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).
Monday 29 April 2013
Friday 26 April 2013
Bonus Question
University Challenge: an age-old problem?
In an 'exciting' new venture for The ones that got away, here's my first attempt in what will hopefully become a semi-regular feature, currently operating under the working title of Bonus Question. Having spent a rather large proportion of my life watching (and occasionally competing in) game shows, I have something of a back-catalogue of quiz-related topics I've wanted to get down in writing. This is where I'll be (slowly, and with a lot of parentheses) getting them off my chest.
Monday sees the final of the 2012/13 series of University Challenge, where University College London take on Manchester for the big metal book thing. The smart money is on the London team who, having bested Manchester in the quarter-finals, are the only unbeaten team left in the competition. More importantly, however, they also have my full-throated support.
I have a number of reasons to root for the lads from that Godless institution in Gower Street: UCL is one of my alma maters, being a Londoner they're my 'home' team, and Manchester are slowly becoming the, er, Manchester United of University Challenge (which in the finest traditions of 'anyone but United' should be reason enough by itself). However, I have what may seem a somewhat unfair rationale as well: like their winning team last year, Manchester have a mature student.
The debate over teams fielding older players is of course nothing new. In 1999 the Open University (in)famously won the title with a team who, with an average age of 46, featured at least one member who had signed up for a course just to get on the show. While this precipitated predictable rumblings from outraged of Tunbridge Wells, even the show's host spoke out about it not being in the 'spirit of the game'. (And we all know how hard it is to earn Jeremy Paxman's displeasure...)
On face value, the arguments on either side are fairly straightforward. Those (myself included) who feel uncomfortable seeing older competitors argue that the show caters to a unique contestant demographic: young adults who haven't had the time, not just due to their age but also thanks to a life supposedly spent largely in study, to simply amass knowledge through a lifetime's experience. The counterargument usually goes that older students have just as much right to represent their university and that to deny them as such amounts to nothing short of age discrimination. (I heard of one instance where, after initially deciding on their team of four plus a reserve, the individual in charge realized they might have a better chance of getting on the show if they swapped the oldest member of the team with the much more sprightly reserve. The chap in question supposedly threatened to take up this 'discrimination' with the university and the suggestion was quickly dropped.)
The problem of discrimination certainly raises an awkward question: if for the sake of argument we subscribe to the 'no old fogeys' rule then how could this work in practice? Insist contestants are all below a certain age? Only permit those who are studying their first undergraduate degree? Exclude anyone who has taken a gap yah? Obviously it's not a trivial problem. After all (and in the interests of full disclosure), I was a relatively ancient 24 when I took part as a PhD student representing the exclusively postgraduate London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team. My partner meanwhile, who captained UCL to the semi-finals last year, was in his final year of medical school and so of a similarly advanced age. Would I find our participation objectionable if watching at home?
While it's impossible not to sound biased on this one, I think the answer is no, and it's this observation which informs my own personal preference for what constitutes an 'acceptable' University Challenge team. In an ideal world where I am the Lord of Quizzing (what do you mean that's not a thing?) I would insist that all University Challenge contestants satisfy one fairly straightforward inclusion criterion: they must have no 'real world' experience. In other words, they should have left school, gone straight to university, and still be doing some sort of course of study when they compete. (Maybe there could be one year's leeway for people who really must spend 12 months swimming with elephants, or whatever it is humanities students do these days.)
This simple rule would essentially introduce an age limit but in a way that is arguably not directly discriminative (after all, you could just keep doing degrees until you were 50 if you really wanted...), but also maintain the 'this is what I know despite spending all my time studying/drinking' ethos. Some might argue that this would just lead to teams full of PhD students to maximize the age advantage, but that strikes me as unlikely: you won't find many 'perpetual student' PhD candidates over 25, and they're probably the least likely section of a student body to want to waste time on a TV quiz anyway.
Of course, it seems unlikely that we'll see any sort of change to combat what, for the most part, is an almost non-existent problem. The guys who make the show know what they're doing and, most importantly, have the editorial control to minimize the risk of another OU-gate. As they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and University Challenge remains one of TV's premier quizzes.
