Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Joe Di Cola]

(04-28-2019 06:53 PM)Joe Di Cola Wrote:  The names so for Reno and magenta where are used to name the colors based on how bloody the battlefield appeared at the close of fighting.

Sheesh! I should have edited this! Voice recognition technology is fine, but not always spot-on!

[GustD45]

Unless you are speaking like you are speaking to a toddler, Joe, voice recognition technology will bite you in the butt.

[Joe Di Cola]

(04-29-2019 10:56 AM)GustD45 Wrote:  Unless you are speaking like you are speaking to a toddler, Joe, voice recognition technology will bite you in the butt.

I have a family member whose name is Don and who, because of voice recognition, is now known as "Diane!" Now where did I put those butt-sized bandages?!

[RJNorton]

I think Rob's photo which includes a bathtub made me think of this question. Try to answer without research.

Last night Vicki and I were watching the Smithsonian Channel's hour-long presentation on King Louis XIV of France. Louis XIV lived just shy of 77 years. According to the show, how many baths did Louis XIV take during his life?

[Rogerm]

I did not watch the show and will make the outrageous guess that he did not take any baths during his life.

[RJNorton]

Close enough, Roger! Very good. According to the show he took a grand total of 3 baths during his life. The show also mentioned that the perfume business was thriving at that time!

[Anita]

Lincoln had indoor plumbing at the White House. What type of bath did he take?

[RJNorton]

I will guess he used a bathtub?

[Anita]

Actually not for this type of bath.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(06-11-2019 07:58 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Close enough, Roger! Very good. According to the show he took a grand total of 3 baths during his life. The show also mentioned that the perfume business was thriving at that time!

What a pity I am too late - I would have known this. It was fashion to use perfume to cover the smell. (And I don't understand why folks use deo after sports - before/without showering...)

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(06-11-2019 04:03 PM)Anita Wrote:  Actually not for this type of bath.

J. Q. Adams swam naked in the Potomac every day. Maybe Lincoln did that, too? (But that needs no plumbing/White House.)
Another try - a bidet? (Hope it means the same in English - that Oriental "behind bath")

[Anita]

Eva, not a swim in the Potomac or a bidet.

Hint: This is a bath Lincoln took in the White House but not in the bathroom.

[Susan Higginbotham]

A sitz bath?

[L Verge]

Since he had foot problems, maybe a simple foot bath?

[Rogerm]

Didn't Lincoln refer to the daily flow of office-seekers and other people who accosted him at the White House as his "public bath," or something like that; which meant his exposure to public opinion.

[Anita]

Thank you for your logical replies. Here's the bath Lincoln described taking.

I tell you, Major,’ he said,–appearing at this point to recollect I was in the room, for the former part of these remarks had been made with half-shut eyes, as if in soliloquy,–‘I tell you that I call these receptions my ‘public-opinion baths;’ for I have but little time to read the papers and gather public opinion that way; and though they may not be pleasant in all their particulars, the effect, as a whole, in renovating and invigorating to my perceptions of responsibility and duty.'”5

Here it is in context. http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/the-...-visitors/
Mr. Lincoln himself explained why the reception of visitors was important to administration of the government: “For myself, I feel–though the tax on my time is heavy–that no hours of my day are better employed than those which thus bring me again within the direct contact and atmosphere of the average of our whole people. Men moving only in an official circle are apt to become merely official–not to say arbitrary–in their ideas, and are apter and apter, with each passing day, to forget that they only hold power in a representative capacity. Now this is all wrong. I go into these promiscuous receptions of all who claim to have business with me twice each week, and every applicant for audience has to take his turn, as if waiting to be shaved in a barber’s shop. Many of the matters brought to my notice are utterly frivolous, but others are of more or less importance, and all serve to renew in me a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which at the end of two years I must return. I tell you, Major,’ he said,–appearing at this point to recollect I was in the room, for the former part of these remarks had been made with half-shut eyes, as if in soliloquy,–‘I tell you that I call these receptions my ‘public-opinion baths;’ for I have but little time to read the papers and gather public opinion that way; and though they may not be pleasant in all their particulars, the effect, as a whole, in renovating and invigorating to my perceptions of responsibility and duty.'”5