a golden casket in "The Merchant of Venice" (Act 2, Scene 7). Shakespeare did not actually coin this phrase. It is believed that "The Merchant of Venice" was written around 1598. But the phrase appears in 1553 in Thomas Becon's "Reliques of Rome" ("All is not gold that glistreth"), and again in 1578 in an Italian-English lexicon by John Florio ("All that glistreth is not gold"). Similar phrases appear in Chaucer's "The House of Fame" (circa 1379), as well as in "Canterbury Tales" in 'The Canon's Yeoman's Tale' (circa 1386).

*****This is your question, isn't it MotherGoose?
MG: Yes Guilda, do you like it?
*****Yes, and it reminds me of something. Do you know what I use to keep my breath bright and fresh?
MG: No Guilda, what do you use to keep your breath bright and fresh?
*****Glisterine!
MG: Where's that fly-swatter?

Answer: Rhinestone

The Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, is home to the largest rhinestone in the world. It was created and presented to Liberace by the Austrian makers of the rhinestone jewellery that he wore regularly during his shows (and presumably in some private venues as well). After the rhinestone was made, the mould was broken, ensuring its unique and uncontested place in pop culture history.

*****This question was written by the glittering Gretas.
G: Thank you Guilda!
*****A pleasure. Liberace was a friend of mine you know.
G: No I didn't know, that's not in any of the books about him.
*****Oh no, he liked to keep it quiet that he hung out with fairies.
G: I'm sure there was a rolled-up newspaper around here somewhere...

Answer: It's a book about policemen which later became a TV film.

Joseph Wambaugh wrote "The Glitter Dome" in 1981. Born in 1937, the son of a cop, he later became one as well and speedily rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant (all the while attending Cal State Los Angeles earning a BA and an MA). His first novel, 1971's "The New Centurions", hit like lightning as it depicted the policeman's life with honesty, excitement, and even a sense of humour. In between later novels he developed a series for TV called "Police Story", which totally altered the cop show format - offering ensemble acting with realistic grit. Wambaugh can be held mostly responsible for opening the doors to such shows as we see today. A critic for "The New York Times Book Review" summed it up well: "Let us dispel forever the notion that Mr. Wambaugh is only a former cop who happens to write books. This would be tantamount to saying that Jack London was first and foremost a sailor."

*****I've heard of Wambaugh, Gatsby722, but I didn't know it was a man.
Gats: Really, Guilda? He's a very famous writer.
*****Yes, but I thought it was just a noise. You know, some people are a bit mean to fairies and they try to hit them with things. When they miss and hit a wall it sounds like "WAMBAUGH!"
Gats: Do they ever try to hit you with books, Guilda?
*****Oh yes, all the time.
Gats: That's good, because I've got a copy of "The Glitter Room" right here...

Answer: Bilbo

While Frodo and his friends were staying in Bree, the innkeeper presented the hobbits with a letter from Gandalf, which contained a poem. The hobbits were, at that juncture, suspicious of Aragorn, and Aragorn's claim that the verses in the poem applied to him helped calm those suspicions somewhat.

Later, during the Council of Elrond in Rivendell, Bilbo recited his poem angrily in response to Boromir's scepticism regarding Aragorn. After sitting down, Bilbo whispered to Frodo, "I made that [the poem] up myself".


*****Question by the untarnished Uglybird!
UB: Thanks, Guilda, but that makes me sound like I'm bright and flawless, when really I'm just a humble quiz author.
*****OK, well if can give me another 'u' word to use...
UB: Right, the untarnished Uglybird it is then!

Answer: Non-Reflective Glass

Katherine J Blodgett (or Katherine Burr Blodgett) was born in Schenectady, New York, in 1898, and died there in 1979. She took her BA from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, and her BS from the University of Chicago. She was the first woman to take a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University, England, and she joined GE in 1917.

Her process for coating glass to make it non-reflective initially involved liquid soap, but was eventually refined to make it permanent, and patented as "Film Structure and Method of Preparation" in March 1938. I could try and explain how it works, but it's very technical and, well, I'd only be pretending I really understand!

As to the other options, I can't find any definite claims for the first Timed Automatic Light Shut-Off Switch, and I made the other two up. Or at least I thought I did; apparently Matte-Finish Nylon exists, as DuPont's Cordura for one. And I thought I was being so original...

*****This one's by the illustrious Ing.
Ing: Um, Guilda? Illustrious means famous and distinguished, that doesn't describe me at all.
*****No, but lustrious means shiny, and your question's about anti-reflection, so not lustrious would be 'illustrious'.
Ing: That's lustrous Guilda, and it would be non-lustrous, or matte.
*****But that's non-logical, Ing.
Ing: Are you finished with that fly-swatter, MotherGoose?

Answer: 1946

Although illegal, gambling began to flourish in the early 1900s. In 1931, the legislature allowing gambling brought the roulette wheel back into the sunlight. Funded by gambling and industrial backing, Las Vegas easily survived the Great Depression. The "boom" of the now famous strip began in the 1940s, growing to the neon mecca we have today.

*****TemptressToo, can I ask you a question about your question?
TT: Sure, Guilda, ask away.
*****You know how you said the strip is a neon mecca?
TT: Ye-es...
*****Well, is that because lots of the games are mecca-nical?
TT: Fly spray...didn't we have some fly spray?

Answer: Index of Refraction

It is the so-called "index of refraction". Ever notice how a pencil stuck half into water will look "broken" at the water line? Light travels slower in water than it does in air. Yes, I know, the speed of light is constant, but that only happens in a vacuum. Light travelling through matter interacts with the electric fields of the matter it passes through, which slows it down.

