The Vice President flies in Air Force Two

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 7: Well done, you beat us!
4+ out of 7: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away

Question 2!

1) At 5,642m Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain on which continent?
2) Can you identify the disguised famous face pictured?
3) Which US beer brand was originally sold in miniature Champagne bottles? Its bottles still bear the slogan "The Champagne of beers".
4) Which of the following would you most likely hear at 16th and 17th century feasts? Galliard, Requiem, Capriccio, Passacaglia, Liederspiel, Tafelmusik.
5) Which of these athletes was not a famous figure skater? Vitaly Scherbo, Tenley Albright, Christopher Dean, Dick Button, Viktor Petrenko, Sonja Henie.
6) The US President's plane, Air Force One, is a modified version of which aircraft? Airbus A380, De Havilland Comet, Cessna 140, Boeing 747, Sopwith Camel, McDonnell Douglas DC-7.
7) Which of these movies was given wide release (in the US) in January 2000? Mrs Doubtfire, Babel, A Few Good Men, Toy Story, Magnolia, Saw.

The answers

1) Europe (it's in Russia, near the border with Georgia)
2) Jerry Seinfeld
3) Miller
4) Tafelmusik (literally, 'table music')
5) Vitaly Scherbo (a gymnast)
6) Boeing 747 (although technically any US Air Force aircraft carrying the President can use this call sign)
7) Magnolia, although it had a limited release in December 1999 (release dates for the others were Mrs Doubtfire: 1993; Babel: 2006; A Few Good Men: 1992; Toy Story: 1995; Saw: 2004)

Our excuses

1) Oof. An absolute horror show to start. My only defence is that I thought Mont Blanc was the highest mountain in Europe, and while there is the mildest of controversy on this issue depending on how you define Europe, that really would be clutching at straws. Being relatively sure of most of the remaining mountains that make up the Seven Summits (a Wikipedia page I have read more than once, in fact) I suggested Antarctica whose actual highest peak - Mount Vinson - is over 700m lower.
2) We're bad enough at recognizing celebrities without the additional impediment of some Microsoft Paint shenanigans. Perhaps 'clown' was meant to be a clue, but we thought the conspicuous covering up of the chin was evidence for our initial instinct of John Travolta. One thing I've learned from a year of quizzing in North America: they really like Seinfeld here.
3) Another slightly US-centric one, but still a highly recognizable international brand. A cursory Wiki-ing suggests that this description applies specifically to Miller High Life, the company's oldest brand.
4) A slightly embarrassing miss given our combined musical backgrounds. In hindsight I should perhaps have spotted the potential for 'tafel' to mean 'table' in German, but we went with galliard as I - it seems correctly - remembered from my double bass playing days was popular during roughly the correct time period.
5) Only recognizing Christopher Dean we took a guess on Petrenko thinking that a Soviet-sounding name might be an obvious red herring to throw in.
6) The doctor confidently (and, it turns out, accurately) described four of the six, leaving us with the Airbus and the Boeing 747. My initial instinct was, of course, the latter, but given his confidence in the others I had to defer to his preferred guess. "It has stairs in it, and I've been up and down the stairs of Air Force One enough time in computer games to know it has them too."
7) Having confidently ruled out all but Saw and Magnolia our coin toss went awry. While Saw was at least the 'closest wrong answer' the fact it was still four years out rather undermines any claim we could have to feeling unlucky.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions

Question 3!

1) Named after a 19th century baronet what name is given to mountains in Scotland with a height of over 3,000 feet? I shan't be too picky about spelling, but as a clue it's homophonous with (but not identical to) the names of a US President and a famous actress.
2) The series finale of Seinfeld, airing in 1998, was watched by over 76 million Americans making it the third most-watched series finale in US television history. Broadcast in 1983 and 1993, name one of the two shows whose series finales attracted more viewers.
3) Which English football club, whose crest is pictured here, is nicknamed The Millers?
4) Which composer began his Requiem Mass in D minor in 1791, but died before its completion?
5) When Torvill and Dean made ice dancing history in 1984, Olympic rules dictated that the free dance must be at most 4 minutes and 10 seconds long. The version of Boléro the duo performed to was, however, 4 minutes and 28 seconds long - how did they avoid disqualification?
6) Who became the first (and currently only) sitting US President to travel in a regularly scheduled commercial airline flight, in part to "set an example" during the then energy crisis? The call sign for such a plane, in analogous fashion to Air Force One, is Executive One.
7) Magnolia contains numerous references to the Book of Exodus, including raining frogs - one of the ten Plagues of Egypt. Name five of the other nine plagues.

The answers

1) Munro
2) M*A*S*H (105.9 million viewers in 1983) and Cheers (84.4 million viewers in 1993) - the finale of Friends in 2004 was watched by a comparatively few 52.5 million
3) Rotherham United
4) (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart - it was commissioned anonymously by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the death of his wife
5) They discovered the rule book stated that the timing of the start of a routine began when the skaters started skating. At the beginning of their routine they knelt down, keeping the blades of their skates off the ice for the first 18 seconds. (This is why they do a slightly weird period of kneeling ice waving at the start - here's a video.)
6) Richard Nixon (for more on that energy crisis, see this)
7) Water into blood; Lice; Wild animals/flies; Diseased livestock; Boils; Storms of fire; Locusts; Darkness; Death of firstborn (and in case you're wondering, frogs comes after blood and before lice)

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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