# "Plum" Perfect - for Wodehouse fans **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641 "2001-09-04T07:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/1 "2001-09-04T07:33:38Z")
Right - we’ve had the [Cheers](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54133) trivia thread, and the [M_A_S\*H](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54344) trivia thread - now we’re going to have a trivia thread dedicated to that master of English prose, P.G. (“Plum”) Wodehouse. Here’s a set of questions - let’s see how many get answered and how quickly. Any Plum fans, feel free to add your own questions. (Although I have a sneaking suspicion that if **CK Dexter Haven** plays, we should find some way to handicap him…) 1. Bertie Wooster is typically self-effacing and modest about his own accomplishments, but it is clear nonetheless that he is an accomplished athlete (although the mysteries of Rugby football remain a closed book to him). In what sport did he win his “blue” while at Oxford? 2. In most of the Blandings series, Lord Emsworth is in the grip of a prolonged pig mania. However, before attaching himself to the goal of the “fat pig,” the Earl had a short attachment to another agricultural pursuit. What agricultural pursuit occupied the Earl’s mind (using the term loosely) prior to the “fat pig” mania? 3. When Psmith came to Blandings he impersonated Ralston McTodd, a North American poet. What was McTodd’s home town? 4. What was the Christian name of the furniture-wrecking, hard-boiled-egg-throwing Duke of Dunstable? 5. Most of Lord Emsworth’s many sisters were elegant and aristocratic in appearence. One sister, however, looked like a cook. What was her name, and what difficulty did her appearence cause for Bill Lister? 6. What club did Galahad Threepwood belong to in the 1890’s, and which trained its sons well for the viscitudes of modern life? 7. How did Reggie Tennyson smuggle a diamond necklace into New York? 8. What did Freddie Widgeon throw at his host, Sir Mortimer Prenderby, leading to a truncated visit to the latter’s country house at Matcham Scratchings? Why did Freddie throw it? 9. What unexpected garb was Horace Davenport wearing at the Drones Club one day, leading Pongo Twistleton to lose a bet of 50 pounds, borrowed from Oofy Prosser? 10. What was Gussie Fink-Nottle’s act of defiance to show the ultimate breakdown of his engagement to Madelyn Bassett, and why was it so effective? 11. What petty theft did Bertie Wooster do as a young undergraduate, laying the foundations for his subsequent reputation as a kleptomaniac? What was his justification for the theft? 12. What did Jeff Miller throw into the offices of J. Sheringham Adair, private investigator, and why? 13. Who did Jeff hit with his missiles, and who were that person’s two “associates,” in a distrustful kind of way? 14. What was Jeeves’ Christian name? ---
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/2 "2001-09-04T13:00:14Z")
nice one, Northern Piper. Wodehouse is indubitably the finest author ever to don a pair of lavender spats. Off the top of my head: 1. Rowing 2. He pinched a policeman’s helmet. His excuse was that it was Boat-Race Night (see above) when the delicately nurtured are apt to get a mite polluted. 3. Reginald, or Reggie to the untrustworthy Brinkley, temporary valet to Bertie when he and Jeeves briefly parted brass rags over Bertie’s passing obsession with (IIRC) the banjolele. My question is less trivia than Cri de Coeur, as Jeeves might perhaps put it. There is a Wodehouse short story told to me as an infant (possibly whilst being dandled on my mother’s knee). As ever, it concerns a young man in love. This particular young man stammers and is informed that this can be got round by communicating in song, rather than speech. I can’t find it anywhere. What is it called. Can anyone help? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/3 "2001-09-04T13:25:26Z")
No need for a handicap, it’s not a church social. Off the top of my head, I only remember 11, to which I’d give the same answer as longjohn. I’m embarrassed. I probably should have kept quiet, so as not to tarnish my reputation. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/4 "2001-09-04T13:29:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven \* > \*\*Off the top of my head, I only remember 11, to which I’d give the same answer as longjohn. \*\* Same here. Is 11 too easy, or are all the other ones too hard? I’d be willing to wager, however, that 10 has something to do with newts. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/5 "2001-09-04T13:55:52Z")
I believe the answer to #10 might have something to do with eating meat. I believe Madeleine Bassett had turned vegetarian at one point and was forcing Gussie to do the same. At any rate, the answer will lie in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, if I am not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/6 "2001-09-04T16:17:30Z")
