Saturday, 19 May 2012 05:04 pm
December 2010
Things we've learnt about the world while copywriting:
Answers at the bottom of the page
1. Which layer of the earth's atmosphere is closest to the ground?
a. Stratosphere
b. Troposphere
c. Mesosphere
d. Thermosphere
2. The German gothic font, Fraktur, was:
a. Introduced by the Nazis in 1936
b. Banned by the Nazis in 1941
c. Invented by the Swiss
d. Adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 19th century.
3. True, false, apocryphal ?
a) The cappuccino was invented by a member of the Capuchin order of Franciscan friars
b) The croissant was invented after the Battle of Vienna in 1683 by bakers who had saved the city by alerting it to the sound of Turkish soldiers tunnelling under their kitchen.
c) The first European coffee house was opened by a Polish war hero using a hoard of beans left behind by the Turkish army after the Battle of Vienna.
4. Perseus stole the shared eye from the three fates. What did he make them tell him before he would return it?
a) How to kill Medusa without being turned to stone.
b) Where Medusa was.
c) How to fashion a magic sword.
5. The bumble bee is:
a. Cold blooded and furry
b. Warm blooded and scaly
c. Cold blooded and scaly
d. Warm blooded and furry
6. From where do we get the term shanks's pony?
a) Shanks means lower leg or calf
b) The preferred form of transportation for Victorian explorer, Michael Shanks, who crossed Asia in the mid-19th century
c) Shanks & Co (now part of Armitage Shanks) once manufactured a horse-drawn lawn mower without a seat, which was controlled by someone walking behind.
d) It was first used by the 18th century Scottish poet, Fergusson. A 'shanks-naig' describes a lame horse
7. Who is the odd one out?
a) Harold Lloyd
b) Telly Savalas
c) Louis XIV
d) Boris Yeltsin
Answers
Q1 - Answer (a)
- The first 10km is the troposphere. It contains about 80% of the atmosphere.
- The next 50km is the stratosphere. This includes the ozone layer.
- The mesosphere goes up to about 85km. Temperatures here vary between -120°C in summer to -50°C in winter
- The top layer of the atmosphere, the thermosphere, can extend several hundred kilometres. Temperatures range from 500K to as much as 2000K
Q2 - Answer (b)
The Fraktur typeface was designed by the calligrapher Leonhard Wagner for the Emperor Maximilian (1493-1519). In 1941, Martin Boorman issued a decree banning the traditional German writing system, which had been in use since the 16th century, on the grounds that some of the letters were of Jewish origin. It has been suggested that the real reason for the ban was to improve communications with the occupied territories. Fraktur was seen as old-fashioned by many Germans.
Q3 - Answers:
a) is apocryphal: the cappuccino is certainly named after the brown-hooded monks and there is a legend that Marco d'Aviano, the Capuchin friar and confidant of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, added milk and honey to sweeten the bitter coffee beans left by the fleeing Turkish army after the Battle of Vienna. But this is thought unlikely to be its true origin. A more credible legend is that coffee with milk was introduced by Franciszek Kulczycki (see below).
b) is false: the story of a commemorative, crescent-shaped pastry baked by the saviours of Vienna is fanciful. The croissant was invented in the early 20th century.
c) is true: Franciszek Kulczycki had saved Vienna by travelling through the Turkish lines in Ottoman dress. He brought news of impending Polish reinforcements, which encouraged the defenders to fight on. After the battle the victorious Polish King Jan III Sobieski gave him confiscated sacks of coffee with which he started his café. Some say the cappuccino was also Kulczycki's innovation.
Q4 - Answer (b)
Q5 - Answer (d)
Q6 - Answer (a)
Q7 - Answer (c).
The others were all missing one or more fingers, whereas the Sun King lost a toe (to gangrene). Apparently it fell off when he took off a sock. According to some historians Louis took three baths a year. Others suggest that this is a gross exaggeration: he never bathed.