General Knowledge Quiz

[Heinz57]

Disneyland - not quite. But Los Angeles - Spot on!

The Walt Disney Concert hall is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles

Your turn

 

[Golghar]

What I meant by "Disneyland, not Disneyworld" was "Los Angeles, not Orlando"!

As a (lapsed) philatelist I put the following question: What is the background to the following set of postage stamps?

 

[Oswyntail]

Hm - not seen these stamps before, but there is a wealth of information to make a good guess.
The lady in question looks like a young Queen Victoria, but the writing, which is Greek, translates as "Ionic State". This suggests that they were issued in the Ionic Islands at some stage during the British rule there, after the accession of Victoria in 1837. Greece had gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, but the Ionic islands had been ceded to Britain after the Napoleonic wars, so did not become part of Greece. As with Cyprus in the 1950s, there was a nationalistic movement for "enosis", unification with the Greek state. Britain finally handed the islands over in the early 1860s. So, given the combination of the wording and the Queen, I would say they were issued towards the end of British rule in the late 1850s.

 

[Golghar]

Hm - not seen these stamps before, but there is a wealth of information to make a good guess.
The lady in question looks like a young Queen Victoria, but the writing, which is Greek, translates as "Ionic State". This suggests that they were issued in the Ionic Islands at some stage during the British rule there, after the accession of Victoria in 1837. Greece had gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, but the Ionic islands had been ceded to Britain after the Napoleonic wars, so did not become part of Greece. As with Cyprus in the 1950s, there was a nationalistic movement for "enosis", unification with the Greek state. Britain finally handed the islands over in the early 1860s. So, given the combination of the wording and the Queen, I would say they were issued towards the end of British rule in the late 1850s.

From the information available you have drawn all the right conclusions. In fact the stamps did go on sale in 1859. This link (from which I "borrowed" the illustrations) gives you all the necessary detail.

Over to you now, Oswyntail!

 

[Oswyntail]

OK
By what name was Charles Morhange "better" known, and how did people used to think he died?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I will hazard a guess at the French pianist, Charles Alkan. If it is him, he was killed by a large bookcase toppling over onto him ....that was caused by him, whilst trying to to pull out a wedged book from a shelf near to the top of this bookcase.

 

[Oswyntail]

I will hazard a guess at the French pianist, Charles Alkan. If it is him, he was killed by a large bookcase toppling over onto him ....that was caused by him, whilst trying to to pull out a wedged book from a shelf near to the top of this bookcase.

12 minutes and spot on. Charles-Henri Valentin Morhange was Alkan, a pianist whom Liszt admitted was even more talented than himself, and whose music can be at times impossible. He was once taken to court by a female student for attempting to play one of his multi-art fugues with her on a pedal piano (involving much intertwining of legs). The book that proved his undoing was a copy of the Talmud (according to myth - more prosaic reports said he was crushed by a large coatrack)
I await Paul's question!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just back on line...I shall set one out of my usual scholastic stock of conundrums......

What was the name of the first dynastic leader of the Northern Mesopotamian region (who had Assyrian connections) and ruled for 32 years from 1813BC to 1781BC ?

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Sennacharib?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Not so.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I will give some further clues. After his death, the empire concerned was defeated by Hammurabi of Babylon and came under the control of the First Babylonian Dynasty. The person in my original conundrum was always incorporated into the tradition king lists of Assyria. Some archaeologists of the Victorian era actually mistakenly assumed he was Assyrian.

 

[Golghar]

Was he an Amorite?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Was he an Amorite?

Correct. This should help to narrow down the list of possibilities.

A further clue. His father ruled a kingdom on the borders of Mari, but when his father died that kingdom was inherited by an older brother. So he want and build a new complete kingdom with his own efforts.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Matters today mean that I may be offline for parts of Saturday, but I promise to return regularly to check upon new posting entries.

 

[Golghar]

I had to look this up. I found a ruler called "Shamshi-Adad I" who fits the criteria of your last post. I couldn't find any dates as precise as the ones you originally set in the question but the century seems to be the right one. I must confess I had never heard the name before and I couldn't have told you the names of any of the Amorite kings. I just knew that the Amorites are the oldest people in the Middle-East to be definitely identified as Semites.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Well done...a correct answer to a rather difficult question.

