People Particles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Four geese

Born in Ireland, Thomas Barry (circa 1810-1857) spent most of his working life in England, where he alternated between being a circus clown, a job he loved, and managing a pub at Lambeth for several years. That was during a time when he left the circus job after coming to blows with a fellow clown over top billing. Mostly though, Thomas was considered a jovial and good-natured fellow who loved to hear an audience laughing. His most famous act, was, when dressed in his clown gear, he gravely imitated parliamentary candidates campaigning at local elections. The audiences loved him.

Thomas became front page news in 1844 when, dressed in his clown costume and make-up, he sailed down the Thames between Vauxhall and Westminster in a small rickety wooden tub pulled along by four harnessed up, reluctant, and extremely annoyed geese. In reality, somebody in a rowboat towed him along via an underwater rope, but the hitched up geese didn't know that and paddled on ferociously, honking vengeance. One imagines, when he stepped ashore, Thomas took off for the lick of his life, pursued by his irate sailing companions.

Answer: By displaying his legs on street corners

Frederick Coombs, birth date unknown, was born in New York City, but spend much of the early part of his life in San Francisco working as a phrenologist, photographer, daguerreotypist, minor author, inventor and, it is believed, a marriage broker as a sideline. One of his known inventions was a type of electric locomotive. Unfortunately this never went into production, even though he spent some time in England displaying it to possible backers. In the early 1860s, because of a slight facial resemblance to George Washington, Coombs, a very portly, short fellow, became convinced he was indeed that noble personage. He accordingly got about wearing a continental army uniform (manufactured from buckskin) and set up shop in a local saloon where he sat - in a prominent position - studying maps and planning "campaigns" for his forthcoming war with the British. At one stage his friends had to intervene to convince him that the Battle of Valley Forge was over, because he was starving himself to death while reliving it in his mind. Composing letters to the US Congress was also a part of his regular routine, in which he frequently demanded the Washington Memorial be handed over to him.

After falling foul of Joshua Norton, another eccentric in the area who believed he was "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" - and who demanded the San Francisco police throw Coombs into a lunatic asylum - Coombs fled to New York City. He died there in 1874, still convinced he was President Washington. In the intervening years, however, and now balding, as well as short and tubby, and quite convinced he was irresistible to the ladies, the saucy fellow paraded himself on street corners, displaying his legs to them as they strolled by, quite convinced that his shapely calves would lure them into his arms.

Answer: His head kept praying

Nicasius of Rheims (birth date unknown) was the bishop of that city until his death in 407 AD by invading barbarians. Today, because he himself had survived a bout of smallpox, he is considered the patron saint of victims of that disease. Some time before the Vandals arrived at his city, however, the Bishop had a vision of their impending arrival, and used that time to warn his people and prepare them for what was about to happen. When the villains were at the gates of the city, he attempted to slow them down to allow more of his people to flee to safety, but at the cost of his life.

Legend has it that he was either cornered by them in the doorway of his church, or at its altar where he was kneeling in prayer, but alas, his time had come. Nicasius was swiftly beheaded by the invaders, when, to their horror, his detached head continued praying - causing them to flee in terror. Stephen King, eat your heart out.

Answer: Placed her in the front window of his home

Martin van Butchell (1735-1814) was a little eccentric to say the least. He claimed the profession of dentistry for his income, and worked in London from the 1770s. Although he had a practice located in his house, he initially travelled around on his pony from place to place. During these excursions, in order to drum up trade, Butchell painted purple spots all over the poor creature. Advertisements he ran for his work included the following: "Real or Artificial Teeth from one to an entire set, with superlative gold pivots or springs, also gums, sockets and palate formed, fitted, finished and fixed without drawing stumps, or causing pain" (Wikipedia).

When Martin's wife, Mary, died in 1775, and growing tired of trotting around on his polka-dotted pony, Martin, never one to waste a resource, decided to use her body to draw in customers. So he had her embalmed by professionals, with colour additives injected into her cheeks to give them a rosy glow, replaced her decomposing eyes with glass ones (hopefully the same colour), dressed her in a pretty lace gown - and stuck his "dearly departed" (he always referred to the corpse as that) in the front window of his home. That's some advertisement, but people did come from far and wide to view it. Whether this increased the number of his patients is doubtful however. Eventually, this ghoulish dentist remarried, but his new wife refused to move in with him until her predecessor was removed from the home. Accordingly he gave the body away, and it ended up in the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. There it remained, slowly deteriorating, until the Second World War, when, in an air raid, a merciful German bomb blew the corpse to pieces, rosy cheeks and all.

Answer: Edward Jones

Known as "the boy Jones" in the newspapers of the day, Edward Jones (1824-1893) made quite a name for himself in Victorian England for breaking into Buckingham Palace on several occasions. Even serving two stints in prison didn't deter this compulsive intruder, who made the first of his successful break-ins at the age of 14. Disguised as a chimney sweep, he was eventually challenged by a porter before taking off down James Street with the police in hot pursuit. When finally caught, he was revealed to have some of Queen Victoria's underwear stuffed down his trousers. Oh, I say! Jones had also pinched a regimental sword as well, but this took a poor second place in the media to Her Majesty's knickers.

