Monday 22 July 2013
On holiday!
The ones that got away is moving to Canada, so this place will be a bit dead for a bit while we move country, find a place to live, and get hold of some delicious Canadian Internet (I hear it tastes of maple syrup).
Sunday 14 July 2013
08/07/13: Abu Qatada was born in Bethlehem
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The misandrist
5) The saxophonist
The ones that got away
1) Who's this chap (pictured)?
2) In what year was the film (500) Days of Summer released?
3) Which British newspaper was the first to feature ditloids?
4) Identify the film from its tagline: "You won't believe your eye"
5) Which Labour Prime Minister coined the phrase "A week is a long time in politics"?
6) Abu Qatada was finally deported to Jordan this week, how many years did the legal battle over his extradition last?
7) Who does this logo belong to (pictured)?
The answers
Poll results! 5 votes with 1 scoring 5/7, 1 scoring 4/7, 1 scoring 2/7 and 2 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 7.
The excuses
1) Somewhat unusually, we did propose the correct answer for this one, but were pretty sure Damien Hirst didn't look like that. Admittedly the same could be said for Danny Boyle, which is what we put down.
2) Zigged with 2008 :(
3) Not convinced this is especially gettable (we went with the Telegraph, who were the first to feature Sudoku) and we were disappointed the quizmaster didn't go with his original question which I've shamelessly stolen for the next section.
4) The misandrist suggested the correct answer, we all thought it seemed like a good shout but weren't completely certain so left it blank to fill in at the end if we didn't think of anything better. After we swapped sheets for marking I realized to my horror (not even exaggerating) that I'd forgotten to put it in, and of course it was correct. Ultimately it cost us a tie-breaker for second place, so not as bad as missing out on top spot but still enough to make me feel terrible. Just goes to show the importance of double checking.
5) Strangely, I think everyone on the team independently thought of Callaghan, which is usually a pretty reliable indicator that you've hit upon the correct answer.
6) Zagged with 7 years :( Although looking at his Wikipedia page, it seems rather more complicated and I'm not convinced that there's a non-ambiguous answer to this one.
7) We spent almost the entire quiz convinced this was a sports brand, but unsurprisingly couldn't place it.
The alternative questions
1) Damien Hirst won the 1995 Turner Prize for work including one of his more notorious sculptures Mother and Child, Divided. What animals feature in this work?
2) Name 2 of the 4 English quarter days, traditionally when servants were hired and rents due.
3) The first ditloid was the ingenious 1 DITLOID - can you solve it?
4) Monsters, Inc. was the fourth film produced by Pixar and released by Disney. What was the first?
5) How many general elections did Harold Wilson fight as leader of the Labour party?
6) For 2 points, give the capital of Jordan (the country), for 1 point, give the real name of Jordan (the person).
7) One of PETA's more curious campaigns involved portraying fish as 'kittens of the sea' (pictured), but what foodstuff is marketed under the American brand Chicken of the Sea?
The answers
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The misandrist
5) The saxophonist
 |
| Questions 1 and 7 |
1) Who's this chap (pictured)?
2) In what year was the film (500) Days of Summer released?
3) Which British newspaper was the first to feature ditloids?
4) Identify the film from its tagline: "You won't believe your eye"
5) Which Labour Prime Minister coined the phrase "A week is a long time in politics"?
6) Abu Qatada was finally deported to Jordan this week, how many years did the legal battle over his extradition last?
7) Who does this logo belong to (pictured)?
The answers
Poll results! 5 votes with 1 scoring 5/7, 1 scoring 4/7, 1 scoring 2/7 and 2 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 7.
The excuses
1) Somewhat unusually, we did propose the correct answer for this one, but were pretty sure Damien Hirst didn't look like that. Admittedly the same could be said for Danny Boyle, which is what we put down.
2) Zigged with 2008 :(
3) Not convinced this is especially gettable (we went with the Telegraph, who were the first to feature Sudoku) and we were disappointed the quizmaster didn't go with his original question which I've shamelessly stolen for the next section.
4) The misandrist suggested the correct answer, we all thought it seemed like a good shout but weren't completely certain so left it blank to fill in at the end if we didn't think of anything better. After we swapped sheets for marking I realized to my horror (not even exaggerating) that I'd forgotten to put it in, and of course it was correct. Ultimately it cost us a tie-breaker for second place, so not as bad as missing out on top spot but still enough to make me feel terrible. Just goes to show the importance of double checking.
5) Strangely, I think everyone on the team independently thought of Callaghan, which is usually a pretty reliable indicator that you've hit upon the correct answer.
6) Zagged with 7 years :( Although looking at his Wikipedia page, it seems rather more complicated and I'm not convinced that there's a non-ambiguous answer to this one.
7) We spent almost the entire quiz convinced this was a sports brand, but unsurprisingly couldn't place it.
The alternative questions
1) Damien Hirst won the 1995 Turner Prize for work including one of his more notorious sculptures Mother and Child, Divided. What animals feature in this work?
2) Name 2 of the 4 English quarter days, traditionally when servants were hired and rents due.
3) The first ditloid was the ingenious 1 DITLOID - can you solve it?
4) Monsters, Inc. was the fourth film produced by Pixar and released by Disney. What was the first?5) How many general elections did Harold Wilson fight as leader of the Labour party?
6) For 2 points, give the capital of Jordan (the country), for 1 point, give the real name of Jordan (the person).
7) One of PETA's more curious campaigns involved portraying fish as 'kittens of the sea' (pictured), but what foodstuff is marketed under the American brand Chicken of the Sea?
The answers
Thursday 11 July 2013
08/07/13: it is too hot to come up with a subject line fact
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) What were the names of the three tunnels in The Great Escape?