Still, comments on a recent Guardian article about the man behind Manchester University's success demonstrated that the debate is still alive for some, and it would surely only need a slightly more experienced team to lift the trophy for the argument to resurface in the public's imagination. That certainly won't be the case whoever wins on Monday, but I've got my Jeremy Bentham head ready, just in case.
 | ||||
| Thumbs up if you think UC is super cool |
I have a number of reasons to root for the lads from that Godless institution in Gower Street: UCL is one of my alma maters, being a Londoner they're my 'home' team, and Manchester are slowly becoming the, er, Manchester United of University Challenge (which in the finest traditions of 'anyone but United' should be reason enough by itself). However, I have what may seem a somewhat unfair rationale as well: like their winning team last year, Manchester have a mature student.
The debate over teams fielding older players is of course nothing new. In 1999 the Open University (in)famously won the title with a team who, with an average age of 46, featured at least one member who had signed up for a course just to get on the show. While this precipitated predictable rumblings from outraged of Tunbridge Wells, even the show's host spoke out about it not being in the 'spirit of the game'. (And we all know how hard it is to earn Jeremy Paxman's displeasure...)
On face value, the arguments on either side are fairly straightforward. Those (myself included) who feel uncomfortable seeing older competitors argue that the show caters to a unique contestant demographic: young adults who haven't had the time, not just due to their age but also thanks to a life supposedly spent largely in study, to simply amass knowledge through a lifetime's experience. The counterargument usually goes that older students have just as much right to represent their university and that to deny them as such amounts to nothing short of age discrimination. (I heard of one instance where, after initially deciding on their team of four plus a reserve, the individual in charge realized they might have a better chance of getting on the show if they swapped the oldest member of the team with the much more sprightly reserve. The chap in question supposedly threatened to take up this 'discrimination' with the university and the suggestion was quickly dropped.)
The problem of discrimination certainly raises an awkward question: if for the sake of argument we subscribe to the 'no old fogeys' rule then how could this work in practice? Insist contestants are all below a certain age? Only permit those who are studying their first undergraduate degree? Exclude anyone who has taken a gap yah? Obviously it's not a trivial problem. After all (and in the interests of full disclosure), I was a relatively ancient 24 when I took part as a PhD student representing the exclusively postgraduate London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team. My partner meanwhile, who captained UCL to the semi-finals last year, was in his final year of medical school and so of a similarly advanced age. Would I find our participation objectionable if watching at home?
While it's impossible not to sound biased on this one, I think the answer is no, and it's this observation which informs my own personal preference for what constitutes an 'acceptable' University Challenge team. In an ideal world where I am the Lord of Quizzing (what do you mean that's not a thing?) I would insist that all University Challenge contestants satisfy one fairly straightforward inclusion criterion: they must have no 'real world' experience. In other words, they should have left school, gone straight to university, and still be doing some sort of course of study when they compete. (Maybe there could be one year's leeway for people who really must spend 12 months swimming with elephants, or whatever it is humanities students do these days.)
This simple rule would essentially introduce an age limit but in a way that is arguably not directly discriminative (after all, you could just keep doing degrees until you were 50 if you really wanted...), but also maintain the 'this is what I know despite spending all my time studying/drinking' ethos. Some might argue that this would just lead to teams full of PhD students to maximize the age advantage, but that strikes me as unlikely: you won't find many 'perpetual student' PhD candidates over 25, and they're probably the least likely section of a student body to want to waste time on a TV quiz anyway.
Of course, it seems unlikely that we'll see any sort of change to combat what, for the most part, is an almost non-existent problem. The guys who make the show know what they're doing and, most importantly, have the editorial control to minimize the risk of another OU-gate. As they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and University Challenge remains one of TV's premier quizzes.
Still, comments on a recent Guardian article about the man behind Manchester University's success demonstrated that the debate is still alive for some, and it would surely only need a slightly more experienced team to lift the trophy for the argument to resurface in the public's imagination. That certainly won't be the case whoever wins on Monday, but I've got my Jeremy Bentham head ready, just in case.
Sunday 21 April 2013
16/04/13: the UK's highest-numbered motorway is the half-mile M898 in Renfrewshire, Scotland
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
The ones that got away
1) What flower is also known by the name 'heart's ease'?
2) In what year was The Abyss released?
3) Which two motorways cross just north of Bristol?
4) Ditloid: 1 P I A P
5) What Jim Henson show first appeared on UK television screens in 1976?
