The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Ah, another Friday looms -- but so does December, the Friday to a worn-out year (though the joke's on you, 2006 -- you have to work the weekend!). So, before we get to this week's question, provided by Once and Future Guest Wombat Scott Williams, a few details about the Q.U.I.Z., our upcoming tournament, in the form of that Internet staple, the Q.N.O.H.B.T.A.B.W.A.B.A.A.¹:

Q: What the Hell?
A: OK, so, every Friday we do one of these cockamamie Quiz things, right?

Q. Right.
A. Form of a question, please.

Q. Er...right?
A. And for the last two years we've offered, first as a December thing and then as a January event, a sort of overblown multiweek version of the same. Where people score points over the course of multiple weeks by submitting guesses. And now it seems like it's something of a tradtion; hence, this year's Quizmaculately Ultimate International Zuperfest or Q.U.I.Z.

Q. So, this is basically that same silly year end thing again, where you make a farcical ordeal out of what should be a pleasurable end-of-week whimsy?
A. Yes. But with teams.

Q. Come again?
A. Teams. As in, everyone who plays is assigned to a team, so that players can combine forces and collaborate on the fiendishly diabolical and infernally...um...hellish...uh...Cthul'hu-spawned questions.

Q. How long will this last?
A. Four weeks, more or less, with one round a week. We'll start on Friday, December 8th, which is a week from now. Every week I'll put out questions, and there will be a deadline the next week for submitting answers via email. One or more weeks will have a subject or theme, like geography, literature, or people who smoke crack in the vicinity of enormous reptiles. Teams can email one another with their answers and come up with an agreed-upon set of answers, which they'll send via email. Correct answers win full credit. However, at that point I'll post some clues to the answers, and one's team gets partial credit for submissions that come in after the clue deadline. Each Friday the updated standings will be published, along with a teasingly delayed revelation of the answers. After the first round, new questions will be posted over the weekend. There may be additional "lightning rounds" along the way to allow straggling teams to catch up. These will inevitably happen on Fridays, and will work like our ordinary Quizzes.

Q. That sounds torturous and awful.
A. Is that a question? [Sighs petulantly]

Q. Is it as torturous and awful as it sounds?
A. I'm beginning to dislike your attitude. No, it'll be steaming gobs of holiday fun, in which those of you too shy to participate in our regular Friday outings will be able to quietly contribute as members of a gloriously selfless collective. All for one! One for all! That sort of thing...

Q. Prizes?
A. Regular readers know that while the prizes awarded in the regular Friday quizzes are at best mythical (and at the worst not only made-up, but shoddily so), the champs of our last two yearly scuffles have actually been awarded material trinkets. The winners of this year's contest will receive an awesome collection of Hideous Galleys, plus $4.75 (U.S.), to be divided amongst the team members.

Q. What?
A. You heard me!

Q. Are we quite finished?
A. Yes, except to say that we still need those of you who have, in moments of human weakness, confessed to me that you ACTUALLY READ THIS. And yet never play the Quiz. Friends, we need you. These teams -- the Bob Hopeless, the Whiskey Rebels, the Yogurt Mafia -- they need you. I need you. Don't leave me standing here. Lead me to your door.

Now that you've been bullied and bored, you're nicely tenderized for this week's question, the last of our weekly outings before the big tourney gets underway. Scott, what cranial-wrinkle-remover have you got in that dusty brown bottle? Here it is:

When she was the toast of society in London, she went by her married name, Lady Rebecca Rolfe. But she's best known by a childhood nickname, and through her relationship with another man.

What was that nickname, and who was the man?

First correct answer posted to comments wins decorative fruit made from recycled newspaper. Yes, THIS is what's being done with your diligently-bundled Sunday Times. No Googling or Ailuromancy. One guess per comment, but you may comment as often as you like.

¹ Questions No One Has Bothered To Ask But Which Are Being Answered Anyway.