11 might be a trifle too easy, since Bertie refers to the incident whenever it might, without utterly violating the norms of polite conversation, be brought up, but then it’s good to have one or two questions that are chip shots. I’m pretty certain that the answer to the first part of number 8 is “a cat”, though I’m at a loss to remember exactly the circs that led Freddie to commit feline defenestration. Sir Mortimer’s response, “Hell!”, always makes me collapse in giggles. 6, 7 and 10 are hovering just out of reach, and show every sign of remaining there. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/7 "2001-09-04T16:26:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by longjohn \* > \*\*My question is less trivia than Cri de Coeur, as Jeeves might perhaps put it. There is a Wodehouse short story told to me as an infant (possibly whilst being dandled on my mother’s knee). As ever, it concerns a young man in love. This particular young man stammers and is informed that this can be got round by communicating in song, rather than speech. I can’t find it anywhere. What is it called. Can anyone help? \*\* It’s definitely one of the Mulliner stories - but I can’t remember which one, or which collection it’s in. Is that any help (however feeble)? Galahad Threepwood’s a long-standing member of the Pelican Club, isn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/8 "2001-09-04T16:45:37Z")
Yes, gallows! If I recall, it was sneaking into the kitchen late at night for a steak-and-kidney pie. I fail these trivia tests because I have no memory. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/9 "2001-09-04T17:22:16Z")
1. Well it started with Madelaine attempting to make Gussie a vegetarian - but his ultimate defiance was eloping with the cook! The Mulliner story about the stammerer who sings is _The Truth About George_. What, no questions about Rosie M. Banks? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/10 "2001-09-04T21:29:09Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven:_ > If I recall, it was sneaking into the kitchen late at night for a steak-and-kidney pie. I believe, sir, that it was Tuppy Glossop who pilfered the s-and-k pie. Most of my Wodehouse reading is in the Jeeves-and-Wooster series and all the ones I could answer right off have been done already. Question 9 sounds vaguely familiar, however, and I’m going to try and look that up. May I put forth a few more questions? 1. Since Rosie M. Banks has been mentioned: list 3 of her novels. 2. What was Jeeves’ uncle’s name and where was he butler? 3. What was the name of the boy who won a prize for scripture knowledge at Market Snodsbury grammar school? ---
**Author:** ![Jeeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@Jeeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeeves)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/11 "2001-09-04T22:44:58Z")
Oh, I feel terrible. As per my user name, I consider myself a fan of Wodehouse, (though I do admit to having read mostly the ones that deal with my hero) and I could only get 1,10,11 and 14. Though I know 2, it is hovering just on the edge of my brain. I can’t wait to get home and look up some of these. What Ho! Jeeves ---
**Author:** ![Jeeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@Jeeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeeves)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/12 "2001-09-04T22:52:25Z")
Oh, and as for question 15, lets see. Marvin Keene, Clubsman; the factory girl one (ok, I know that isn’t the title 🙂 ) and All for Love. I hope those are right. Now I am just waiting for someone to come along and tell me I’m off my rocker. Jeeves ---
**Author:** ![sc913](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sc913](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sc913)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/13 "2001-09-04T23:16:33Z")
> [@](#): > > May I put forth a few more questions? > > 1. Since Rosie M. Banks has been mentioned: list 3 of her novels. > > 2. What was Jeeves’ uncle’s name and where was he butler? > > 3. What was the name of the boy who won a prize for scripture knowledge at Market Snodsbury grammar school? \*\* Almost all of my Wodehouse reading has been from the J&W series too, so I can’t really answer most of the questions in the OP. As for these, 15. (The ones Jeeves didn’t get) The Woman who braved all, Madcap Myrtle and \*Only a \*factory girl. 1. Silversmith. Deverill Hall (Right? The place with the 5 aunts & Esmond Haddock?) 2. Wasn’t that Bertie Wooster himself? Salil. ---
**Author:** ![sc913](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@sc913](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sc913)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/14 "2001-09-04T23:36:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\* > > 1. Bertie Wooster is typically self-effacing and modest about his own accomplishments, but it is clear nonetheless that he is an accomplished athlete (although the mysteries of Rugby football remain a closed book to him). In what sport did he win his “blue” while at Oxford? > > \*\* I’m quite sure the answer to this one is Tennis. He was a Rackets Blue. Salil. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/15 "2001-09-05T00:38:14Z")
Miss MAPP??? I LOVE you! – Georgie ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/16 "2001-09-05T05:07:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rackensack \* > \*\*I’m pretty certain that the answer to the first part of number 8 is “a cat”, though I’m at a loss to remember exactly the circs that led Freddie to commit feline defenestration. Sir Mortimer’s response, “Hell!”, always makes me collapse in giggles. \*\* Ah yes. Now I have it. Said member of the tribe of Tiger was taking liberties with Freddie’s shirt-front, interfering with his attempt to don the soup and fish in the slippiest manner possible, Freddie having arrived at Matcham Scratchings somewhat later than he’d intended. 17 is G.G. Simmons; Bertie’s fellow-feeling for him, as former Scripture-Knowledge-prize-winner himself, scarcely has time to well up before Gussie Fink-Nottle’s preparations for the prize presentations overcome him, Bertie beats a hasty retreat, and the proceedings come to an early termination. ---
