Queenly Queries Trivia Quiz

Answer: with an audience applause meter

Each contestant was given a chance to tug on the audience's heartstrings with a tale of woe, leading up to the need for assistance in a specific area, which often included medical treatment for themselves or their children. At the end, the studio audience was asked to applaud as loudly as they could for their choice, and (once it was on television from 1956) we saw a meter showing the volume of applause for each contestant. The host then announced the winner, who was given a fur-trimmed velvet robe, a glittering crown, and a dozen long-stemmed roses to hold while her prize haul was announced. It always started with her specific request, and was followed by a variety of sponsored products such as home appliances, trips, or some of the fashionable clothing the models had been showing off during the show.

This was the first place I remember hearing about the Spiegel catalog: the mail order firm supplied many of the prizes, as they did later for such game shows as 'the Price is Right' and 'Let's Make a Deal'.

Answer: Queen of Hearts

Alice meets the Queen of Hearts while observing some playing cards painting white roses red, and gets on the queen's wrong side when she does not know which cards are lying down instead of working. The King of Hearts soothes his wife, as he seems to spend much of his time doing - and when he is not successful, he just quietly pardons all of those who have been condemned. There follows the famous croquet game played with flamingos and hedgehogs, during which the Queen has plenty of opportunity to deliver her trademark line.

The sequel, 'Through the Looking-Glass', uses chess as its theme, and the dour queen Alice encounters there is the Red Queen. Compared to the Queen of Hearts, the Red Queen has more actual power, as befits a chess queen, but she is more rational in her approach to matters. Those familiar with various film version of 'Alice in Wonderland' may have trouble distinguishing the two characters, who are often conflated on screen.

Answer: at the start of World War I

German East Africa was a German colony from the 1880s until the end of World War I, when it was for the most part transferred to British control, under the name Tanganyika; most of the rest, now Rwanda and Burundi, went to Belgium. The action of the film takes place at the start of World War I, with the outbreak of hostilities between Germany and Britain placing at risk the lives of the English missionaries Samuel and Rose Sayer.

After her brother's death, Rose (Katharine Hepburn) escapes on the African Queen with the assistance of her rough-cut owner, Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart). The two of them devise a plan to use their boat to sink a German gunboat which is on patrol in a nearby lake (presumably Lake Tanganyika) and interfering with British military plans. After a harrowing journey, they succeed in their mission, having first managed to get married by the German captain who is about to execute them.

Answer: Yes

While exact dimensions vary between countries, the names given to different sizes of mattress follow a common order - single, double, queen, king - with other sizes sometimes included. In Australia, the double bed mattress is 138 cm x 188 cm, while the queen bed mattress is 153 cm x 204 cm - so it is both longer and wider.

It has always bothered me that a double bed is nowhere near double the width of a single bed - a single bed mattress measures 92 cm x 188 cm, so you only get half again as much width to fit two adults instead of one. A king mattress (183 cm x 204 cm) is double the width of a single, and a super king (204 cm x 204 cm) is even roomier. The cot mattress (69 cm x 130 cm), as its name suggests, is much smaller, suitable for a young child's cot.

Answer: Brian May

You might be surprised to find out the number of rock musicians who have combined their music with the years of work required to gain a PhD. Some of them gained a degree before becoming established musicians, others earned the degree while earning a living from their music. Brian May had completed four years of research towards a PhD in studying reflected light from interplanetary dust when he abandoned his studies to when Queen gained international success in 1974. He continued his research, however, and published several papers in the ensuing years, before reregistering for his degree in 2006. His thesis, "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud", was approved in 2007, and the degree awarded at a ceremony in 2008.

Sterling Morrison (1942-1995) started his degree in 1971, leaving The Velvet Underground shortly after the departure of Lou Reed in order to focus on his work in Medieval Literature. Bill Bruford (1949- ) played with several groups, including King Crimson and Genesis, retiring in 2009 and earning a PhD in Music, awarded in 2016. Milo Aukerman (1963- ) balanced his work as lead singer of Descendents with his career as a research molecular biologist from 1979 until his announcement in 2016 that music was going to become his full-time career.

