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Internet Scavenger Hunt #8 Answers
Here are the answers to the eighth Internet Treasure Hunt, brought to you by WebLens Search Portal. For this and other Internet Scavenger Hunt questions, see the Hunt Index.
In what European country are the towns of Wil and Glarus located? I made this one too easy. Wil and Glarus are towns (actually, Glarus is a "canton") in Switzerland. You'd have had a lot more difficulty with this question had I not included Glarus, since Wil is much more obscure. Silly me. I thought I'd give you a break. One reader, who reported using MapQuest, admitted that a lucky guess that these names sounded "Germanic" saved her hours of fruitless searching.
This woman was the sister of one of Rome's greatest tyrants and the mother of another (at whose hands she died violently). Who was she? Not with this one though. I really thought this question would stump you. But my determined readers are like bloodhounds when it comes to the Hunt. It was no easy task, though, to sniff out the fact that Agrippina was the woman in question -- sister of Caligula and mother of the detested Emperor Nero, at whose hands she died violently.
What is the scientific name of the cashew nut? Almost everyone correctly reported that the scientific name of the cashew nut is Anacardium Occidentale. I thought this one would be harder to find, since searching on "cashew" would be likely to yield dozens of recipes and/or sites selling the popular snack food. Still, not enough diversions to distract the determined Hunt hound.
Who wrote the lyrics to the classic song "Star Dust"? (careful here) I thought this one would stop you for sure, since Hoagy Carmichael is the name usually associated with the tune "Star Dust." Indeeed, he wrote the music, but Mitchell Parish penned the lyrics to this frequently recorded song, as fully half of you correctly reported.
If you ordered "rognons and choucroute" in a French restaurant, what would you be served? Yuck! Gross. Rognons and choucroute are indeed kidneys and sauerkraut. Several people checked French-English dictionaries to confirm the meaning. One reader ascertained the correct answer by consulting the "Gastronomical Word List." I didn't even know that this nauseating combination of French words was an entree, but no less than three readers sent recipes!
What popular flavouring substance comes from the seedpods of a climbing orchid? Another easy one. Vanilla is the flavouring that comes from the seedpods of a climbing orchid. Two readers admitted making educated guesses about this, and then searching on the word "vanilla" itself. Others searched on "orchid*" and "flavour*".
Who was the real-life Scottish sailor who inspired Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe". Alexander Selkirk is the real-life Robinson Crusoe who inspired Daniel Defoe. Most readers searched on "Robinson Crusoe" and the words "Scottish" and "sailor," to quickly unearth this obscure fact.
What kind of wood was supposedly used to build Noah's Ark? According to the searchable King James version of the Bible, Noah's Ark was supposedly made of Gopher wood, which was likely a popular term for Cypress. Both these answers were allowed, since they are used interchangeably in numerous references.
What temperature would you encounter at Absolute Zero? The temperature at Absolute Zero is -273 Celsius, which just about everyone discovered easily. I thought that the fact that the rock group "Absolute Zero" is all over the Net would at least sidetrack you for a while! Most readers got around this obstruction by including the word "temperature" in their search term.
What does the term "stichomythia" mean? And finally, stichomythia. Sounds like an exotic disease. But you won't find this word in a medical dictionary or Hypertext Webster. This fact didn't deter dedicated Hunt hounds, though. They turned, instead, to specialized tools like the "Glossary of Poetic Terms," where they learned that this word is a literary term for "a dramatic dialogue of lively repartee in alternate verse lines."