6) Anagram: HAD NAILS ONLY (clue: actress)
7) Identify the film from this quote: "I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."
8) Which Dickens novel features a malicious moneylender named Quilp?
9) In which county is Newmarket racecourse: Suffolk or Cambridgeshire?
10) Whose 1971 album was titled 'Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy'?
11) Which UK drama featured Dennis Waterman playing Terry McCann?
12) Swansea City were formerly known as Swansea what? Town, Miners, Academicals or Athletics?
13) Where did the England cricket team play their first Test match?
The answers
The excuses
1) This question prompted heated discussion, with theories ranging from the scientific "something that stops your heart, so foxglove?" to the rather optimistic "maybe it's a flower that, y'know, makes you go 'aaaah'". Still, it's a good opportunity to revise the language of flowers, where pansies are associated with 'thought'.
2) Like last week, we didn't actually know the film, having misidentified a still as being from Hollow Man. On the plus side, had this been a GCSE in pub quizzing, we would have got the follow-through mark for having 'correctly' guessed 2000.
3) If I didn't know better I'd say our quizmaster doesn't like us. Another week, another motorway question, but at least we got half marks on this one thanks to my GCSE in geography teaching me about the M4 corridor.
4) Groan. At least it sounded like no-one else in the pub got this one either. We went for the almost-plausible 1 Pig in a Poke.
5) While my teammates both immediately suggested the correct answer, I hypothesized that the 'other' option (Sesame Street) would make it a much more interesting question. My bad. (Although this Wikipedia article tells the rather interesting story of initial reactions to Sesame Street on these shores, and is worth a read.)
6) After nearly nine months of attending this quiz, we were finally defeated by its anagram question. It was arguably only a matter of time given their tendency to be about film stars, but we had all at least heard of this one. It probably didn't help that there were a lot of false friends in here (I was particularly taken with my guess of Allison Handy).
7) Time for another round of "wow, I didn't realize that song was written for that film".
8) I have often wondered whether questions of the form "which Dickens novel..." constitute the quiz topic where the ratio of expected knowledge to actual knowledge is at its highest. I don't know anyone who has read more than a couple, let alone professing to liking them, and yet they occupy a higher status in the quizzing curriculum than the equally inexplicable US State capitals.
9) Or, indeed, horse racing. Quite a tricky question, though, as Newmarket is a mere 12 miles from Cambridge and located in the slightly odd bit of Suffolk that sticks out to the west.
10) If you've never seen the famous Abbot and Cotsello version of "Who's on First?", it's well worth a watch. Keep your eye (well, ear) out for a nice bit of trivia: only one fielding position isn't given a name.
11) From one 'before our time' pop culture question to another. Did you know that there was a short-lived remake in 2009 starring Shane Richie? Me neither.
12) Caught out again by trying to meta-game: "Surely you wouldn't bother asking this if it was just 'Town'?"...
13) There's a wonderful little fact behind this question (which is presumably common knowledge in the cricketing world). The first officially recognized Test was between England and Australia in 1877, which Australia won by 45 runs. 100 years later the two teams (although presumably with different members) played a one-off match to mark the occasion. The result? Australia won by 45 runs.
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
The ones that got away
1) What flower is also known by the name 'heart's ease'?
2) In what year was The Abyss released?
3) Which two motorways cross just north of Bristol?
4) Ditloid: 1 P I A P
5) What Jim Henson show first appeared on UK television screens in 1976?
6) Anagram: HAD NAILS ONLY (clue: actress)
7) Identify the film from this quote: "I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."
8) Which Dickens novel features a malicious moneylender named Quilp?
9) In which county is Newmarket racecourse: Suffolk or Cambridgeshire?
10) Whose 1971 album was titled 'Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy'?
11) Which UK drama featured Dennis Waterman playing Terry McCann?
12) Swansea City were formerly known as Swansea what? Town, Miners, Academicals or Athletics?
13) Where did the England cricket team play their first Test match?
The answers
The excuses
1) This question prompted heated discussion, with theories ranging from the scientific "something that stops your heart, so foxglove?" to the rather optimistic "maybe it's a flower that, y'know, makes you go 'aaaah'". Still, it's a good opportunity to revise the language of flowers, where pansies are associated with 'thought'.