Answer: Mary I

A queen regnant is one who rules as the rightful heir to the throne. The traditional preference for male inheritance means that woman have become queen in their own right only a few times. The 21st century saw the UK change the rules of succession to remove male primogeniture, meaning the oldest child, not the oldest son, is first in line. The first queen regnant was Mary I, who gained the throne following her half-brother's death because her father (Henry VIII) had organised an Act of Succession in 1543 restoring both Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth to the line of succession. Elizabeth I therefore became the second queen regnant in England.

The first five queens to reign in England (and later the United Kingdom) were Mary I (1553-1558), Elizabeth I (1558-1603), Mary II (1689-1684, as joint sovereign with her husband William III), Queen Anne (1702-1714), Victoria (1837-1901) and Elizabeth II (1952-2022).

During the reign of Elizabeth II (Queen Regnant, as she inherited the throne in her own right), her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who had been queen consort while her husband King George VI reigned, became queen dowager on his death, and also queen mother since her child sat on the throne.

Much less common is the role of queen regent, in which a queen acts as the monarch in a temporary capacity. This could be because the monarch is too young to rule in their own right, is incapacitated and unfit to rule, or is absent for some reason. The latter is the reason why both Catherine of Aragorn and Katherine Parr acted as queen regent (at different times) during the reign of Henry VIII.

Answer: Queen Victoria Market

Located in the northern part of the Melbourne CBD, the Vic Market is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere, covering 7 hectares (17 acres) and hosting over 500 traders. It opened in 1878 as a market for both wholesale and retail customers of fruit and vegetables. Meat and fish halls were soon added, followed in the 1920s with an expansion for more shops that left the market covering two complete blocks and the food expanded to include delicatessen offerings and restaurants. Now, while the original fresh produce is still a major attraction for the value it offers, the market also offers clothing, jewellery, craftwork - you can spend a day just browsing, while you enjoy the 19th century architecture.

Covent Garden is in London, Pike Place in Seattle, and Rialto in Venice.

Answer: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

When we meet her, she is known as the White Witch, whose reign of terror in Narnia has kept the entire place in perpetual winter. The sixth book written in C.S. Lewis's fantasy series, 'The Magician's Nephew', contains her earlier history. A powerful sorceress, she was also ruler of Charn, which she destroyed in battle with her sister, before placing herself into an enchanted sleep from which she was roused, much later, when Digory (he of the title) rang the bell to break the spell and accidentally allowed her to enter Narnia just as Aslan was creating it.

A thousand years later (Narnia time, which runs on a different clock from our world) Jadis was able to take control of Narnia, bearing the title Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands. After 100 more Narnia years, the Pevensie children make their way into Narnia by way of the wardrobe in the house of Digory, where they have been evacuated. Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan assist Aslan in finally destroying her power.

Answer: Priscilla

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was the name of the bus on which the three main characters travelled from Sydney to Alice Springs (located in the desert centre of Australia), a journey of nearly 3,000 km (1800 miles) made much longer by their circuitous route. Along the way they encounter a range of 'interesting' characters. Since Tick (played by Hugo Weaving) and Adam (Guy Pearce) are drag queens who perform respectively as Mitzi Del Bra and Felicia Jollygoodfellow, and Bernadette (Terence Stamp) is transgender, their reception at a number of stops was less than cordial.

The film was highly successful in a number of countries, with a range of audiences. Aside from the obvious appeal to the LGBTQ community due to its sensitive exploration of the central characters and their emotional issues, it was also full of comic scenes bordering on slapstick, and replete with classically understated Australian humour relating to the acceptance of oddball characters. And there is some spectacular scenery.

Answer: Dancing Queen

'Dancing Queen' was recorded for the 1976 album 'Arrival', and the single was released in August of that year. But on 18 June ABBA performed at a concert in honour of King Carl XVI Gustaf and his bride-to-be, Silvia Sommerlath, who were married the next day. In 1993, as part of a concert on the same stage in the Royal Swedish Opera House to celebrate Queen Silvia's 50th birthday, Frida (supported by the Real Group) performed an a cappella version of 'Dancing Queen'.

Since the pre-nuptial concert was aired live on Swedish television, 'Dancing Queen' already had audience familiarity when the single was released, and it became one of ABBA's biggest hits, including their only US Number One and their third consecutive UK Number One, following in the steps of 'Mamma Mia' and 'Fernando'. It was one of the ABBA songs featured in the 1994 film 'Muriel's Wedding', as well as in the 1999 jukebox musical 'Mamma Mia!' which was adapted into a 2008 film.