What Was the Question Again? #1 Quiz

Answer: Harry

The name Harry (of English origin, naturally) is derived from the name Harold, which means "army ruler" in Scandinavian.

Princes William and Harry were dubbed "The Heir and the Spare" by the media. Poor Harry! And consequently, the princes and their father, Prince Charles are not allowed to fly together on a plane in case of a crash and England loses all three heirs to the throne at the same time.

Harry Potter is of course the protagonist of the popular series by J.K. Rowling and shares a birthday with his creator (July 31).

The House of Harry Winston is of course well-known to many as the jeweller who accessorizes the movie stars in Hollywood for their big awards events. When he was twelve, he bought a "glass stone" for $2.00 and re-sold it for a handsome $800.00 because he knew it was a real emerald (his father was a jeweller).
The Hope Diamond is a dark grayish-blue cushion antique brilliant-cut diamond weighing 45.52 carats. Dimensions: 25.6 mm X 21.78 mm X 12 mm. The blue colour is due to trace amounts of boron. The diamond was likely mined from India (uncut, it was originally 112 3/16 carats) and sold to Louis XIV ("Sun King") of France in 1668, who had it cut and set in gold; it was known as the "Blue Diamond of the Crown" or the "French Blue." The diamond changed hands many times and receives its current name from being in the possession of the Hope family -- Henry Philip Hope had bought and catalogued it in his collection of gems.

Answer: CBC

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was created on Nov 2, 1936 as a Crown Corporation. It had its roots in radio broadcasting in the early 1900s, with the first transatlantic wireless signal sent from Cornwall to Newfoundland. While producing a variety of quality shows, its greatest ratings still come from "Hockey Night in Canada." (The Canadian guys taking this quiz will agree and the gals will groan. :P)

"Canadian-born-Chinese" is a pretty derogatory term, especially when those of you in that community are called the Chinese equivalent of the term: "jook-sing." Basically, CBCs are neither Chinese nor Canadian, sort of caught in between both worlds, like the half-White, half-Black children born from the union of the slave-owners and their slaves in the U.S. in its early history.

A "complete blood count" is one of the most routinely performed tests. The normal red blood cell count for adult males is 4.7 to 6.1 million per cubic millimeter, 4.2 to 5.4 for females. The normal adult white blood cell count is 5000 to 10,000 per cubic centimeter.

Answer: Jeremy

The prophet Jeremiah was probably born in 650 B.C., and he began his prophetic career in 626 B.C. (until 586). He was forcefully brought to Egypt by resisters of the Babylonian conquest and remained in that country until his death.

Jeremy Duncan is the 15-year-old protagonist of the comic strip "Zits," which debuted in 1997.

Jeremy Irons, whose nickname is King, started his illustrious career with the role of John the Baptist in the musical "Godspell." Born at 2:00 am BST on 19 September 1948, his many film roles include Rene Gallimard in "M. Butterfly," Claus von Bulow in "Reversal of Fortune," twin brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle in "Dead Ringers," Franz Kafka in "Kafka," Aramis in "The Man in the Iron Mask," and of course, the voice of Scar in the Disney animated film "The Lion King."

Answer: Paris

The "judgement of Paris" inevitably triggered the very famous Trojan War of Greek mythology. The city of Troy was discovered by Charles Mclaren in 1822 at Hisarlik, Canakkale in Turkey. The German Heinrich Schlieman excavated Troy three times from 1870 to 1890. So, the story of how the Greeks annihilated Troy can be considered legend.

Paris, France lies on the Seine River, which contains two islands, Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint Louis. Ile de la Cite was fortified by a Celtic tribe known as the Parisii in the third century B.C., who named it Lutetia. When it was ruled under the Romans as part of the province Gaul, it was called Civitas Parisiorum, or Paris.

Treaty of Paris, 1783. (Sorry that this question is related to the one above about the city itself. I did not want to ask a question about Paris Hilton, the third "Paris" that came to mind.) Under the Treaty, Great Britain recognized its former 13 colonies as the free and sovereign United States of America.

Answer: Anne

Anne Boleyn was the mother of Elizabeth I, who was born in 1533. Anne was later charged with adultery and of conspiring against the king's life; she was beheaded on May 19, 1536. Henry certainly didn't cry for her because he was betrothed to Jane Seymour the next day.