2) Like last week, we didn't actually know the film, having misidentified a still as being from Hollow Man. On the plus side, had this been a GCSE in pub quizzing, we would have got the follow-through mark for having 'correctly' guessed 2000.
3) If I didn't know better I'd say our quizmaster doesn't like us. Another week, another motorway question, but at least we got half marks on this one thanks to my GCSE in geography teaching me about the M4 corridor.
4) Groan. At least it sounded like no-one else in the pub got this one either. We went for the almost-plausible 1 Pig in a Poke.
5) While my teammates both immediately suggested the correct answer, I hypothesized that the 'other' option (Sesame Street) would make it a much more interesting question. My bad. (Although this Wikipedia article tells the rather interesting story of initial reactions to Sesame Street on these shores, and is worth a read.)
6) After nearly nine months of attending this quiz, we were finally defeated by its anagram question. It was arguably only a matter of time given their tendency to be about film stars, but we had all at least heard of this one. It probably didn't help that there were a lot of false friends in here (I was particularly taken with my guess of Allison Handy).
7) Time for another round of "wow, I didn't realize that song was written for that film".
8) I have often wondered whether questions of the form "which Dickens novel..." constitute the quiz topic where the ratio of expected knowledge to actual knowledge is at its highest. I don't know anyone who has read more than a couple, let alone professing to liking them, and yet they occupy a higher status in the quizzing curriculum than the equally inexplicable US State capitals.
9) Or, indeed, horse racing. Quite a tricky question, though, as Newmarket is a mere 12 miles from Cambridge and located in the slightly odd bit of Suffolk that sticks out to the west.
10) If you've never seen the famous Abbot and Cotsello version of "Who's on First?", it's well worth a watch. Keep your eye (well, ear) out for a nice bit of trivia: only one fielding position isn't given a name.
11) From one 'before our time' pop culture question to another. Did you know that there was a short-lived remake in 2009 starring Shane Richie? Me neither.
12) Caught out again by trying to meta-game: "Surely you wouldn't bother asking this if it was just 'Town'?"...
13) There's a wonderful little fact behind this question (which is presumably common knowledge in the cricketing world). The first officially recognized Test was between England and Australia in 1877, which Australia won by 45 runs. 100 years later the two teams (although presumably with different members) played a one-off match to mark the occasion. The result? Australia won by 45 runs.
Monday 15 April 2013
09/04/13: The three longest-reigning kings of England all have the regnal number III
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) If you took the M3 motorway out of London, which city would you ultimately arrive in? (Edited: on the night it was "which city would you arrive in first?" which, as ably spotted in the comments below, would give a different answer.)
2) In what year was The Bone Collector released?
3) Identify the film from this quote: "God didn't do this. We did!"
4) Identify the film from this quote: "Well, it now seems quite possible that until we get to a decent jail with bribable guards, I may stand in some need of... rather close physical protection."
5) Identify the song from these lyrics: "Why is the bedroom so cold? / Turned away on your side / Is my timing that flawed? / Our respect run so dry?"
6) Identify the song from these lyrics: "You have made my life complete and I love you so"
7) Is a Halcyon a type of skylark or a type of kingfisher?
8) To which royal household did Henries IV, V and VI belong?
The answers
The excuses
1) Regular readers may be wondering why, given the frequency with which such questions appear on these pages, we are still yet to try and properly get to grips with British geography. Unfortunately, given our relatively immiment move abroad, motivation is something of an issue: I somewhat doubt that my one motorway fact (the lowest number that isn't a motorway in the UK) will come up much in the Canadian pub quiz landscape. This is probably just as well: at a mere 70 miles off we thought our suggestion the M3 went to Brighton was 'not bad'...
2) To be entirely accurate, the question we tried to answer was not quite "When was The Bone Collector" released, but "When was this film, for which you only have a picture of Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie to go by, released?". It came as little surprise to hear our guess of 2002 was considerably off the money: it was based entirely on "how much older does she look than when she was in Hackers?".
3) A film neither of us had seen (despite being big fans of the lead actor), but perhaps guessable given our passing knowledge of the plot. Our own 'well-it's-better-than-nothing' stab of Dogma probably gives away how little effort we put into this one.
