1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us! 6+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The left-fielder 4) The mac-and-cheese-eater
The ones that got away 1)5 point question: the word 'laconic' derives from the name of what ancient Greek city state? 2)2 point question: in English what is the only number spelled alphabetically? 3) 'Devilfish' is an alternative (and rather obsolete) name for what mollusc? 4) How many are in a 'devil's dozen'? 5) In a standard deck of playing cards, the four of what suit is sometimes referred to as the 'devil's bedposts'?
1) Oof. Quite a lot of points to lose on just one question, almost single-handedly (questionedly?) costing us any hope of winning. We'd not heard this fact before, so were scratching around for 'places in Ancient Greece that sound a bit like laconic'. We toyed with Alexandria for a while ("A-lax...A-lac...A-laconic?") before settling on Macedonia (partly encouraged by the doctor's recollection that "the Ancient Greeks thought that people from the East were a bit stupid, or something?"). 2) Oh dear. The two of us who tried to work this out both mis-spelled forty as 'fourty' in our heads, which made things a little more difficult. Still, I thought my idea of "one, because it's still in alphabetical order, just in reverse" was worth a shot. 3) Yes, there was a round on the devil. I don't think any of us knew (or at least remembered) that octopuses were molluscs, and my notes tell me we put 'sea urchin', which Wikipedia tells me is an echinoderm, so... 4) Bah. We thought maybe a devil's dozen was like a rubbish dozen, so 11 instead of 12. 5) Quickly ruling out hearts and diamonds, we were left with a sort-of toss-up between clubs and spades, going for the latter because they look a bit like the devil's tail.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (6 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!
Our alternative questions 1) The Hungarian village of Kocs gives rise to what English word for a particular type of multi-person vehicle? 2) Along with forty being in alphabetical order, there are two other somewhat essential bits of trivia relating to numbers and alphabets. For 1 point each, what number comes first alphabetically, and what number comes last alphabetically? (In English, before you get smart.) 3) Octorok is a recurring enemy in what series of video games? The series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, and even inspired the name of Robin Williams' daughter. 4) What is a baker's dozen baker's dozens minus a gross minus a score? 5) Tempted by a hotel's advertised 'four-poster' beds, you book a night. It turns out that the 'four-poster' refers to four posters above the bed depicting previous famous guests. For 1 point each, name the famous people being clued to. For a fifth point, whose poster was removed from the wall around a year ago? Don't forget: you can click for a bigger version!
Question 5!
The answers
1) Coach 2) Eight and Zero 3) Legend of Zelda ('Zelda' is good enough for the point) 4) 5 (a baker's dozen baker's dozen is 13 times 13, or 169, a gross is a dozen dozen or 144, and a score is 20, so 169 - 144 - 20 = 5) 5) From left to right, top to bottom: Harry Styles (Harry Potter + stiles); Liam Payne (Liam Gallagher + pain); Louis Tomlinson (King Louie + Ricky Tomlinson); Niall Horan (Nile + H + oar + Anne) - the fifth is Zayn Malik
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
We won this week! But you could have done even better?
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The rich-person otherkin 4) The metallurgist
The ones that got away 1) Which US state is known as the 'Mountain State'? Hint: it's not in the Rockies. 2) In the Rihanna song 'Work', how many times is the word 'work' said? If you're within 10% of the answer you get the point. 3) If you invested $1,000 in Apple stock when it first went public, how much would it be worth today? The answer starts with 25 followed by some number of zeros. 4) Identify the fake Friends episode title: a) The one with the chat room; b) The one with the East German laundry detergent; c) The one with the mix tape; d) The one with free porn; e) The one with the race car bed 5) The character Harry Mudd is a con artist in which TV series? 6) The character Templteon Peck is a con artist in which TV series? 7)2 point question: the arena that plays host to the NHL'S Ottawa Senators formerly shared a name with what chemical element?
The answers
1) West Virginia 2) 79 (so 71.1 to 86.9 gets you the point) 3) $250,000 4) The one with the chat room 5) Star Trek 6) The A-Team 7) Palladium
My excuses
1) State nicknames should be bread and butter, but I've never found them interesting enough to study (and don't seem to pick them up passively all that well). Here we initially thought Vermont, but then (correctly) guessed that was the 'Green Mountain' state, so put West Virginia, then at the last minute I persuaded us to go back to Vermont. Good work, me. 2) One person knew how the song went, and from that we did some arithmetic and came up with 173. It only occurred to me shortly after handing in that this would mean 1 'work' almost every second, which perhaps should have seemed optimistic. 3) I really had no idea how to go about this one, and we ended up on $25,000,000. This, it turned out, was quite bad, but not as bad as my first instinct ($250,000,000) or the doctor's ($2.5 billion). 4) Having been Netflixing Friends of late, we knew we'd seen the detergent, race car, and free porn episodes, leaving us with two to choose from. Unfortunately, we mis-remembered an episode featuring a chat room (I think it just featured an instant messenger equivalent?). 5) It looks like this was mainly an The Original Series guy, so we don't feel too bad, but nevertheless must forfeit some geek points. (We thought maybe it was something to do with Mad Men, 'cos it sounded a bit 'old timey'.) 6) This rang a really strong bell but we couldn't work out why. We went with 'Firefly' hoping it rang a bell there. 7) Frustratingly, we assumed this would be some super hard sports question, in fact it was a very work-outable (and quite elegant) 'what are common names for places where sports happen?' question. Sad times.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? 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
Question 3
1) If you take the two-word state nickname of Missouri and repeat it, you get the four-word name of what CBeebies show? On air since 2009, it's hosted by Chris Jarvis and Pui Fan Lee (the latter being best known for playing Po in Teletubbies). 2) The only thing I know about Rihanna is that she's from Barbados, so on that note: the flag of Barbados features the head of a trident, symbolically 'broken' from one held by whom on its previous colonial flag? 3) According to its designer, the Apple logo has a 'bite' taken out of it to show scale, so it would not be confused with what other fruit? 4) No-one really uses chat rooms any more, but what popular instant messaging service takes its name ultimately from the Greek for 'to write at a distance'? 5) Harry Mudd's middle name is, as I'm sure you know, Fenton - a name shared with what type of animal in a 2011 viral Internet video? 6) After explaining how to carry out the Three-card Monte scam on a BBC show, John Lenahan became the first person in 85 years to be expelled from what organization? 7) The only 3-letter element, tin, can be spelled using the symbols for titanium (Ti) and nitrogen (N). Only 2 four-letter chemical elements can be spelled using the symbols of chemical elements. For one point each: which two?
