Did you know?

Which animals do we get catgut from?

Pilgrims Trivia

Last year, I left you with some Thanksgiving trivia.  This year I think I'll post some trivia questions on the Mayflower and the Pilgrims.  Since I'll be gone until next week, the answers are posted below the questions.

Questions
1. You know about the Mayflower, but what was the name of the other ship the Pilgrims had planned on carrying then to the New World?
2.  What country did the Pilgrims leave from?
3. How many children were born on the Mayflower during the voyage?
4.  How many days did it take before the first land fall?
5.  John Carver was the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, how many terms did he serve?
6.  102 passengers set sail, 102 passengers made landing (one birth and one death).  But how many survived that first winter?
7.  What was the name of the tribe that helped the Pilgrims and later celebrated that first Thanksgiving with them?
8. Who was the captain of the Mayflower?








Answers
1. Speedwell was the name of the other ship.  After having trouble and having to turn around twice, the Pilgrims decided to travel on the Mayflower alone.
2. The Pilgrims had been living in the Netherlands but left from England on Sept 6, 1620.
3.  One, his name was Oceanus.
4.  66 days, for an average of 2 mph.
5. He was elected twice, the first time he was elected in November 1620, while aboard the Mayflower.  He was again elected in March 1621.  He died just one month later in April 1621.
6.  Only 51 survived the first winter in Plymouth.
7.  The Wampanoag tribe, which was led by Massassoit.
8.  The captain of this ship was Christopher Jones.   During that first winter, the Mayflower crew also suffered there in Plymouth, with almost half dying.  It did not leave until April 5, 1621.

Since Physics Was So Easy Yesterday

It is generally accepted that matter expands with increasing temperature, and contracts with decreasing temperature. There is one notable exception. Which is it, and why has nature provided for it?

Who is Buried in Grants Tomb

King George(?) VI Image via Wikipedia

Which country makes Panama hats?

In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

What was King George VI's first name?

From which animal do we get catgut?

The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

That when offered is suspected,

It's the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh. What is it?

The Perfect Date

Last night I caught the tail end of NOVA ScienceNow. During the show, they had a match game where a computer was trying to find the match against three bachelors. The computer asked each contestant about their perfect date. The first two were the host (a human) in different costumes who talked about sipping champagne or going for long walks on the beach.

The third contestant remarked the perfect date was June 23, 1912. The computer bachelorette immediately picked the third contestant (another computer, of course).

What is it about that date that makes it perfect for computers?

Is There a Reason?

There is a reason behind the cause for button locations.  Traditionally, men's buttons are on the right, while women's clothes have buttons on the left. Do you know why this is?



BTW, I have no idea if my answer (given tomorrow) is right or not.  But it makes sense to me.

Rare Years

Back in the year 1936, people born in 1892 were able to make an unusual mathematical boast, a boast that people born in 1980 will be able to make at some time during the 21st century. John Stuart Mill, the English philosopher and economist, would also have been able to make the same boast, had he noticed it.

Given that he was born in the 19th century, can you tell me what the unusual boast was, what year he was born in, and what year he could make the boast in?

Holiday Travel

What with the holiday, I'll be gone until next week. In the meantime, if you're looking for some good brain teasers, puzzles and riddles, take a look around. I'll be leaving you all with some Thanksgiving trivia and I hope you all have a good week!

By the fall of 1621, only half of the Pilgrims who had traveled here on the Mayflower were still alive. In Thanksgiving for their survival, the remaining Pilgrims invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians to their feast.

The Pilgrim leader at the time was Governor William Bradford, and it was he who organized the original Thanksgiving. Around 90 Wampanoag Indians and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, attended the festival. The feast lasted three days.

The first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was made by President George Washington in the year 1789. He issued another in 1795.  Other Presidents would make proclamations through the years setting aside a certain date for giving thanks and prayers.

New York, the state, made Thanksgiving an annual custom in 1817. Sarah Joseph Hale started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827. In 1863, a Thanksgiving Proclamation was created by Abraham Lincoln on the third of October. He was the first to officially set aside the last Thursday of November for the national holiday.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an effort to extend the Christmas shopping season, restored Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in 1939. He was hoping to stimulate the economy.

In 1941, Congress passed an official proclamation declaring the fourth Thursday of November every year will be observed as a legal holiday.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.

Ghee and Shinty... Must be a Good Combination

Last night I saw these two trivia questions and could not answer them. Can you?

1) What is a ghee?

2) Shinty is a form of what sport?

Seventy-Six Going on Eighteen

The famous composer, who wrote the Barber of Seville, blew out 18 candles on his birthday cake.  Nine months later, he was dead.  He was 76 at the time. 

Can you explain this?

Map Trivia

If you look at a map of South Dakota where it borders Montana, you will see a straight line with a kink of about one mile.  Everywhere else the border is a straight line.  The kink does not benefit any local landowner, and no other states are involved.

Why is the kink there?

Fourth of July 2009

Happy Fourth of July! 

Yes, I know, I'm a couple of days early, but I'm on vacation as of the end of today and I won't be back until a week from Monday.  So have a good holiday (if you're in the US). 

Here's some Fourth of July Trivia:

1. On July 4th, the Declaration of Independence was ready for signing, but how long did it take for the signees to finish the job?

2. In what year did Congress finally get arond to making the Fourth a legal holiday?

3. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died within hours of each other on July 4.  How many years had passed between the original Fourth and their deaths.

4. The tricorn was a popular item back when the Declaration of Independence was signed.  It is often seen in depictions from the time.  What is it?

5. Can you name more than four of the individuals who actually signed the Declaration?  What were their names?

Trivia Phrases

1. Where does the phrase "long in the tooth" come from?

2. How about "over a barrel?"

3. Or, do you know where "to fly off the handle" originated?

Do You Know Your Presidents?

The 22nd and 24th presidents of the United States had the same mother and the same father, but were not brothers. How can this be possible?

Do You Know Your Phobias

Your psychiatrist has just diagnosed you with the following phobias.  What is it that you're afraid of?

1. Anemophobia
2. Musophobia
3. Barophobia
4. Potophobia
5. Ochophobia
   

Calling all Chemists and Biologists

A little bit of trivia to wake you up on a Monday morning.

1) Which English chemist discovered the most elements?
2) What is the smallest bird in the world?
3) What do most sharks live on? (eat)

Turtle Trivia

What is the name given to a group of turtles?

1. trail
2. shell
3. knot
4. waddle
5. bale
6. nest
   

Some Trivia From the Local Paper

Some easy, some hard, the questions always challenge you to think a little.

1. Which nursery rhyme was on the first gramophone record ever made?

2. What sort of bird will a cygnet grow to become?

3. What game can you 'crown' your men in?

4. What color was Moby Dick?

Turkey Trivia, Part II

Two years ago, we had Thanksgiving trivia. Last year, I posted some turkey trivia. Who knew, but there's even more turkey trivia out there.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it in the US. For the rest of you, I'm off on holiday, so feel free to look around the site. There's over three years of riddles, puzzles, brain teasers, math, statistics, and other questions here for you to peruse. Take a look around.

• Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.
• A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
• Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
• Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.
• Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
• Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
• Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets
• The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.