Anne Shirley, the titled character of the "Anne of Green Gables" series, has gray eyes and red hair, a wonderful imagination, and a tendency to get into scrapes. The series was written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery.

The Queen Anne furniture style was named after Queen Anne of England (not Anne Boleyn) who reigned from 1702-1714. Most of the seating and backs are upholstered, and the wood (including Black walnut, Cherry, Hickory, and Mahogany) finished in lacquer, wax, or oil varnish. Common motifs include the Acanthus leaf and Shell.

Answer: Lincoln

The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander was born in 1922. He was the 24th Lieutenant Governor and the first African-American to be appointed to that office. He served in World War II as a corporal of the Canadian Armed Forces, graduated from McMaster University, and studied law at the Osgoode Hall Law School. His political career began in 1968, when he was elected to the House of Commons; his other political offices and titles include being a member of the Privy Council, Minister of Labour in 1979, Chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board of Ontario in 1980, Chairman of the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Chancellor of the University of Guelph, Companion of the Order of Canada, and honourary Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States, was monumental in the victory of the Union in the American Civil War to abolish slavery. His famous Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863 in Pennsylvania, began with the famous line "Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and has been used by the word-processing software WordPerfect as a standard for high difficulty of writing style. (No offense meant for the Americans taking this quiz -- my high school essays never came close to the sentence complexity found in the Address.)

Henry Ford bought the Lincoln Motor Company in January 1922 at auction for eight million dollars. Incidentally, he was the only bidder that day because other purchasers were successfully discouraged from appearing at the auction.

Answer: grey

After a somewhat futile attempt to discover the difference and which spelling is more correct, I have discovered that the original spelling is "gray." Both are interchangeable nowadays, and for once, it doesn't look like a difference between "Oxford" and "Webster." The last name can be either or, depending on the person.

Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) was manipulated to the throne by her ambitious father-in-law, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, who persuaded the dying Edward VI (son of Henry VIII by third wife Jane Seymour) to name her his heir. After Mary Tudor, Edward's half-sister, claimed the throne, Jane and her husband Guildford were beheaded for treason.

Fans of the "Harry Potter" series will know that the author J. K. Rowling confirmed that Sirius Black's eyes are gray.

Earl Grey tea was named after the second Earl Charles Grey (also Baron Grey and Viscount Howick), who is best remembered (other than for the tea) for successfully passing the act to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Earl Grey is a black tea, originally from China but now made with Indian and Sri Lankan (Ceylon) black tea.

Answer: Lilith

"Lilith Fair" ran from 1997 to 1999, and one dollar from each ticket sold went to aid women's charities at each city where the concerts were held.

Lilith Sternin is played by the hilarious Bebe Neuwirth, who majored in dance at the Julliard School in 1976 and got a role in "A Chorus Line" that same year. She won a Tony for her role of Velma Kelly in "Chicago"; her other appearances/roles include Lana Jong from "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," Gloria in "Summer of Sam," Camille in "The Associate," and Countess di Frasso in "Bugsy."

The name "Lilith" became synonymous with evil because in the story, Lilith left Adam after he refused to treat her as an equal, and when approached by angels to "negotiate," ("threaten" is more appropriate) she refused and said she would prey on newborn babies. This story doesn't appear in any of the Jewish texts; it likely gets its origins from Sumeria/Babylon. (This is of course an overly-simplified summary; there are some good sites that better explain the myth.)

Answer: Hamlet

"Hamlet" is considered one of Shakespeare's best plays. I won't even bother to name all the movie adaptations nor to go into more detail about the play itself.

Hamlet, son of Hagar and Helga, was thus named because he was small and skinny.

Hamlets, especially those in Britain, did not have churches.

Answer: Horatio

The books about Horatio Hornblower have recently regained popularity with the made-for-television movies starring Ioan Gruffudd.

Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson was born in 1758 and entered the navy at age 12. He rapidly rose in the ranks and was given his first command in the French Revolutionary Wars. His victory in the Battle of Trafalgar may have cost him his life, but it ensured British naval supremacy for 100 years.

I refrained from mentioning the other Horatio that came to mind, seeing as I asked about "Hamlet" in the previous question.