chickenfeet: (enigma)
chickenfeet ([personal profile] chickenfeet) wrote2006-04-21 01:29 pm
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Pointless trivia answers

Where would you find a pub named after the author of The 39 Steps?

I imagine that there are quite a few answers to this one. There may even be one in Buchan. Edinburgh does seem plausible but Broadstairs? [livejournal.com profile] coughingbear please enlighten us. There is a Buchan Hotel in Vancouver but it would be hard to describe it as a pub. Then there is the one I was thinking of, The Lord Tweedsmuir in Tweed, Ont. This one is unquestionably a pub and unquestionably named for the former governor general and novelist.


Which American general was also an Olympian?

One of the easier questions I think. George Patton represented the USA in modern pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912.


Which French historian was executed by the Gestapo in /near Lyon?

Marc Bloch of course. Soldier, scholar and patriot. All those medievalists on the f-list and only one of them knew.


Which soccer player finished an FA Cup Final with a broken neck?

I was surprised no-one knew this one. Bert Trautmann, Manchester City goalkeeper and former POW, in the 1956 final. No substitutes in those days!


Which English cricketer was offered the throne of Albania?

I'm not sure how this sort of thing used to work. Nowadays one would call up Heidrick and Struggles or someone like that. It appears in those days the process was to stick a pin in Wisden. Anyway the answer is CB Fry. He was probably being quite sensible in turning the offer down.


Which Australian artist painted a series of pictures on the theme of Ned Kelly?

No [livejournal.com profile] f4f3, not Rolf Harris. As both [livejournal.com profile] oursin and [livejournal.com profile] australian_joe knew it is Sidney Nolan. If you ever have the misfortune to be in Canberra go see them. They really are quite striking.


Who was the last winner of the Heisman trophy not to play in the NFL?

This was supposed to be a trick question! "Everybody" knows about Pete Dawkins of the USMA, the 1958 winner, who chose to remain in the army, became a brigadier general and ultimately ran for the senate. Unfortunately "nobody" did. Anyway it's not the right answer. As [livejournal.com profile] dherblay points out, the last Heisman winner not to go to the NFL was Charlie Ward of Florida State who won in 1993 but chose a career in the NBA instead.


Which Bordeaux cru classé is named after an earl of Shrewsbury?

Spot the claret drinkers; [livejournal.com profile] gillo and [livejournal.com profile] shezan! Ch. Talbot, a 4th growth, is named for John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed at Castillon in one of those HYW battles that aren't considered memorable.


Why might one want to give Captain Danjou a hand?

So [livejournal.com profile] shezan and [livejournal.com profile] coughingbear decided to get as cute with the answers as I was trying to be with the questions but obviously knew of what they spoke. Captain Danjou's wooden hand is the thing you see being paraded around by the Légion Etrangère. It was about the only bit left of the good captain after his suicidal defence of a rather irrelevant farm at a place called Cameroun which is in Mexico where the Légion was trying unsuccessfully to install a Bonaparte as emperor on behalf of the French government. It is thus the perfect symbol for the LE combining suicidal tendencies, slaughter and the pointless interference of the French government in places it has no business to be.


Who was the last English person to be executed for treason?

This is a bit tricky too. William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) was the last person to be executed for treason in England but by no reasonable definition could he be considered English as he was born an American of Irish descent and subsequently became a german citizen. He almost certainly wasn't guilty of treason either and the government of the day, abetted by the Law Lords, twisted the law of treason probably further than it had been twisted since Henry VII ante-dated his accession so he could pin a treason rap on the those who had fought for the legitimate king at Bosworth Field. So the answer is John Amery, son and brother of Tory cabinet ministers, who was hanged a couple of weeks before Joyce for trying to recruit for the Waffen-SS among British POWs.

[identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, I said Bloch! Admittedly, I wasn't positive. I knew he'd been captured by the Nazis, but wasn't sure if he'd survived. And I think I should get credit for "German Goalkeeper guy" -- I just couldn't remember his name (or that he'd played for Man City). But after all, how many Murcans even know that an ex-German POW ended up playing keeper for an English team and played with a broken neck?

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, I said Bloch!

You are the one I was referring to. [livejournal.com profile] shezan isn't a medievalist. (Just knows more about important medievalists).

And yes, you did get close on the Trautmann one. It's a bit sad when a Man U. fan like me is the only one who knows something like that.

[identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. Ok, then. I did not realize you were a Man U fan, although I should have known. At least you come by it honestly.

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
At least you come by it honestly.

I do indeed. My grandfather used to go to Old Trafford regularly before WW1. I find the current crop of japanese schoolgirls who think that wearing a facsimile of Wayne Rooney's shirt makes one a United fan rather tedious.

[identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
What, as opposed to Wayne Rooney who is just plain tedious?

[identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I can think of a similarly youthful player on a certain London team who Rooney is also not. But as I gear up to move across the country and actually shell out for cable, since I will not be in London during the WCF as planned, I am worrying slightly about Engerland's chances. Of course, I'm also predicting that the Gemermans will win the tournament by going to penalties in each game.

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
To be fair, I can think of a similarly youthful and talented United player who isn't as big a PIA as Rooney.

I predict that the WCF of football will live up to its reputation as one of the truly tedious events in the sporting calendar.
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, we have a good line in those (Bloch, Duby, Mandrou, Le Goff...)

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Fustel de Coulanges

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you might have enjoyed the dinner party I was at some years ago where a Marxist Spanish historian and I argued for a couple of hours about whether Fernand Braudel had a "theory of history" or not. What made it funny was that (a) several bottles of wine were consumed and (b) we were arguing in French because it was the nearest we had to a common language.
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
*faints in retrospective envy*
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, and of course Braudel had a theory...

*runs*
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Marc Bloch has got himself a >university research centre (http://www.cmb.hu-berlin.de/cmb/main/index.php?language=en) in Berlin. From which you can safely deduct that the Krauts felt guilty about him...

[identity profile] bopeepsheep.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I knew Bert with the broken neck, and Fry! I read the most fascinating biog of Fry a couple of years ago - amazing bloke. Gymnast, athlete, footballer, cricketer, artist, nude model... and apparently A Nice Bloke, too. King of Albania would have rounded off his CV nicely.

[identity profile] dherblay.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure even Charlie Ward is correct. Running down the Wikipedia list of winners (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisman_Trophy#Heisman_Award_winners) reveals that (discounting Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, who haven't been drafted yet) Ward is only the most recent Heisman winner to not be signed by an NFL team. The 2003 winner, Jason White (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_White_%28American_football_player%29), was signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent, but "he decided to retire from professional football shortly after the beginning of training camp due to knee problems." The Heisman can be a bit of a kiss of death.

[identity profile] unblinkered.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I used to earn a living dusting a Nolan sketch in a former life, you know....

Technically, I got paid to take people round a house that had works by Nolan, Picasso, Renoir, Le Brocquy and lots of others....but I was always removed from the art when I was showing it. The fun bit was first thing in the morning, when me and my duster got some alone time with the shininess!
gillo: (Default)

[personal profile] gillo 2006-04-21 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I guessed Talbot mainly because I knew that was the family name and I knew a Talbot had been involved in the region in the HYW. (And I knew about the family name because of Bess of Hardwick. I'm more a Renaissancist than a mediaevalist.*g*)

But I do dribk claret when I can get it. I marginally prefer Burgundy, though.
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[identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com 2006-04-21 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I did know about Trautmann, because they told us at primary school, but the name was temporarily escaping me, like that of Sidney Nolan, and I thought it would be tedious if I said "that bloke whose name I've forgotten" for all of them except Fry.
coughingbear: im in ur shipz debauchin ur slothz (Default)

[personal profile] coughingbear 2006-04-22 08:41 am (UTC)(link)
I had no real idea about Buchan/Tweedsmuir, but had a vague memory of somewhere named after him in Broadstairs when I went there once - about 25 years ago. Probably it was Ye Olde 39 Steps Tea Shoppe instead. Have googled in case I was accidentally right but there are too many answers to check.
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
It is thus the perfect symbol for the LE combining suicidal tendencies, slaughter and the pointless interference of the French government in places it has no business to be.

*dies*

*keyboard nearly dies, too*

Too, too lovely for words!
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Cor, just Googled him, John Amery was Julian Amery's brother? Whatever possessed him? Mosleyite?

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
He seems to have been a bit of a nutcase (looking at Leo and Julian one could argue it ran in the family) and a misfit. It's interesting of course that everyone knows about the ridiculous Joyce but Amery has more or less been written out of the public memory. As I see it that's part of a wider project to downplay the pre-war links between senior Tories and European fascism. Had opportunity arisen we'd have had our share of Lavals. They had have been a better sort of chap though.
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[identity profile] shezan.livejournal.com 2006-04-22 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I think we all know about Lord Halifax And His Ilk; and really, Unity Mitford? Her parents' daughter. That being said, Laval was actually a very interesting character. I recommend Fred Kupferman's biography (http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2715806272/qid=1145732888/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_8_3/403-1322440-2661230) (although I'm not sure it was ever translated into English.) Kupferman, who is now dead, was Jewish and is not suspect of nostalgia for the period at all.