2) What is the name of Channel 4's longest running sitcom? Airing during the 90s, it was set in a Peckham hairdresser.
3) What song wakes up Bill Murray on his radio alarm clock every morning in Groundhog Day?
4) Which 1998 hit song had words from its chorus replaced with 'Anna Friel', much to the amusement of most of the British public?
5) Which badly behaved French striker was signed by West Bromwich Albion last week?
6) Which football team's ground is on White Hart Lane?
7) What does John Major only have one of when most men have two?
8) Which two countries sit either side of Ireland in the UN General Assembly? (You need both for the point.)
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/8, 2 scoring 3/8, 2 scoring 2/8, 1 scoring 1/8, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 8.
The excuses
1) No idea on this one, but obviously a film we'd both seen more than once. We went for the rather boring Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
2) I had at least heard of it, but all I could think of at the time was Bread, which was on the wrong channel, in the wrong city, but still....
3) Curiously, I make this the third Bill Murray-related question I've had to stick on this blog in the last few months, and the second one about Groundhog Day. I guess we should watch that film again.
4) Not the tightest of questions, and no-one in the pub got it. Our answer was, coincidentally, another Madonna song: Don't Cry for me Anna Friel...
5) A frustrating miss given the number of football clubs I follow on Twitter, but as I wasn't aware Anelka was particularly badly behaved he didn't even come to mind.
6) Almost a trick question, mitigated by the pub being a couple of bus stops away from the stadium. The other White Hart Lane is on a rather generic High Road.
7) The deliberate inclusion of the word 'men' in this one threw us, as we assumed it must be testicle. If it was a deliberate bit of misdirection on the part of the quizmaster I'd say it was a tad unnecessary.
8) It's been a long time since I've been so disappointed to miss a question, especially when we then missed the money by one point. Obviously the 'trick' here is to realize the UN is ordered alphabetically, which got me to Iraq and Italy quite quickly. Countries of the world are one of my quiz specialties, and I've little doubt that had I been thorough (by going through the world geographically rather than just trying to think of countries at random) I'd've got Israel eventually. Unfortunately, I was too quick to assume there wasn't a country starting Is and ultimately it cost us. Lesson: if you know you have the knowledge to be certain an answer, don't be lazy!
The alternative questions
1) What links The Great Escape and the winner of the 1999 Turner Prize?
2) What was the first programme aired on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982?
3) In which Pennsylvanian borough is Groundhog Day set?
4) Madonna's 2005 hit Hung Up sampled from which Abba song?
5) A couple of years ago there were three teams, along with West Brom, who between them fought 12 midland derbies in the English Premier League each season. Name all three, please.
6) What type of animal is a hart?
7) Who succeeded John Major as leader of the Conservative Party?
8) Along with Ireland, two other countries have flags consisting of only green, white and orange. Name one of them (or both, I can't really stop you).
The answers
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) What were the names of the three tunnels in The Great Escape?
2) What is the name of Channel 4's longest running sitcom? Airing during the 90s, it was set in a Peckham hairdresser.
3) What song wakes up Bill Murray on his radio alarm clock every morning in Groundhog Day?
4) Which 1998 hit song had words from its chorus replaced with 'Anna Friel', much to the amusement of most of the British public?
5) Which badly behaved French striker was signed by West Bromwich Albion last week?
6) Which football team's ground is on White Hart Lane?
7) What does John Major only have one of when most men have two?
8) Which two countries sit either side of Ireland in the UN General Assembly? (You need both for the point.)
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/8, 2 scoring 3/8, 2 scoring 2/8, 1 scoring 1/8, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 8.
The excuses
1) No idea on this one, but obviously a film we'd both seen more than once. We went for the rather boring Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
2) I had at least heard of it, but all I could think of at the time was Bread, which was on the wrong channel, in the wrong city, but still....
3) Curiously, I make this the third Bill Murray-related question I've had to stick on this blog in the last few months, and the second one about Groundhog Day. I guess we should watch that film again.
4) Not the tightest of questions, and no-one in the pub got it. Our answer was, coincidentally, another Madonna song: Don't Cry for me Anna Friel...
5) A frustrating miss given the number of football clubs I follow on Twitter, but as I wasn't aware Anelka was particularly badly behaved he didn't even come to mind.
6) Almost a trick question, mitigated by the pub being a couple of bus stops away from the stadium. The other White Hart Lane is on a rather generic High Road.
7) The deliberate inclusion of the word 'men' in this one threw us, as we assumed it must be testicle. If it was a deliberate bit of misdirection on the part of the quizmaster I'd say it was a tad unnecessary.
8) It's been a long time since I've been so disappointed to miss a question, especially when we then missed the money by one point. Obviously the 'trick' here is to realize the UN is ordered alphabetically, which got me to Iraq and Italy quite quickly. Countries of the world are one of my quiz specialties, and I've little doubt that had I been thorough (by going through the world geographically rather than just trying to think of countries at random) I'd've got Israel eventually. Unfortunately, I was too quick to assume there wasn't a country starting Is and ultimately it cost us. Lesson: if you know you have the knowledge to be certain an answer, don't be lazy!
The alternative questions
2) What was the first programme aired on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982?
3) In which Pennsylvanian borough is Groundhog Day set?
4) Madonna's 2005 hit Hung Up sampled from which Abba song?
5) A couple of years ago there were three teams, along with West Brom, who between them fought 12 midland derbies in the English Premier League each season. Name all three, please.
6) What type of animal is a hart?
7) Who succeeded John Major as leader of the Conservative Party?
8) Along with Ireland, two other countries have flags consisting of only green, white and orange. Name one of them (or both, I can't really stop you).
The answers