The file format GIF is pronounced with a soft 'G'

Your targets this week:

We won this week, but could you have done even better?

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The rich person otherkin
4) The DJ-man
5) The mystery woman

The ones that got away
1) The first official Presidential Car was a 1909 White Steamer. Which President?
2) 2 point question: According to maritime law, there are four kinds of shipwreck. Two are 'lagan' and 'derelict, for one point each what are the other two?
3) Which of these is not a real member of the Batman baddies 'Club of Villains'? Charlie Caligula, Doctor Murder, El Sombrero, King Kraken, or Swagman?
4) 2 point question: In a Cricket World Cup quarter-final last month, Martin Guptill set a the record for highest individual score in a World Cup match with 237 runs. For one point each, what country does he play for, and what country were his opponents in that game?
5) What do the letters GIF stand for in the name of a computer file format?
6) The French 75 cocktail consists of Champagne and what other drink?

The answers

1) Taft
2) Flotsam and jetsam
3) Doctor Murder
4) New Zealand and West Indies
5) Graphics Interchange Format ('graphic', 'graphical', and similar, are acceptable)
6) Gin

Our excuses

1) Suspecting this question was really "Who was President in 1909?" I narrowed it down to Taft or Wilson, and while I knew Wilson was in charge during the First World War, I nevertheless thought Taft was a little too early.
2) We got as far as deducing that this was one of those questions that seemed so weird on the surface the answer must be some sort of everyday(ish) phrase. We couldn't get beyond that, however, and went with last minute guesses of 'sunken' and 'grounded'.
3) Over to the doctor on this, who could only eliminate Charlie Caligula, El Sombrero and King Kraken, from which it was a classic toss-up: "My only excuse is that they're relatively minor characters, the main character is Doctor Hurt who runs the organization 'The Black Glove', if I'd remembered his name was Doctor Hurt, I'd've realized Doctor Murder was wrong, but I didn't, because I was drunk."
4) Over to me on this, and while I knew the quarter-finalist teams (as well as the semi-finalists, from whom the player almost certainly came), it was guesswork beyond that. For those keeping score, I went with South Africa and Pakistan, who didn't even play each other at that stage.
5) Like many, I suspect, we slipped up on the I, thinking it stood for 'image'.
6) Cocktails remain our nemesis, but I think our suggestion of a Cointreau and Champagne blend sounds rather nicer than the alternative (even if it is just a rather more deadly Buck's Fizz).

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more points)? 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 4

1) Taft is one of only two US Presidents whose surname begins and ends with the same letter - who's the other?
2) The Shipping Forecast is broadcast each day at 0520, 1201, 1754, and what other time? You get 2 points if you're spot on, and 1 point if you're within 10 minutes.
3) What appropriate name was given to another gang of Detective Comics villains whose members' codenames were King, Queen, Jack, Ten and Ace?
4) For one point each, what do these two cricket umpire signals indicate?
5) All doubt about the definitive pronunciation of what operating system was removed by an audio recording by creator Linus Torvalds?
6) According to the International Bartenders Association, a French 75 consists of 1.5 centilitres of lemon juice, 3 centilitres of gin, 6 centilitres of Champagane, and 2 dashes of simple syrup. If our gin is 40% alcohol by volume, our Champagne is 10% alcohol by volume, our lemon juice is 0% alcohol by volume, and we ignore the simple syrup - what strength is our resulting French 75? (You can have 2% either way.)

The answers

1) Nixon
2) 0048 (so 0038-0058 gets you 1 point)
3) The Royal Flush Gang (if you said 'Royal Flush' that's good enough!)
4) A six (left) and a TV replay/review (right)
5) Linux
6) 17.1% ABV (so 15.1% - 19.1% gets you the point; one way to calculate it is that we have 1 part 0% ABV, 2 parts 40% ABV and 4 parts 10% ABV, so in 1+2+4 = 7 parts cocktail we have 2 times 0.4 and 4 times 0.1 = 1.2 parts alcohol)

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

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