Art Questions Galore!

One of the most popular parts of Musea has always been our monthly art questions. Here is an issue full of them - plus some puzzlers and games too - enjoy!

First Round:
Here's a group of Q and A - first the questions, then a reference animal to mark your place, then the answers follow at the end. Would you have won the prize? Good luck!

Questions:
Q. Ant - In what country did the Cinderella fairy tale originate?
Clue - Cindy had small feet
Q. Bear - It's the first week of January 1914. A certain someone goes into a wardrobe shed and emerges dressed as a figure that remains to this day the world's best known fictional representation of a human being. Name the costume.
Q. Cat - Many critics think this is the most beautiful and enchanting comic strip ever penned. It was one of the first and debuted on Oct. 15, 1905. Name it.
Q. Cow - What simple way is there to walk through any maze and get out the other end - EVEN BLINDFOLDED!
Q. Deer-What was the first novel written on a typewriter?
Q. Dog -What ancient lost fortress city was discovered virtually intact by an American (who later became a Governor and an US Senator) in 1911?
Q. Fish -What is the "Tonic Sol-fa"?
Q. Fox - What artists took abstraction to its ultimate with his painting entitled White on White?
Q. Goat - Dante was one of the world's greatest poets. One of the world's greatest pieces of sculpture was originally the figure of Dante. Name it.
Q. Hare - Speaking of thea-taa, who was the first actor in recorded history?

Q. Lion - Literary math question:
1. Take the temperature at which books burn
2. Divide it by that "Catch" number.
3. Multiply by the sum of the digits in that "Big Brother" year. What number do you keep getting no matter how many times you repeat the process?

Q. Lamb - What 20 minute film of 1927 featured a pie fight that used 4000 real pies?
Q. Mouse -What is the term that expresses the technique used in playing the harp where the player quickly goes up and down the scale using his fingers and thumb?
Q. Robin - Why are there no shadows in Japanese Paintings?
Q. Snake - Who wrote an entire novel without using the letter "E"?
Q. Tiger - Where does the snow on your TV set come from?
Q. Wolf - This form of divination came from asking a question then randomly picking a quotation from a book - in the West, the Bible and Virgil's Aeneid were favorites - and seeing how the quote chosen related to predicting one's future. What is this type of divination called?
Q. Worm - Name the single largest collaborative art project ever undertaken in the U.S. Clue: it consisted of 2.5 million pieces of art.
Q. Yak - One of the most popular characters in literature was based on a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk. Name the literary character.
Q. Zebra - I am looking through my time machine telescope: and I see Mozart at the EISVOGEL, Shubert at the BOGNER, Beethoven playing piano at the FRAUENHUBER, Strauss Sr. at the SILBERNESS, Jr. At the DOMMAYER, Mahler at the SPERL, Brahms taking a nap at the HEINRICHSAHOF and Klimt and Schiele at the MUSEUM. What kinds of hangouts are all thse artists hanging out at?
Q. Lobster - This painter studied with Andrew Wyeth, worked for not only the pulp magazines but every major slick mag from The Saturday Evening Post to Cosmopolitan, painted portraits of President Kennedy, and others, and was a 1st rate pin-up artist in the 40's, but hey, NONE OF THAT MATTERS because it was he who not only painted the dogs gambling but the POOL PLAYING DOG PICTURE, The Hustler that just happens to be the best selling print in American art history. Name him.
Q. Elephant - Poor scientists - never get the credit they deserve! They're the real rock stars! For instance the following list of names is of scientists whose inventions/discoveries of this century have each revolutionized at least 1 art form. They are some of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to name their discoveries. The entry with the most correct will win with a 2 correct minimum:
Leo Baekeland, Wallace Carothers, Philo T. Farnsworth, Chester Carlson, Tim Berners-Lee.

