The Eccentricities of the Rich and/or Famous Quiz

Answer: He could speak over 25 different languages.

Carlos Mirabelli could speak languages as diverse as Spanish, Swahili, and Maori. He was also able to write in multiple forms such as cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and ancient Greek. All he had to do was hear a language and within five minutes he could learn the basics and be fluent within two hours. He built a small fortune exhibiting himself.

Answer: He lost his leg.

Hetty Green attempted to take her eight year old son to the hospital after he broke his leg. Wearing a disguise she took him to the charity ward. When she was recognized and told she would be charged for his care, she promptly took him home. He got gangrene and the leg had to be amputated.

Other examples of her refusal to spend money included having no hot water and no heat in her home. She wore the same black dress without ever changing it until it fell into rags. She did not bathe, change her underwear, nor wash her clothes.

She was known as "The Witch of Wall Street".

Answer: The Eiffel Tower

Victor Lustig actually sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. The fact that he did not own it in any way, shape or form did not stop him. He set up three men to see which one would pay him the most and promptly accepted payment from the top bidder. He was not arrested as the buyer was too embarrassed and afraid of legal repercussions.

After this scam was over, he turned around and tried it again!

Answer: Sarah Winchester

After losing her husband William and her daughter Annie, Sarah Winchester became sure the family was cursed. She consulted a psychic who advised her to build a house for herself and the spirits of all the people killed by Winchester firearms. The psychic also prophesied that if she ever quit building onto the home it would result in her death. Work on the house continued for 38 years until Sarah Winchester died. Sarah Winchester never remarried or had any other children.

Answer: Nikola Tesla

Tesla was the epitome of the mad scientist. He is credited as the inventor of the radio, the electric motor and the generator, to name just a few. The tesla is a measurement of magnetic flux density. In spite of his brilliance he was ostracized by his peers because of his eccentricities.

He was a life-long celibate, and was obsessed with pigeons. He would not stay in a motel or apartment whose number was not divisible by the number 3. He abhorred obesity. He also had a pathological fear of germs.

These are just a few of reasons he is included in this quiz!

Answer: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll

This author is Lewis Carroll, famous for his book "Alice in Wonderland". Groomed for the priesthood throughout his adolescence and young adulthood, when the time came to take his vows he declined. A lifelong celibate he quit writing after his great success and decided to take up photography.

His choice of subjects were children, who he was sometimes known to photograph in the nude. When socializing, his time was spent with local children. Pages from his diary were torn out by his family before publication and he wrote often about his self-loathing and sinfulness.

Answer: Paris

Nasseri was expelled from Iran in 1977 for openly protesting the Shah and his regime. In 1988 he flew to Paris with the intent to fly on to London after the United Nations granted him refugee status. This granted him residence in any European country.

He chose England. While on lay-over in Paris his briefcase with all paperwork including his passport was stolen. London refused to let him disembark and sent him back to Paris where he lived in the airport for the next 18 years. No country would accept him for residency so he moved to a Paris shelter.

His story is the basis for the 2004 movie hit "The Terminal".

Answer: Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo was one of America's great silent screen actresses. Even at the top of her popularity she guarded her privacy intensely. After she retired from the screen in the 1940s she avoided the media at all costs. She allowed only her assistant and her nurse into her apartment; she basically shut herself off.

In the evenings and at night she would sneak out the back of her building dressed as a man and wander the streets in complete anonymity. She would sometimes have her nurse dress as herself and go out the back while she would leave by the front. Almost no pictures of her survive from this period.

She died in 1990.

Answer: Giraffe

Lord Berners kept his giraffe in his home until the animal died of old age. He was also known for dyeing the pigeons on his property bright colors. His Rolls Royce had a small clavichord; his home contained a 100 foot tower from which he would watch nature for his paintings and while he authored his books.

The tower had a sign at the entrance that read "Members of the public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk"!

Answer: They ate them.

Buckland practiced zoophagy. He claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom. When attending one of his famous parties, guests would be served a variety of meats that were obtained from his personal zoo. These included panther, crocodile, kangaroo, and anaconda, just to name a few. One famous story tells of him being shown the heart of King Louis XIV which had been saved as a historical relic. Upon seeing the object he is purported to have exclaimed "I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before".

He then picked up the relic and ate it!