Random Trivia

See next post for the answers: if you got at least ten right,

you are a Kaleidoscope Mastermind!

We all have bits of seemingly irrelevant knowledge that we have apparently acquired by some form of cosmic osmosis: someone says: "How do you know that?" and you have to answer: "I don't know - I just know it." Here are a baker's dozen of those I-Just-Know-It things!

1. Anne Boleyn was unique is saying "no!" to King Henry VIII, a word he did not often hear. She played hard to get and held out for a wedding ring. (That a crown came with it never crossed her mind!) Owing to her steadfast balking at the bedroom door, Britain is a Protestant country today. What made her different and unusual?

a She had six fingers on each hand.
b She could hypnotise birds.
c She wore only black and white.

2. Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland. Where was it made 200 years ago?

a Ireland
b Only in the Hebrides
c Scotland

3. Who is Isambard Kingdom Brunel?

a A dead British engineer.
b A character in "Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien.
c The Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade.

4. Andy Warhol remains a major pop icon: dying was an excellent career move and his vast earnings increase every year. He died in New York in 1987. How?

a Shot by a crazed fan
b Complications following a gallbladder operation
c Drug overdose

5. You have been invited to a formal dinner at an exclusive golf club in Scotland. Having enjoyed a marvellous meal, you sit back and light a cigar. Your dinner partner grabs the cigar, stubs it out in the remains of the haggis and hisses: "Not yet!" What has to happen at a formal Scottish dinner before anyone may smoke?

a The ladies leave the room
b The host gives thanks in Gaelic
c A toast to the Queen

6. The building of the Great Wall of China was ordered by Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China, in 221 BCE. Why did he think it a good idea to build a great wall?

a To keep the rabbits out.
b To keep the invading nomadic tribes out.
c To keep corrupting foreign influences out.


7. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the ten best novels of the 20th Century and is a standard text in high school and university English courses. Who or what is the Great Gatsby of the title?
a A steam ship
b A wealthy young man
c An emerald

8. What is the official title of the famous portrait generally known as "Whistler's Mother"?
a Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1
b Composition in White, Black and Gray, No 1
c The Artist's Mother in Black and Gray, No 1

9. Fifteen what on a dead man's chest, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum?

a Flags
b Doubloons
c Men

10..What are The Skin Game, The Pleasure Garden and The Mountain Eagle?

a Early Hitchcock movies.
b Chapters in the Kama Sutra.
c Surrealist paintings by Rene Magritte.

11. What do the painters Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner and Anthony van Dyck have in common?

a Each had a mistress named Emma.
b All died before their 40th birthday.
c All are buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

12. What happened at the Guildhall (Town Hall), Windsor, on 21 December 2005?

a Elton John married David Furnish.
b Prince Charles married Camilla Parker-Bowles.
c The Queen paid an unexpected visit to the staff common room when her car was stalled in a three-hour traffic gridlock caused by a truck accident.

13. Who or what was Charlie in John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie"?

a A dog
b A donkey
c The narrator's aunt

Answers to "Random Trivia"

a She had six fingers on each hand.
c Scotland
a A dead British engineer.

b Complications following a gallbladder operation

c A toast to the Queen

b To keep the invading nomadic tribes out.

b A wealthy young man

a Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1

c Men

a Early Hitchcock movies.

c All are buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

a Elton John married David Furnish.

a A dog

Culinary Terms

Every summer I have I have an influx of self-invited house guests. My free-loading family are fussy eaters, so I need your help to to plan some menus, swot up some recipes and find out what all those cooking terms mean!

See next post for the answers: if you got at least eight right, you are a Kaleidoscope Masterchef!

1. Cousin Nicholas has just returned from three years at agricultural school in the Po Valley, in Italy. He will be staying for a week. I am going to lay in a stock of Po Valley Arborio, just to make him feel at home. What am I going to buy?

a  A short-grained rice used to prepare risotto.
b  A full-bodied red wine.
c  A smooth-textured goat milk cheese.

