Tell Me The Truth Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

How amazing is that? Patrick Morrissey, who wasn't the choicest individual at the best of times, became intoxicated one evening, and in an argument with his widowed mother, stabbed her to death. He was hanged on September 6th, 1872. The executioner was the future President of the United States, Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). Mr Cleveland, who had left school early because of the death of his father, took many different jobs as he worked his way up through to the top position in the land.

He did this in order to be able to support his mother and young sisters.

These jobs included various manual tasks, teaching, clerical work, law clerk, lawyer, assistant district attorney, sheriff of Erie County, and extremely reluctant public executioner of at least two criminals.

This colourful man was President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.

Answer: Yes

Only in Oz would we do something like that. The statue was given the name Joy, and it didn't last very long, sad to say. Indignant residents of the more church oriented kind knocked it down on at least one occasion. It was finally removed by the local council. One of the earliest suburbs settled in Sydney, Australia, Woolloomoolo was first used as an area of land on which to run cattle.

When it was subdivided as the colony grew, it became an area known for the wealthy and influential who built many fine mansions overlooking the waters. Over time, as more land was opened up, the wealthy moved on to greener pastures, and the suburb became the home of the poorer working classes of the city.

By the turn of the 21st century, however, Woolloomoolo was being spring cleaned and poshed up again, to become homes for the wealthy and influential once more. Joy would have been delighted.

Answer: No

The barmaid's name was Mary. She was said to have worked at a Chicago bar with the delightful and inviting name of the "Bucket of Blood". This drink, which contains vodka, tomato juice, and assorted sauces and dashes of this and that, is also said to have been named after the silent movie star Mary Pickford (1892-1979).

Then there are several bartenders in Paris and New York who claim to be its creator - as well as the other claim that it was named after Mary I of England because of the hearty way in which she was said to have disposed of Protestants.

The Bloody Mary is believed to cure a hangover. This is not true...hic...but one should never give up trying to prove this theory in the interests of scientific advancement.

Answer: Yes

Astonishingly so, this is indeed the case. Jeanne was the wife of Andre Jacques Garnerin who was a hot air balloonist, and noted for giving practical demonstrations of the frameless parachute (invented in 1783 by Frenchman Louis Sebastien Lenormand). This earned Garnerin the honour of being named Official Aeronaut of France.

He and Jeanne went all over the continent and England, giving demonstrations of the safety of their parachutes. This in 1799, mind you. That's truly remarkable. Gernerin died in 1823--not in an unopened parachute fall as one might imagine, but on the ground.

He was hit on the head with a wooden beam of a hot air balloon he was constructing. Jeanne then opened a restaurant. That seems rather a come down - if you'll pardon the pun.

Answer: No

Not at all. I just made it up. That's not to say, of course, that there can't very well be dentures for horses, but they certainly weren't around in 1987. Some early dentures for humans were constructed of horse teeth, though. Interestingly, however, there is an invention known as a horse equine treadmill. Comical image aside, these machines can be adjusted to have a slight incline, so that the horses get to refine and improve their uphill galloping abilities.

The poor things are probably thinking desperately, "I'm giving it all I've got, but I'm not getting anywhere!"

Answer: Yes

One wonders if that's because Trigger couldn't fit into the lifts. Apart from commenting on the fact that hospitals, of all places, shouldn't have stairs, this is indeed true. Roy Rogers details this in his autobiography, "Happy Trails". He grew to love that old horse with a passion, taught it many tricks, and always treated it beautifully. Trigger, in fact, had a repertoire of 150 tricks - more than Roy himself - and was known to be able to walk more than fifty feet on his two back legs. Given the age that Roy was on his death, some eighty-seven years, and with his working right up to the end, Trigger could probably walk further than Roy could as well. Trigger was born in 1932 and died in 1965.

He was a stallion all his life but was never ever bred, so has no little pistols galloping around anywhere. Oh, the price of fame.

Answer: Yes

Sarah, born in 1965, is one of eight children. Her father came from an eastern European Jewish background, while her mother is of English and German blood. One of her ancestors, through her mother's line of descent, was a woman accused of witchcraft during the grim Salem Witch Trials in America in the years 1692-93. Sarah, perhaps more than any other role, is noted for her performance in the television series "Sex and the City" which ran from 1998 to 2004.

It follows the lives of four friends living in New York, all of whom are noted for their various romantic, and otherwise, pursuits. Bit blunt for my taste and about as subtle as a potato, but the show was immensely popular while it lasted.

There's no truth to the rumour that Sarah rode to work on her broomstick.

Answer: No

As a matter of fact, many Americans weren't at all enthusiastic about the Statue of Liberty initially. They resented the cost of the pedestal on which it would rest at a time when the country was in the midst of financially hard times. Nor did they appreciate the symbolism behind the statue's design.

However, they eventually got behind the drive to raise the necessary funds, and the statue was erected in all her glory by 1886. A huge procession and dedication ceremony followed. President Cleveland eloquently spoke of this great monument that her great beacon of "light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world". Ironically so, only two women were allowed to attend the official ceremony. Well, three, if you count the statue. New York editors of "The World" newspaper also weren't impressed, and remarked rather grumpily in their follow up editorial that the statue's very faint initial light was "more like a glowworm than a beacon".

Answer: Yes

Because a great deal of the job associated with being a printer's apprentice involved handling large buckets of ink, various parts of the apprentice's body became stained black with that commodity. The term has been around for many years, but its origin is shrouded in the mists of time.

Another source of the term is the belief that the devil haunted printing establishments and was responsible for all the errors that appeared in the finished printed products. The oft-heard excuse by clerical staff that the computer has a glitch springs to mind here.

Answer: No

Salmonberries are native to the western coast of North America. Contrary to the fishy taste its name suggests, its flavour is said to be rather bland and uninspiring. Its fruit can be eaten, however, and made into jams, jellies or wine. The reason it was called the salmonberry is that it used to be traditionally eaten with a feast of salmon by the indigenous people of North America. Can't say the menu sounds terribly appealing, but it worked very well for them.

The bush has a pretty flower and is often grown in modern times as an ornamental plant.