The answers
1) Show Me Show Me 2) Britannia 3) A cherry 4) Telegram 5) A dog (chasing deer) 6) The Magic Circle 7) Neon and Iron (Neon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Iridium, Oxygen, Nitrogen)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us and we'd have won with you!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) What Japanese car brand existed from 1932 to 1983? 2) What was the currency of Greece before the Euro? 3) What is the name of Don Quixote's imaginary love? 4) According to ancient Greek myth, what is the name of the giant with 100 eyes? 5) What Sylvia Plath poem begins "You do not do, you do not do, any more, black shoe"? 6) Part of a traditional English breakfast, kippers are made from what type of fish? 7) Within 10%, what is the distance between Montreal (Canada) and Boston (USA) in kilometres? 8) Who plays the main character in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley? 9) Who plays the main character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More?
The answers
1) Datsun 2) Drachma 3) Dulcinea 4) Argus 5) Daddy 6) Herring 7) 404km (so 363.6km to 444.4km gets you the point) 8) Matt Damon 9) Ellen Burstyn
The doctor's excuses
1) We've all heard of this brand but, like... no, sorry. There are things I am willing and able to be super boring about, but this is not one of them. What can you do, eh? 2) Yeah, this should have been an easy get, it's primary school history (at least where I grew up). We put dinar thinking of the denarius - the Roman coin that succeeded the drachma as the US dollar of its age (easier to launder though, I bet). 3) I read a comic of Don Quixote as a kid. It was terrible, like properly properly bad. I have no idea if the real book is anywhere near as abject. Presumably not? Given it's so famous? But then again, have you ever tried to read some Dickens, for example? A lot of great literature is fucking dreadful. Anyway. That's why we didn't know the answer. Because the past was boring and things from the past are boring too. 4) To be fair, our answer of "Geryon" was damn close. Geryon was a giant with unusual body parts (varying according to account: one body and three heads - three bodies - six hands, six feet and wings) who looked after cattle. *Argus* on the other hand, was a giant with unusual body parts (too many eyes) who looks after a cow (Io, actually one of Zeus' many human lovers, transformed). So if anything, our answer was actually *better* because it involved more cows. 5) Plath is an embarrassing hole in our knowledge, tbf. Although that said, we basically know bum all about poets in general. Irrespective, sorry Sylvia. :( 6) Fish are friends, not food. 7) I barely contributed to our answer of 800 (basically out by a factor of 2... which is arguably non-terrible) other than saying "I think it's a long way". Anyway, it is legit a long way, so there is that. 8) At the last minute, one of us remembered that Jude Law was a dude from this film. Unfortunately he's the wrong dude. Stephen Fry is in it too, if you like that kind of thing. 9) Haha, Ellen Burstyn. If she's "burstin" then she should go to the loo!!!! (I have not seen this movie).
How did you do? Would you have beaten us and helped us win (1 or more point)? 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!
Our alternative questions
Question 2
1) Datsun grew out of an automobile named DAT - an acronym of the surnames of three company partners. TASER is another acronym, albeit one that has nothing to do with lasers. It stands for Thomas A. Swift's Electric...what? 2) Pictured is one side of the 1-euro coin of which country? 3) What type of photography is depicted here? It is characterized by simulating a miniature, or toy-like, scene. (Hint: don't forget this somehow relates to Don Quixote.) 4) The giant Argus held the epithet "panoptes" or "all seeing". Which utilitarian philosopher (born 1748) designed the (ahead of its time) "panopticon" prison where all inmates could be monitored at all times.
Question 3
5) On University Challenge, the doctor once mistook Sylvia Plath for British Poet Laureate Carol-Ann Duffy. Sylvia Plath was married to which (other) British Poet Laureate? 6) Which British comedy featured a character played by Chris Barrie who was an alter-ego of another character played by Chris Barrie, and whose catchphrase was 'smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast'? 7) Typically sweetened with molasses or maple syrup, and flavoured with salt pork or bacon, 'Boston' lends its name to a variety of what common (and more typically British) foodstuff? 8) Which movie series stars a character named Ellen Ripley? 9) The most of any of his directed films, two of Martin Scorsese's other movies received 11 Oscar nominations. One is from 2004, one is from 2011. Name either.
The answers
1) Rifle 2) Italy 3) Tilt-shift 4) Jeremy Bentham 5) Ted Hughes 6) Red Dwarf 7) Baked beans 8) Alien 9) The Aviator and Hugo
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
