Five pub quiz questions 4 – Quick Quiz answers

By British Expat, 1 February 2020

We asked you five “pub quiz” type questions. Here come the answers!

1. What is a Harper Runabout?
   It’s a three-wheeled single-seater motor vehicle which was made between 1921 and 1926 by Manchester-based A. V. Roe & Co. Avro (as they became better known) were more famous for their aircraft, including the Lancaster heavy bomber and the Vulcan nuclear-capable jet bomber.
2. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was Thane of Glamis. What English rank of nobility did “thane” roughly equate to?
   Baron. Macbeth’s title is a bit of an anachronism as the term “thane” didn’t appear in Scotland until David I (reigned 1124-1153) substituted it for the earlier Gaelic term tòiseach, meaning “leader” (cf. the Irish term Taoiseach for their head of government), who deputised for the mormaers – whom David retitled earls. Unlike their English equivalents, who were simply a lower rank than earls, Scottish thanes were deputies for them.
3. What was the name of the American actor who voiced the original Fred Flintstone?
   Alan Reed. He was born in New York to Jewish immigrant parents from Lithuania and Ukraine. His birth name was Herbert Theodore Bergman, and for a time he used Teddy Bergman as his screen name for more serious roles. He voiced Fred Flintstone for all six series of the original show – the first animated show to have a prime time slot on US television – between 1960 and 1966.
4. In the poem “Tam o’ Shanter” by Robert Burns, who is playing the bagpipes?
   The Devil, in a haunted church with witches and warlocks dancing along. The poem is one of Burns’ longer efforts and tells the story of an Ayrshire farmer who neglects his wife in favour of drinking on market days. It’s on his way home on a dark night, after a typical long session, that he sees the fiendish revelries.
5. In the British sitcom Men Behaving Badly, Gary (played by Martin Clunes) is the office manager for a company. What does the company sell?
   Burglar alarms. He was assisted in the office by George and Anthea, two older, conservative and (in George’s case) rather dim employees. The show ran for six series and was credited/blamed for kicking off “lad” culture in the 1990s; the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents criticised it for portraying a “lad’s culture of boozing and irresponsibility”.

How did you get on? Why not let us know?