The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: All Anglo-American

I compose tonight's breathtakingly lunkheaded query a full ninety minutes before it can, according to the ITWU* bylaws, be posted. So I will lovingly save it now, to release it at the dawn. Sleep well, little quiz!

Now, all rested up? Excellent. Let's begin.

In England, it dates from the administration of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, and re-appeared in administrations of the Earl of Derby, Lord Palmerston, and Gladstone -- reaching a glorious and unequalled triumph with the accession to office of the Marquess of Salisbury. It ran riot in the in the 20th century, however, coming to a conclusion in 1963, well after the sun had set on the Empire. The executive branch of the U.S. only took a little while to catch up: the phenomenon began in the U.S. in 1837 -- but it ran its course in the states more quickly, wrapping up apparently for good in 1913, with an almost-resuscitation from 1929-1933.

To what phenomenon do we refer? Bonus questions, by the way, will be revealed after the primary question has been answered.

First correct answer posted to contest wins what's left of a huge bag of Abuelita corn chips, before I make myself horribly ill by eating the whole damn thing. No Googling or consulting your six-volume set of Balfour's memoirs. One guess per comment, please, but you are encouraged to comment and comment again, feeding the comment-string a healthy diet of answers both clever and tossed-off.

*International Time-Wasters Union

Comments

Frist.

Mullet hair cuts?

Posted by: james | June 16, 2006 09:43 AM

Nope. And the current Senate Majority Leader has nothing to do with it.

Posted by: BT | June 16, 2006 09:58 AM

Initiation rites into legislative bodies.

Posted by: boxjam | June 16, 2006 10:47 AM

Shoulder parrots. Elbow parrots were tried from 1929 to 1933 with considerably less success, though supposedly FDR employed a knee parrot in private.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 10:56 AM

sideburns

Posted by: james | June 16, 2006 11:58 AM

Poll taxes

Posted by: Jonathan | June 16, 2006 12:28 PM

There has been some closeness, but not quite the correct answer.

Posted by: BT | June 16, 2006 01:09 PM

An entrance fee to take office?

Posted by: bootsy3000 | June 16, 2006 02:09 PM

Elected to mayor - pay each player $50?

Posted by: boxjam | June 16, 2006 02:22 PM

Nope...

Posted by: BT | June 16, 2006 02:36 PM

Big whompin' beards.

Posted by: boxjam | June 16, 2006 03:04 PM

No salary for the head of state.

Posted by: Jonathan | June 16, 2006 03:13 PM

moustache rides

Posted by: james | June 16, 2006 03:38 PM

Killing 7 natives ritualistically when office holders take office.

Posted by: boxjam | June 16, 2006 03:49 PM

The person who gets to appoint a finance and taxation minister or general grand poohbah of the screwing of the people.

Posted by: bootsy3000 | June 16, 2006 04:00 PM

Did Mr. Big of Mr. Big's Respective Country get to appoint the Lords in the House thereof (and in the US the Senate?)

Posted by: bootsy3000 | June 16, 2006 04:01 PM

And I for one can personally attest that moustache rides did not subside one LICK in the executive branch until 2001.

Then they vanished lickety-split.

Posted by: boxjam | June 16, 2006 04:19 PM

Mynahs as public relations representatives.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:28 PM

Bolo ties.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:36 PM

highwaters

Posted by: james | June 16, 2006 04:38 PM

I'm going to let james and boxjam split the prize between them, since the answer we were looking for is more generally "facial hair on the head of government." Lord Melbourne had him some impressive sideburns (as did Martin van Buren), but it was the mighty beard of the Marquess of Salisbury which inspired our question.

Those legendary rides aside, the last moustache seen on a sitting American President or Vice-President adorned the upper lip of Kansan Charles Curtis, who served as veep to Herbert Hoover's prez.

Here's a bonus point: Curtis is not only the last v-p or president to sport a flavor-saver, he is also the first to take either office while claiming what personal attribute?

Posted by: BT | June 16, 2006 04:43 PM

A prosthetic can opener.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:52 PM

The seventh son of a seventh son.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:53 PM

A plenary indulgence from Pope Reginald III.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:56 PM

A personal moat.

Permanent possession of the upper left hand square in all tic-tac-toe games sanctioned by the International Governing Body Of.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 04:59 PM

Rickets.

A Ph.D.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:03 PM

Prehensile ears.

Duke Ellington's severed hand in marriage.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:04 PM

A rhombus (often misidentified as a parallelogram in history books).

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:05 PM

A Ulysses S. Genius Grant.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:06 PM

Married his own soap dish.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:07 PM

A truss (later discarded).

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:09 PM

A bachelor.

Born half in Kansas City, Kansas, half in St. Paul.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:11 PM

No more Mountain Dew for Scraps.

Posted by: BT | June 16, 2006 05:12 PM

A tattoo.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:15 PM

A grommet. Or a loob, maybe. No, wait, a grommet.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:17 PM

Named for his son.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:25 PM

Killed predecessor in duel.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:26 PM

Made his own clothes out of other people's clothes.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:31 PM

The last surviving Davenport Indian.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:32 PM

Flunked congress.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:34 PM

The only human of three hundred fifteen distinct side effects of the Gadsden Purchase.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:38 PM

Actually a very slowly flowing liquid.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:44 PM

An ungulate.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:49 PM

Emitted tritones by rubbing antennae together.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:51 PM

No matter how many times spun, always pointed toward magnetic north.

Posted by: Scraps | June 16, 2006 05:56 PM

Are we sure Scraps isn't one of those prowling internet robots in disguise?

Artificial limb?

Posted by: art | June 16, 2006 07:12 PM

Kansan citizenship.

Posted by: boxjam | June 17, 2006 08:39 AM

a pack of Pall Malls rolled up in his undershirt sleeve.

A complete run of National Geographic.

Posted by: Jonathan | June 18, 2006 10:10 AM

I forgot the question.

Posted by: james | June 19, 2006 09:38 AM

The name "Curtis."

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 11:02 AM

Third eye.

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 11:04 AM

Hirsute palms.

The power of cheese.

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 11:05 AM

Prickly heat.

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 11:06 AM

polydactylism

Posted by: james | June 19, 2006 11:37 AM

professional dowser

Posted by: james | June 19, 2006 11:39 AM

knowledge of the importance of hot-side-hot and cold-side-cold

Posted by: james | June 19, 2006 02:26 PM

Membership in the Klan.

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 03:47 PM

Cross-stitch of popular Nazisms

Posted by: boxjam | June 19, 2006 03:48 PM

Sorry it's taken me this long to check in -- I spent the weekend sweating and moaning, and not because I was doing anything remotely fun. I'm just now returning from my sojurn among the feverishly undead.

Curtis was Native American (Kaw) on his mother's side, and spent part of his early life on a Kaw reservation. He was the first vice-president (or president) to have acknowledged non-European ancestry.

Posted by: BT | June 19, 2006 05:33 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: All Anglo-American

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