9/10 for me today, educated guesses got me through torii and Holst, but I didnt know what a bruin is. Heard of the Boston Bruins and figured that area would be more likely to have bison than bears.
True, but you'll also see I said New England, because I don't think a lot of bears hang out in Boston, either. There may be foxes, though. They don't need quite as much solitude.
My only reference was William S. Preston Esquire - ie Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I thought “bro is no lawyer so I guess it’s the land thing?”. Who would have thought Bill and Ted was an unreliable source of facts?
I took the same approach, and it turned out to be right! "The brown bear is sometimes referred to as the bruin, from Middle English. This name originated in the fable History of Reynard the Fox, translated by William Caxton, from the Middle Dutch word bruun or bruyn, meaning "brown"."
It's a common US word for the 'Brown Bear'...and then there's the Grizzley, Kodiak, Black bears, Polar & Atlas which I think are extinct...and probably others.
The esquire one got me. I thought it was simply a quaint alternative to Mr, although once was associated with land ownership. Google AI tells me it means lawyer in the US, Australia and NZ, which is wrong for the latter two.
It's an interesting linguistic evolution of the term from the knights' 'squires' of medieval times, running through the 14-17th century Inns of Court--which were law schools and social clubs limited to the gentry. Oversimplified, those who would have become squires to a knight in medieval times instead became lawyers and administrators. As these sons of the gentry (gentlemen) evolved from warriors' assistants -> gentlemen administrators -> learned professionals, the term squire evolved along with them.
In the US, it's kind of an odd standout where the lawyers preserved English tradition while publicly rejecting aristocracy. It's likely they wanted a neutral honorific that didn't imply nobility, akin to 'Doctor.'
Funny story. I only got the Holst Question right because literally yesterday we had to read an article on the history of Holst's works as an assignment for concert band
I thought Mozart did the planets, but I guess it was just Jupiter. And now thinking more about it, even that one is probably the Roman god and not the planet. Anyway I got that one wrong, along with the Shinto question.
9/10 At least recovered from yesterday's travesty, on Q5 I went the 'country squire' route & figured it was landowners. Stats on the bruin question surprised me....bruin in Dutch means 'bear' & in the US there are dozens of 'Bruin' team names (including UCLA, my alma mater) all with bearlike mascots.
To be fair, my logic was very flawed anyway, since I don't think Detroit has a very high lion population haha
To paraphrase, I think it was meant: "I got a 10, but I guessed most of the answers".
It's an interesting one - how does a shield-bearer relate to a lawyer? I guess the metaphor makes sense.
In the US, it's kind of an odd standout where the lawyers preserved English tradition while publicly rejecting aristocracy. It's likely they wanted a neutral honorific that didn't imply nobility, akin to 'Doctor.'
Also did not know bruin.