Answers:
A. Ant - The foot-binding country of China. Our winner Molly Ferguson added, 'She began with the name Yen-shen. Her story was recorded by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih in AD 850-60.
A. Bear - The Little Tramp costume of Charlie Chaplain. He said that he chose the costume so that everything would be a contradiction - pants too big and baggy, coat too tight, hat too small, boots too large, then added the cane and small mustache. "I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, ... I began to know him, and by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born."
A. Cat - Little Nemo In Slumberland where each night he'd take another trip into the world of his dreams.
A. Cow - Put your left hand on the left wall and without letting go, walk through the maze. Also works with your right hand on the right wall.
A. Deer - Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain in 1876.
A. Dog - Machu Picchu, fortress city of the ancient Incas, which covers 5 sq. mi. of terraced stonework linked by 3,000 steps, high in the Andes. The discoverer was Hiram Bingham from Connecticut.
A. Fish - It is the method of musical notation using letters and syllables instead of notes on a stave, devised by John Curwen. The 8 notes of a major scale are denoted by do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. Sharps and flats - just change the syllable - sol sharp is se, and ti flat, is taw.
A. Fox - The Russian, Kasimir Malevitch, inventor of "Suprematism." It was painted c. 1918.
A. Goat - "The Thinker; The Poet, Fragment of a Door." Or as we know it, The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. The Thinker was originally conceived by Rodin as the figure Dante pondering the Inferno (part 1 of his 3 part Divine Comedy)
A. Hare - Thespis, who in 535 B.C. Greece won the first 'tragic contest'. He is known as the father of Greek Drama because he introduced the idea of an actor playing against the chorus.
A. Lion - 1. Farenheit 451 divided by, 2. Catch 22 and multiply by 3. The sum of the digits of that "Big Brother Year" "1+9+8+4" = 22. 451 divided by 22 times 22 = 451. A nightmare of a puzzle!
A. Lamb - The 1927 short of Laurel & Hardy, entitled The Battle of the Century 12-31-27
A. Mouse - "Glissando"
A. Robin - Because the Japanese feel that shadows are temporary and only that which is permanent should be in paintings.
A. Snake - French writer George Perec in his novel A Void or La Disparition.
A. Tiger -It is remnants of radiation from the big bang. Specifically, 1% are photons from the Big Bang!
A. Wolf - Bibliomancy.
A. Worm - With 750 artists working from "34-37" on 2.5 million pieces of art: storymen, layout and background artists, animators, inkers, painters, and cameramen - it was Walt Disney's film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated full length film.
A. Yak - It was Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Our winner, Jack Hamilton adds these fun facts: The island Selkirk was marooned on was Juan Fernandez, 400 miles due west of Valparaiso, Chile. Selkirk was part of a group of ships controlled by Capt. Bartholomew Sharp (Black Bart). He quarreled with his ships captain, William Dampier, and by mutual agreement was set ashore, thinking the crew would mutiny and join him. They did not! He was stranded (he had foolishly taken no food or water) for 4 years 4 months until he was rescued in Feb 1709, when English privateers saw the smoke of his fire.
A. Zebra - Coffeehouses. Vienna is world famous for them.
A. Lobster - Arthur Sarnoff.
A. Elephant - Leo Baekeland - plastic - records to computer casings, etc.
Wallace Carothers - synthetic fibers - fashion
Philo T. Farnsworth - TV picture tube - tv
Chester Carlson - photocopier - zines
Tim Berners-Lee - Internet.

Plan "B" : There is a secret webpage on our website.
Find it, click on it, and win a cash prize.

Son of Puzzle Page:
Here's some newer ones from the online weekly Musea contests WITH PRIZES! Answers follow the reference fruits and vegetables: Questions:
Q - Apple - In the children's classic poem (by anonymous) with this first stanza: "There was a little girl/And she had a little curl/ Right in the middle of her forehead / When she was good / She was very, very good / And when she was bad she was horrid"/. What was the name of the little girl? (Clue - its' in the 3rd verse)
Q - Banana - In ballet you've all seen this move - the move where the dancer crosses his/her feet several times during a leap into the air. But what is that move called?
Q - Spinach - Car design is art too - its auto-architecture. So why was 1959 such a big year when it came to US automobile design?
Q - Asaparagus - Why are the best Hawaiian shirts made of Rayon instead of natural fibers?
Q - Plum - Who are these people:
She irons her
long straight hair
and I a goatee
always wear
Q - Orange -This editor changed his first idea, "Scientifiction" into a new and better term, Science Fiction, and it stuck. He first printed the term in June 1929. Name him.
Q - Kiwi - Sometimes you do a question for yourself and this is one. I'm reading about the golden age of TV. And the biggest joke of the era - one that Uncle Miltie used often (as did many other comics) was... "Since I've been on television, they've sold a lot of sets... Now you supply the punch line.
Q - Pear - According to the Whole Pop Catalogue, the 3 most reproduced images in the world are: #3 Elvis, #2 Jesus, #1 ? Who is #1?
Q - Corn - Speaking of Mickey Mouse (and the world is topsy turvy when a mouse beats a cat), According to Fantagraphics Books, the most popular cartoon character of the silent film era (before he was toppled by said Mickey Mouse) was...???
Q - Blueberries - Fill in the fifth line of this roadside poem:
If you want/ a hearty squeeze/ Get your female/ Anti-freeze/ ?
Q - Tomato - Who owns the world's largest collection of rubber stamps?
(This asked around Xmas season - hint hint)
Q - Potato - Speaking of the Post Office (nice segue coming up) This address is dialogue from what major play?
"It said, Jane Crofut; the Crofut Farm; Grover's Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe, the Mind of God - that's what it said on the envelope - and the postman brought it just the same."
Q - Peach - This literary form has the length of a single breath. Name it.
Q - Rhubarb - Artists such as Picasso, Bakst, Roualt, and Derain designed settings for him; and Poulenc, Milhaud, Strauss, Ravel and Stravinsky wrote music for him - name this impresario.
Q - Grapes - What was created for the opening of the Suez Canal? And who created it?
Q - Lettuce - True event: Velazquez was in his studio. King Philip IV walked in and said, "Still here, Admiral? I thought you had left!" "The Admiral has gone, Sire", replied Velazquez. Explain the mystery of the missing Admiral.
Q - Bean - What's the largest Museum in the world. Clue: it has 15 miles of walkways!
Q - Cucumber - What fictional character is a member of the International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs, and Nuclear Technicians Local 643?
Q - Strawberry - This is for fellow poets who gaze at the stars for inspiration: If there are an infinite amount of stars, shouldn't these stars light every point around the earth? Why is it dark anywhere? This puzzle has a name and is called the '___ Paradox'. Name that paradox!
Q - Cocoa Bean - I like those questions who cross merge two art forms. Freud wrote a book where he psychoanalysed a famous painter. Name that painter.
Q - Greens - One of the kings of radio comedy was Jack Benny (and later TV comedy too). He got his biggest laugh on this joke. Give me the punchline: A hold-up man says to Benny, 'Your money or your life." There is a long pause and then the hold-up man said, "Well?" Benny replies, ?
Q - Lima Beans - Remember the Lucy episode where she's in Monte Carlo and tosses a chip on the table, wins, lets' it ride and wins again etc.? Well this event really happened, and it happened to a major action movie star of the mid '60's. This actor tried his luck in 1963 at the roulette table in an Italian casino. He bet number 17 and won. He let his money ride, and again the wheel stopped at 17. He bet once more on 17 and won a third time, successfully bucking odds of over 40 thousand to one against three consecutive wins and collected $30,000. Name the actor.

