Quiz of the week.

Ah! Got it! I wouldn’t have spotted that in a million years! Nice one.

Blimey! me neither. good one.

Who’s next?

Ah! Got it! I wouldn’t have spotted that in a million years! Nice one. 😀

“No takers, no guesses as yet, perhaps a clue may be in order? Certainly a toughie. “
Think in terms of the cast of both films (pretty easy I guess once you check that but also surprised me when I last watched the film).

Nope. Got me stumped.

What’s the connection between John Carpenters “The Thing” and the film “Battle of the River Plate”

No takers, no guesses as yet, perhaps a clue may be in order? Certainly a toughie.

What’s the connection between John Carpenters “The Thing” and the film “Battle of the River Plate” ?

Hi John;

I must read the book as I must confess I haven’t as of yet. I have seen the film a few times which I always enjoy. Very atmospheric. Childers certainly lived a very full life in his 52 years.

Steve

Well done. ‘Riddle of the Sands’, a 1903 spy adventure novel by Erskine Childers featuring the little yacht Dulcebella. It’s about the rise of German sea power and spying in the Freisian Islands. He served loyally as a RNAS Officer in the Great War. He was of Irish Republican sympathies and was later executed by the British Government for his part in smuggling a cargo of Mauser rifles into Ireland. I first read the novel at school and I re-read it every few years as well as a pseudo sequel ‘Shadow in the Sands’ by Sam Llewellyn written some sixty years later. The original novel is probably why I eventually bought my little yacht.

The film is based broadly on the book, with Jenny Agutter in the cast.

John

Robert Erskine Childers?

Another Riddle. Dulcebella, A RNAS officer, Mauser rifles and an execution. The connection is…

John

Yes. that’s it. Well Done Sir!

Sir Nigel Gresley? He designed the Flying Scotsman (4472) and, during the 1930s, lived at Salisbury Hall where the dh Mosquito prototype (W4050) was built.

…. and the other is a steam train ‘princess alice’ (4050)

4472 is the Flying Scotsman so I doubt its that haha

Here’s one for you.

What’s the link between these numbers. 4050 & 4472

Excellent stuff! I knew about the Enola Gay/Roswell, connection….but failed to tie it all up.

David…very interesting quotes there.

Can we have some more quizzes please? It’s fun.

Steve

“Enola-or her fatal mistake” published in 1886
has the following passages in it….

Oh, fatal day – oh, day of sorrow,
It was no trouble she could borrow;
But in the future she could see
The clouds of infelicity……..

He is the bird of ill omen.
How harsh his midnight cry!
It seems to shriek, in mournful sounds,
Death! Death!…..

The Prince of the Air certainly causes them destructive cyclones, since he has control of our atmosphere.
They are displays of his wrath,
Oh! eternal woes! Deliver us from the “Prince of Darkness.”
Deliver us from his fiery embraces. Rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body.
“In calling me by the strange name of ‘Enola,’ I wonder if my dear departed parents
received a glimpse of the future life of their child in a camera, speaking to them
of her life of loneliness,” mused Enola, “for truly I am alone…”
[Note that ‘Enola’ is ‘alone’ spelled backwards.]

We have been discussing the clouds of sorrow that have obscured a bright and beautiful life, that afforded food for meditation.
How many clouds have darkened the horizon of other valuable lives.
There are clouds too real, not figurative, that we will now contemplate. …
The funnel-shaped cloud deals death and destruction to all that come within its whirling, deadly grasp.
When seeing the approach of such a cloud, it sends an agonizing thrill of horror into the heart of the beholder…
“…the vital question at issue now is, how to remedy the great evil that is about to engulf our moral law and prosperous government.
… I feel, that something should be speedily done to stem the tide of extravagance, threatening to ruin every civilized country on the face of the globe,” said Enola.
————————–

Damn! Too slow replying…

Enola Gay

What links the following?
1, a small child.
2, an 1886 Novel.
3, Roswell Army Air Base?

Ok Guys, some clever thinking to try and solve my riddle, but no correct answers. Time to come clean.

The connection is ‘Enola Gay’. The reasoning as follows:

1, a small child. As you know, The B29 ‘Enola Gay’ carried an atomic bomb to Horishima. The bomb was code-named ‘Little Boy’.

2, an 1886 Novel. ‘Enola Gay’ was named by Colonel Paul W Tibbets, after his mother Enola Gay Tibbets. She in turn was named after the heroine of an 1886 novel written by Mary Young Ridenbaugh, entitled ‘Enola: or, Her Fatal Mistake’.

3, Roswell Army Air Base. On 6th November 1945, ‘Enola Gay’ returned from her base, North Field on Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, back to the USA and 509ths new base at Roswell Army Air Base in New Mexico.

Thanks to all who had a think and a guess. I hope that I didn’t make it too cryptic.