Adjusted for inflation, Ghost is (currently) the 91st-highest-grossing film of all time

We won this week, but can you do even better?

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3-7) The five unexpected society members

The ones that got away

Question 5

1) The word 'ghost' comes from the Old English for which emotion?
2) According to tradition, if you're born on Halloween what special ability do you have?
3) According to tradition, if you look into a mirror at midnight on Halloween, what will you see?
4) Including the one broadcast this year (on October 19th) how many Simpsons 'Treehouse of Horror' Halloween special episodes have there been?
5) Who is the celebrity pictured here?
6) According to tradition, seeing what creature on Halloween indicates a loved one is watching over you?

The answers

1) Anger, rage, fury (something along those lines gets you the point)
2) To see and talk to ghosts (again, talking to the dead or similar will do)
3) Your true love/future spouse
4) 25
5) Heidi Klum
6) A spider

Our excuses

1) Appropriately enough, it's Halloween quiz time! Someone suggested 'aghast', which no-one was particularly convinced was really an emotion per se, whereas 'fear' at least made sense even if it looked nothing like the word. As is often the case with old etymologies, the truth seems more than a little complicated, but it does seem to (eventually) lead back to 'anger'.
2) Got to love 'according to tradition' questions that don't specify where the tradition is from. With this (and the ones that follow) google suggests more than a few alternatives, but for me 'talk to the dead' seemed plausible. Unfortunately an earlier question in the quiz had asked about necromancy and the doctor deemed this sufficient grounds to dismiss it being the answer here, and instead we went with seeing the future.
3) Plenty of suggestions for this one, but the main two were "your own death" and "your future spouse". The former seemed rather more appropriately gruesome.
4) We were agonizingly close here, as I (correctly) remembered the Simpsons started in 1989, but the first Halloween special didn't air until season 2, and so we were one out with 26. (Further reading reveals the first episode aired on December 17, which I should perhaps have remembered as the fairly famous 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire'.)
5) We have enough trouble recognizing celebrities at the best of times, let alone when they're completely covered in a costume, and predictably while we could identify the god (see below) we weren't able to spot Heidi Klum. (Whom we only know about from her appearances in Spin City.)
6) My hypothesis here was that it would have to be a creature you're fairly likely to see (a superstition is more prone to take hold if it happens relatively often) but the team got a bit preoccupied with birds and ultimately put down 'owl'.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 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 5

1) In the 1990 movie Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This gave her the 'O' component of her eventual 'EGOT' - the term for winning four major entertainment awards. What awards do the letters E, G and T represent?
2) If you're born on Halloween what star sign are you? As a hint (and to avoid this being the most boring question ever, and to hopefully help you remember in future) it's arguably the creepiest of star signs.
3) What is the name of the magical mirror in the Harry Potter universe which shows the viewer what they most want in the world? For the non-Potter fans, it's the odd one out of the following: a) Dertah, b) Erised, c) Ekilsid, d) Tseted.
4) Besides the main family (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie) which character has appeared with a speaking role in the most episodes of the Simpsons? First name suffices.
5) Obviously this is a picture of Heidi Klum, but which Hindu god is she dressed as?
6) This picture of a (seven-legged) spider went viral a few years ago (even featuring on the BBC's Have I Got News For You) after its creator David Thorne attempted to use it for what?

Question 6

The answers

1) Emmy, Grammy, and Tony
2) Scorpio (the scorpion is, for my money, the only 'creepy-crawly' in the set, unless you find crabs scary)
3) b) Erised, which is 'desire' backwards (it's the odd one out as the others spell hatred, dislike and detest backwards)
4) Moe Szyslak (although Milhouse is a close-ish second)
5) Kali
6) To settle a bill [VIDEO]

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

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