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Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada
My virtue is that I say what I think, my vice that what I think doesn't amount to much.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Globe and Mail: The Great Canadian Literary Quiz

I read a lot so I should ace this quiz, right? No way. Of the first ten questions I knew only numbers 3 and 7.

"1. What 2005 novel begins with this sentence? 'It starts off there's an alligator with its jaws open on a dirt road.'
2. What comes after Vidiadhar Surajprasad?
3. 'As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.' The quote is from a winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. What does that contest recognize?
4. I was imprisoned in Venice for practising magic. I was a librarian in Bohemia. I am a noted, if doubted, memoirist. Who am I?
5. It runs from Barbara Ward Jackson to Stephen Lewis. What is it?
6. What are the stomping grounds of these Canadian sleuths?
i) John Cardinal
ii) William Murdoch
iii) Eric Stride
iv) Ellis Portal
7. 'Every word she writes is a lie, including 'a' and 'the.' ' Who's dissing whom?
8. Nickels aplenty are found in what recent Canadian novel?
9. What book has new Nortel chief Mike Zafirovski been brandishing?
10. Who is the author of Touch Me: Poems, After the Fall, Wednesday's Children: Adult Survivors of Abuse Speak Out and Eat, Cheat & Melt the Fat Away?"

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