Snowman and the Half-Peeled Quince Quiz

Answer: The Owl and the Pussycat

"They dined on mince and slices of quince,
which they ate with a runcible spoon"

First published in 1871, "The Owl and the Pussycat" is a poem by Edward Lear. The word "runcible" was created by Lear, but its meaning was never defined by him and has defeated many others since. Despite having no clear meaning, Lear used the word frequently in many different nonsense verses throughout his writings. In 1926, nearly forty years after the author's death, the name of "runcible spoon" was given to an actual object - a three-pronged fork that is curved like a spoon.

A quince is more easily defined. It is a golden-skinned fruit, shaped like a pear.

Answer: Steak Tartare

Many are the tales of the poor soul who has ended up with egg on his face when attempting to send back an "undercooked" steak tartare.

The history of the dish supposedly goes back to the Tatar people (hence the name), who originated from the Gobi desert area in North-eastern Asia. Legend has it that Tatar horsemen placed meat under their saddles as they rode during the day. By the time the day's riding was done, the meat was perfectly tenderised and ready to eat. However, there is little evidence to support this claim and the name steak tartare only came into use in the 19th century.

Answer: Mongolia

In a census in 2000, Mongolia's population of 2.5 million people was shown to be spread around the country at a density of just 1.7 people per square kilometre. This compares with the US whose population density was approx 31 people per sq. km and the UK with 246 people that same year.

Mongolia has an ancient history, having been inhabited for approximately 800,000 years. In Khovd province in western Mongolia, caves have been discovered that contain rock paintings created in the Upper Palaeolithic period (between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago). These pictures depict the wildlife of the area, including lions, elephants, ostriches and camels.

Answer: Kegelspiel

Kegelspiel translates from the German into "cone game". In the US and UK, bowlers are known as keglers.

The game is played in different forms around the world (often known simply as nine-pin bowling). It differs from ten-pin bowling, apart from in the obvious way, in that it uses a smaller, plastic or wooden ball and is played on a shorter lane.

It has been postulated that the origin of ten-pin bowling lies in a law that banned nine-pin bowling in Connecticut due to its association with gambling. To get around the ban, players added a tenth pin and a new game was born.

Answer: Vinnie Jones

Vinnie Jones' footballing career included several highs, including winning the FA Cup with Wimbledon in 1988 and being appointed captain of his adopted country Wales (Jones was born in Watford, just outside London in England). There were as many lows, the most notable being his appalling disciplinary record.

His sidestep into the acting world was more deft than anything he ever managed on the pitch. Director Guy Ritchie approached Jones to play the part of Big Chris in the film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Jones received a number of nominations for audience awards as Best Actor and Best Newcomer for his performance in the role.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was concerned about the problems of feeding troops on the march and proposed a prize be made available to the first man who could come up with a practical solution for preserving food under such conditions.

Appert was the man who was granted the prize after his "canning" process was proven to be effective. He would place the food in a glass container sealed tightly with a cork. The contents would then be placed in boiling water for an indeterminate amount of time until fully cooked.

The problems with the fragility of glass when being transported led, just one year later, to the invention of the tin can by Englishman Peter Durand. Tin cans still had significant issues, particularly as the tin opener was not invented until over thirty years later. Furthermore, the early cans were soldered using lead, which made the contents potentially poisonous and less safe than spoiled food.

Answer: Skeg

The name skeg, which comes from the Norse word for beard, was first given to an extension from the keel on a boat with a central rudder. When a small fin was added to a surfboard to aid stability and steering, its similarity in terms of relative size and position led to the name being adopted for this also.

Prior to the advent of the skeg, which was invented by Woody Brown, the inventor of the catamaran, surfboarders used their feet to direct their boards.

Answer: Anthony Gormley

Trafalgar Square was built in the 1840s to celebrate victory in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Its centrepiece is the 46 metre high Nelson's Column which commemorates Lord Nelson, the Admiral of the fleet that won that glorious victory, and who died in the course of the battle.

The square was built with a plinth at each corner, intended to carry statues. The two southern plinths carry statues of military generals from the middle of the 19th century. The northern plinths were built to house equestrian statues, both of royal figures. A statue of George IV sits on the northeastern plinth but the statue of William IV that was planned for the northwestern plinth was never built and the "fourth plinth" as it became known, lay empty for more than 150 years.

In 1999, the Royal Society of Arts became the first establishment to commission artwork to appear on the fourth plinth, Mark Wallinger's "Ecce Homo". Gormley's commission came in 2009 and his choice of installation was to offer 2,400 members of the British public the chance to spend one hour each on top of the plinth, with the freedom to express themselves in whatever way they wished. Gormley termed the artwork as "an experiment." He added in an interview with "The Guardian" that he "would be absolutely happy if somebody got up there with an umbrella and just stood still for an hour. The idea is that this will be a portrait of Britain made out of 2,400 hours of 2,400 people's lives."

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

What do you mean that plot has been done before? Not with our Harry it hasn't. Admittedly though "Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code" might just cause a few copyright issues.

It had long been believed that Domenico Ghirlandaio, who took over Leonardo's commission when da Vinci departed Florence in 1482, merely completed the painting that Leonardo had started. However, when Maurizio Seracini was commissioned to examine the painting to discover whether it could be restored without damaging it, he challenged this belief. His examinations led him to declare that Leonardo had not put as much as a single drop of paint onto the canvas. He was responsible for the sketch on which the painting was based but the paint that overlay it was added, possibly as much as fifty years later, by an unknown hand.

What's more, the artist who painted the work re-interpreted the scene that Leonardo had sketched, "[subverting] Da Vinci's true intention" according to Dr Seracini in an interview in 2005.

Answer: Half-Blood Prince

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" broke all records for first day book sales when it clocked up three million sales in just 16 hours after its initial release, although its sequel broke the record a year later.

Despite this success, I still think Jo would have been better off adopting one of my suggestions.