Brought to you by quizmaster Graham Jones
The magnificent Pitsmoor Scarecrow Festival served to highlight how making scarecrows stretches back around the world for thousands of years. Scarecrows feature in many religions and cultures. They appeal to all ages. They can represent good or evil, famine or fertility, poverty or wealth, wisdom and stupidity life or death. Making them is real folk craft and home based fun for all the family. Let the Pitsmoor Scarecrow Festival flourish and maybe you’ll even make one next year. Be proud of your scarecrow: it is unique!
1. In the Scarecrow’s song in the 1939 film ‘The Wizard of Oz’, what body part is the scarecrow lacking? “I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers Consultin’ with the rain. And my head I’d be scratchin’ while my thoughts were busy hatchin’ If I only had a …”
2. Which scarecrow lived on Scatterbrook Farm in a series of books by Barbara Euphan Todd? He was later to appear in a popular TV series.
3. “Scarecrow” appears on the album “The piper at the gates of dawn” by which English rock band?
4. In DC Comics which superhero who is the arch-enemy of the Master of Fear “The Scarecrow”, an ex-professor of psychology in Gotham City?
5. In the 1978 film, The Wiz, which musical legend played the part of the scarecrow?
6. Which English writer who visited Sheffield, is believed to have written the word “Scarecrow” for the first time in English literature? It occurs in his famous 1719 book about a man who is shipwrecked.
7. Which country is the origin of the scarecrow god, Kuebiko? In the Shinto religion he is the god of agriculture and wisdom: he might be physically disabled but he is aware of everything.
8. Scarecrows have been around for thousands of years. In Ancient Greece scarecrows were made in the image of Priapus the god of fertility.Was this because: a) He represented fertility and wealth. b) he was extremely ugly. c) his grandmother had been a crow d) his name means “bird scarer” in Greek.
9. In which country might you find museums specifically dedicated to the following subjects: Scarecrows, mice, vodka, funeral culture, and, of course, car jacking.
10. Why did the scarecrow win the Nobel prize? Scarecrow quiz
Brought to you by quizmaster Graham Jones
Last issue’s quiz answers:
1. a 100; 2. a 15; 3. c Denmark; 4. b Jamaica; 5. c London; 6. Paris, Dublin, Brussels, Amsterdam; 7. a Pakistan; 8. b Moslem; 9. a 5%; 10. c 140 years.
