Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones

Indigenous peoples around the world are understandably upset when artefacts regarded by them as sacred are held by museums and other institutions in former colonial powers despite requests that they be returned. A case in point has been the dispute between Torres Strait islanders and the Natural History Museum in London over the skeletal remains of 138 people taken from the territory during the 19th century by explorers, missionaries and assorted other incomers. Living in their islands in the Arafura Sea, which lies between Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Torres Islanders have long argued that the souls of the dead have been unable to be at peace while their former body parts are held half way around the world. Now the Natural History Museum has agreed to return the islanders' remains and we at Highly Questionable applaud their decision with today's quiz on the theme of bones.             

 Bones Quiz  

 1  How many bones are there normally in an adult human body?
 2  What is the name given to the pirates' flag that features a white skull and cross bones on a black background?

 3  Which character in the cult TV series 'Star Trek' was nicknamed Bones by the programme's Captain Kirk.

 4  Who is the author of the 2002 novel 'The Lovely Bones' which was adapted for the 2010 film of the same name?

 5  'The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones', is a line delivered by which character in Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar'? 

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's Highly Questionable quiz.

  Stamp Quiz Answers 

 1  Philatelist is the term given to those who study or collect stamps.

 2  Ralph Fiennes is the actor who played the character Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films whose image appears on the new stamp issued by the British Royal Mail that was pictured in yesterday's Highly Questionable quiz.

 3  The Penny Black was the name of the first stamp issued anywhere in the world.

 4  Sweden was the country that issued the stamp, known as the Treskilling Yellow, which became the most expensive in the world when it fetched £1,429,000 at auction in 1996*.

 5  Tonga is the country that issued a stamp in the shape of a banana.
* Note that while media reports suggest that the stamp was again sold in a secret transaction in 2010 in Geneva, such details as there are indicate that the price paid for the Treskilling Yellow was at least that reached in the 1996 auction so that whatever the exact particulars of the dealings in Switzerland, the Swedish stamp remains the most expensive in the world. 
The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com.