The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

For those of you just joining us, we are smack-dab in the midst of Round One of the glorious Q.U.I.Z. Read all about it here. And then here.

The full-credit segment first round has come to its mandated end. The answers are in and our four teams are accordingly credited.

Before I move on to comments and clues, let me pause to introduce a late-arriving member of The Dependent Clauses, Dr. Julie Brown of Carnegie-Mellon University. Welcome, Julie, to our pointless little world. You'll find it a uselessly seductive addition to your life.

Our first round questions are reprinted below, with a clue appended to each:. Answers submitted at this point -- whether as revisions to your earlier guesses, or simply for the first time -- now only earn half-credit. If your answer is partially correct, you may get 1/4 credit.¹
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CLUESVILLE

1. Collected for his book of tales in 1634 by the Italian writer Giambattista Basile, and appearing there as "Gagliuso," this narrative involves a disinherited child, an imposter aristocrat, and in the end, a loyalty test in the form of a faked death. A version of the story was committed to animation by Walt Disney in 1922, and a live-action version starring Christopher Walken was released in 1988. By what English title is this story known? Clue: The story begins with the death of a miller, and the inheritance by his son of only one thing: an animal who inhabited his father's granary. 80 40 points

2. From one of the first exchanges in Eleanor H. Porter's bestselling novel of 1913:

"Well, really, Nancy, just because I happened to have a sister who was silly enough to marry and bring unnecessary children into a world that was already quite full enough, I can't see how Ishould particularly WANT to have the care of them myself.

"However, as I said before, I hope I know my duty. See that you clean the corners, Nancy," she finished sharply, as she left the room.

There have been multiple big screen and television adaptations of the book, and Parker Brothers sold a game based on the book from 1915 to 1967. The title of the book has passed into popular culture as an expression used by people otherwise unfamiliar with the book itself. What was the title? Clue: Here is the closing passage of the novel: "Pretty soon, they say, I shall go home. I wish I could walk all the way there. I do. I don't think I shall ever want to ride anywhere any more. It will be so good just to walk. Oh, I'm so glad! I'm glad for everything. Why, I'm glad now I lost my legs for a while, for you never, never know how perfectly lovely legs are till you haven't got them -- that go, I mean. I'm going to walk eight steps to-morrow.

"With heaps of love to everybody,
"[name]." 80 40 points

3. The publishing house of Simon & Schuster was founded with the publication of this collection in 1924, which became one of the bestselling non-fiction books of the year. It was also the very first collection of its kind published. What was it a collection of? Clue: Barnes & Noble.com lists over 400 of these collections. The current bestseller among them is published in conjunction with TV Guide magazine. Another is offered with the AARP's imprimatur. You will not find many of these in used bookstores. 80 40 points

4. Known by a surname that he altered slightly from his birth name, he was variously a merchant of hosiery, wool and wine. He once imported a shipment of civet cats to make perfume, but they were seized with his other assets when he went for the first time into debt. He was exiled for his political activities, and after three years returned to his native country, taking up a post as a collector of tarriffs on glass bottles. A few years afterward, however, he commenced what became a productive writing career, and in his mid-forties published his first book, The Storm,, a nonfiction account of a deadly hurricane which claimed thousands of lives in his native land. He is, however, best known for the works of fiction he published in the following years. What is his (altered) name? Clue: Not only did he write the aforementioned account of a hurricane's unprecedented impact on his country, he also published, eighteen years later, a fictionalized account of a devastating epidemic, which ravaged his nation when he was just a child. This work was often taken as nonfiction, though it is not now classed that way. He is most famous for another work, which, although fictional, drew heavily on nonfictional sources. 80 40 points

5. The most popular novel of 1926 was John Erskine's The Private Life of Helen of Troy. The No. 2 bestseller was the tale of the rapid rise of a girl from Arkansas. It was penned by a female screenwriter and playwright who had at one point written the subtitles for D.W. Griffith's silent epic Intolerance. It became an overnight sensation, translated into 14 languages including Chinese. A musical version hit broadway in 1926, and a silent movie version came out in 1928. A version was made with sound more than two decades later, and that version is the one most people now remember. What was the title? Clue: Carol Channing starred in the Broadway adaptation, but not in either film. Its most famous song rhymes "rental flat" with "automat." 80 40 points
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These should be child's play now, right? Remember, final answers/revisions to previous guesses by 12:01 AM Friday EST -- that is to say, late Thursday night. Friday I'll publish scores, and perhaps there'll be a Lightning Round based on any questions left unsolved by all.

¹In any given round, you might in fact wind up with a mix of pre- and post-clue answers, thus getting full credit for some and half for others. Let's assume your team submitted 5 guesses before the 12:01 Wednesday deadline; then, after the clues came in, felt happy with the answers to 1, 2, and 3 but smacked its collective forehead over questions 4 and 5. Revised guesses to the latter two are submitted before 12:01 AM Friday, but 1, 2, and 3 are left to stand. In the final tally, 1, 2, and 3 would each receive up to 80 points each, while 4 and 5 are worth only 40 points each. Capice?