Unutterably Silly Quiz

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

A quickie riddle:

My first is in ORB and in GLOBE
My second is in COKE as well as ZERO
My third is in SHOE but not in FEET
My fourth is not in TOUCH but in POKE

What four-letter word am I? (There is more than one answer, either will suffice).

I think you're looking for BOOK, but there's also OOSE and BOSE and BOOP

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think you're looking for BOOK, but there's also OOSE and BOSE and BOOP

That is correct. Very good. You are now the new quizmaster.

[pdurrant]

OK, three quick trivia questions I recently came across.

1. What was Elvis Presley's part-time job in the 1970s?
2. What is the origin of the word trivia?
3. Who coined the term "radioactive"

[Bilbo1967]

2. I always assumed it was formed from 'trivial' - but that sounds too obvious?
3. I think that Becquerel discovered radioactivity, maybe he didn't coin the term, but I'll say him anyway.

[poohbear_nc]

2. I would guess it's derived from the Latin 'trivium' - denoting 3 somethings - but I have no idea how "three-ish" transformed into current day "trivia"

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

OK, three quick trivia questions I recently came across.

1. What was Elvis Presley's part-time job in the 1970s?

Narc.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Narc.

Yes! One point to WT Sharpe.

In 1970 Elvis Presley wrote to and met President Nixon, receiving a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

2. I always assumed it was formed from 'trivial' - but that sounds too obvious?
3. I think that Becquerel discovered radioactivity, maybe he didn't coin the term, but I'll say him anyway.

2. Both are from the same root. That root is what I want.
3. No.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

2. I would guess it's derived from the Latin 'trivium' - denoting 3 somethings - but I have no idea how "three-ish" transformed into current day "trivia"

Three something is right, but it's the something and the explanation that I want.

[poohbear_nc]

2, Well, trivium was also a curriculum of studies in England, right? Which included 3 main subject areas? Which covered a broad area of topics?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

2, Well, trivium was also a curriculum of studies in England, right? Which included 3 main subject areas? Which covered a broad area of topics?

You have it.

The "trivium" (the "three ways" or "three roads") was the first stage of a classical education at the university level, composed of rhetoric, grammar and logic. This was followed by the more advanced postgraduate "quadrivium" ("four ways") of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Since the "trivium" was considered "the basics," the derivative "trivia" eventually came to mean "less important matters."

There's also what is probably a back-derivation, that trivium is a fork in a road (where three roads meet) where Romans would gather for chit-chat: trivia.

I suspect that the education level one is the correct origin.

[pdurrant]

One point to WT Sharpe.
One point to poohbear_nc.

So: the person who can tell me the name of the scientist who coined the term "radioactivity" will win, as it's obviously the hardest question and I declare it to be worth two points!

[Fbone]

I can only think it was Marie Curie.

[poohbear_nc]

Roentgen?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I can only think it was Marie Curie.

Two points to Fbone.

It was indeed the two-nobel-prize-winning (Physics, 1903 and Chemistry, 1911) pioneer in the investigation of radioactive materials, Marie Skłodowska-Curie.


Over to you, Fbone!