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 secret German 4) The metallurgist 5) The rich-person otherkin 6) The sports guy
The ones that got away
Question 3
1) What is the most spoken language in South America? 2) In 1993, which New York borough held a referendum on whether to secede from the city of New York? 3) Pictured is part of an Internet meme. In this context, what 3 words most typically follow 'here come dat boi!'? 4) In grams, how much does a bee hummingbird weigh? Your answer will be the number 2, followed by a number of zeros. 5) In May 1877, an 8.8 magnitude Earthquake occurred off the coast of which country? If you get the country you get 2 points. If you get one of its neighbours you get 1 point. 6) This question will require some explanation. On the night this was a '5 or 0' question: you either get 5 points or 0 points. Since you only need 1 point to help us win it'll be a 1 point question here. Name as many NHL players who have won the Hart Memorial Trophy in the 21st Century as you have members on your team. (So for most of you playing at home, this will probably be just 1.)
The answers
1) Portugese 2) Staten Island 3) O shit waddup 4) 2 grams 5) Peru (1 point answers: Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile) 6) Joe Sakic, Jose Theodore, Peter Forsberg, Martin St. Louis, Joe Thornton, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Henrik Sedin, Corey Perry, Evgeni Malkin, Carey Price
The doctor's excuses
1) Gods, what a question. I'm sure there are accurate official numbers somewhere, but Wikipedia is all "Spanish and Portuguese are the most spoken languages in South America, with approximately 200 million speakers each" so I'm kind of like "that's as specific as I want it, really". Moral victory! 2) We discussed basically all the boroughs and decided that "Manhattan, being the richest" would probably have the most to gain by seceding. Totally wrong though, evidently. Staten Island apparently wanted something to do with a landfill site doing. Seems reasonable I guess? 3) If you haven't seen this meme yet, maybe don't google it? It's not a particularly good one and memetic contamination is a legit and growing concern in the modern world, IMO. 4) ffffffffffffffffuuu- we (obviously) considered 2 grams but thought that honestly that seemed kind of incredible for a bird, even a teeny tiny one. We went 20 grams. Let's just pretend we were talking about one specific, morbidly obese, bee hummingbird. 5) So, like, I was aware of Voltaire attacking the philosophy of optimism due to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Which is only a century and a bit wrong, time-wise. I also had basically no idea where the earthquake in question had been and forgot that Austria wasn't famous for its coastline. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing... not as dangerous as earthquakes, though, I suppose. 6) I think this was a week where we happened to have a hockey fanatic on the team (woo), but unfortunately it turned out that this question was super hard (boo), so we spaffed it. Ah well... that's just the way the hockey puck drops, I guess! (No that is not a real Canadian saying, I'm sorry I misled you.)
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 1) Only 4 countries with populations of over 10 million have Portugese as their official language. 2 of them are Brazil and (spoilers) Portugal. For 1 point each, name the other 2. As a hint, the two countries both border Zambia, which is the only neighbour they have in common. 2) Staten Island derives its name from what language? 3) Speaking of inexplicably viral frogs, Crazy Frog evolved from a 1997 recording of a 17-year-old Swede trying to impersonate what? 4) Speaking of Swedes (and hummingbirds), Måns Zelmerlöw sang the lyrics 'Go sing it like a hummingbird / The greatest anthem ever heard' in the process of winning what competition in May 2015? 5) In Greek mythology, which god was thought to cause earthquakes? 6) To most fans North America's major hockey league is known as the National Hockey League, or simply NHL. In French-speaking regions (most notably Quebec), the league is abbreviated to the same three letters, but in a different order - what order?
The answers
1) Angola, Mozambique 2) Dutch (don't forget that New York was formerly New Amsterdam, fact fans!) 3) A two-stroke engine (anything along the lines of 'engine', 'motorbike', 'car', etc. is fine) 4) The Eurovision Song Contest 5) Poseidon 6) LNH (Ligue Nationale de Hockey)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Sorry! On the plus side, we won the grand final of the six-month season at our regular quiz. (Admittedly this isn't particularly good news if all you care about is my quiz questions, but it won us a beer party so we're pretty pleased.)