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/17 "2001-09-05T09:09:03Z")
Aseymayo - a thousand thanks. I shall go and have words with Monsieur le Marchand des Livres forthwith or directly, if you prefer. J. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/18 "2001-09-05T09:58:36Z")
In answer to question 3, Mr McTodd hails from Saskatoon. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/19 "2001-09-05T12:08:53Z")
Hey, not bad - but there’s still some questions left! 1. **sc913** - right - a rackets blue (see _The Mating Season.)_ Minor quibble - [rackets](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=63959&tocid=0&query=rackets) is not the same as tennis. > [@](#): > > Rackets, also spelled Racquets, game played with a ball and a strung racket in an enclosed court, all four walls of which are used in play. Rackets is played with a hard ball in a relatively large court, usually about 18 m (60 ft) long by 9 m wide—unlike the related game of squash rackets (q.v.), which is played with a soft ball on a smaller court. 1. **Nostradamus** got this one (although for full comic effect the Master generally referred to “Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.”) See _Leave it to Psmith._ 2. **Steve Wright** got this one - although the Pelican Club is sadly no more. (I’ve always envisaged it as a forerunner of the Drones, but with more Victorian oomph in its revelries, compared to the effete Edwardians of the Drones). Mentioned in several of the Blandings series, notably _A Pelican at Blandings_. 3. **rackensack,** you’re not quite right. That was what Freddie did right at the _start_of the visit, leading unquestionably to a rocky beginning with the father of the girl he loved. I was looking for the action which sealed his fate at Matcham Scratching, forcing his departure. 4. No-one’s quite got Gussie’s act of defiance (which to my mind occurred prior to eloping with the cook, **Aseymayo** - that was after relations with Madelyn were defintely severed) although several have come close. 5. **longjohn, CK Dex** and **Ukelele Ike** got this right - a police man’s helmet on boat night (first mentioned in _The Code of the Woosters_if I remember correctly, thereafter a running theme.) 6. **longjohn** also got Jeeves’ first name, which I think deserves great credit - so far as I know, it’s only mentioned once in the entire series, in _Much Obliged, Jeeves._ 7. I’ve not checked, but the three titles that **Jeeves** and **sc913** mentioned sound right (although I think it’s “Mervyn Keene,” not “Marvin” - romantic lady novelists always try to work a “y” into the given names 🙂 ) 8. **sc913** got this - Charlie Silversmith (featured in _The Mating Season._) 9. **rackensack** is right on this one - **Jeeves,** you’re right that Bertie won a scripture knowledge prize, but that wasn’t at the Market Snodsbury grammar school. Of course, Bertie had a fellow-feeling for young G.G. Simmons (“One of us, you might say.”) So that leaves: 1. Lord Emsworth’s precursor to the fat pig mania. 2. The Christian name of the Duke of Dunstable. 3. Lord Emwsorth’s cook-like sister. 4. Reggie Tennyson’s smuggling method. 5. More detail on Freddie Widgeon’s talent for alientating his host. 6. Horace Davenport’s unusual garb. 7. Gussie’s act of defiance. 8. Jeff Miller’s missiles. 9. The recipient of Jeff Miller’s missiles. Hmmmm - I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people have read the Jeeves storie, some have read the Blandings, and only a few have dipped more deeply into the oeuvre. Here’s a few more, to please **aseymayo** 1. What was Rosie M. Banks doing when Bingo Little first met her? 2. Why was Bertie Wooster embarassed when Bingo married Rosie? 3. What did Bingo do with their son, leading to the resumption of civil relations with Oofy Prosser? 4. In the space of a short rainy afternoon in the suburbs, one notable character impersonated in short order: the man who had come to clip the parrot’s claws; Mr. Roddis, householder; and J.G. Bulstrode from down the road. He simultaneously passed off his long-suffering nephew as: Mr. Walkinshaw, the parrot anaethetist; Roddis Jr.; and a deaf-mute parrot vet. Who was this crafty character, and what was the name of his nephew? 5. What episode from the wild youth of Sir Gregory Parsloe, Bart., did Galahad hold over Sir Gregory’s head as a mild form of blackmail? 6. Lady Constance felt that she could almost tolerate her brother Gally, if it were not for one item of his appearence which invariably put her over the edge. What was it? 7. What did Monty Bodkin swear he would change about his personal appearence, and why? 8. When Sue Brown got engaged, what comment did one of her acquaintances make on the appearence of Sue’s financé, Ronnie Fish? 9. With whom did Bertie get marooned on the top of the summer house on the lake at his aunt’s place? What trapped them there? 10. What was the name of the cook with whom Gussie eloped? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/20 "2001-09-05T12:39:01Z")
Oh, and by the way, **Miss Mapp,** any new poster who can simultaneously: a) politely correct an administrator; b) inspire love in a moderator; and c) discuss Wodehouse, is a welcome addition to the SDMB [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641.md?page=2)