You've arrived. Give yourselves a back-pat. Eight questions and six hundred and six points to go.

Details on prizes as the week unfolds, but remember, Quiztaculists, that clues will rain down upon you on Thursday, so please get your answers for full value in by 12:01 AM Thursday morning. Answers posted between then and Friday at 12:01 AM will receive half credit.

Also, a reminder: answers to bt AT wombatfile DOT com, with "quiz", please, in the subject line. Don't send them to any of my many other aliases.

Characters mostly fictional populate our trivial town this time around, although there are some appearances by figures of more-than-truth-y humanity. Enjoy.

__________________ROUND FOUR QUESTIONS__________________________

1. In 1856, Cadwallader C. Washburn founded a company which leased power rights to other businesses operating along a stretch of the Mississippi river. In 1877, a merger created the Washburn-Crosby Company. In 1921, Washburn-Crosby created an in-house persona meant to add warmth and humanity to company responses to customers. Seven years later, the company merged with 26 other related businesses and took the name by which it is known today, which still bears a trace of its original function. Under this larger company's direction, the created persona became increasingly famous and influential, and was believed by many to be a real person; from 1933 onward, this persona's name appeared on numerous publications.
What is the persona's name? (40 pts.) What is the name of the company? (40 pts.)

2. Some trace the origin of this legendary figure to the "Papineau" rebellion of 1838; supposedly the local people of the area near Saint-Eustace, Quebec, were aided in battle against the British by a fierce fighter, whose name reflected a colloquial expression suggesting surprise and astonishment. Related legends circulated about an Ottawa Valley character named Montferrand. The stories spread well beyond this region and language base, and were in 1910 widely disseminated by James MacGillivry, a Michigan newspaper reporter, in articles and later a book called The Round River Drive. What is the name by which this figure is most widely now known? (75 pts.)

3. Just over 75 years ago, a series of illustrated adventures starring a boy scout patrol leader appeared in a European Boy Scout magazine. The hero was based on the younger brother of the author. In a later series of similar (but much more well-known) fictions, the hero had been somewhat transformed -- and slightly renamed -- but the figure of the author's brother reappeared; the two had since had something of a falling out, and so the brother (who was a military man by this time) was cheekily recast in the form of a villainous officer from a country strongly resembling an Eastern European satellite of the Soviet Union. What was the name of the hero of the more famous, later set of adventures? (75 pts.)

4. In a somewhat infamous television show which first aired in 1965, the lead role of attorney David Crabtree was played by a man whose brother was at the time starring, on another network, as the eponymous lead of another, widely celebrated program. The less-successful show featured Avery Schrieber as Crabtree's scheming nemesis, a villain determined to get possession of a unique object which Crabtree had acquired, and which lent the show its concept and title. The actor who played Crabtree had turned down the role of Gilligan on Gilligan's Island, as well as a chance to replace Don Knotts on the Andy Griffith Show. The show only ran for one season, and was long held up as an example of the worst of its kind. The actor who played Crabtree eventually found success (and four Emmy nominations) as a supporting actor on a hit program which ran from 1989-1997. What was the 1965 program in which he played David Crabtree? (50 pts.) What is the actor's name? (25 pts.)

5. Although legends of a figure resembling this one had been circulating in England for two decades, it was in 1837 that the first recorded encounter happend. A London businessman, walking home at night, reported being accosted by a mysterious figure, who emerged in athletic (and, it would come to seem, signature) fashion from a cemetery. It sported a pointed nose and ears, and terrifying, glowing eyes. Subsequently, a rash of attacks, sometimes on groups of people but often on young women, were reported. No deaths were caused at the time (although a much later attack attributed to this figure was blamed for a young woman's death), but the figure reportedly used sharp claws to rend his victims, and also appeared with shocking effect in front of horse-drawn carriages, causing crashes. Although many chose to see the figure as supernatural, others considered that some dangerous or deranged prankster was at work. A letter read by the Lord Mayor at a public session suggested that a wager laid by powerful and well-connected people were behind the attacks, which were rumored to involve an aristocratic figure. Those seeking to identify the attacker made much of the mechanical genius which was thought to enable his signature ability, and which (through this ability) allowed him to appear without warning and elude capture. By what name was this figure of terror known? (75 pts).

6. From 1965 to 1989 a perpetually unhappy character played by actor Dick Wilson regularly appeared on American network television. The actor who played him had, as his other claim to fame, a repeating role on the series Bewitched, as a befuddled souse, but this character was much more widely recognized -- according to a 1978 survey (commissioned, it should be noted, by his creators), he was the third-best-known American, behind Richard Nixon and Billy Graham. What was the name of this well-known character? (75 pts)

7. The first recorded appearance of this character is in the 15th century. In one version (such as appears in the accounts of Melchior Russ), he is a key figure in local rebellions against the oppressive Hapsburg empire. Other accounts mention his deeds, but make him more peripheral. But in the 16th century a Catholic historian named Tschudi merged the two versions, and his revised narrative became a foundational part of national legend. In the 1830s, historian Joseph Kopp suggested that this character was more fanciful than factual, and angry crowds burned him in effigy in a meadow above a well-known lake -- a meadow where, it was believed, the oaths that first bound their country together were sworn. According to a recent survey, 60% of the citizens of that country believe he existed and acted as the legends say. What is this quasi-historical figure's name? (75 pts.)

8. Little is known about the early life of this person, but it is believed that he received a good deal of formal education while as a young man at the court of the Emperor Honorius -- at the time in Ravenna -- in the 5th Century. Following the death of his uncle, he came into his own, shortly thereafter journeying to bargain with delegates from Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II. After making many journeys -- and not returning to Italy in the interim -- he received a message imploring his assistance from Honoria, who was the sister of Valentinian, at that point the Roman Emperor. She was looking to get out of an arranged marriage to a senator, but the man in question also read her plea as an offer of her hand in marriage to him. He accepted, but Honoria's brother exiled his sister and wrote back to her suitor, denying the offer's legitimacy. Our man made his way eventually back to Italy, to claim Honoria's hand and a dowry, but he was met by an unusal embassy which included Pope Leo I. Whether or not it was due to their arguments, he turned back and did not pursue Honoria further. He died the following year. By what name do we know this (nonfictional) personage? (76 points).