Why oysters produce those precious pearls

1 — Do oysters have a use for their pearls? 
2 — Are elephants really scared of mice? 
3 — What is the Scots leid?
4 — Something secured or certain is “in the bag”. Why do we say that? 
5 — Name three rock or pop bands whose names are cities. 
6 — On which side of the road do they drive in Pakistan?
7 — What did a colporteur do for a living in days gone by?
8 — Who would you expect to see using an assegai — an African tribesman, an Asian elephant keeper, an Eskimo fisherman or a Peruvian musician?
9 — The following answers contain the word “happy” — a) South Pacific song, b) children’s entertainers, c) Altered Images hit, d) seasonal greeting.
10 — A gigot chop comes from what part of a lamb?
11 — Which of the following is a real fish — sailfish, kalefish, mastfish or deckfish?
12 — What is a “grace and favour” residence?
13 — Why do Australian call the British poms?
14 — How many Broons are there?
15 — What’s the most common human eye colour?
16 — Plus-fours are a style of trousers, but what are plus-eights?
17 — Add a weight to the end of a word for a piece of timber to make another word meaning “drifting organisms in the ocean”. 
18 — Can roadrunner birds fly?
19 — What’s the difference between an ocean and a sea?
20 — Which fruit is sometimes known as “the apple of paradise”? 

Sunday Post Quiz Answers, December 19, 2004

1 — No. When a foreign object, like a bit of sand, gets inside, the oyster finds it irritating so cushions it in nacre (mother-of-pearl), and eventually forms a pearl.
2 — No, it’s a myth. 
3 — The Scots language. 
4 — In Parliament a bag was placed under the Speaker’s chair. Any petition “in the bag” had to be raised that day. Alternatively, from game birds carried home in bags. 
5 — Any three from Boston, Chicago, Berlin, Detroit Spinners, New York Dolls, etc.
6 — The left. 
7 — Travelled around selling books, etc, often of a religious nature. 
8 — African tribesman, it’s a hunting spear. 
9 — a) Happy Talk, b) The Happy Gang, c) Happy Birthday, Happy Christmas. 
10 — The leg.
11 — The sailfish. 
12 — One owned by the Crown and given to a notable person as free accommodation. 
13 — Possibly from pomegranate, referring to the complexions of newly-arrived Brits unused to the hot sun or from POME (Prisoners of Mother England). 
14 — 11 (Granpaw, Maw, Paw, Joe, Hen, Daphne, Maggie, Horace, the Twins and the Bairn). 
15 — Dark brown, as there are so many dark-skinned races.
16 — Another trouser style, with eight inches of material below the knee rather than four. 
17 — Plank and ton, making plankton. 
18 — Yes, but they’re clumsy in flight and tire easily. 
19 — An ocean is a large open expanse of water, a sea is smaller and partly or wholly enclosed by land. 
20 — The tomato.