An Assembly of Association Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hussein of Jordan

Toni Avril Gardiner (b. 1941) became the second wife of King Hussein of Jordan in 1961. Sources differ on how they met: some say it was on the set of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia", where Toni was working as a secretarial assistant; other sources say that she met the King during the time her father was a military advisor in Jordan.

On marriage, Toni took the name Muna Al-Hussein; she has the title of Princess - it is speculated that the Jordanian government of the day did not approve of her being foreign, so would not ratify the title of Queen.

King Hussein and Princess Muna had four children (Abdullah, b. 1962; Faisal, b. 1963, Aisha, b 1968; Zein, b. 1968) and divorced in 1972.

Princess Muna continued to live and work in Jordan, and has been very much involved in the development of nursing in that country.

Answer: Passion Sunday

Passion Sunday, sometimes also called Palm Sunday (traditions vary), marks the beginning of Passiontide - the period leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.

In this context, the word "passion" has nothing to do with love or romance: it is derived from the Latin word "passio", which carries the meaning "to suffer".

Answer: assegai

The traditional assegai is a spear about 1.8m in length and was designed to be thrown from up to about 70m distance from the enemy. A shorter version (the iklwa) had a broader blade and was introduced by the Zulu leader Shaka - it was intended as a close range stabbing weapon.

The tree Curtisia dentata, native to South Africa, is known as the assegai tree - the Zulu people would coppice trees to produce straight strong shoots which would then be used for assegai spear shafts.

A harpoon is any one of the class of long spears with barbed blades used in hunting large marine mammals - it has an attached rope or chain to allow the retrieval of the animal; a knobkerrie is an African wooden club; a swordstaff was a Medieval weapon resembling a spear, but with a sword or dagger-like blade that included a crossguard.

Answer: Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross was born in 1944, and attended Lewis Cass Technical High School from 1958 to 1962. While there, she studied clothing design, tailoring, millinery and pattern making as it was her ambition to become a fashion designer; outside of school hours she also studied modelling and cosmetology, and was a member of the school's swimming team.

At fifteen, with Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Betty McGlown, she was a member of a singing group called the Primettes. By 1961 they had landed a record contract and had changed their name to the Supremes. Ross has subsequently had a successful career as group member, a solo artist and in movies, and appeared at the 2025 BRIT Awards.

This widely acknowledged "Queen of Motown" has influenced the careers of many other music artistes, and was ranked as 87th on the list of Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2023.

Answer: gossima

In 1891 John Jacques & Son released the "Gossima" kit, containing cork balls often wrapped in net or other light fabric, bats covered in pigskin, a net, and rules. It was intended as a parlour game, and the name is thought to refer to the lightness of the balls.

Unfortunately the cork balls did not bounce very well and it was not until the introduction of much lighter celluloid balls in 1901 that the game became popular and the name was changed to "ping-pong".

Table tennis is now played all over the world, and has been an Olympic sport since 1988.

Answer: casserole

A casserole is a meal that combines protein, vegetables, and carbohydrate in one cooking vessel, and is usually cooked slowly in the oven. The basic recipe is very versatile and usually includes a liquid component to keep the other ingredients moist. Casseroles may also have a topping such as breadcrumbs, typically added near the end of the cooking time.

A casserole dish is typically quite large and deep; it can be made of toughened glass (e.g. Pyrex), ceramic, or cast iron, and usually has a lid and handles. Large casserole dishes are also known as Dutch ovens, and smaller ones may be called cocottes.

Answer: Massachusetts

Although New York required registration of vehicles from 1901, owners had to supply their own plates which were home made and subject to variations - often just initials. Massachusetts issued the first state-approved licence plates in the US in 1903: these were rectangular and consisted of the words "Mass. Automobile Register" in small uppercase letters, with a larger sized number below and were white on a dark blue background.

As car ownership increased, more states joined in and by 1918 all states then in the US had adopted similar schemes.

Answer: tessera

In mosaic art, a tessera (plural tesserae) is one of the individual pieces in a mosaic. Tesserae can be made of almost anything and be any shape, but were traditionally made from pottery, stone or glass and were four-sided (the word "tessera" is derived from the Greek word for "four").

Many beautiful Roman mosaics have been uncovered in the UK, and include hunting scenes, portraits, gladiators, and scenes from mythology. Early Roman mosaics tended to be somewhat monochromatic, but later designs were more colourful and sometimes (for the very wealthy) included metallic gold.

Contemporary mosaics are very varied and frequently use tesserae of different shapes.

Answer: cassock

The cassock is the long robe worn daily by many members of the Christian clergy. It is typically black but different colours show different ranks within the clergy, (e.g. purple for bishops, red for cardinals, white for the Pope). Many cassocks have 33 buttons, signifying the 33 years of Jesus' life.

A cassock is also known as a "soutane" - from the Old French word "sotane", meaning "undershirt".

A pellegrina is the short shoulder cape worn over the cassock; a mozzetta is a short cape, sometimes with a hood, also worn over the cassock, or sometimes over other ecclesiatical vestments; a douillette is, amongst other things, a quilted dressing gown or similar "comfort" garment.
You may have noticed that "cassock" includes another garment - "sock"!

Answer: posset

Originally posset was a hot drink given as a remedy for colds and chills. It fell out of use at some point before the 19th century, when the name became associated with a cold dessert very similar to syllabub.

Modern possets are made from double cream (heavy cream), sugar, and a citrus flavouring (usually lemon) and are served cold.