You Learn Something New Everyday Quiz

Answer: aconitine

The genus Aconitum, coming from the Greek "en akonias", is a tall plant with lovely blue blossoms that is native to the mountain slopes in Europe to as far east as the Himalayas. Today, because of its decorative look, it has been cultivated and used in many gardens. In ancient times it was used for coating spears and arrowheads for hunting both animals and people. Pliny referred to it as "plant arsenic". Of course, it was also used for criminal purpose, as many poisons have been. The alkaloid is also used to kill rodents and insects in agricultural areas. The poison is an alkaloid (aconitine). On the other hand, in homeopathy it is considered one of the most important medicinal plants. It is called "The King of Medicines" in Tibet.

The book is about a contemporary archaeological expedition to find a lost city of gold by following an old Anasazi trail. The hope is to also find out why the Anasazi so suddenly disappeared. The book is filled with science, adventure, some supernatural, and murder. The Monkshood comment came when the leader of the expedition was about to touch such a plant while in the apartment of a man she was recruiting for the expedition who cultivated poisonous plants.

Answer: Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius, also known as Johann Heidenberg, was born in Trittenheim, Germany, in 1462. His step-father didn't believe in education, so he secretly learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew. In 1479 he left home, ending up at the University of Heidelberg. On a trip back to his home in 1482 he took shelter from a snowstorm in Benedictine abbey, and decided to stay, where in 1483 he was elected abbot. He made the abbey into a disciplined place of learning, increasing the library by 4,000%. However, his interest in the occult caused friction and he resigned and took a position as abbot to an abbey in Wurzburg where he remained until his death. Among his students were Paracelsus and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

"Steganographia" was Trithemius' most famous work, a three-volume work. It was written about 1499 and was circulated in manuscript form. It was finally published in 1606 and in 1609 was put on the prohibited list by the Catholic church and was not removed until 1900. The book has lent its name to the modern day field of steganography, the art and science of "concealed writing". In fact, "Steganographia" itself was a book about cryptography and steganography disguised as a book on magic.

"Riptide" is about finding the treasure of the "Red" Ned Ockham who alledgedly hid it in a pit on an island. Over the years the people trying to find it have been killed and/or gone bankrupt. In this new attempt, a journal has been found written by the architect Ockham had taken prisoner who had engineered the pit. In invisible writing in the margins is code. Therefore, a cryptographer had Trithemius' volume, along with others, to try to decode the script.

Answer: P. T. Barnum

P. T. Barnum, the epitome of a showman, was born in Connecticut in 1810 and is remembered for many things, the best of which is the founding of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In his 81 years he was also an author and a publisher, as well as philanthropist and now-and-again politician. While in his 20's he purchased Scudder's American Museum, renaming it after himself. In 1850 he promoted a tour of Jenny Lind, the Swedish soprano, known as "The Swedish Nightingale", from which he netted about $500,000. In 1844, he toured Europe with his exhibit, Charles Stratton, aka "General Tom Thumb", the little person he had coached to imitate famous people, taught to drink wine and smoke cigars. People were told he was only 4-5, when in reality he was much older. With the money they made on that tour, he began buying other museums, including the largest in the country by then, Peale's in Philadelphia. By 1846 his viewers averaged 400,000 per year. He created the first aquarium in the US. In 1868 his second museum burned and he retired from the museum business after having had two burn to the ground.

In 1871 he established "P.T. Barnum's Traveling Museum, Menageries, Caravan and Hippodrome". After a number of name changes and a partnership with James Bailey in 1881, the name was changed to "Barnum & Bailey's". It was the largest circus in the world and the first to contain three rings. In 1888 they toured the world. Barnum was the first owner to move his circus by train. A friend helped him get the proper railroad cars. With the lack of viable roads in the US at that time, that was a far-seeing move. Barnum died in 1891, after having a stroke during a performance in 1890, and his circus was sold to Ringling Brothers in 1907. He was a man who brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people!

In "Cabinet of Curiousities", while excavating to build foundations for a new development, a tunnel has been found holding 36 bodies that have all been mutilated and murdered over 100 years ago. When the crime is investigated and brought to the public's attention, similar crimes begin happening. The reference to the "cabinet of curiosities" was that the building about the crime site had originally held the building for a large "cabinet". Agent Pendergast wanted to know more about that particular one and sent Nora to the archives to research it. The rest of the book, of course, is finding the new perpetrator of such crimes.

Answer: Juvenal

Juvenal, perhaps named Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, was the last of the great Roman satirists, writing in the first and early second century AD. He wrote 16 Satires, with a plethora of pithy sayings. It is not known when he was born, where, or when he died. It is known he was still alive during the reign of Hadrian. The saying shown above has been translated in various ways, but the meaning is always the same.

"The Amber Room" is about different people trying to locate the lost Russian room of amber that the Nazis took from Russia during the war. The saying was thought about by one of the searchers with reference to another one who was paid by a patron, and who had led him into a trap, almost causing his death. It is well researched about the Amber Room itself, and is a swiftly moving novel, with the required love, sex, and murder.

Answer: Georges de La Tour

De la Tour was born in 1593 in Vic-sur-Seille, which is now France but at the time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. He is often compared to the Dutch painter Hendrik Terbruggen. His paintings reflect the naturalism of Caravaggio. As he matured, his painting became more geometrical and simplified in form. De la Tour and his family died in an epidemic in 1652, after which is work was forgotten until rediscovered by a scholar in 1915. In fact some of his work had been confused with Vermeer's when Vermeer had his own rediscovery.

