Who Is Famous For Their Dots and Dashes?

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Obviously, the first person you think of is Samuel Morse. What if I had asked, "Which artist is famous for their dots and dashes?" This was asked in a recent quiz I attended. One friend argued Morse would be the answer - and I agreed with his logic. The answer, however, was given as Jackson Pollack. But my friend would be vindicated because, as it turns out, Morse was indeed an artist*.  This gave me the idea to summarize the best questions, I can remember, from 2011.

*He was spurred to invent a faster mode of communication  when he received a too-late-communiqué that simply read "Your dear wife is convalescent". When he arrived home she had already benn buried.






Don't Out-Think Yourself:

• Which state in America produces the most oil? The obvious and correct answer is Texas. We thought it possible that Texas was an eighties thing and flirted with Alaska(2^nd) and, the even more obscure, California(3^rd) before eventually choosing Texas.
• What is the heighest mountain on Earth? There are three ways to measure mountains but, unless the question is 'tallest' or 'has the peak furthest from the center of the Earth", you should plump for Mt. Everest
• What city is closest to Dublin? A surprising outpouring for Liverpool on this one but Newry (66 miles) and Kilkenny (76 miles) are closer.
• Who was the female lead in 'My Fair Lady'? I got this one back-to-front. I knew Julie Andrews was in 'My Fair Lady' with Rex Harrison - but that was the musical. I was trying to impress people with the knowledge that she won the Oscar over Audrey Hepburn even though she only did this movie because Hepburn replaced her on another film. It turns out that 'My Fair Lady' was the film Hepburn replaced her on - where Hepburn's singing was so bad that it was dubbed. Julie Andrews, of course, won the Oscar for 'Mary Poppins'.

Things you should know:

• The Hundred Years War lasted 116 years from 1337-1453
• The second-highest mountain in the world is K2 and it is in Pakistan. Incidentally there are three ways to measure a mountain: the highest (furthest above sea level) is Everest, the tallest (furthest from the base to the summit) is Mauna Kea, and the furthest from the center of the earth is Chimborazo.
• The black box on an aeroplane is orange (easier to locate)
• There are eight counties surrounding Tipperary
• The Shannon flows through 11 counties and its source is the Shannon Pot in the Cuilcagh Mountains