2.  Battuto is going to be a feature in my kitchen this summer, because Cousin Vinnie is coming for an extended visit from New Jersey (the family grapevine whispers that he is avoiding his colleague Tony Soprano, due to a misunderstanding involving a baseball bat.) Vinnie loves Italian food and is very good at whipping up marvellous aromatic pasta sauces. What is battuto?

a  A small pestle for crushing spices.
b  A spiced, matured Italian ham, thiny sliced.
c  A combination of chopped raw vegetables for sautéing.

3.  Great-aunt Clothilde, now a very old lady, (but still feisty!) was a heroine of the French Resistance: she wormed all manner of secrets out of a handsome blond German officer – among the family, opinions differ on exactly what methods she employed. She likes steamed asparagus, but has been known to throw the plate at me if I serve it with a Hollandaise sauce instead of the very similar Béarnaise. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of butter and egg yolks, with lemon juice. What makes Béarnaise different?

a  Béarnaise contains a touch of cognac.
b  Béarnaise uses shallots and tarragon instead of lemon juice.
c  Béarnaise is made with goose fat instead of butter.

4.  Auntie Mabel is a lovely person and an ideal house guest, but unfortunately she and her spoilt teenage son come as a set. Young Marmaduke is a very fussy eater: the only thing he enjoys without complaints and criticism, is bisque. Needless to say, we'll all feel pretty much bisque'd out by the end of summer! What are we having to eat nearly every day?


a  Soup made with a puree of crustaceans / vegetables.
b  Stuffed crepes.
c  French caramel fudge.

5. Granddad is no trouble … he has struck up a friendship with one of my neighbours, known as Faux Freddie because he paints faux Jackson Pollocks and illegally distils faux Calvados. Granddad spends all his time at Freddie's, playing chess and helping Freddie with the calvados quality control checks. (This entails frequent tasting.) From what does Freddie make his liquor?

a  Chestnuts
b  Pears
c  Apples

6. The twins, whose favourite childhood story was Robin Hood, are just back from competing in the archery World Championships. They have set up butts in my back garden, totally ruining the lawn. I was about to kick theirs, when they presented me with a charming gift: a traditional Chinoise they had bought for me in China. What is it?
a  A fine-meshed conical strainer for straining sauces.
b  A celadon bowl.
c  A small porcelain Pekingese dog.

7.  My stepsister Belinda … the daughter of Dad's fourth (or is it his fifth?) wife, is a terrible cook, but she makes excellent cornichons. No al fresco lunch under the Moreton bay fig tree on a hot summer's day is complete without a good supply of Belinda's cornichons. What are they?


a  Cream horns.
b  Tiny gherkins pickled in seasoned wine or cider vinegar.
c  Smoked oysters wrapped in prosciutto

8.  Auntie Natasha was a ballet dancer who defected from a sight-seeing tour of the Louvre while the Bolshoi was touring in Paris in the Fifties. Uncle Fabrice was a Parisian art conservator. He was painstakingly cleaning an Old Master, when she burst into his studio, hissing: "Hide me!" He covered her with a drop cloth and they lived happily ever after. Auntie never lost her taste for Russian caviar, which makes her a more expensive house guest than most! Beluga is her favourite. Why is it so called?

a  Czar Peter II gave the monopoly to the Beluga family.
b  It comes from the Beluga sturgeon.
c  It is named after "Bibi" Beluga, the mistress of Prince Felix Yusupov – he used to eat his caviar out of her high-heeled slipper.

9.  Family folklore has it that Uncle Alf is distantly related to his namesake Alfred Hitchcock. His portly figure, helped by his hearty appetite, is certainly very similar! Aunt Hortense rather cattily likes to point out that Uncle Alf doesn't need the affrioles he loves so much ! What are they?

a  Hors d’oeuvres or small titbits served as appetisers.
b  Profiteroles with extra thick cream.
c  Thimble-sized drinks to stimulate the appetite.

Answers to "Culinary Terms"

1. A short-grained rice used to prepare risotto.
2.  A combination of chopped raw vegetables for sautéing.
3.  Béarnaise uses shallots and tarragon instead of lemon juice.
4.  Soup made with a puree of crustaceans / vegetables.
5.  Apples
6.  A fine-meshed conical strainer for straining sauces.
7.  Tiny gherkins pickled in seasoned wine or cider vinegar.
8.  It comes from the Beluga sturgeon.
9.  Hors d’oeuvres or small titbits served as appetisers.

