Thursday 26 February 2015

Tom Cruise is an anagram of Costumier

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us!
3+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The left-fielder

The ones that got away

We're kicking things off this week with five questions of the form "name the movie". You're given the year a Best Picture Oscar-winning movie was released, and an actor who was in the movie (but not necessarily a main character).
1) 2006, Martin Sheen
2) 2001, Russell Crowe
3) 1998, Colin Firth
4) 1992, Morgan Freeman
5) 1988, Tom Cruise
6) Which shoe manufacturer sponsors Usain Bolt?
7) What nickname referred to American soldiers who served in Europe during the First World War?
8) Against which country did William of Orange lead the Dutch in the Eighty Years' War?
9) 2 point question: Excluding 2, what is the lowest jersey number a player for the New York Yankees can wear?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more points)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more points)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions
1) Deriving (loosely) from the Japanese for 'Sulfur Island', which island's name features in a 2006 Best Picture nominated Clint Eastwood-directed movie?
2) Named after its inventor (upon whose life A Beautiful Mind is based) what two-word term describes a situation in a non-cooperative game where no player can improve their position by changing their strategy?
3) Judi Dench won the Oscar for her (brief) portrayal of Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. Which actress also notably portrayed the Virgin Queen that year, in the title role of another film nominated for Best Picture?
4) Which journalist and television personality's name is, somewhat appropriately, an anagram of 'Smearing Pro'?
5) Autism is one of three recognized disorders in the autistic spectrum. Another is the rather descriptive 'pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified', what's the third?
6) In theory, what is the shortest distance a runner could spend holding the baton in a 4x100m relay without being disqualified?
Question 7
7) How is Poppin' Fresh (pictured), the mascot of a baking products company, better known?
8) Which country enjoys a 'special relationship' with the Netherlands thanks to actions during the Second World War? Its forces led the liberation of the Netherlands, the country hosted the Dutch Royal Family in exile, and they even temporarily declared a hospital ward as extraterritorial to ensure a Princess born there would hold Dutch citizenship.
9) National Football League teams play 16 games in the regular season (that is, excluding the post-season playoffs). National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams, meanwhile, play 82 games, but how many games do teams play in the regular season of Major League Baseball? Spot on gets you 2 points, within 10% gets you 1 point.

The answers


How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

6 comments:

  1. I only got one of the five Oscar movie questions. I managed to dig Unforgiven out of somewhere, while thinking of movies Morgan Freeman was in, and remembered that it won Best Picture. I was terrible with ideas for the others, though I did come up with LA Confidential for Russell Crowe, which I thought a good shot. - turns out it was 1998.

    As for the WW1 troops in Europe, I fumbled around with Doughnut for a minute, before doughboy clicked into place. I have no idea where I picked it up from, but it was in there somewhere.

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  2. I found (as evidenced by our guesses) it was annoyingly easy to find movies nearby chronologically with the right actors in as well (which makes sense, of course, but does rather add to the difficulty).

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  3. I just saw this now! Worth noting that the Yankees, in all of their nostalgia-stapo glory, would almost certainly never let someone wear the number zero or zero-zero. While not retired, it's one of those dumb baseball things.

    Which reminds me... the number of legal numbers in baseball was far higher than I remembered. :)

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    1. Haha, amazing. I didn't even know there were 'legal' numbers to begin with (I wonder how Youppi fits into that).

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    2. Since it's too inside baseball (literally) for me to ever put on a quiz, the legal numbers are:
      1-99; 0; 00; 01-09. All count as separate numbers, so you can have 110 different numbers on your team. (assuming that my math is not hampered by my coffeeless state). It would take far more retired numbers before the Yanks ever seriously consider allowing anyone to use 0, 00, or 01-09.

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    3. See, this seems like totally legit quiz fodder over here, considering how many bloody names everyone apparently can keep track of >:(

      (Top fact.)

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