Putting The Boot Into A House Divided

Boot Camp

Last week Italy celebrated it's 150th birthday as a unified nation state. Yet Thursday's celebrations up and down the Italian  peninsula were overshadowed by both bitter regional divisions and the latest raft of scandals swirling around the country's controversial Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Up until 1861 what became Italy was a patchwork of principalities and city states and a century and a half later, local and regional loyalties remain much stronger for many Italians than any sense of national identity. Consequently, spokespeople for the We South political party complained of the concentration of wealth and economic opportunities in the north of the country, while their Northern League counterparts continued their insinuations that the south was populated by a feckless peasantry whose workshy and criminal tendencies drained the fruits of honest northern labour. As for Berlusconi, he found himself booed and jeered at an event in Rome to mark Italy's 15oth anniversary. The Prime Minister is facing trial on April 6th charged with abusing his office and paying for sex with amongst others an erotic dancer known by her stage name of Ruby the Heartbreaker. Faced with this unedifying spectacle, we decided to postpone our planned Italy quiz until a more auspicious time, and instead take inspiration from Italy's shape by setting a boot themed quiz.          

 Boots Quiz 

 1  Who sang the original version of the song 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'?

 2  In the mythology of the American 'wild west' what type of place was known as Boot Hill?

 3  Which actor provided the voice for the Puss in Boots character in the 'Shrek' films?

 4  A boot was one of one of the original playing pieces available for competitors to use in the early editions of the 'Monopoly' board game, how many of the others can you name?

 5  Mukluks are a type of boot originally worn by indigenous people of which of the world's geographical regions?

Answers will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Newspaper Quiz Answers 

The answers to the previous Highly Questionable quiz, which took newspapers as its theme, are:-

 1  'The Washington Post' was the newspaper that Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward worked at when they broke the Watergate scandal that led to the political demise of President Nixon.

 2  'Pravda' was the name of the Russian newspaper, the title of which translates in English as 'truth', that acted as the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party during the country's Soviet era

 3   'The Daily Planet' is the fictional newspaper that Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman) and Lois Lane write for in the imaginary city of Metropolis. 

 4  'Scoop' is the title of Evelyn Waugh's novel that satirises sensationalist journalism and features the newspaper 'The Beast'.

 5  'The Front Page' was the hit Broadway musical that revolved around the Chicago based newspaper industry which was later adapted into the 1974 Billy Wilder directed movie of the same name starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.    

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.