Painters: the Dark Side

Many famous painters have had a dark side to their genius: let's lift up a few stones and see how much you know about what lurks beneath!

Check the next post for the answers: if you got at least five right, you are a Kaleidoscope Mastermind!


1. This magnificent artist, who revolutionised painting with his novel use of chiaroscuro, was a womaniser and a brawler. There was nothing he liked better than swaggering around the streets of Rome with a sword, picking fights. He was always causing trouble: he threw a plate of artichokes at a waiter, he assaulted a notary, he was arrested for brawling, drunkenness and stone throwing, and in 1606 he had to go on the run from the law, because he killed a man over a disputed point during a tennis match. (He makes McInroe look like a model of politeness!) No one was surprised when he was murdered at the age of 40, but his death deprived us of many masterpieces that might have been. Who was this unpleasant genius?


a Caravaggio
b Tintoretto
c Murillo
d Raphael

2.  This Dutch artist was considered the greatest painter of his day, and is still regarded as a peerless portraitist. His 1642 genre painting, "The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq" is up there with the Mona Lisa as one of the world's most famous paintings.


He was not, however, a model of virtue in his personal life: he was sued for breach of promise, he cheated on his wife with the nanny, he scandalised the elders of his church by refusing to marry the mistress who bore him daughter, and he was chronically in debt, finally being forced to declare bankruptcy and having his house and all his posessions sold to satisfy his creditors. Who was this great painter who died an unhappy man?

a Vincent Van Gogh
b Anthonie Van Dyck
c Rembrandt van Rijn
d Frans Hals

3.  This accomplished woman, who has become a bit of a feminist icon in modern times, was a baroque painter whose work was influenced by Caravaggio. She was the first woman to be accepted as a member of the Academy of Arts in Florence. Her father, also a prominent artist, (this is a clue!) hired the Tuscan painter Agostino Tassi to tutor his talented daughter.


Tassi raped her and a long and nasty lawsuit ensued, very traumatic for the victim. She had to undergo a humiliating pelvic examination and she was also questioned under torture to make sure she was telling the truth. It came out that Tassi had committed adultery with his brother's wife, had plotted to murder his own wife and had also stolen from his various patrons. He was found guilty of the rape and imprisoned for a year.

This unhappy experience may have had something to do with the savage realism of her famous painting "Judith and Holofernes". Who was she?

a Sophonisba Tintoretto
b Francisca Giotto
c Gianaluca Buonarotti
d Artemisia Gentileschi

4.  This Australian avant-garde painter's work is internationally acclaimed and is collected in art museums around the world. In 2007 his painting "The Olgas" sold for $3.5 million dollars, then a record amount for an Australian painting. Sadly, he suffered from schizophrenia, which was exacerbated by his dependence on alcohol and heroin. Who was this brilliant artist who died of a drug overdose in 1992?


a John Brack
b Brett Whiteley
c Charles Blackman
d Arthur Boyd

5.  This painter and poet, who kept two wombats as pets, was a prominent member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. After his wife committed suicide, her buried his unpublished erotic poems with her. When he was short of money a few years later, he exhumed her so he could have them published. He had several mistresses, among them Jane, the wife of his friend and business partner, William Morris.


He became increasingly morbid and mentally unstable as his addiction to chloral intensified, and he died on Easter Sunday in 1882.

Who was this eccentric Pre-Raphaelite?

a Edward Burne-Jones
b Dante Gabriel Rosetti
c William Holman Hunt
d John Everett Millais

6.  Another acclaimed artist who struggled his whole life with alcohol dependency, was the influential American painter who was a major force in abstract expressionism. He coined the term "action painting" for his technique of pouring and dripping paint on to canvas.


His "No. 5, 1948" became the world's most expensive painting in 2006, when it was sold to an anonymous buyer for $140 million.

He died in an alcohol-related single car accident in 1956. Who was he?

a Andy Warhol
b Paul Jackson Pollock
c Robert Rauschenberg
d Roy Lichtenstein

Answers to "Painters: The Dark Side"

1   Caravaggio
2   Rembrandt
3   Artemisia Gentileshi
4   Brett Whitely
5   Dante Gabriel Rosetti
6  Paul Jackson Pollock