4) We spent rather longer struggling with this one, as it tickled just the right spot of our brains. Our eventual punt on The Italian Job was made with similar optimism to Dogma, however, and for once we had actually seen the film in question (which always reminds me of the cute/ridiculous dog of the same name).
5-6) Song lyrics are one of those rich seams for quiz questions: without too much effort you can get an entire pub quietly trying to sing along until they reach a bit they recognize. Unfortunately for us, these lines didn't even ring a bell, but they're sufficiently famous that I can't even try and get awway with the old 'before our time' argument.
7) A surprise lesson in Greek mythology, from where the phrase 'halcyon days' originates. A chapess called Alcyone would spend 14 days each year laying eggs and making a nest as a kingfisher (obviously). Handily for Alcyone she was daughter of Aeolus, god of the winds, who would prevent storms for those two weeks so she wouldn't get twigs blowing all over the place. These were thus the halcyon days, a period of calm amidst adversity (although the phrase has come to refer to any peaceful time).
8) Saving the best til last, and I can only try and save a modicum of face and blame the beer (it was the antepenultimate question on the quiz, after all). In lieu of a better excuse, I'll distract you with the rather fun 'fact' (according to Wikipedia, at least) that to avoid reference to Richard of York's defeat at the Battle of Wakefield in the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow, people from Yorkshire developed the alternative "Rowntree's Of York Gave Best In Value". Make of that what you will.
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) If you took the M3 motorway out of London, which city would you ultimately arrive in? (Edited: on the night it was "which city would you arrive in first?" which, as ably spotted in the comments below, would give a different answer.)
2) In what year was The Bone Collector released?
3) Identify the film from this quote: "God didn't do this. We did!"
4) Identify the film from this quote: "Well, it now seems quite possible that until we get to a decent jail with bribable guards, I may stand in some need of... rather close physical protection."
5) Identify the song from these lyrics: "Why is the bedroom so cold? / Turned away on your side / Is my timing that flawed? / Our respect run so dry?"
6) Identify the song from these lyrics: "You have made my life complete and I love you so"
7) Is a Halcyon a type of skylark or a type of kingfisher?
8) To which royal household did Henries IV, V and VI belong?
The answers
The excuses
1) Regular readers may be wondering why, given the frequency with which such questions appear on these pages, we are still yet to try and properly get to grips with British geography. Unfortunately, given our relatively immiment move abroad, motivation is something of an issue: I somewhat doubt that my one motorway fact (the lowest number that isn't a motorway in the UK) will come up much in the Canadian pub quiz landscape. This is probably just as well: at a mere 70 miles off we thought our suggestion the M3 went to Brighton was 'not bad'...
2) To be entirely accurate, the question we tried to answer was not quite "When was The Bone Collector" released, but "When was this film, for which you only have a picture of Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie to go by, released?". It came as little surprise to hear our guess of 2002 was considerably off the money: it was based entirely on "how much older does she look than when she was in Hackers?".
3) A film neither of us had seen (despite being big fans of the lead actor), but perhaps guessable given our passing knowledge of the plot. Our own 'well-it's-better-than-nothing' stab of Dogma probably gives away how little effort we put into this one.
4) We spent rather longer struggling with this one, as it tickled just the right spot of our brains. Our eventual punt on The Italian Job was made with similar optimism to Dogma, however, and for once we had actually seen the film in question (which always reminds me of the cute/ridiculous dog of the same name).
5-6) Song lyrics are one of those rich seams for quiz questions: without too much effort you can get an entire pub quietly trying to sing along until they reach a bit they recognize. Unfortunately for us, these lines didn't even ring a bell, but they're sufficiently famous that I can't even try and get awway with the old 'before our time' argument.
7) A surprise lesson in Greek mythology, from where the phrase 'halcyon days' originates. A chapess called Alcyone would spend 14 days each year laying eggs and making a nest as a kingfisher (obviously). Handily for Alcyone she was daughter of Aeolus, god of the winds, who would prevent storms for those two weeks so she wouldn't get twigs blowing all over the place. These were thus the halcyon days, a period of calm amidst adversity (although the phrase has come to refer to any peaceful time).
8) Saving the best til last, and I can only try and save a modicum of face and blame the beer (it was the antepenultimate question on the quiz, after all). In lieu of a better excuse, I'll distract you with the rather fun 'fact' (according to Wikipedia, at least) that to avoid reference to Richard of York's defeat at the Battle of Wakefield in the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow, people from Yorkshire developed the alternative "Rowntree's Of York Gave Best In Value". Make of that what you will.