When the light passes through the water-air interface at anything other than a right angle, the light bends. For why this is the case, imagine mowing the grass with one of those primitive human-powered lawnmowers. Pushing it on the grass is harder than pushing it on concrete. If you come to the grass-concrete interface at anything other than a right angle, the tyre on the concrete travels faster than the tyre on the grass. So, the path of you-pushing-the-lawnmower bends.

The index of refraction is just the difference in how fast light travels through different media. A higher index of refraction results in the light bending more when it goes from the medium to the air.

Now... light bends more or less depending on the wavelength. This is how a prism works. The colours of light are separated out into a rainbow by the different amounts they bend.

Here we return to the issue of fire. "Fire" is the flashes of colour that come from light being refracted, like in a prism. A higher index of refraction gives more refraction, and hence more flashes of colour.

Some minerals with high fire are diamond, of course, zircon (not cubic zirconia, though that has high fire as well), and demantoid garnet.

*****Well I know that's your question Putterkickery.
Pu2: It's Pu2-ke-qi-ri, and how did you know it was my question?
*****Because it's about rocks and stuff Pewterkahkiray.
Pu2: Say it after me Guilda. Pu2...
*****Pu2...
Pu2: Good, now ke...
*****ke...
Pu2: qi-ri...
*****qi-ri...
Pu2: Well done, now put it all together and how does it go?
*****Puttycuekerry!
Pu2: Gretas have you still got that newspaper, or should I use one of my rocks?

Answer: Edible silver or gold leaf

Varak is actually edible silver or sometimes gold leaf pounded very thin and gingerly placed on a ceremonial dish. It is very fragile and will blow to pieces so you must place it carefully onto the top of a dish.

Ayurvedic Rock Salt or Kala Namak is also known as black rock salt and is pinkish in colour sometimes. It is used in cuisine to flavour dishes with its smoky taste. Inedible aluminium foil might be used to cover a dish but not to decorate it. Fossil amber isn't used to adorn dishes as far as this author knows!

*****My great-grandmother got trapped in amber, Bruyere.
B: That's awful!
*****Oh no, it just meant that she had to wait until the light turned green again.
B: Are fairies related to snails Guilda?
*****I don't think so, why?
B: Oh nothing, it's just that I've got some of that rock salt here...

Answer: "O Mio Babbino Caro" from "Gianni Schicchi"

"O Mio Babbino Caro" is sung by Lauretta, the daughter of the notorious shyster Gianni Schicchi, the title character of Puccini's only comic opera. Lauretta is romantically involved with Rinuccio, a scion of the wealthy Donati family. The Donatis despise the vulgar, nouveau-riche Schicchi, but they find themselves in need of his talents when old Buoso Donati (Rinuccio's uncle, and the richest of the lot) dies, leaving all of his wealth to a monastery. Schicchi is reluctant to help the snobbish, avaricious family, but is persuaded by Lauretta's beautiful aria. He decides to forge a new will by impersonating the dead man. This will leaves the Donatis better off than they were, but when it comes to the three prize items - the mule, the sawmills at Signa, and the house in Florence - Schicchi, impersonating Buoso, leaves these to himself, knowing that the Donatis cannot expose the hoax without incriminating themselves.

In the lyrics of the aria, Lauretta does mention Rinuccio, but she says nothing about love; instead, she tells her father "Mi piace, bello, bello!" (in plain English: "I really, really like him, he's gorgeous!"). Her principal desire is to go to the Porta Rossa, a jewellery shop on the Ponte Vecchio, to buy her wedding ring. She tells her father that if she can't have that ring, she will throw herself into the Arno river. At the opera's end, Schicchi acknowledges that his actions have won him a place in Dante's "Inferno", but protests that he has done it all for his daughter. He asks the audience for a verdict of "Not Guilty", in the form of their applause.

*****You really like opera, don't you jouen58?
J: Yes Guilda, among other things.
*****I really like opera too.
J: Oh? Which is your favourite?
*****Well that one with Tom Cruise was pretty good.
J: Tom Cruise? I don't think he's even been in an opera.
*****Oh yes, a few, but I really liked the one where he jumped up and down on the sofa and said he loved Katie.
J: Guilda, are you talking about Oprah Winfrey?
*****Of course! And I must say that I don't think you're as big a fan as you say you are; that one you were talking about sounds more like a Springer.
J: Look out fairy, I think I hear the fat lady warming up...

Answer: Cambridge

Raphael's "television novel" was produced as a TV drama series for the BBC in 1976. Comprising 6 smaller plays, it begins in the 1950s. A group of students from Cambridge set out to claim some of life's glittering rewards and end up discovering that things do not always follow a predictable course. Raphael dissects anti-Semitism, sexual manners, racism, class, and the influence of the media in this excellent commentary on English post-war values.

*****I'm glad you put one in about how it's bad to pick on people just because they're different, Nannanut.
N: Really Guilda, why is that?
*****Well I don't like to name names, but I think some members of the Guild are into fairy bashing.
N: That's terrible.
*****I know, Puckytuckyrie nearly got me with that big rock!
N: No, I meant the pun...say, did you notice that Uglybird was the only one who didn't try to hit you with anything or harm you in any way? Apart from me, of course, but I'm still thinking about it.
*****Yes, and in between ducking things I did wonder about that. Why, Uglybird?
UB: That's easy, Guilda. My question was the only one about fantastic creatures, yet you managed to restrain yourself from making a dumb joke about it. I'm actually very proud of you.
*****Aww, thanks Uglybird. It just seemed too easy to be Tolkien advantage of an opportunity like that.
UB: Gats, give me that book.
*****Oh no!
UB: Oh yes!

"WAMBAUGH!"