1+ out of 6: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 6: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) In beer, what does IBU stand for, or measure? 2) Arrange these from weakest to strongest: Bock, Doppelbock, Hellesbock, Eisbock. 3) Identify the company from one of its slogans: "A diamond is forever". 4) Identify the product from its slogan: "Do you eat the red ones last?" 5) Whose logo is pictured? 6) Whose logo is pictured?
Questions 5 (left) and 6 (right)
The answers
1) International Bittering Units (anything along the lines of 'bitter' is good enough for the point) 2) Hellesbock, Bock, Doppelbock, Eisbock 3) De Beers 4) Smarties 5) Opera (web browser) 6) BitTorrent
The doctor's excuses
1) Apparently this is based of spectrometry of the "alpha-acids" that largely determine the bitterness of beer. So that's fun. Let's be honest though, the only thing more boring than beer is talking about how boring beer is. Sorry if you really like beer and had to find out how boring it is from a quiz blog *hugs*. 2) Ok so... Hellesbock means "light beer", bock, means "beer", doppelbock means "double beer" and eisbock means "ice beer". The last one is the interesting one of the bunch because it relates to how the beer is made stronger by the ice forming in the water of the beer but not the alcohol... thus allowing water to be lost, increasing the effective alcohol by volume. 3) We were basically sure it was Cartier and retrospectively now suspect that's because it's the only diamond company we could even slightly think of from a standing start. We have both actually heard of De Beers though. Fun fact, the name is actually Dutch for "the beers". Probably. 4) I *never* liked Smarties, they always seemed like a lie, promising exciting flavours but delivering just a bland "candy" shell and disappointing chocolate. The orange ones tasted orangey... it should have been a salve to my rage but instead it just increased my ire at the fact that the others didn't taste of their respective colours. We went with the similarly (but legit actually worse, due to their creepy marketing) terrible M&Ms. EAT PROPER CHOCOLATE, SHEEPLE! 5) Opera was immediately suggested as an answer but was shot down by me who was "pretty sure it had some kind of blue diagonal aspect to it". I thought I'd seen it recently on a sports-court floor as an advert for Oracle. Totally wrong. Disappointing. Niche web browsers should be extremely our jam! 6) Holy poop, BitTorrent has a logo... is it like... a company? WTF. Also, legally speaking I just want to state that I have never used a BitTorrent and in fact, do not know what one is.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? 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!
Our alternative questions 1) A solid red triangle was the first ever trademark registered in the UK. To which brand/brewery does it belong? 2) Let's keep this beer logo train going. What brand of beer - notable for its spawning of the "Most Interesting Man in the World" Internet meme - derives its Spanish name from a commemoration of the arrival of the 20th Century? 3) De Beers was founded by Cecil Rhodes, whose British South Africa company founded a territory that is now modern-day Zambia and which other country? 4) Purple Skittles are grape flavoured in most locations, but what flavour (from the shrub with taxonomical classification Ribes nigrum) are they in the UK? 5) The US TV network (and acronym) OWN is named after which TV star? 6) Letters from 4 logos have been expertly edited and used to make up the abbreviation OTGA. For 1 point, name all 4. Hint: the products are all of a similar type.
