h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, all hail Trillian's Child who has correctly nailed the aubergine (related to both tomato and potato, as part of the nightshade family) and also the 9th century for the origins of bowing. There is a wonderful book about it by Werner Bachmann http://books.google.ie/books/about/The_origins_of_bowing_and_the_developmen.html?id=_2VHAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

Strangely I have read that the bow as a musical instrument (earth-bow, twanged) predates not only the stringed instruments but even the weapon (bow-and-arrow)--but it wasn't until about the 9th century that it was applied to strings. In Samarkand, halfway along the silk route between Europe and China. Pictures of bowed instruments turn up within fifty years of each other (a medieval eyeblink) in China and Spain.

Nero may well have fiddled with something. 'Fiddle' comes from the Latin vitula, a noun formed from the verb vitulari, to 'celebrate a festival' or 'be joyful'. A lot of stringed instruments were called variants on that, including fiedel, vielle, viola, and all their derivatives.

Some say that Nero was more hated for his insistence on being taken seriously as a musician than for burning down swathes of Rome to build himself a palace.

So that leaves

1. Which 1939 short story features the repeated use of the phrase "pocketa-pocketa-pocketa"?

and

3. Which twentieth-century songwriter's name sounds like a hawker of books, newspapers, or religious tracts?

American short story, giving rise to two movies of the same name, and giving a new word to the English language.

American songwriter, who wrote his own brilliant lyrics and produced many hits from the 1910s to the 50s. Married, but was never fenced in.

No I don't think I have it wrong. Avocado does not come from ahuacatl. It has some other origin. Guacamole on the other hand comes from ahuacatl molle

OED says it derives from "Spanish avocado (advocate), substituted by ‘popular etymology’ for the Aztec ahuacatl (Tylor), of which a nearer form in Spanish is aguacate; French aguacat and avocat, in English also avigato and, corruptly, alligator (pear)".

So it's the opinion of anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burnett_Tylor

I gave in and googled pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. It's definitely a story we've all heard of.

Pocketa-pocketa-pocketa sounds very familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it. If I read the story, it was probably 40 years ago.

I've a feeling it might be Thomas the Tank Engine. In which case it was only 20 years ago I read it, when my children were small.

I was thinking Ray Bradbury, but it's a little early for him.

I tried to think about the films, but then I got the sound of the baseball in this scene stuck in my head and I can't think of any other "pocketas".

And since it's set after 1939, I'm sure this ain't it.

http://youtu.be/RZa79QGDeo8

Not that. The phrase "pocketa-pocketa" (or "ta-pocketa-pocketa") is spoken in the story, at least in the hero's imagination.

The songwriter's name is two words, but sounded together as one (very unusual) word they mean "Hawker, pedlar or distributor of books or newspapers, or (especially) religious tracts".

His first name sounds like a surname, which is in fact the case: he was named after his mother's maiden name.

I know I'm going to kick myself when I see the answer.

Think of cabbage

And he was born in the 19th century, but made all his hits in the 20th.

Well, that rules out Bob Dylan, then.

Out of your misery:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber.

Cole Porter: there is an entry in the dictionary (even in that most exclusive of dictionaries, the Shorter Oxford, utterly useless for Scrabble) for 'colporteur' with the meanings given. Tagged to 1796. Useless information ho.

Thank you. Now why did I have trouble thinking of cabbage? It would have got me there.

I've not read/seen Walter Mitty, so can't fathom why it sounded so familiar.

I've seen colporteur in crosswords, so I'm annoyed I didn't spot that.

Nice quiz, thanks

I feel confident that I had zero chance of guessing either of those.