Answers:
A - Apple - Jemima
A - Banana - It's called 'entrechat'
A - Spinach - 1959 was the year of the car TAIL FIN. And it reached its 'heights' in that year. Visiting Soviet Premier, Krushchev asked this about the tail fins - "What do these things do, anyway?"
A - Asparagus - Surf's Up but, NO WINNER. Answer is, the best Hawaiian shirts are on rayon rather than natural fiber because the material holds those bright colors better.
A - Plum - Beatniks. A group who gave us such terms as bread ($), busted, cat, chick, cool, cop out, dig, crazy, drag, like (like man...), man, pad, square, wig (mind) etc.
Definitely squaresville daddio , NO WINNER.
A - Orange - Hugo Gernsback. (He also was the first to start a sci-fi magazine.) There were 3 correct ineligible answers. The rest of you were probably being probed at the time.
A - Kiwi - Slowly I turn - step by step - everyone must have been slipping on a banana peel or being sprayed by seltzer cause none got the correct punchline which was: "My uncle sold his, my father sold his...
A - Pear - MICKEY MOUSE #1!.
A - Corn - We had 5 or 6 correct answers with Felix The Cat Right-e-o! As FTC would say.
A - Blueberries - The fifth line of this road side poem was Burma Shave. Before the 60's there were these sets of roadside signs - with each sign carrying a line from a poem. The final line was the ad - Burma Shave. At their height there were 40,000 signs set by crews called 'PhDs' - post hole diggers.
A - Tomato - The US Post Office - silly.
A - Potato - The Thorton Wilder Play, Our Town
A - Peach - HAIKU, 17 syllables said in one breath
A - Rhubarb - Sergei Diaghilev, head of the Ballet Russe. Stravinksy wrote the celebrated Firebird for him.
A - Grapes - the premiere of Verdi's opera AIDA first performed in 1871.
A - Lettuce - People! People! People! How could you MISS this? Are you all graduates of DISD? (Dallas Independent School District: If you're dumb as dumb can be, must be from D-I-S-D!) Clue: Velasquez was perhaps the greatest PORTRAIT painter that ever lived. When the King thought he was talking to the Admiral he was talking to his PORTRAIT! Shame on all of you - no one got this. I should get a prize back from y'all collectively as punishment for missing this!
A - Bean - the Hermitage in Russia. It's so big it'll hold the Met and the Louvre inside it and have room left over.
A - Cucumber - Homer J. Simpson from the cartoon show The Simpsons.
A - Strawberry - the "Olbers Paradox." The reason the night sky is NOT filled with starlight is twofold: 1. the stars are all receding and separating from each other, and 2. many are new and/or so far away their light hasn't had time to get to us.
A - Cocoa Bean - Leonardo DaVinci. It rambles a lot - as most Freud writings do - but there is a lot of insight about both genuises in it.
A - Greens - Benny replies, "I'm Thinking It Over"
A - Lima Beans - Sean Connery of 007 fame!

Musea's toughest puzzle is 'e-Z' and nothing to loose sleep over (more 'Z's'). Solve it and win cash, but nobody can or probably ever will! See this IF YOU DARE: Musea issue #104 or
http://Musea.digitalchainsaw.com/104codering.html

For more Art Questions Click Here

And ONE LAST QUESTION: Why IS a raven like a writing desk? Have you got an answer to the unsolved Lewis Carroll conundrum? Send it in.
Here's mine: "One is 'stained' black, and the other is 'staying' black.

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