General Knowledge Quiz

[DaleCooper]

We're on an Australian kick -- I'm looking at staying on that theme.

Concerning a very well-known and greatly loved song, widely reckoned as Australia's unofficial national anthem...


(1) "Matilda" as much mentioned in the song, is not just nonsense: it has in the context, a specific meaning -- which is what?

(2) What is a jumbuck?

(3) In the song, and in the context of old-time Australia: what is, here, a squatter?

My guess:

Waltzing Matilda - Hanging
Jumbuck - Wallaby
Squatter - Farmer/Rancher

 

[Calthrop]

1. I thought 'Matilda' was some sort of bag that someone who was itinerant (for want of a better word) carried with them?

Correct: was for long, a widespread expression among the Australian itinerant community -- Wiki says, " 'to waltz Matilda' is to travel with a swag, that is with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth". (Lots of additional learned or pseudo-learned stuff enlarging on this, both re the expression in general and the song in particular.)

 

[Calthrop]

My guess:

Waltzing Matilda - Hanging
Jumbuck - Wallaby
Squatter - Farmer/Rancher

Re "Waltzing M.", and "Jumbuck", I'm afraid not (@perryman has "Matilda" right, as per post #19,920).

Squatter: yes. As of early days, one who occupied a large tract of Crown land -- without formal authorisation -- in order to graze livestock. Originally had disapproving connotations, as with the word nowadays: we see "squatters" as among the "have-nots", illegally putting themselves in places which are not theirs to do so with. However -- Australia tending to be a crazy upside-down place in various senses -- as the 19th century went on, the "squatters" there came to be respected and deferred to for their entrepreneurial attitude, and gained elevated socio-economic status: to some extent, coming to be found akin to European aristocrats in times past, including often acting oppressively toward lowly types such as swagmen.

@perryman has one, @DaleCooper has one: just the jumbuck, still to get.

 

[Gloster]

Jumbuck is, I think, the young of some sort of commercially bred animal. A sheep, perhaps. I think the song suggests that it has been stolen.

 

[SuspectUsual]

A jumbuck is a male sheep

 

[Calthrop]

Jumbuck is, I think, the young of some sort of commercially bred animal. A sheep, perhaps. I think the song suggests that it has been stolen.

A jumbuck is a male sheep

With @Gloster's having posted prior to @SteveM70 -- by six minutes -- I adjudge @Gloster as the one who succeeds with this part of the question: reckoning "sheep", albeit a guess, to be the sought-after "necessary minimum". I had hitherto been aware of "jumbuck" only as Aus. slang for a sheep, without the gender element; @SteveM70 -- not casting doubt on your info, but most dictionary-type sources which I've consulted, give just "sheep"; only a couple specify a male one. The theft aspect: yes, with the swagman having helped himself to the sheep when on the squatter's land; said squatter is thus wroth, and comes along, backed by law-enforcement, for purposes of wrong-righting and condign punishment.

@perryman, @DaleCooper, and @Gloster: you each have correctly, one of the question's three items. Cobbers, are you up for a tie-breaker: one last question, essentially on the same theme; whichever of you three is the first to answer it correctly, gets the floor?

 

[DaleCooper]

With @Gloster's having posted prior to @SteveM70 -- by six minutes -- I adjudge @Gloster as the one who succeeds with this part of the question: reckoning "sheep", albeit a guess, to be the sought-after "necessary minimum". I had hitherto been aware of "jumbuck" only as Aus. slang for a sheep, without the gender element; @SteveM70 -- not casting doubt on your info, but most dictionary-type sources which I've consulted, give just "sheep"; only a couple specify a male one. The theft aspect: yes, with the swagman having helped himself to the sheep when on the squatter's land; said squatter is thus wroth, and comes along, backed by law-enforcement, for purposes of wrong-righting and condign punishment.

@perryman, @DaleCooper, and @Gloster: you each have correctly, one of the question's three items. Cobbers, are you up for a tie-breaker: one last question, essentially on the same theme; whichever of you three is the first to answer it correctly, gets the floor?

The introduction to this song implies rather different meanings for ""squatter" and "jumbuck".

Song of the Australian Outlaw

 

[perryman]

The introduction to this song implies rather different meanings for ""squatter" and "jumbuck".

Song of the Australian Outlaw

I'll bow out now and leave it to Bruce and Bruce.

 

[Gloster]

I will also pass the boomerang.

 

[Calthrop]

So @DaleCooper; looks like it's you to set the next question.

The introduction to this song implies rather different meanings for ""squatter" and "jumbuck".

Song of the Australian Outlaw

Re the linked item: in his book on Australia (a country which he loves) Bill Bryson does a bit of riffing on the song Waltzing Matilda -- hampered by his knowing only the first verse, which initially he ties himself in knots with, by taking all the wording with total literalness; after which he gets into parody-ing verse 1 in a variety of childishly rude ways (mercifully he mostly just tells the reader of his doing this; inflicting very little of this "output" of his, on the reading public). Kenneth Williams as linked-to here, is a lot funnier.

