Bit of This and That 4 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Planes refuelled at the general store

Valley Falls, Oregon was a community established in 1908 by Charles William Emanuel Jennings (1877-1949) who, in addition to being the community's postmaster, ran several businesses there, and became an Oregon state legislator. Population figures even in 2015 are not available for Valley Falls, beyond the fact that it is identified as a "populated place".

This was also the case back in the 1940s when several planes used to land on the highway which ran into the community - and then taxi up to the general store there to be refuelled. Fascinating.

Answer: Carnation

The date on which this tradition began is unknown, but it is said to have started when a student first put a white carnation in a red inkpot during an exam. Over the week of exams that followed, the flower changed colour from white to pink and finally to red. Students today who like to follow such traditions consequently wear a white carnation on the first day of exams, a pink one on the days in between, and a red one on the last day.

Answer: They thought it was indelicate

American-born Eli Whitney is best known for his invention of the cotton gin, which was one of the most remarkable creations of the industrial age. However, he was more than a one off genius. By the age of fourteen, he was running a nail making machine from his father's shop. By 1793, he had come up with the design of that immensely time-saving device, the cotton gin, a contraption that easily separated cotton fibres and seeds. This was a laborious job previously carried out by hand, and Whitney's invention had a huge economic impact on the country at that time.

In 1801, intrigued by the early beginnings of interchangeable parts, he designed guns with identical parts that could be swapped around as necessary. This would have a huge impact on the Union victory in the later 1861-65 Civil War. Whitney also demonstrated the concept of cost accounting into the manufacturing business and helped contribute to the invention of milling machines. Then of course there was his invention of the device to help ease the pain of the prostate cancer which eventually took his life. Think of the agony they could have saved thousands of gentlemen over time, but for a misplaced sense of propriety by his family.

Answer: An uncontrollable urge to expose oneself

In other words, it's flashing. This hard to control urge is also known as Lady Godiva syndrome. It's described by psychologists as a need to exhibit parts of the body normally covered in public to shock others and draw attention to oneself. Mooning is one type of this as well.

In the United States, apparently half of all people who display apodysophilia are married. That's a somewhat foolish statement for the officials to give out. It just means that the remaining fifty percent are unattached - especially to their clothing.

Answer: On a fictional creation based on a real person

This is a little bit complicated. It was named after a real person, but one step removed. Read on. Munchausen syndrome is the feigning of illnesses for the purposes of drawing attention to oneself or to gain sympathy. There are several variations of this condition. The disease was named after the fictional Baron Munchausen who appears in a series of stories called "M-h-s-nsche Geschichten", published in the late 1700s by Rudolf Erich Raspe. In these stories, the protagonist, Baron Munchausen, boasts non-stop about all his impossible achievements such as travelling to outer space and riding on cannonballs and so on.

The fictional Baron Munchausen, however, was based on the real life character of Baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Munchausen, who lived from 1720 until 1797. He was also known for boasting and telling rather impossible yarns about all his exploits during his military career. And he wasn't at all happy about his name being held up to ridicule in such a manner - something which is just the tiniest bit funny. So would the real Munchausen please stand up?

Answer: The lord of the manor

The use of windmills in England date back to 1185 when the first one was built in Yorkshire. It was the responsibility of the lords of the various manors to provide these mills so that the people who lived on their lands could grind any grains produced into flour. He didn't do this out of the generosity of his heart though and charged them for the privilege instead. He also had to give permission for the mill's use, and, just to tighten the screws on his serfs even further, it was forbidden for them to use any other mill but his.

The English feudal system was like a pyramid as far as who owned what went. The king owned all the land in England. He allocated land to his loyal barons who had served him well, and as an added incentive to retain their loyalty. They, in return, had to provide services and military aid to the king when needed. The barons in turn allocated a portion of their land to knights, who had to provide military service for the barons as needed. Each knight allotted small portions of his land to the serfs who worked for him, and, with the greater majority, who weren't allowed to leave same. The poor old serfs had to both work for the knight and provide a portion of their own goods in exchange for scratching out a living on their meagre portions of land.

Answer: Air

Unbelievable. During the twelfth century when windmills began to pop up all over Europe, the church, under the leadership of Pope Celestine III (1106-1198) saw this as a wonderful opportunity to draw in more funds. It was announced far and wide that all the air used by windmills belonged to the church, and that a tax had to be paid to the church every time they were used. What greedy old things, and just another load to bear for the poor old serfs. Whichever way you looked at it, they had to eventually pay for that load of hot air.

Answer: Caroline is looking a little less pregnant than usual

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a famous French author of novels, poetry and plays. He is most remembered for his adventures works in particular, and for the influence he played on the developing genre of science fiction. His most famous works include the 1864 "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (a group of people descending to that improbable place through an Icelandic volcano); for his 1870 "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (featuring Captain Nemo and his famous submarine 'Nautilus'); and the 1873 "Around the World in Eighty Days" (the result of a bet by one Phileas Fogg that he could manage this startling feat successfully).

Jules Verne attempted his first book as a teenager. It was never published, but is the earliest example of the skills he would later develop. By the time he reached twenty, he was already showing his hallmarks of writing style, but it was at that time that his father sent him to Paris to separate Verne from his infatuation with his cousin Caroline. After she married another, the sting of that rejection could still be seen six years later when, following a visit to his cousin, Verne wrote home to his mother describing his lost love in that somewhat sarcastic, but most amusing, manner.

Answer: He vetoed more bills than the first 21 presidents in total

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was the 22nd and then the 24th President of the United States, taking up that position from 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 respectively. Highlights of his rather conservative presidency included political reform, intervention in strikes, support of the gold standard, a tight control on spending, and dealing with political corruption. He was an honest and reliable man in all he did however, and liked more perhaps for his outstanding character than his political stance.

He was also notorious for his vetoing of parliamentary bills, more in fact that the overall total of vetoed bills by the previous twenty-one presidents combined! This earned him the nickname of His Obstinacy from his colleagues and his political opponents. Because this interesting leader was also rather portly, he was given the additional nickname of Uncle Jumbo by his opponents. That's not very nice. Let's veto it.

Answer: Lipstick marks

Interred in the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a famous Irish author who gave the world the engrossing 1891 story of "The Picture of Dorian Gray". This tells of a man who stays young as his portrait horribly ages. Sadly so, in 1895, Wilde was imprisoned with hard labour for two years, on charges of gross indecency with men. He died in Paris, poor, spurned by society and a broken man.

Today his grave is covered in lipstick marks, from admirers of either gender it is supposed. Originally the angel on his memorial was designed with full male genitalia, but when those particular parts were later vandalised, they were replaced in 2000 with a silver prosthesis instead. One imagines that the debonair Wilde would be rather amused by that.