Guilding the Stone - April Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rattlesnake

Western Diamondbacks are found in the United States and Mexico, and have a reputation for aggressiveness if they feel threatened. Statistically they account for the most snakebite fatalities in North America, but when not biting careless humans they prefer to feed on small amphibians, birds and rodents.

Answer: I am odd

There is no letter "n" in "I am odd", so it cannot be a true anagram of "diamond".

Answer: King Mongtut

Lou Diamond Phillips may be best known for playing Ritchie Valens in the 1987 film "La Bamba". He also played another royal role - King Arthur - in a 2007/08 touring production of the Lerner & Loewe musical "Camelot".

Answer: A parrot in the TV show "The Magic Roundabout"

The Marvel comics character known as "Diamond Lil" appears in the "Alpha Flight" series, and has skin with the hardness of diamond. Mae West created the character of 1890s good-time girl "Diamond Lil" in a play of the same name that she wrote in 1928. Lillian Russell (1861-1922), also known as "Diamond Lil", performed in comic opera and vaudeville in America at the end of the nineteenth century.

But there was never anyone by that name - parrot or otherwise - in "The Magic Roundabout".

Answer: Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson is noted for writing books for young people that deal with challenging subjects such as divorce, death and mental illness. "The Diamond Girls" deals with various aspects of parenthood, including teenage pregnancy, neglect and child abuse.

Answer: A diamond whose sale is used to finance terrorist activities

In recent years, in certain politically unstable African countries, revolutionary and terrorist groups have sometimes taken control of diamond mines, selling the diamonds to finance their operations. Strenuous efforts are being made to put a stop to stop the sale of such stones, which are labeled "blood" or "conflict" diamonds.

Answer: Cotswolds

The Diamond Way is a circular route (roughly diamond-shaped, hence its name), running for some 60 miles (96 km) through the North Cotswold countryside of Gloucestershire. The official start is in Moreton-in-Marsh, although as it is a circular route you could presumably start wherever you pleased.

Answer: That they are made of carbon

In 1813, the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy performed an experiment in which, by means of a lens, he concentrated the sun's rays on a diamond in an atmosphere of oxygen. He succeeded in igniting the diamond, producing carbon dioxide, and thus proving that diamond is composed of pure carbon.

As I hope you are aware, diamonds do not dissolve in lemonade.

Answer: Potato

Just in case you missed it, may I recommend an article in the June 2008 issue of the "American Journal of Potato Research", which describes the Dakota Diamond as "an exceptionally high-yielding, cold-chipping potato cultivar with long-term storage potential"?

Answer: Peter Tchaikovsky - his Third Symphony

"Jewels" has three Acts, intended to evoke three golden ages of dance. The first movement, "Emeralds", pays tribute to the birth of romantic ballet in France, and is set to the music of Gabriel Faure. The second, "Rubies", uses music by Stravinsky to evoke the jazz-inspired dance of America. "Diamonds" is inspired by the Russian ballets of Maurice Petipa, and appropriately uses the music of Tchaikovsky, whose own "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" are two of the peaks of the Russian ballet tradition.

Answer: F Scott Fitzgerald

Very briefly, the story tells of the American family who discovered the eponymous diamond on their land, and the extreme lengths they go to in order to keep its existence a secret.

Answer: Sean Connery

"Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) was Sean Connery's sixth appearance as James Bond, and his last in the official Saltzman/Broccoli series (although he returned to the role in "Never Say Never Again" in 1983). The plot involves Bond's old nemesis, Blofeld, using diamonds to build a giant laser satellite with which to hold the world's governments to ransom. As usual.

Answer: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The song also appears in the animated film "Yellow Submarine", and is featured in the soundtrack album. The Lucy referred to in the song is believed to be a nursery-school classmate of John Lennon's son Julian named Lucy O'Donnell. The story goes that one day young Julian showed his father a picture that he had drawn of her, which he described as "Lucy, in the sky with diamonds." From which strange random occurrence the song was born.

Answer: Isaac Newton

There is a story, probably apocryphal, that on one memorable occasion Diamond knocked over a candle and incinerated a pile of Newton's most precious papers when the scientist was out of the room. On discovering that the dog had reduced twenty years of calculations to a pile of ashes, Newton is supposed to have exclaimed "Oh, Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest what mischief thou hast done!"

Answer: Copenhagen, Denmark

Ole Nydahl was born in Copenhagen in 1941. He founded the "Diamond Way" Buddhist organisation in the early 1990s, having served in the Danish Army and worked as a professional boxer. The "Diamond Way" follows the Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism, and has proved popular in the West.

Answer: Graphite

While a top-quality diamond can be worth many thousands of pounds, graphite (used to make pencil lead) is comparatively worth not much at all. So this would not be a worthwhile experiment, unless you really want to annoy your girlfriend.

Answer: Baseball

Baseball, generally regarded as the national sport of the USA, was first brought to America in the eighteenth century by British immigrants, and during the following century developed the basis of the rules used today.

Answer: Good Morning Britain

Anne Diamond presented TV-am's main breakfast show from 1983 until its demise in 1992. Between 1983 and 1985, she and her co-host Nick Owen shared the limelight with the puppet character Roland Rat, who was largely credited with increasing the show's audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million and saving it from cancellation, gaining him the memorable soubriquet of "the only rat to join a sinking ship".

Answer: Pokémon

"Pokémon Diamond" (and its companion game "Pokémon Pearl") is designed to be played on the Nintendo DS games system. The game was released in North America and Europe in 2007. I have absolutely no idea what Pokémon is all about, but my daughter tells me it is very popular.

Answer: South Africa

Unearthed in 1905, it was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the South African mine in which it was found. At 3,106.75 carats, it is still the largest gem-quality diamond ever found. A number of stones were cut from it, the largest two of which (the "Great Star of Africa" and the "Lesser Star of Africa") form part of the British Crown Jewels.