 

[DaleCooper]

So @DaleCooper; looks like it's you to set the next question.

I wasn't expecting that but here's the next question:

What is a "Scutoid" and optionally when was it discovered?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Not something from an episode of "Red Dwarf" and discovered three million years in the future?

 

[DaleCooper]

Not something from an episode of "Red Dwarf" and discovered three million years in the future?

Three million years from now you might be proved correct but at present - No, that's not it.

 

[DaleCooper]

What is a "Scutoid" and optionally when was it discovered?

Hint: It was first described by biologists but it's not alive.

 

[Rutland23]

Faeces?

Regards

Ian

 

[DaleCooper]

Faeces?

Regards

Ian

I don't think you need a biologist to describe faeces.

Another hint: It was discovered fairly recently and became of interest to physicists and mathematicians.

 

[Caboose Class]

Hint: It was first described by biologists but it's not alive.

Scutoid, presumably from the Latin scutum meaning a shield, has it anything to do with tortoises?

 

[DaleCooper]

Scutoid, presumably from the Latin scutum meaning a shield, has it anything to do with tortoises?

The name does come from scutum in a convoluted way and they are probably to be found in tortoises and many (all?) other creatures.

 

[Caboose Class]

The name does come from scutum in a convoluted way and they are probably to be found in tortoises and many (all?) other creatures.

Is it a bone? There are several "oid" bones in the human body, e.g. the hyoid.

 

[DaleCooper]

Is it a bone? There are several "oid" bones in the human body, e.g. the hyoid.

Every bone in my body is old but bone isn't the answer.

More hints:
They have been observed in soap bubbles.
Maths has several "...oid" words.

 

[DaleCooper]

We don't appear to be getting anywhere with this so here is the answer.

A scutoid is a geometric solid first described in 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutoid

A scutoid is a geometric solid between two parallel surfaces. The boundary of each of the surfaces (and of all the other parallel surfaces between them) is a polygon, and the vertices of the two end polygons are joined by either a curve or a Y-shaped connection on at least one of the edges, but not necessarily all of the edges. Scutoids present at least one vertex between these two planes. Scutoids are not necessarily convex, and lateral faces are not necessarily planar, so several scutoids can pack together to fill all the space between the two parallel surfaces. They may be more generally described as a mix between a frustum and a prismatoid.

For a more entertaining description:
Stand-up Maths

Why does this sort of thing appear in my YouTube recommendations?

Open floor...

 

[Caboose Class]

I'll jump in with something which I've just been reading about.
Which was the last cathedral to be built in the UK?

 

[perryman]

Liverpool's Catholic one?

 

[Caboose Class]

Liverpool's Catholic one?

Fast, furious and correct! On with the show!

 

[perryman]

Ugly edifice that it is, although beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course.

Off out for a bit so let's have an open floor.

 

[perryman]

Actually, as I'm back and no one else has taken over the mantle.

A football question:

• I was born in 1967.
• Other than my homeland, where I played for 4 clubs, I have only played in England, also for 4 teams spread over the country.
• I have won 1 league title and 2 domestic cups in my homeland, and 1 domestic cup in England and in the same season won both PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.
• I have scored a total of 81 goals in 503 total club appearances.
• I have 17 caps for my national side, scoring 3 goals.

Who am I?

 

[SuspectUsual]

I suspect this is going to be wrong because of the playing for 4 clubs in his home country bit, but for the English bit David Ginola fits the bill and he’s probably about the right age too

 

[MotCO]

Actually, as I'm back and no one else has taken over the mantle.

A football question:

• I was born in 1967.
• Other than my homeland, where I played for 4 clubs, I have only played in England, also for 4 teams spread over the country.
• I have won 1 league title and 2 domestic cups in my homeland, and 1 domestic cup in England and in the same season won both PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.
• I have scored a total of 81 goals in 503 total club appearances.
• I have 17 caps for my national side, scoring 3 goals.

Who am I?

Mike England?

Edit - scrap that, wrong age

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@perryman. Could you confirm that @SteveM70 has the correct answer (David Ginola), so that we can move on?

 

[perryman]

@perryman. Could you confirm that @SteveM70 has the correct answer (David Ginola), so that we can move on

Ah, my apologies to all, especially @SteveM70, for an unknown reason (probably stupidity on my part) I missed his (correct) answer.

Indeed, it is David Ginola, formerly of Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur (where he collected his only English honour courtesy of Allan Neilson gloriously tripping over his bootlaces to head in he winner in the 1999 League Cup Final against Leicester City (who exacted revenge some years later), Aston Villa & Everton, after starting his career at home at Toulon, Racing Club Paris, Brest and PSG. Despised by Gerard Houlier for poor game management for France against Bulgaria in a crucial World Cup qualifying game in 1993 but adored by millions of football and non-football fans worldwide for both football and non-football reasons.

@SteveM70 over to you, as you are worth it.

footnote: the day of his poor game management, 17th November 1993, a lot happened in various final qualifying games around Europe, as this good article from The Guardian covers: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/feb/15/forgotten-story-17-november-1993 (hopefully I am allowed to post links).