Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Trivial Hoot Nine

A Big Darn Hoot to DM who got our last quiz right. DM is an official steely-eyed missile man. He knew that the fine looking fellow in the picture was Major General John Sedgewick, one of the most well-liked officers in the United States Army during the Civil War. During the Battle of Spotsylvania he saw that his men were ducking a sniper's bullets. “I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way,” he said. “They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.” A couple of minutes later the sniper found him. To quote from volume 3 of The Civil War: a Narrative by Shelby Foote: “He smiled strangely, as if to acknowledge the dark humor of what had turned out to be his last remark, and did not speak again. Within a few minutes he was dead.” John Sedgewick, an eternal monument to irony.

Now, way ahead of schedule, is our next puzzle. As always the first person to get it right will receive a big hoot and will join our roll of honor as a steely-eyed missile man or woman. Here goes:

Please name the author of the following works “Monograph on Cryptology,” “Age of Documents,” “Monographs of the Human Ear,” “Upon the Distinction Between the Ashes of Various Tobaccos,” and Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.

2 comments:

Kelly Sedinger said...

I disqualify myself on the basis that I Google'd the answer. But a good question! One that I should have been able to figure out based on the clues given.

Glenn Whidden said...

Thank you sir.