The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
The ones that got away
1) How many yards are there in a mile?
2) Who sang with Aretha Frankline on Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves?
3) Were sea levels to rise due to global warming, which country in the Indian Ocean is expected to be the first to be completely submerged?
4) What cereal was advertised with the jingle 'tasty tasty very very tasty'?
5) What German football team are owned by the company that discovered asiprin and heroin?
6) Identify the film from this quote: "I'm your density. I mean... your destiny."
7) Identify the film from this quote: "We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."
The answers
The excuses
1) Imperial measurements are one of those things I've made occasional attempts to learn with varying success. What I could remember was that there are about 91 centimetres in a yard, and about 1600 metres in a mile, but a quick calculation produced a fairly wrong answer. Frustratingly, it turns out these approximations are actually quite accurate (more precise figures are 91.44cm and 1609m, respectively): had we got our maths right we would have arrived at a very roundable 1,758 yards.
2) An older song than I realized: released in 1985 we could (just) play the 'before our time' card, although I was disappointed that my teammates couldn't dredge up the answer from my valuable contribution of "oh, I think it was a white woman?".
3) We're big fans of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which has a nice quizzing side effect of keeping us up to date with news across the pond. It also features interviews with a remarkably eclectic group of individuals including, on one occasion, Mohamed Nasheed while he was serving as President of the Maldives. We could remember seeing the interview, and that it was a chap talking about the threat of rising sea levels to his country, but couldn't remember which one. A good lesson in how you can find (or almost find) answers from some ostensibly unlikely sources.
4) Apparently this jingle was composed by a fellow called Ronnie Bond, who also composed I'd rather have a bowl of Coco Pops and the song from the Flake adverts (a five minute version of which was released as a single under the title Only the Love).
5) A comedy of errors, this one. The doctor smugly announced that he had the correct answer which, given that he only knows two German football teams, came as something of a surprise. After taunting us with this for a while he eventually explained it 'must' be Bayern Munich (because the company in question was Bayer). Officially we're blaming the associated rigmarole for why we didn't question it, but the lesson is clear: only play the smug know-it-all game if you're really really sure. (And in case you're wondering, we've almost forgiven him.) Also, don't forget that classic aspirin trivium: it comes from willow bark.
6) Proof, as if it were needed, that even quotes from our favourite films will still go begging. Still, an excuse to mention the rather amusing hoax where (from time to time) someone will allege we have reached the future date visited in the second film, when any fule kno that's not for another two years: if we don't have hoverboards by October 21, 2015, that's when you can start questioning the authenticity of this excellent franchise.
7) After Aretha Franklin et al. earlier another question about something from 1985. That said, it stars Emilio Estevez (a quizmaster's favourite himself for being the son of Martin Sheen), who is one of a highly select group of actors I can actually recognize (thanks to his hugely underrated performances in The Mighty Ducks films).
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