Skeleton Trivia for Wednesday, 2025-06-18
Geese. Why did it have to be geese?
Hiya Skeleton Crew,
I’m still tryin’ to process the results a’ yesterday’s poll. The majority of youse guys voted for me to keep the ’postrophes around, so I’ll probably do that for the time bein’. But there were a fair number a’ youse who voted otherwise, so I feel like I should make some kinda “meet in the middle” compromise? I dunno, I’m gonna ponder it over a li’l more.
Answers to Last Time
Primo Levi wrote the short story collection Il sistema periodico (that’d be The Periodic Table in English).
Solomon’s Ring in the Bible supposedly gave him the ability to speak with animals, which is also what Doctor Dolittle could do in the books by Hugh Lofting.
Today’s Trivias
Trivia 1
I asked ’bout Solomon’s Ring because it was the title a’ that science book the Royal Institution of Great Britain liked so much, King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz.
Mr. Lorenz was one a’ the founders a’ what’s nowadays called ethology, the study a’ the behavior a’ non-human animals. Matter a’ fact, he co-won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for his work in the field! The folks at the Nobel website summarized part a’ his work like so:
“Konrad Lorenz revealed in the 1930s that birds hatched in an incubator without the presence of their parents follow whatever they first catch sight of. For example, they can become fixated on a person.”
What name do scientists give to this phenomenon?
Trivia 2
The title King Solomon’s Ring sounds a bit like—but is wholly unrelated to—the novel King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard. Like Ring, I don’t really hear too many folks referencin’ Mines these days, but lemme tell ya: it was HUGE back in the day. Matter a’ fact, it spawned a whole series a’ novels starrin’ what adventurer an’ big game hunter who was almost certainly one a’ the inspirations for Indiana Jones?
I think probably more folks know ’bout this character from his bein’ featured in Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series, an’ in particular his portrayal by Sean Connery in the movie adaptation they made in 2003.1
OK then
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Fun fact, Mr. Connery said he hated workin’ on the movie so much that it basically convinced him to retire from actin’ in movies altogether! An’ yep, it ended up bein’ his final live-action film role.