Question 7
The answers
1) Bass 2) Dos Equis (XX being 20 in Roman numerals) 3) Zimbabwe (the term 'Rhodesia' was initially used for what would later become 'Northern Rhodesia' and then Zambia, and 'Southern Rhodesia' and then Zimbabwe, although for a period Rhodesia referred simply to Zimbabwe alone) 4) Blackcurrant 5) Oprah Winfrey (OWN stands for Oprah Winfrey Network) 6) Coca-cola, Sprite, Tango, Fanta
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 7: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 7: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away
Question 2
1) What is the only food which in a natural/unprocessed state does not spoil? 2) What does this symbol mean? Hint: it's on virtually every car, except maybe hire/rental cars. 3) Who said/wrote: "Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame."? 4) Who said/wrote: "I meant what I said and I said what I meant."? 5) Who said/wrote: "You had me at hello."? 6) Who said/wrote: "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."? 7) Who said/wrote: "It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."?
The answers
1) Honey 2) Which side the gas/petrol cap is on 3) Oscar Wilde/Dorian Gray 4) Dr. Seuss/Horton Hatches the Egg 5) Dorothy Boyd/Renee Zellweger/Cameron Crowe/Jerry Maguire (thanks to commenters for pointing out the mistake!) 6) Maya Angelou 7) Anne Frank
The doctor's excuses
1) Kind of hugely frustrating question here, given that I assume honey is not immune to entropy and given that (our answer) sugar lasts ages too. Like, I assume that honey doesn't go off easily *because* it's mainly sugar. We also thought the answer might be "salt" until I decreed that "it's an electrolyte not a food". OH WELL. 2) I actually remember something about this from my driving theory test back in the UK. So it was at least potentially gettable. We didn't get it though. Our answer of "low fuel" was just a matter of our antipathy toward leaving blanks. 3) We knew it had to be an author of shocking books and given that it was written in basically "modern" English thought that Lolita (author: Vladimir Nabokov) was a good shout. We were arguably close? In terms of shock-value... based on Wikipedia synopses, anyway. 4) The mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland features an exchange about saying what one means being different to meaning what one says, but we knew this wasn't from that. Based on how it's sort of vaguely vapid of a statement we went with a politician (a famous canadian one) Pierre Trudeau... which is pretty damn wrong, unless you see politics as a bizarre comedy fit only for children. 5) Haha, totes thought this was some classic sexy movie line, and hence went for Marilyn Monroe. Impressively wrong again. 6) Eesh, a glaring lack of knowledge from us re: the quite famous Maya Angelou... still this whole thing is all about finding and filling our embarrassing holes (we guessed Winston Churchill... A+ good job us!). 7) Ah yes, Anne Frank... the Katniss Everdeen of her time (that was our answer). Honestly though, now I've thought about it a bit, Anne Frank is cooler, for having actually existed and dealt with more horrifying shit.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? 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!
Our alternative questions
Question 5
1) What name is shared by the bee mascot of Honey Nut Cheerios and a character from a major animated movie franchise which began in 1995? 2) What phrase, which in an everyday sense can mean (via Webster's) "something very powerful, strong, or effective", derives from a measure of the performance of an engine or aviation fuel? 3) Wilde's downfall began with an accusation of sodomy by the father of Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, one of his lovers. Lord Douglas' father, however, is arguably better known for lending his name to the (basis of the) rules of what sport? 4) Theodor Seuss Geisel began using various pen names (including 'Seuss') after he was banned from extracurricular activities while an undergraduate at Dartmouth. What activity resulted in this punishment? Now a (very) common activity for students, it was illegal at the time. 5) Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire co-star, Cuba Gooding, Jr., has seen his career dwindle to mainly direct-to-DVD affairs. One exception was a 2009 television film (pictured) where he plays what (real-life) neurosurgeon and Presidential candidate? 6) Angelou's remarkably varied career included the role of Clara in a production of Porgy and Bess. This character performs the opening song of the musical, a lullaby to her baby, which has since become a jazz standard. What song? 7) Prior to becoming stateless in 1941, what was Anne Frank's nationality?
The answers
1) Buzz 2) High-octane 3) Boxing (Wilde was accused of being a 'somdomite' [sic] by the Marquess of Queensberry) 4) Drinking alcohol (specifically, gin) 5) Ben Carson 6) Summertime 7) German
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
