Each week, quiz obsessives and Only Connect champions
Jamie Karran (@NoDrNo) and Michael Wallace (@statacake) take on the pub quizzes of the world.
Find out every Friday if you could have helped with the questions they got wrong.
Thursday 10 October 2013
One of Connecticut's nicknames is "The Land of Steady Habits"
The team name: There's no 'I' in Équipe (reception: non-existent)
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) In which month is Earth Day celebrated?
2) What is the capital of the US State of Connecticut?
3) In January 1953 over 70% of US television sets were tuned in to watch Lucille Ball give birth in which TV show?
4) Managua is the capital of which Central American country?
5) Hoss, Little Joe, and Ben were characters in which US TV series?
6) What is the name of Romeo's cousin and friend in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?
7) How many years of marriage are celebrated with a lace wedding anniversary?
The answers
1) April (22nd)
2) Hartford
3) I Love Lucy
4) Nicaragua
5) Bonanza
6) Benvolio
7) 13
Poll results: 11 votes with 1 scoring 7/7 (!), 1 scoring 6/7, 2 scoring 5/7, 4/7, 3/7 and 2/7, and 1 joining us on zero. The average voter scored a bit under 4/7!
1) Curiously, this was the second "in what month..." question of the night (the first being about All Saints' Day). All we had to work with was that it was a while ago, and that it had to be a time of year where it was dark(ish) in the evenings so that turning off the lights would have an effect. We went one month too early, alas.
2) Everyone loves a US State capital question (by which I mean, no-one loves a US State capital question), and while I have made periodic half-hearted attempts to learn this quizzing staple, I still miss about one in three in quizzes. Unfortunately (and somewhat incredibly) this was the third US State capital question of the night, and as we'd got the first two correct missing this one was a statistical inevitability.
3) One of the perils of quizzing in North America is that pop culture is always going to be a minefield. This was no exception, despite it ostensibly being a spectacularly famous part of US cultural history (and the actress herself rather heavily clueing to the show title), but you couldn't really pick a worse subject area for us.
4) Regular quizzers may be surprise to see us drop a country capital question, but in my defence the QM definitely said it was a South American country on the night, which didn't exactly help. In the end I could remember every South American capital except Paraguay's (Asunción) so went with that, but even without the misdirection in the question I'm pretty sure we'd've still missed it.
5) In what was turning into a pretty Americas-centric round of failure (although in fairness another question expected the Canadians present to know who Fred Perry was) we were struck down by another US TV question. Like I Love Lucy the name at least rang a bell, but our inspired tactic of "if it's an old US TV show put 'the Waltons', it must be right eventually!" continued to prove fruitless. One day...
6) The only one of the set that I'm particularly bothered about missing. The doctor came close with "it's something like Barry, Barry-olo?" but we didn't get much further before beer and question fatigue set in. On the plus side it allows me to link to this excellent webcomic.
7) We've had a US State capital, a country capital, and now another quiz 'favourite' in wedding anniversaries! Regular readers can probably guess what my opinion of this sort of question is, and it hasn't been improved by one about what is apparently a US-specific anniversary gift. I was aware that the US and UK anniversaries differed for the lower numbers (I particularly like how, after six years of marriage, the British are exchanging sugar while their American peers are swapping iron) but that's about as far as my interest in this sort of thing goes.
The alternative questions
1) The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, but what time system - used in many computer operating systems - is defined as the number of seconds since January 1 of that year?
2) Hampton Court Palace was originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of which king?
3) With 71.7% of all US television sets tuned in, more American households watched Lucy give birth than the inauguration coverage of which US president, the following morning?
4) With the exception of countries whose name (or at least an entire word/part thereof) is the same as their capital, such as Monaco (Monaco) or El Salvador (San Salvador), Nicaragua is unique in sharing the last 4 letters of its name with its capital Managua. Which Asian country is the only country to share the last 3 letters of its name with its capital city?
5) Bonanza is the third longest running live-action series in US broadcast history behind fellow western Gunsmoke and which rather more recent police procedural?
6) Who directed Romeo + Juliet, the 1996 film that cast the classic tragedy in the modern-day (and fictional) setting of 'Verona Beach'?
7) If you gave sugar as a sixth wedding anniversary gift, and should you live long enough, what might be an appropriate gift at your 216th wedding anniversary?
The answers
1) Unix time
2) Henry VIII
3) Dwight Eisenhower (have a bonus point if you didn't have to scroll back to the original I Love Lucy question for the year)
4) Iran (Tehran)
5) Law and Order
6) Baz Luhrmann
7) A sugar cube(d)! (Because 216 = 6 x 6 x 6 = 63 :D Sorry.)
Oops. Thanks for that - Hampton was our (incorrect) guess which I must have stuck in the wrong column in my notes (and inexplicably didn't double-check). Have corrected it accordingly.
To make a perhaps more substantive comment, was there a theme round on old (US) TV? Two '50s shows in a night seems a bit high, unless they're going for the nostalgic baby-boomer demographic.
You'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so, but nope. They seem to have at least one question like that every week and it always stings us. Seemed to go down reasonably well with the punters though.
I gave myself credit for "Hartford" since that's the capital of Connecticut.
ReplyDeleteOops. Thanks for that - Hampton was our (incorrect) guess which I must have stuck in the wrong column in my notes (and inexplicably didn't double-check). Have corrected it accordingly.
DeleteTo make a perhaps more substantive comment, was there a theme round on old (US) TV? Two '50s shows in a night seems a bit high, unless they're going for the nostalgic baby-boomer demographic.
ReplyDeleteYou'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so, but nope. They seem to have at least one question like that every week and it always stings us. Seemed to go down reasonably well with the punters though.
Delete