Kindly set the next one.

 

[Golghar]

Another philatelic question:
Which territory was this set of two stamps issued for and on what occasion? Furthermore, what is unique about these stamps? (There's more than one answer to this last question)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Were they issued for use in the Channel Islands just before the German occupation ?

I would hazard a guess that seaweed gathering for use as fertlizer on the fields of these islands is the theme on both stamps.

 

[Golghar]

You have correctly identified the territory for which the stamps were issued and the theme (something I didn't ask but you deserve a bonus point for that). In fact they were issued in 1948 to commemorate the third anniversary of liberation. Separate stamps for Guernesey and Jersey were first issued under German occupation but the stamps shown here are the only ones ever issued for the Channel Islands as a whole and the only "regional issues" with an effigy of King George VI.

Your turn now!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

To continue on the theme of philately covering the British Isles, the definative stamp issue of King Edward VII had the 2d issue in five distinct printings with slight colour variations in the two main colours, but the sixth issue proposed in May 1910 with slight design changes was never issued. What was the main difference between this 2d stamp and those issued earlier.

 

[Golghar]

I read that as "1910" and you mean the "Tyrian plum". It was in one colour and not two like the earlier issues.

And open floor if I am correct, otherwise we might have to start a separate philately thread.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

By that most precise correct answer (despite my error of the added 100 years), we do seem to have some knowledge of philately. Well done indeed!!

I should have asked the question "What was so special about the 1847-1854 Queen Victoria Great Britain issue with three denominations only"... but assumed this was too easy a question to set.

OPEN FLOOR has been declared by Golghar

 

[deltic1989]

I shall take up the baton if I may.

Give the next line of the song and also the title and artist:
"Little joey blowin' on the slide trombone"

I suspect this one will last until the next post is made

 

[Eagle]

May I be pedantic?

"Little Joe was blowing on the slide trombone / The drummer boy from Illinois went crash boom bang" —Elvis Presley, "Jailhouse Rock".

And as it's way past my bedtime, open floor.

 

[deltic1989]

May I be pedantic?

"Little Joe was blowing on the slide trombone / The drummer boy from Illinois went crash boom bang" —Elvis Presley, "Jailhouse Rock".

And as it's way past my bedtime, open floor.

Another one for the misheard lyrics file. But not as far out as some I have heard. You are correct in all respects of course.
Open floor has been called.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Another one for the misheard lyrics file.

Another one to add to that list would be the line from a "Queen" song....

Beelzebub has the devil for a sideboard....:roll:

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Meanwhile, back to the quiz....

In the territory now known collectively as Indonesia, an event occurred in 1815 that was notable in the annals of recorded history. What was this event ?

 

[Seacook]

Another one to add to that list would be the line from a "Queen" song....

Beelzebub has the devil for a sideboard....:roll:

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Meanwhile, back to the quiz....

In the territory now known collectively as Indonesia, an event occurred in 1815 that was notable in the annals of recorded history. What was this event ?

Was this the volcanic eruption that led to 'the year without a summer' and widespread famine?
Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the volcano.

 

[D6975]

I think you're thinking of Krakatoa, but that was much later, 1880s sometime.
Perhaps it was another Volcano though.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I think you're thinking of Krakatoa, but that was much later, 1880s sometime.
Perhaps it was another Volcano though.

Krakatoa did not erupt until 1883.

 

[Seacook]

I think you're thinking of Krakatoa, but that was much later, 1880s sometime.
Perhaps it was another Volcano though.

No. I don't think it was Krakatoa (I rejected that because I think that was the 1880s as well). I'm sure the name I can't remember is one I would recognise if I saw it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Was this the volcanic eruption that led to 'the year without a summer' and widespread famine?
Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the volcano.

I do need a little more information than this. There was another very much more significant factor that made this event so notorious.

 

[Ivo]

That would be the eruption of Tambora, the largest ever recorded and also the deadliest.