wiki-illiam #106: q12

[dubdobdee]

12:
i: What is perhaps the equal of roly-poly?
ii: What epidemic was survived by Sarah and Emily?
iii: What is made from hog's lard, mutton suet and quicksilver?
iv: Upon whom had the captain's steward poured boiling jam juice?
v: Which ancient bibulous Dane with pale red-rimmed eyes, was presented with a case of Priorato?
vi: Where, more than once, was a dead orphan child brought back for dissection and kept in a cupboard?
vii: Where did the small apothecary display the skeleton of an aardvark in his window?
viii: Translate 'Les bouts-dehors des bonnettes du petit perroquet'.
ix: What was the ultimate fate of the Armenian polyglot?
x: Who found a Frenchman's ring finger in his bowl?

Comments

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

viii. 'bout dehors' is a boom (as in horizontal mast of a sailboat) and 'perroquet' is parrot, I think. Something to do with Treasure Island?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i) is a swiss roll the same as a roly-poly?

v) rings Hamlet-shaped bells.

A polyglot is someone who speaks multiple languages though I expect that everyone knows this. The first two people of Armenian descent to spring to mind are William Saroyan and Kim Kardashian, perhaps an indicator that I should stop thinking about this question.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

i) I think a swiss roll will be sponge cake and a rolypoly suet pudding, and that rolypoly MUST have jam, whereas swiss roll can be jam/cream/etc on the inside. But they are the same apart from that.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Or there is also a small bug of some sort known as a rolypoly, I think.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

v) Priorato is a type of Spanish wine.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

This feels all fictional to me, but nothing really rings a bell. Not convinced the French is anything to do with Treasure Island...

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

I think the common theme is that they are all just random things he has made up to trick us.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

iii. Mercury pudding? Or could this be some sort of poison, cunningly delivered? Or! mercury used to be used by - I think - ancient Egyptians as an anti-wrinkle cream or similar. Or! it was used in hatmaking in the 18th, possibly also 19th C and is why milliners used to be a batty lot, hence the phrase 'mad as a hatter'.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I think this is on the right lines - googling the ingredients led me to unguentum hydrargyri a.k.a. Mercury ointment. The description refers to its blue colour and there are also variants with longer names having other colours.

=> is the theme colours? e.g. ii. could be Yellow Fever!

Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

It's not colours, but I had the right book above.

We had a round on this theme last year IIRC!

Re: Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

...and it is smallpox, not Yellow Fever, as marna said

Re: Got the theme now

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

But are those the smallpox v cowpox dairymaids?

Re: Got the theme now

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Wiki mentions a Sarah, but not an Emily. It is not v detailed about it, though.

Re: Got the theme now

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

No, it's a fictional smallpox epidemic on Sweeting's Island

The theme is incidents in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brien. Boring huh?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Or scarlet! Although does that come in plagues?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

ii Is this smallpox, and these the dairymaids who were observed with cowpox, and thus immune to smallpox?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ooh I remember this, this would make sense.

(I remember learning about it, not the actual occurrence)

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

iv. You get both captains and stewards (and captain's stewards, I think) on ships, both naval and regular flavours. Do you get them both in armies/airforces? Anywhere else?

Boiling jam juice = sugar burn = OW!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

iv) Planes!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

vii) Get Stuffed on Essex Road!

[(Anonymous)]

春物が出ているので、そういうのを買うほうがいい。

[(Anonymous)]

Topperだけ買う？

[(Anonymous)]

Californiaから送る？

[(Anonymous)]

ホテルにお願いして、Ron Ben Israelのケーキを再現してもらう。