Thursday 11 April 2013
02/04/13: The word 'bouillabaisse' comes from a compound of 'to boil' and 'to simmer'
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The saxophonist
The ones that got away
1) In what year was The Shawshank Redemption released?
2) In which county is Lord's cricket ground?
3) Which singer's real name is Stuart Goddard?
4) Which country was known to the Romans as Lusitania?
5) Which musical is based on the life of a survivor of the Titanic?
6) Bouillabaisse is a fish stew originating from which vibrant French port city?
The answers
The excuses
1) 'When was this released?' questions are always a pain, but one good strategy is to know the years for a few films - perhaps one for each decade - and work from them as reference points. Unfortunately, the only example I can ever reliably remember is The Lion King (also released in 1994), which is not spectacularly useful in this regard. Obligatory fun fact: the film is based on a novella by Stephen King. (The Shawshank Redemption, I mean, not the Lion King.)
2) A deadly (for us) cocktail of cricket and British geography. We knew it was somewhere south-ish, so went with Kent. It turns out that the 'correct' answer wasn't even up to scratch anyway: while Middlesex County Cricket Club play at Lord's, Middlesex as a county was abolished in 1965. Along with much of the former county, Lord's itself lies in Greater London.
3) Celebrity's real names are another goldmine if you ever want to set us an impossible quiz. That said, we were all rather confident with our answer of Sting, whose real name bears almost no resemblance to that in the question.
4) A 50-50 gone bad, with the Iberian peninsula at our disposal we went with Spain.
5) This won the prize for 'most time wasted on a question we were never going to get right' of the evening. Theories ranged from South Pacific ("it definitely had something to do with boats"), to Raise the Titanic ("it definitely had something to do with the Titanic"), and even The Sound of Music ("maybe the Nazis were actually just a metaphor for icebergs?").
6) My first thought on hearing 'vibrant French port' was, frustratingly, the correct answer. Unfortunately, none of us were even sure it was a port (I was mainly going from the 'vibrant' part, admittedly), so we went with Nice, which did not work out nicely for us (geddit???). (Apparently there is some debate over whether this is where the biscuits get their name.)
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The saxophonist
The ones that got away
1) In what year was The Shawshank Redemption released?
2) In which county is Lord's cricket ground?
3) Which singer's real name is Stuart Goddard?
4) Which country was known to the Romans as Lusitania?
5) Which musical is based on the life of a survivor of the Titanic?
6) Bouillabaisse is a fish stew originating from which vibrant French port city?
The answers
The excuses
1) 'When was this released?' questions are always a pain, but one good strategy is to know the years for a few films - perhaps one for each decade - and work from them as reference points. Unfortunately, the only example I can ever reliably remember is The Lion King (also released in 1994), which is not spectacularly useful in this regard. Obligatory fun fact: the film is based on a novella by Stephen King. (The Shawshank Redemption, I mean, not the Lion King.)
2) A deadly (for us) cocktail of cricket and British geography. We knew it was somewhere south-ish, so went with Kent. It turns out that the 'correct' answer wasn't even up to scratch anyway: while Middlesex County Cricket Club play at Lord's, Middlesex as a county was abolished in 1965. Along with much of the former county, Lord's itself lies in Greater London.
3) Celebrity's real names are another goldmine if you ever want to set us an impossible quiz. That said, we were all rather confident with our answer of Sting, whose real name bears almost no resemblance to that in the question.
4) A 50-50 gone bad, with the Iberian peninsula at our disposal we went with Spain.
5) This won the prize for 'most time wasted on a question we were never going to get right' of the evening. Theories ranged from South Pacific ("it definitely had something to do with boats"), to Raise the Titanic ("it definitely had something to do with the Titanic"), and even The Sound of Music ("maybe the Nazis were actually just a metaphor for icebergs?").
6) My first thought on hearing 'vibrant French port' was, frustratingly, the correct answer. Unfortunately, none of us were even sure it was a port (I was mainly going from the 'vibrant' part, admittedly), so we went with Nice, which did not work out nicely for us (geddit???). (Apparently there is some debate over whether this is where the biscuits get their name.)
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