Trivia for Squiggle #18
Today's issue of Trivia for Squiggle contains bits and pieces about books/plays and language.
426. "The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history.
427. All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and boys. In England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on stage.
428. All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book "Peter Pan" were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London.
429. Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
430. Bilbo Baggins was born on September 22 1290.
431. Barbara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.
432. Ghosts appear in 4 Shakespearian plays; Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet and Macbeth.
433. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."
434. Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," only 164 are women.
435. Professor Moriarity was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy.
436. Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on the mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887).
437. The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.
438. The Three Musketeers names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan joins them later.)
439. A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.
440. A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."
441. A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
442. A speleologist studies caves.
443. Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular during the Middle Ages.
444. "Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing.
445. Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
446. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
447. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
448. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
449. No term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a variety of expressions referring to specific “homosexual” roles. Greek culture in antiquity regarded male/male love in the highest regard. According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.
450. "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.
"He was deranged he was... lunatic. He didnt seem to like me very much...he had threatened to kill me in public."
"Why would he want to kill you in public?"
"I think she meant, he threatened in public to kill her."
426. "The Mouse Trap," by Agatha Christie is the longest running play in history.
427. All of the roles in Shakespeare's plays were originally acted by men and boys. In England at that time, it wasn't proper for females to appear on stage.
428. All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book "Peter Pan" were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London.
429. Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
430. Bilbo Baggins was born on September 22 1290.
431. Barbara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.
432. Ghosts appear in 4 Shakespearian plays; Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet and Macbeth.
433. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named "Pansy O'Hara" and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called "Fountenoy Hall."
434. Of the 2200 persons quoted in the current edition of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," only 164 are women.
435. Professor Moriarity was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy.
436. Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective, arrived on the mystery scene in the late nineteenth century in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887).
437. The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.
438. The Three Musketeers names are Porthos, Athos, and Aramis (D'Artagnan joins them later.)
439. A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.
440. A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."
441. A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
442. A speleologist studies caves.
443. Anagrams amused the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews, and were popular during the Middle Ages.
444. "Aromatherapy" is a term coined by French chemist René Maurice Gattefossé in the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing.
445. Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
446. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
447. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
448. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
449. No term existed for "homosexuality" in ancient Greece - there were only a variety of expressions referring to specific “homosexual” roles. Greek culture in antiquity regarded male/male love in the highest regard. According to several linguists, the word "homosexual" was not coined until 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert.
450. "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.
"He was deranged he was... lunatic. He didnt seem to like me very much...he had threatened to kill me in public."
"Why would he want to kill you in public?"
"I think she meant, he threatened in public to kill her."
posted by Scott at 9:41 AM
3 Comments:
Cindy! How could you forget? It's one of Scott's favorite movies!
CM: "Are you trying to make me look like a fool in front of the other guests?"
W: "You don't need any help from me, sir."
CM: "That's right!"
Oh, God! Tim Curry! He had a name in that movie, remember? He wasn't just "the butler." Scott, you need to re-educate our sister.
CM: "Who are you?"
W: "I'm the butler, sir."
CM: "And what do you do?"
W: "I 'buttle,' sir. The butler is responsible for the kitchen and dining room. I like to keep everything tidy."
I think I'm with Doug on this one...how could you forget??? We need to resurrect that brain cell... And I would say to Doug to stop posting all the good quotes from Clue, but there are so many good quotes that I don't think it really matters!
PDWEEQ!!! PDWEEQ, I tell you!
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