a quiz

[calimac]

Here's Jon Carroll's annual Christmas quiz and his equally annual answers. Comments below the

At least I didn't spot any goofs this year, like the time he asked what was Frodo's relationship to Bilbo in The Hobbit (Frodo isn't in The Hobbit; he hadn't been born yet, or, more relevantly, been invented by Tolkien yet) or mucked up the reason why George VI wasn't crowned under his first given name of Albert.

Question 1 slew me. I've driven through at least 12 of those 13 automobile tunnels, yet I could only think of 2 or 3 of them offhand.

I couldn't put the 4 items of question 3 in the right order, but I knew what a right order would consist of, as I recognized two of the words and knew that there were four of the items in question. amy_thomson should have been able to get this one.

I got question 5, but wondered if it qualified, as Lear is fictional.

Question 6. "How many states are there in the United States?" Bah. I know the trick in this one, but I also wondered, "United States of what?" A couple other countries, Mexico and Brazil as I recall, are or have been known by names fairly translatable as United States of X.

12, 14, 16, and 17 I was able to make stabs in the right direction. Total blank on everything else.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

This quiz is best done in company, as I have done on Christmas morning for the last several-many years. Our group, consisting of livejournal folks nadinelet, blackpearl10, imnotandrei, alanbostick, as well as Lisa, Donna, D., and Kerry, got most of them. We disavowed some of Carroll's tunnels as "glorified overpasses," but I think the only two we actually missed were the Point Richmond tunnel, which I don't think I know, and the Berkeley traffic circle tunnel, which I can't picture at all even though I know that area. Others that we flat out missed include the post office (I guessed the U.N.), the million-selling song (though we did discuss sheet music), and a couple more.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I don't think I know this Point Richmond tunnel either: that's the one of the 13 that I might not have driven. And the one between 92 and 280 is definitely a glorified underpass.

The one he confusingly calls "the Marin Circle tunnel in Berkeley" must be the tunnel running vaguely under Marin Circle: the one connecting Shattuck and Solano. That's the only one I've walked through, and bicycled through.

A long-ago job cataloging old sheet music is what introduced me to "After the Ball" and its status as the first big hit song, though one strangely little heard today, while others from that era are instantly recognizable.

Lear

[milwaukeesfs.livejournal.com]

He notes that Lear (aka Llyr or Lier) is legendary, as distinguished from fictional: Wikipedia has the following entry:

Leir was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the son of King Bladud and a source for William Shakespeare's King Lear.

Leir followed his father Bladud to the kingship of Britain and had the longest reign of the all the kings at sixty years. He built the city of Kaerleir (Leicester) along the banks of the River Soar.

Unlike his predecessors, he produced no male heir to the throne but had three daughters: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, whom he favored the most. As he neared his death, he divided the kingdom between his three daughters and their husbands. Goneril and Regan flattered their father and were married off to the Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Albany respectively, each being promised half of the kingdom to inherit. Cordelia, however, refused to flatter her father and was given no land to rule. Aganippus, the king of the Franks, courted Cordelia and married her, although Leir refused any dowry with her marriage.

Some time after this, Leir became old and the two dukes whom had married his daughters rebelled and seized the whole of the kingdom. Maglaurus, the Duke of Albany, maintained Leir in his old age, protecting him with 140 knights. Goneril, however, disapproved of this and after two years, she decreased Leir's bodyguard to only thirty. He fled to Cornwall and Regan decreased his guard to only five knights. He fled back to Albany and pleaded with Goneril, but he was awarded with only one knight for protection.

Fearing his two daughters, he fled to Gaul and his youngest daughter, Cordelia. Nearing insanity, he went to his daughter and she nursed him back to health. He was held in high honour in Gaul by the leaders and they vowed to restore him to his former glory. Leir, Cordelia, and Aganippus invaded Britain at the head of a large army and overthrew the dukes and their wives. He reclaimed the throne of Britain and reigned for three more years until the time of his death. He was succeeded by his daughter, Cordelia.

She buried him in an underground chamber beneath the River Soar near Leicester. It was dedicated to the Greek god Janus and every year people celebrated his feast-day near Leir's tomb.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Being legendary is orthogonal to being fictional. Lear is both. Geoffrey of Monmouth's book is completely made up (even his Arthur has nothing in common with the historical warlord of that name), and the etymology connecting Lear to Leicester is bogus.

[milwaukeesfs.livejournal.com]

But isn't the question partly whether Shakespeare thought Lear was real? If real, he intended to be writing a history. If not, he was writing a fictional tragedy.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, that isn't the question. The question was, "Who is the earliest British king among his title characters?" That leaves open for discussion only, "Does a fictional character count as a British king?" Didn't say anything about what Shakespeare thought he was writing about the guy. Did Shakespeare know that his sources for Richard III were mostly a bunch of hooey? I have no idea.

[milwaukeesfs.livejournal.com]

Well, the question doesn't ask REAL British King does it? Just "British King." I admit, my answer would have been King John, since I thought both Cymbeline and Lear were entirely fictional.

[rootlesscosmo.livejournal.com]

I got the parts of a locomotive (I spent enough years on one) but not the other sections of that question. The Point Richmond tunnel leads from "downtown," near the Natatorium (or Municipal Plunge), out towards the Bay, an area where there used to be a brickworks--I think some of it's still standing--but that's been getting a lot of development lately--condos and so forth.

I also rejected Lear but blanked on Cymbeline and chose John.