The Friday Quiz 2008: Down by the Old Mill Stream
New year, new hyper-efficient quiz action. Let's get to the brainfreeze:
In Saunderstown, Rhode Island is located (and preserved) the birthplace of a famous American. Although he was born in Rhode Island, he achieved professional success first in England, before returning to the U.S. to do the work which made his lasting fame. Indeed, one could say that every adult American, and many people around the world, are familiar with one of his achievements.
The home in which he grew up in Rhode Island was both a residence and a place of industry, as he lived above his father’s business, a water-driven mill of a special kind. What product (it was not food) was this mill used to make? One clue: the product is unrelated to the work that later brought him success.
Who was he, and what was the product?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a water-driven mp3 player, perfect for lazy evenings by a navigable river or stream. No Googling or caucusing. Or going to the Caucasus. One guess per comment, but each and every one of your comments is important to me and is loved as if it were a comment of my own.
Comments
His dad ground shells.
He's Francis Scott Key.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 11:30 AM
Sounds like someone's been there.
Posted by: Jonathan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 11:41 AM
That someone's not boxjam. Key is a native of Maryland. But in establishing that last fact I found something really interesting about him, which maybe I can share as a late bonus if this one wraps up quickly.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 11:45 AM
Hmm. The mill made gunpowder, and the guy was...
Posted by: Jonathan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 12:13 PM
It didn't...
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 12:18 PM
"one could say that every adult American, and many people around the world, are familiar with one of his achievements."
That's a provocative sentence.
Stephen Foster.
And the mill ground...bones.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 01:24 PM
Like Foster, he was an artist, though in a different medium. One of his works is even more widely known than anything of Fosters, I would say, although fewer people know his name.
It was not bones, but it was an organic substance.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 01:43 PM
Grant Wood.
He ground peach pits to make arsenic.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 02:45 PM
Or Whistler.
The guy's dad ground Whistler up in the mill.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 02:46 PM
It was for a product that was popular amongst fashionable gentlemen, in both England and America.
You probably see a replica of his work on a frequent basis.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 05:04 PM
Snuff.
Gilbert Stuart.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 05:16 PM
Thomas Nash
Posted by: Jonathan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 4, 2008 07:37 PM
Just in case...
Benjamin West.
EAT IT, HERBIVOROUS!
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 5, 2008 06:24 PM
Sorry to be so late getting back. (Guest for dinner last night, one child to the museum for a failed attempt at joining an art-activity group there [failed in the sense that the child decided that the hell with art, she wanted to eat], then a misbegotten attempt to grocery-shop and have dinner out with the whole family (I think we all cried at one point or another), and now, after putting away all the groceries and practically strapping the wonderful offspring into their goddamn beds, we both get to relax and settle down with...all the actual work we had to leave behind at 5:30 on Friday.
Anyway, as long as I'm on the computer, I can acknowledge boxjam's triumph: Portrait artist Gilbert Stuart's childhood home also housed his father's snuff mill. And since the portrait on the dollar bill is a copy of one of Stuart's many portraits of Washington, it's safe to say that all of us (and many people both in and outside of America) are very familiar with his work.
As for "Eat it Herbivorous," well, that's just poor sportsmanship.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 5, 2008 09:33 PM
Is that the royal we?
Posted by: shananan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2008 07:00 PM
No, it was meant to refer to Theresa and myself, collectively. However, our apartment building is, hilariously, called "The Windsor House." Make of it what you will.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 6, 2008 08:17 PM