Thursday 9 October 2014

The highest distinction in the Soviet Union was the Hero of the Soviet Union

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 12: Well done, you beat us!
7+ out of 12: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
1) To within 25km, how far south-east of Newfoundland, Canada, did the Titanic sink? Hint: the answer is between 0 and 750km.
2) What name was Mickey Mouse originally going to be called?
3) Who was the first US president to live in the White House?
4) What was Ernest Hemingway's first published novel?
5) Which Frenchman was born seven months after his friend and colleague in the development of cubism, Pablo Picasso?
6) Which boxer, who won a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics, was nicknamed 'The Golden Boy'?
7) How did Virginia Woolf commit suicide?
8) Who was the first First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union?
9) What is O. J. Simpson's nickname?
10) In which US state was Oprah Winfrey born?
11) In Reservoir Dogs a number of characters use a pseudonym of 'mister' followed by a colour. What colour was used by Tim Roth's character?
12) How high an IQ score do you need to be classified a genius?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (7 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 (click for big!)
1) What do the letters RMS (as in, for example, RMS Titanic) stand for?
2) Mickey Mouse was originally created as a replacement for an earlier Disney cartoon character. Named Oswald, what type of animal was Mickey's predecessor?
3) Based on this image of the White House's West Wing, in which numbered office would you expect to find the Vice-President?
4) Death in the Afternoon is a cocktail invented by Hemingway for a 1935 cocktail book with contributions from famous authors. His instructions were: "Pour one jigger ______ into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly". Can you fill in the missing (and highly alcoholic) ingredient?
Question 5
5) Pictured is a charcoal drawing by Picasso of which figure shortly after his death in 1953? Inexplicably, it was not met with universal acclaim.
6) The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the Untied States, but to a player in what position - and for what achievement - is the Golden Glove awarded in football's Premier League?
7) Virginia Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Set, a group of influential English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. Which of its more notable members had the initials JMK? (Surname alone will do.)
8) Since the position was established in 1991, how many different men have served as President of Russia?
9) Give the three words which complete the rhyming (catch)phrase from O. J. Simpson's trial, concerning a single leather glove: "If it doesn't fit, ...".
10) Since 1999 Forbes magazine has compiled an annual list of the most powerful celebrities of the year. Oprah Winfrey is the only person to appear in the top 10 of this list for each of the 16 years it has been running. Just two other people make more than ten appearances, one who works in the film industry and the other in sports. Name either.
11) Which orange Mr. Men character - the first in the Roger Hargreaves series of books - begins his story by eating a biscuit without getting out of bed?
12) What comes next in this sequence?
DENSWO
CWENSP
BSWENQ
__________

The answers


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

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