The novel "Brimstone" is about the deaths of three people, all of whom died in a strange circumstance, in fact one could say a rather supernatural circumstance. Agent Pendergast doesn't believe in the supernatural and sets out to find the killer. While in Count Fosco's sitting room he sees a Vermeer, a Caravaggio, and a de La Tour on the walls. This piques his interest in the corpulent count.

Answer: Weckquaesgeek

The Weckquaesgeek were a tribe of the Wappinger Confederation. They inhabited the Bronx and the northern part of Manhattan. Although we often hear that the Dutch paid $24 dollars for the purchase, it was actually 60 guilders.
There is some history that the Dutch actually paid the money to the wrong tribe, the Carnarsies. However, they lived on Long Island, so unless they were just passing through at the right time, that's doubtful. The 60 guilders consisted of trade goods, no doubt with metal hatchets and cooking ware included, since the Indians had no metal, as well was cloth and beads. At any rate, it seems as if the Dutch made a very good purchase. Remember, the Indians did not believe anyone could "own" land, anymore than one could own the sky or the water. They no doubt looked upon the payment as rent for the Dutch being allowed to live there.

"Cemetery Dance" is a novel about deaths allegedly being caused by a zombie. The Weckqauesgeek were mentioned by Agent Pendergast in an explanation of who a certain monument was about. He and D'Agosta needed to get to that monument to look for an old grave which might have some bearing on the present day deaths. The rest of the book tells his investigation into the crime. No more or I'll give it away.

Answer: Manhattan

The Shorakkopoch Rock is in Inwood Hill Park. It's a large boulder on which the American Legion, in 1954, erected a plaque. It commemorates the purchase of Manhattan by Peter Minuit in 1626. It is allegedly on the site the purchase was made. The plaque says it also marks the spot where a huge Liriodendron (Tulip tree) grew to the height of 165 feet and a width of 20 feet. The tree died in 1938 and was said to be 280 years old.

"Cemetery Dance" is a novel about deaths apparently caused by a zombie. Agents Pendergast and D'Agosta need to dig up a grave near this rock to compare the way that person was buried, many years ago, to how a zombie would be buried. The book goes on, of course, to solve the crime.

Answer: St. Francisville

Oakley Plantation, with its West Indies style three-story house, was owned by a member of the Pirrie family until 1946 when it was purchased by the State of Louisiana and restored to be much like it was when it was in its prime. It is now the Audubon State Historic Site.

Audubon came to this town of cotton-growing plantations in 1821 to tutor Eliza, the 16-year old daughter of the Pirries, in drawing and the required social graces that were needed in those days. He was to have his afternoons free so he could roam the woodlands in order to paint birds. He stayed a little under 4 months and painted 32 birds during that time.

St. Francisville has an annual "Audubon Pilgrimage" in which you can visit the various plantation houses in the area, including Oakley. Many were owned and/or built by relatives of the Pirries, as there was a great deal of family intermingling over the years.

"Fever Dream" is a book where Agent Pendergast looks for the "why" his wife was murdered, when he'd thought for 12 years it had been a tragic hunting accident. During this investigation, he finds there was a lot he didn't know about his wife. One of those things was her interest in the Black Frame, and the Carolina Parrot. While looking into those he muses about Audubon's rather amazing life, including his stay at Oakley. Imaginative book, to say the least.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, backed by an army and accompanied by a large group of scholars, invaded Egypt. This is when the science of Egyptology was founded. In Rashid (Rosetta to the Europeans) Napoleon had his soldiers demolish a wall so that a fort could be enlarged, and in doing so the head of the demolition team, Pierre-Francois Bouchard, discovered the basalt stone. The scholars immediately recognized the significance of the stone and took possession of it. This discovery was not made public until the fall of 1799. When the French lost Egypt to the English, the victors took the Rosetta Stone back to England, where it arrived in 1802. The importance of the Rosetta stone is that the inscriptions are in both Greek and Egyptian, along with three scripts. Since Greek could be read at that time, they felt that it would be the key to the Egyptian, which was not able to be read then. What an exciting, accidental, find that must have been! And how far-seeing it was of Napoleon to have brought scholars along on the mission.

"The Book of the Dead" is about an absolutely brilliant, but psychopathic, individual who plans to cause the death of hundreds of the attendees at an opening exhibit in NY's Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, this lunatic is Agent Pendergast's younger brother. Agent Pendergast of course, after many other travails and thrills, comes to the rescue, at least of most of the people. The reference to the Rosetta Stone came when Nora was researching the topic of the exhibition, the Tomb of Senef.

Answer: Florence

Ferragamo's headquarters is in the Palazzo Spini Feroni, one of the great palaces of Florence. It was bought by Salvatore Ferragamo in 1938 and now holds the company's main store and museum. Until his death in 1960, it sold only shoes. His widow expanded the inventory to perfume, eyeglasses, bags, belts, scarves and a ready-to-wear line. As a young man, Salvatore had immigrated to California where he made shoes for movie stars and even the movies themselves. He eventually returned to Italy and opened up a shoe shop there in 1928. Ferragamo still caters to movie stars and celebrities, including the King of Bhutan at his coronation in 2008.

In the "Book of the Dead", Pendergast has to find a brilliant, psychopathic murderer, who happens to be his younger brother. This includes escaping from jail, where he was put because the brother had framed him to keep him from interfering. Both the brother and he have expensive tastes, and wear Ferragamo shoes. Even Vincent D'Agosta, the good Pendergast brother's partner, has succumbed to their charm. I won't tell you more what happens.