He broke in again on 30 November, 1840, and once more on 1 December the same year. Queen Victoria's former governess found him hiding in the Queen's dressing room on the second occasion and he was arrested and spent three months cooling his heels in a House of Correction. This didn't deter the boy Jones one bit, for, shortly after his release, he broke into the Palace again, and helped himself to a meal before being nabbed. This time he was sentenced to three months hard labour. Found loitering around the Palace on his release, he was then "encouraged" to join the navy. After a year of service, he absconded and headed straight back to London - but was caught once more. After the Palace appointed several more security guards, Jones found himself on a ship heading for Australia where he became a town crier in Perth. He eventually died over in Victoria in 1893 when, in a state of severe intoxication, he fell off a bridge and landed on his head. Based on a 1949 children's book, "The Mudlark" by Theodore Bonnet, a 1950 film was made about the life of "the boy Jones", and that was that. No more breaking in for that likely lad.

Answer: He considered it a good luck piece

Mark Spitz was born in California in 1950, but when he was two, the family moved to Hawaii, where his mother said they couldn't keep him out of the water. After they moved back to California a few years later, Mark was swimming competitively at the age of six at his local club, and by nine years of age, was in serious training with top coach, Sherm Chavoor. Over the course of his career, culminating in his astonishing achievements of seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics, Mark won an amazing number of awards. He retired at the very young age of twenty-two. Imagine how many more medals he may have won if he had continued swimming.

Noted for his flamboyant moustache, which is discussed in the biographical work "Mark Spitz - Swimming Isn't Everything", Spitz said he initially grew it because a coach had scoffed that he'd never be able to do so. It took four months to grow and by then he had grown rather attached to it. He toyed with the idea of shaving it off for the 1972 Olympics, but decided to keep it because it was like a good luck piece for him. He also had fun pulling the leg of a Russian coach over it as well, when asked if the moustache slowed him down in the water. Mark replied "No, as a matter of fact, it deflects water away from my mouth, and allows me to keep my head in a lower position that helps my speed". The same article reports that, at future events, several Soviet swimmers were seen with similar facial adornments.

Answer: Fly in an hot air balloon

Letitia Ann Sage (1750-1817) was a minor actress, along with her two sisters, during the rule of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, when she became acquainted with Vincenzo Lunardi, a minor member of the Neapolitan aristocracy, who was residing in England as a member of the diplomatic service. Lunardi was the first man in England to fly in an hot air balloon the previous year, when he took to the skies with a dog, a cat and a pigeon in a cage.

He'd had to land briefly during that flight to drop off the cat because it became air sick. Fur balls flying as well? The following year, he took to the skies again and was supposed to be accompanied by three other people - a male friend, Letitia, and an army colonel.

However, when they were ready to take off, the balloon wouldn't budge because of the weight - and the greater part of that weight was contributed to heavily (pardon the pun) by Letitia.

She weighed over 200 lbs. So, the other two men gallantly disembarked, and off Letitia and the Colonel sailed into the history books.

Answer: Poor boys

King Henry VI founded Eton College near Windsor in 1440 for the purpose of providing an education for seventy poor boys, so that they could then graduate to King's College in Cambridge - which the King founded the following year. With the college gift, he also donated land of considerable value in the surrounds. Because of in-fighting with the royal family over the following years, however, much of the school's valuable properties were taken away by the succeeding king. Wealthy benefactors had to be approached for their assistance, and it was readily given. This led to the college over time becoming more and more of an establishment for the sons of the wealthy, far removed from Henry's original vision.

Today the college has an incredible amount of prestige attached to it. Attending Eton is the equivalent of opening the door to every opportunity and position society can offer. Hefty fees reflected this prestige over the years. The onset of the 21st century however, has seen the college giving a nod to its distant past, with over 250 pupils receiving reduced fees, or attendance completely free of charge. These boys would still be the cream of the crop, one imagines, or students of exceptional brilliance from other levels of society. One interesting thing to note about Eton College in this modern age is the fact that corporal punishment, which included brutal floggings on the bare backside, only ceased at the establishment in the 1980s. Perhaps we could say then, that graduates of the college working in some of the top positions in the land, reached those lofty heights - by the seat of their pants?

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is considered to be one of the finest minds known to man. Scientist, inventor, anatomist, artist, cartographer, engineer, geologist - his curiosity was endless, his desire to know, all consuming. All wrapped up in a strange, almost other worldly ability to connect to a universal knowledge not yet available to the rest of us.

This truly exceptional man, during one of his experiments into the working of the body, in order to understand how the brain drove same, once experimented on a live frog and noted that even though the frog's head, heart and bowels were all removed, it still retained a form of life, but that once its spinal medulla was severed, it twitched once, then died. Da Vinci, however, could not bring himself to experiment further on another living creature because of his intense love for animals.

He became a vegetarian for the rest of his life, and even more famed for purchasing caged birds at the markets and setting them free. That releasing of birds becomes somehow symbolic of all the knowledge this amazing man released to mankind.

Answer: Saint Peter

The John Dory fish is from the genus Zeus faber. It is also known as Peter's fish, or Saint Pierre, or Peter's Boat. The constant reference to the various names associated with the John Dory is because Saint Peter is the patron saint of fishermen. This small fish is found in coastal areas, has long spines along its back and is coloured yellowish.

Other possible reasons behind its popular name is that the word John is derived from the French word "jaune", meaning yellow, an illusion to the colour of the fish.

This denizen of the sea grows to approximately two feet in length, and weighs around twelve lbs when fully grown. Noted for the large dark spot on either side of its body, legend has it us that these spots were caused by Saint Peter's thumbprint when he picked up the fish to give it to Jesus.