Tuesday Trivia

1. In 1878, which writer attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest — an act that did not leave him seriously injured but inspired his uncle to clear his debts?
2. Which author was rendered nearly blind by an eye illness that forced him to leave school — making his interest in scientific training and medicine impossibility?
3. There are over 2,700 languages throughout the world, but how many dialects?
4. Which medieval word is both the longest word in English that contains only vowels and also is the word with the most consecutive vowels?

Last Week's Answers

Which American author spent the first forty years of her life in China where her parents were missionaries?


Pearl S. Buck



Which author drafted insults to have on hand in case he ever needed to use them — a list which was discovered and published after his death in 1937?

A E Housman, wrote, “Nature, not content with denying to Mr — the faculty of thought, has endowed him with the faculty of writing” along with a variety of other insults with the name left blank. A complete list was published in Laurence Housman's A. E. H. (1937).


In what year was the first English-language Encyclopaedia Britannica published?

The first English-language Encyclopaedia Britannica published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1771.


How many words are included in the longest book title in the world?

The longest title of a book is 1,433 characters (290 words) and was written by Davide Ciliberti of Italy in July 2007. The book describes the idiosyncrasies of the PR world. The full title is Per favore dite a mia madre che faccio il pubblicitario lei pensa che sono un pierre e che quindi regalo manciate di free entry e consumazioni gratis a chi mi pare, rido coi vips, i calciatori le veline e le giornaliste, leggo Novella e mi fotografano i paparazzi, entro neI privé saltando la coda, bevo senza pagare, sono ghiotto di tartine e gin tonic, ho la casa piena di oggetti di design, conosco Paris Hilton, Tom Ford ed Emilio


What was the first book Amazon ever sold?

The first book Amazon.com sold was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.