Month of the Year: January Trivia Quiz

Answer: they were in love

Ralph Rainger wrote the tune and Leo Robin wrote "June in January" in 1934. Bing Crosby sang it in the motion picture "Here Is My Heart" in 1934. Little Jack Little's 1934 recording was rated the seventh best-selling single in the US. Guy Lombardo did an orchestral version, as did Roy Fox.

The Hi-Lo's did a group version. Ferrante & Teicher did a piano version. The song laments the dreary weather in January but proclaims "It's June in January / Because I'm in love / It always is spring in my heart / With you in my arms."

Answer: golf

Don January won the 1967 Professional Golfers Association Championship. He was a member of the US Ryder Cup team in 1965 and 1977. He won two PGA Seniors' Championships and 22 PGA seniors' events. The University of North Texas honours him annually by hosting the Don January Golf Classic.

Answer: Chaucer, "Canterbury Tales"

In Chaucer's "The Merchant's Tale," January ("Januarie") is "oolde" and his wife is "fresshe" which portends trouble from the start. The young woman marries for wealth. January becomes blind and, when he regains his sight, he sees May engaged in sexual intercourse with Damyan. She persuades him that he misperceived what he thought he saw ... and that, because of his flawed vision, he may make the same mistake in future.

Answer: Shirley Temple

Laura E. Richards wrote a children's book called "Captain January" in 1890. It was the story of an old salt who rescues a foundling and fights a truant officer to prevent her from being sent to boarding school. The book was adapted to a film of the same name in 1936. Shirley Temple plays opposite Guy Kibbee (January) and Buddy Ebsen (his friend). Tap dancing occurs on the spiral staircase of the lighthouse interior. Exterior scenes were shot in Monterey, California.

Answer: Spanish and Filipino

The Spanish and Filipino words for January are the same, probably because the Philippines were a Spanish colony for 333 years (1565-1898). Compare the Galician "xaneiro." The Modern English word January derives from the Roman god Janus. It entered English in the late 13th century, via the Anglo-French "Ieneuer" which descended from the Latin "Ianuarius" meaning the month dedicated to the god Janus. Compare the Italian "Gennaio and the Portuguese "Janeiro".

Answer: to another world

Harrow's debut fantasy novel was nominated for a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a World Fantasy Award, and a British Fantasy Award, among others. It describes the life of January Scaller and her relationship with her absentee father and his employer who acts as a sort of guardian for her.

As a small child, she discovers a magical door but it is destroyed. As a young woman, she learns that there are other such doors around the world and sets out (with interesting companions) to find them. An entertaining read and a good yarn, the book treats seriously issues of race, privilege, classism, sexism, and the use of power.

Answer: Elton John

"The Big Picture" was Elton John's twenty-fifth studio album. The song begins mellow with strings but shifts gears to a rock song with electric guitars. A seasonal theme runs through it: "And we were love's knot after summer / Tied together in the dead of winter / Wrapped up with spring fever in the air / Bound together in the autumn / Every month means a little something / But January is the month that cares."

Answer: giving up alcohol

Nicole Brodeur, a columnist for the Seattle Times newspaper, described her "Dry January" in the early 2000s. She gave up alcohol for the month and reported that the practice had existed elsewhere for several years. The term "Dry January" was trademarked by a non-profit called Alcohol Concern in 2014 but that was not at all the first use of the term. The campaign has found success in the US, the UK and much of Europe. Public health authorities in many nations have subscribed to the notion. In Canada, it is Dry February instead.

Answer: 31

"Countdown" is a long story about the consequences of an event which instantly kills six billion people, leaving only teenagers to survive. Adults and small children are reduced to puddles of "black goo." Each of the twelve volumes tells of the aftermath in one month of 1999. Daniel Parker is the pen name of Daniel Ehrenhaft, who writes lots of children's and YA books.

Answer: the Roman god Janus

The month of January was named for the Roman god Janus. He is often depicted with two faces, one looking forward and the other looking back, by which means he knows both the past and the future. He was the protector of doors and gates. The ancient Temple of Janus was in the Roman Forum. Its doors remained open during times of peace and were closed during wartime.