How good are you at recognizing famous works of literature, music or movies from their plots? The plots sketched in the following paragraphs should give you enough clues to fill in the blanks with the name of each work, thus completing the sketch

Youngquist, Mary J.

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246 IN-FAMOUS CLASSICS MARY J. YOUNGQUIST Rochester, New York How good are you at recognizing famous works of literature, music or movies from their plots? The plots sketched in the following para­graphs should give you enough clues to fill in the blanks with the name of each work, thus completing the sketch. 1. An eccentric army cook had rigid rules for feeding his men. One of his quirks was to restrict certain spices and herbs to men of certain rank; for example, the colonel was entitled to have cumin, the captain was allowed sage, the general could have dill, and pri­vates were limited to parsley. One day a non-corn complained bitterly about the lack of flavor in his roast lamb, and asked the cook for a certain herb -- to which the cook arrogantly replied, II Well, sir, you know there's ••••••• in my mess hall. II 2. In a sequel to the above story, the cook was teaching his assist­ant how to bake bread. He demonstrated all the techniques of miXing and kneading the dough, and then said, 11 Now it must be left in a warm place until it doubles. II So he set the pan near a bright window and told the apprentice, II We t 11 just leave it there, •.••• 11 3. A customer entered a butcher shop in the Far North and asked the manager what specialty meats he had to sell. The butcher listed a few: deer, elk, moose, bear, buffalo, and one old racehor se whose final destiny was transformation into dog food. The customer asked, 11 Why did you get rid of the horse? And how much are those two kinds of meat there?" The butcher tersely replied, 11 Because he wouldn 't ..••••• for 98¢ a pound, and elk sells for $1.50. 11 4. An enterprising shyster decided to exhibit his house to the pub­lic as the birthplace of a famous actor. One awe- struck tourist asked, 11 Did Clark really live here?" The shyster replied, II Ah, yes, when he was alive, we were one big happy family. Then there were eight of us, but with Clark mis sing, this is just ••••••• I' 5. A fruit vendor was showing to a customer samples of the vari­eties of apples he had to sell. He brought out one after another from some hie one, ren ture ?1\ I kept we11 6. KJ men kepi afternoOl William' you leavE 7. It by the fil wrenchin his wife, 8. Al shopping, same. II can have 9·. An perfect f1 ret, he r, use ..... 10. A pan. The most of tl "We spen 11. In made of a spirit wal as II My • 12. A rid of unv sold at re were grec tourists a 13. A pet deer < without hi a quick tr ature. mlls ic owing para­lth the name his men. to men of e cumin, and pri­tined bitterly Dok for a 11, sir. .g his assist­s of mixing ft in a warm ihdowand b::; l::~:: a rse whose mer asked, se two kinds :e wouldn't e to the pub­:mrist asked, yes, when we re eight of 247 some hidden supply in the back room. The customer, upon tasting one, remarked. 'I Is this a Ma.cIntosh that you 1 ve kept at room tempera­ture 7" 11 No. II replied the vendor, 11 that I s. not a Mac, and it 1 S been kept well-chilled; that 1 s ••••••. 11 6. King Arthur was irked. One after another of his Round Table men kept disturbing him while he was trying to catch forty winks one afterllOon. Finally, after a dozen interruptions, he roared,1t Great WilliaIn I s Ghost' You I re the ••••••• to come barging in here I Can 1 t you leave me alone ?Il 7. It was a peaceful winter night. John and his wife were settled by the fire wHh a bowl of pecans and mugs of cider. After a few j aw­wrenching attempts at shelling the pecans with his teeth, John asked his wife, l' The se things are just too hard; would you bring me ,.,.,. 711 8. Alice and Betty ,stopped at a snack bar after a strenuous day of shopping. Betty ordered coffee, and asked Alice if she'd have the same. 11 No, It replied Alice, 1\ Iny doctor has f~rbidden coffee J but I can have ..•••.• itously. 11 9·. An old shoemaker was known for his fine work, especially the perfect fit of his specialty -- Indian moccasins. When asked his sec­ret, he replied, II Well, you see, in shaping my moccasins, I always use 11 10. A tourist foursome returned from a cruise on an Oriental sam­pan. They hadn ' t seen much of the scenery on their trip, as they spent most of their tiIne playing cards. As one of them explained to a friend, 11 We spent our vacation playing •••.••. 11 11. In a little-known chapter of the story of Aladdin, mention is Inade of a Inagic spirit other than tho se of the laInp and the ring. This spirit was always accompanied by a tan rabbit; Aladdin referred to hiIn as 11 My 11 12. A sInall gift shop in the shadow of the Kremlin decided to get rid of unwanted items by having special bargain hours. Everything sold at regular prices during the day, but for an hour at dusk, items wer e greatly reduced. The store soon becaIne faInous to American tourists as the shop with .•••.•• 13. A faInous naturalist toured the country lecturing, often with a pet deer a s a special attraction. On one of the se trips he appeared without his deer, explaining to his New York audience, II I had to Inake a quick trip from California J and .••••.• '1 248 14. A fisherman in one of our southern states discovered a fish that yielded a rare and tasty kind of caviar, golden in color. He mar­keted his find, and soon he became famous as the seller of .•••.•• 15. An art dealer specialized in antique s of Old World origin, especially those of the Mediterranean area. Often his customers bought objects on the time-payment plan, and stopped in weekly with the payments. One day he spotted a customer leaving, and asked his as sistant, 11 Did he corne in to pay what he •••••.• ?" Answers are given in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue. QUERY In the May 1971 Kickshaws, Dave Silverman is sued the diffi­cult challenge of finding four letters which, together with each of the 26 letters, can be rearranged to form 26 five-letter words. Unfortunately, these constructions tend to founder when the rarest letters of the alphabet are reached. Readers may wish to aid in a somewhat simpler re search task. The words SEXUAL and SQUEAL use the same letters except that X is substituted for Q; similarly, ESQUIRE and SEIZURE use the same letters except that Z is substituted for Q. If one is restricted to the four rarest letters (J, Q, X, Z) there are six different types of rare-letter substitutions. How many different word-pairs can one find for each type? (Note that rearrangement is not required; JEST and ZEST are a valid word-pair.) To keep the list from getting out of hand, one may want to restrict the search to (say) Webster I s Collegiate. PALIN[ J. A. LINI Weybridge, 

In-Famous Classics

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In-Famous Classics

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