Each week, quiz obsessives and Only Connect champions
Jamie Karran (@NoDrNo) and Michael Wallace (@statacake) take on the pub quizzes of the world.
Find out every Friday if you could have helped with the questions they got wrong.
Thursday, 16 April 2015
The Trans-Canada Highway passes through all ten of the country's provinces
Your targets this week:
1+ out of 7: Well done, you beat us and we'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The rich person otherkin 4) The DJ-man 5) The secret German
The ones that got away 1) Which Emilio Estevez movie featuring haunted trucks is the only film directed by Stephen King? 2) What city lies at the eastern end of the Trans-Siberian Railway? (You must spell it correctly to get the point.) 3) Who are/were the two longest-reigning - but non-royal - country leaders since 1900? You need both for the point. 4) Which of these is not a real baseball player: Johnny Dickshot, Ten Million, Cannonball Titcomb, Ropey Todd, or Chickenwolf? 5) What is the name of the music-streaming service purchased and advertised by Jay-Z? 6)2 point question: Dili is the capital of which country?
1) Despite the doctor's unusual obsession with the 2 Unlimited song of the same name we were nowhere on this one, coming up with the only truck-based spooky movie we could think of in the form of Duel. 2) I knew I'd recognize the answer when I heard it, but asking the team to spam me with Russian cities didn't throw up anything that rang a bell. Eventually we put down Nizhny Novgorod which, while definitely hard to spell, is only 400km away from Moscow. 3) A really fun question to debate as a team. Someone suggested Fidel Castro immediately, but the second name came less easily. I knew Gaddafi had been in charge for over 40 years (because my brother performed in a Welsh brass band in Libya for his 40th anniversary celebrations - seriously) and while we discussed Kim Il-Sung we (incorrectly) didn't think he quite lasted that long. Perhaps more pertinently, Gaddafi doesn't seem to 'count' as a national leader, but luckily it wouldn't have been right anyway. 4) A baseball question where being vaguely familiar with baseball doesn't help too much. We thought Johnny Dickshot was just too ridiculous, but there you go. 5) Discussion of this question was largely side-tracked by the North American members of our team finding my accidental pronunciation of Jay-Z as Jay Zed hilarious (despite the fact that's how Canadians say 'Z'!). 6) To lose one point on a capital city question may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. I have become very lax in my capital cities knowledge since moving to North America, so seldom do quizmasters expect much more than the basics. Losing a quiz thanks to it offers some considerable motivation to get back on this most essential of quiz wagons.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us and helped us win (1 point or more)? 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) Occurring in 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2001, which two-word, alliterative sporting alternative to the Olympics featured in the second Mighty Ducks film? 2) Which musical features a character based on a Trans-Siberian train called Turnov the Russian? 3) Bhumibol Adulyadej is currently the world's longest reigning monarch, closing in on 69 years as king of which country? 4) In 1908 New York Giants rookie Fred Merkle made a notorious mistake in a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs. What slightly rude five-letter word for a blunder is used to describe this incident? 5) Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter's stage name developed from which (not rude) five-letter word? 6) Timor-Leste ultimately derives from two different words for 'East', although at the UN they're known as Timor-Leste rather than East Timor. There are three UN member states whose names as they are presented on the United Nations website contain one of the four compass directions (North, South, East, or West). For one point each, name two of them.
The answers
1)Goodwill Games 2) Starlight Express 3)Thailand 4) Boner (as in Merkle's Boner) 5) Jazzy 6) South Africa and South Sudan are the 'pure' answers, but technically United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island is a (very tricky) third - North and South Korea are really called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Republic of Korea, respectively
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Everything about Chicken Wolf is remarkable and sounds made-up. Like he was invented to confuse people about baseball. Here are some fun facts. (I stress that none of this is made up. This is all true.)
- He was called Chicken Wolf, but his real name was William "Jimmy" Van Winkle Wolf. - He played most of his career in the American Association (AA) with the Louisville Eclipse (who changed their name to the Louisville Colonels during his tenure). - At age 28, in 1890, he led the league in hits (197), average (.363) and total bases (260). - He played a handful of games with the St. Louis Browns at the end of his career -- the team that would eventually become the St. Louis Cardinals*. - In 1890, the Louisville Colonels made it to the World Series against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. The World Series was a draw. - He became a firefighter after his baseball career. - Some of his teammates included Farmer Weaver, Henry Easterday, Jack Glasscock, and Leech Maskrey.
BASEBALL! IT ONLY SOUNDS PRETEND!
*The team called the St. Louis Browns from 1883 to 1898 became the Cardinals; not to be confused with the OTHER St. Louis Browns (1901-1953; became the Baltimore Orioles). THAT St. Louis Browns is different, and insane. From the "History of the St. Louis Browns" Wikipedia: "In 1951, Bill Veeck, the colorful former owner of the Cleveland Indians, purchased the Browns from DeWitt. [...] His most notorious stunt in St. Louis came on August 19, 1951, when he sent Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot 7-inch, 65-pound midget, to bat as a pinch hitter. When Gaedel stepped to the plate he was wearing a Browns uniform with the number 1⁄8."
Everything about Chicken Wolf is remarkable and sounds made-up. Like he was invented to confuse people about baseball. Here are some fun facts. (I stress that none of this is made up. This is all true.)
ReplyDelete- He was called Chicken Wolf, but his real name was William "Jimmy" Van Winkle Wolf.
- He played most of his career in the American Association (AA) with the Louisville Eclipse (who changed their name to the Louisville Colonels during his tenure).
- At age 28, in 1890, he led the league in hits (197), average (.363) and total bases (260).
- He played a handful of games with the St. Louis Browns at the end of his career -- the team that would eventually become the St. Louis Cardinals*.
- In 1890, the Louisville Colonels made it to the World Series against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. The World Series was a draw.
- He became a firefighter after his baseball career.
- Some of his teammates included Farmer Weaver, Henry Easterday, Jack Glasscock, and Leech Maskrey.
BASEBALL! IT ONLY SOUNDS PRETEND!
*The team called the St. Louis Browns from 1883 to 1898 became the Cardinals; not to be confused with the OTHER St. Louis Browns (1901-1953; became the Baltimore Orioles). THAT St. Louis Browns is different, and insane. From the "History of the St. Louis Browns" Wikipedia: "In 1951, Bill Veeck, the colorful former owner of the Cleveland Indians, purchased the Browns from DeWitt. [...] His most notorious stunt in St. Louis came on August 19, 1951, when he sent Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot 7-inch, 65-pound midget, to bat as a pinch hitter. When Gaedel stepped to the plate he was wearing a Browns uniform with the number 1⁄8."