The ones that got away
1) Theravada and Mahayana are the two main branches of which religion?
2) Toluca, Monterrey and Puebla are cities in which country?
3) What is the currency of Bolivia?
4) Which sportsman was known as the Louisville Lip?
5) Which 1999 film featured Helena Bonham Carter and Meatloaf alongside the star Brad Pitt?
6) Which three South American countries lie on the Equator?
7) The city of Buffalo, New York, lies on which Great Lake?
8) Which 1997 Quentin Tarantino film is based on Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch?
9) In which city is Dirty Harry set?
10) What is the capital of Sicily?
The answers
1) Buddhism
2) Mexico
3) Bolivano
4) Muhammad Ali
5) Fight Club
6) Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil
7) Lake Erie
8) Jackie Brown
9) San Francisco
10) Palermo
Poll results: 18 votes with the average voter scoring 3.5/10!
The excuses
1) The first of what would be a night of bad misses. We zigged with Hinduism when we should have zagged with Buddhism. There were strong arguments on either side, such as "I covered Hinduism in GCSE Religious Studies, and I don't remember that" and "yama means 'mountain' in Japanese, and mountains often have religious significance in Shinto, one of the main forms of Buddhism in Japan" (we mis-heard the quizmaster's spelling, although in any case Shinto isn't actually a 'form of Buddhism' but I am certainly not qualified to expound on that). We were eventually persuaded by the words sounding "a bit Hindu-y" (although in the discussion I failed to remember the term Saṃsāra).
2) Another 50/50 gone wrong, with us thinking Mexico was 'too obvious' and that instead these might be cities in the southern United States. (We were also moderately motivated by Monterey Jack cheese, from California, had we thought to ask the quizmaster to spell Monterrey things might have been different. Maybe.)
3) Yet another 50/50, but this time both of our options were wrong. We were tossing up between Bolívar and Peso, and eventually went with the former. At least it's an opportunity to remind ourselves that Simón Bolívar remains the only person to be exiled from a country named after them.
4) Incredibly, I had been reading this chap's wikipedia page mere days earlier while writing a quiz, and so this was a particularly galling miss. It was also a lesson in "if you have no idea, just put the most famous one you can think of"; we'd got as far as boxers, but went for George Foreman.
5) Films are the doctor's domain, and while he didn't even think of Fight Club, his guess of Meet Joe Black was a mere one year out from the date in the question.
6) An absolute chestnut, and the moment this question was read out I knew I was going to be kicking myself. I've heard this at at least two other pub quizzes, and it always comes down to "Ecuador, Brazil, and one of Colombia, Peru or Venezuela". Amusingly, this seems to be the first time I've got it wrong. Hopefully giving it the full ones that got away treatment will mean it's the last time as well.
7) Despite visiting Niagara Falls a few weeks previously, we only managed what we thought was an educated guess of Lake Ontario. (And if you're unaware of what the subject line of this post is referring to, this may or may not explain all.)
8) Having narrowed it down to one of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, we decided Jackie Brown seemed a bit too hard, and that of the other two Pulp Fiction came later. At least we were half-right (Pulp Fiction was 1994, while Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino's debut in 1992). We were also swayed by Pulp Fiction's titular literary link.
9) Remarkably, despite our Dirty Harry failings on last week's Only Connect we didn't read up on the series (or watch any of the films like, y'know, a normal person would). Meanwhile, I feel obliged to admit that this was the first time I realized that, despite featuring Clint Eastwood, none of the movies were Westerns...
10) After an earlier question asked us to identify the capital of Germany (spoilers: it's Berlin), we were all a little taken aback by this one by comparison. I did study Italy as part of my geography GCSE (and we all know how useful my GCSEs have proven with quizzing), but the only thing I could remember about Italy was Mount Etna. Apparently they don't consider an active volcano their capital, alas.
The alternative questions
1) What name is given in Hinduism to points in the human body that are centres of life force? In the anime Naruto the term refers to the moulding of physical and spiritual energy essential to carrying out ninja techniques.
2) Australian mouse Monterey Jack is a member of the Rescue Rangers, a detective agency founded by which two Disney characters?
3) Four South American countries' official currency is some sort of peso. Name three of them.
4) Who plays Muhammad Ali in the 2001 biopic?
5) You almost certainly know that the first rule of Fight Club is "you do not talk about Fight Club". You probably know the second rule is "you do not talk about Fight Club". There are, however, six more rules. Give one of them.
6) The Prime Meridian passes through the UK and seven other countries; two in Europe and five in Africa. Name one from each continent.
7) Which of the Great Lakes is the largest in terms of surface area and volume? (Hint: it's not one of the two already mentioned.)
8) What was the maiden name of John F Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline?
9) Dirty Harry features the adventures of San Francisco Police Department inspector Francis Callahan, but which (much better) series of film features the adventures of Detroit cop Axel Foley?
10) The eruption of which volcano, in 79 AD, mostly destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii?
The answers
1) Chakra
2) Chip 'n Dale
3) Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay
4) Will Smith
5) Third: Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth: Only two guys to a fight. Fifth: One fight at a time. Sixth: No shirts, no shoes. Seventh: Fights will go on as long as they have to. Eighth: If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.
6) Europe: France, Spain. Africa: Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana
7) Superior (In terms of surface area, next is Huron, then Michigan, then Erie and Ontario, giving us the rather unhelpful, but fun to say, abbreviation SHMEO! But, as a commenter points out, by volume it's the even more fun SMHOE!)
8) Bouvier (she later became Jackie Onassis following her marriage to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis)
9) Beverly Hills Cop
10) Vesuvius
Yes...I can (now) see why. (My only defence is having deferred to the doctor on that one rather than do my own fact-checking. Lesson learned, methinks!)
I've amended it to reflect that point (by which I mean, my ignorance), thanks for pointing it out.
As someone who spends a large fraction of his time in Tokyo, I have to object to the description of Shinto as a "form of Buddhism". :P
ReplyDeleteYes...I can (now) see why. (My only defence is having deferred to the doctor on that one rather than do my own fact-checking. Lesson learned, methinks!)
DeleteI've amended it to reflect that point (by which I mean, my ignorance), thanks for pointing it out.
Shmeo by area, Smhoe by volume!
ReplyDeleteAha, well spotted, thanks for that, have edited accordingly :)
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