Ceramics
This high- or low-fire oven bakes dry clay until it hardens.
What is a kiln?
J. R. R. Tolkien fought in this war.
What is World War I?
You don't look so good, you haven't been waking up early and working late, have you?
What is burning the candle at both ends?
Hardly interacting at all with other elements, these gases are often anthropomorphized as royal elite.
What are the Noble Gases.
This inter-dynastic period in China's history is so named because of the many belligerent states.
What is the Waring States period?
China is made from this type of white clay, which is more pliable and less forgiving than other varieties.
What is porcelain?
Tolkien originally composed it as a story for his children.
What is the Hobbit?
You've found your stride, have you gotten a second one of these?
What is a wind?
This French scientist became famous for her experiments with radium.
Who is Marie Curie.
This body part, amputated off Stonewall Jackson after the battle of Chancellorsville, has its own gravestone.
What is Jackson's left arm?
The term 'keramos' meaning 'ceramics' comes from this language.
What is ancient Greek?
This ancient race of slow-speaking tree-folk include members like Treebeard and Beechbone.
What are ents?
You really can't decide what to do, can you? Have you been sitting on one of these?
What is a fence?
This element was originally called plumbum and consequently still has the symbol 'Pb.'
What is lead?
The haphazard efforts of this covert group to assassinate Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand led to World War I.
What is the Black Hand?
If a clay vessel is fired in the kiln with a bubble of air trapped in it, this may happen.
What is an explosion?
Although they were friends, Tolkien famously hated the children's series written by this author because of its inconsistent world-building and mess of stolen mythology.
Who is C. S. Lewis?
Things have gotten much hotter since we changed our situation - I think we might have fallen out of this and into this!
What are the frying pan and the fire?
Vertical columns in the periodic table are called groups, horizontal rows are called, aptly, this.
What are periods?
One of the most widely worshipped deities, this elephant-headed god lost his original head protecting Parvati from Shiva.
Who is Ganesha?
This toxic chemical in clay results in "potter's lung."
What is silica?
Just as the orcs of Mordor are a rather problematic allegory for Africans, the dwarves of Khazad-dum bear several similarities to stereotypes of this real-world group.
Who are the Jews?
You critique others freely but it really seems like you yourself are morally questionable. Maybe you're throwing these while living in one of these?
What are stones and glass houses?
This Russian scientist came up with the modern periodic table in the 1860s. Before that, the elements were laid out in an awkward and not-very-useful chart.
Who is Dmitri Mendeleev?
One day during the Vietnam unit we talked Tony into accidentally sharing the entire list of ingredients needed to create this substance.
What is napalm?