Each week, quiz obsessives and Only Connect champions
Jamie Karran (@NoDrNo) and Michael Wallace (@statacake) take on the pub quizzes of the world.
Find out every Friday if you could have helped with the questions they got wrong.
Thursday 27 August 2015
Jason Orange isn't in Take That
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 programmer 4) The entrepreneur 5) The comet 6) The antipodean
The ones that got away 1) In what year was the first Rush Hour movie released? 2) Who is this a caricature of? 3) On a list of the world's largest islands, where does Britain rank? 4) Which London bridge crosses the Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge? 5) Who was the last member of the Beatles to marry? 6) Which world famous band were originally called Feedback? 7) Which 'Alan' is this? 8) What was the title of Take That's first UK number one single? 9) Which charity uses the slogan "Refusing to ignore people in crisis"?
Questions 2 (left) and 7 (right)
The answers
1) 1998 2) Steve McQueen 3) 9th 4) Waterloo Bridge 5) Paul McCartney 6) U2 7) Alan Dale (apparently most notable for playing Jim Robinson in Neighbours) 8) Pray 9) The (British) Red Cross
Our excuses
1) An old regular feature of the blog makes a reappearance, thanks to us (as seemingly always) going one year out with 1997. 2) We spent a long time debating whether it was Daniel Craig or Frank Sinatra, before going with Jeff Goldblum at the last minute. Obviously. 3) There was some debate about whether we thought the quizmaster would count Australia as an island or not (he didn't), and in the end we were agonizingly close with eighth. 4) This was a London quiz, so should have been gettable, but we went (very) wrong with Tower Bridge. 5) As I'm sure you're desperate to know, the order of (first) marriages goes Lennon (1962), Starr (1965), Harrison (1966) and then McCartney (1969). Mmm, fascinating. 6) Spending our time thinking of bands whose music we thought could be described as "a bit feedbacky" we dabbled with Nirvana before putting down Muse. Reading up on U2, it seems Feedback was their very first name before changing to The Hype, the latter of which at least rang a bell. 7) As the hardest question on a picture sheet full of Alans, it's not too surprising we missed this. My notes tell me we put Alan Jackson, who the Internet suggests is an American singer with a cowboy hat. 8) After a previous quiz asked us for Blondie's first single, it was a similar story here as we tried to pick a random Take That song and hope for the best. Once again this seems a very tough ask, with the band having four top 10 hits before Pray. 9) Influenced, I suspect, by the question putting the charity Crisis in mind, we went with Shelter, another homeless advocacy group.
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 2
1) Meaning 'Fragrant Harbour', where was Jackie Chan born? 2) A caricature question gives me an excuse to revisit a past favourite: which world leader currently on the election trail has been painted by George W. Bush here? 3) Of the 10 largest islands in the world, 3 belong exclusively to one country - which country? 4) Situated near Blackfriars Bridge, which tower was built with two circular and one cross-shaped window to (ostensibly) subvert advertising laws? 5) Who is the only one of Henry VIII's wives to not share a Christian name with any other? (Full name, please.) 6) Mostly found in the Mojave Desert, the plant yucca brevifolia was given its more common name of Joshua tree by a group of settlers of what religion? 7) With over 7,000 episodes to date, Neighbours is (unsurprisingly) the Australian TV show with the most episodes. Which is the only episodic UK show to have more? 8) One of those 'tricks' quizmasters occasionally like to throw around is that the Robbie Williams classic Angels never reached the top of the UK singles chart. In fact, it peaked at a meagre number 4 in early 1998. That week coincided with the UK release of what hugely popular Celine Dion track? 9) A quizzing chestnut to finish: the International Committee of the Red Cross is one of only two organizations (along with just four individuals) to win more than one Nobel Prize. The other is the UNHCR, but what does the R in UNHCR stand for?
The answers
1) Hong Kong 2) Stephen Harper (Canada's current Prime Minister) 3) Canada (Indonesia features on three of the 10 largest islands, but shares Borneo with Brunei and Malaysia, and New Guinea with, you guessed it, Papua New Guinea; and never assume a quizmaster won't ask highly related questions!) 4)The Oxo Tower 5) Jane Seymour (I ask this moderately dull question as an excuse to tell you of my 'Henry's Wives Order Mnemonic'. Just remember CAJACC (or 'cadge-ack' out loud) and that each non-unique wife is in alphabetical order: Aragon, Howard, and Parr for the Catherines, Boleyn and Cleves for the Annes. Admittedly you need to know the names in the first place, and it sounds really dumb and complicated, but I've had this do the trick on several horrible "who was his nth wife?" questions.) 6) Mormonism (the tree's shape reminded them of a story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer) 7) Coronation Street (with over 8,000; Emmerdale is only about 200 behind Neighbours, however) 8) My Heart Will Go On (I'm afraid you don't get the point for "oh, that song from Titanic, y'know, near...far...duh-duuh-duuh-duh-duuuuuh") 9) Refugees (it's the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
"Just remember CAJACC (or 'cadge-ack' out loud) and that each non-unique wife is in alphabetical order: Aragaon, Cleves and Howard for the Catherines, Boleyn and Parr for the Annes."
The mnemonic is in the right order, as is the fact they're in alphabetical order, but it was Anne who was of Cleves and Catherine Parr rather than the other way around.
I always remember the chronological order of wives of Henry VIII (and the names themselves) by the rather strange mnemonic "All Barons Should Carry Heavy Parcels", where the first letter of each word respectively refer to Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard and Parr (so either their last names or the location in their name). That combined with "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" gives the answer to more or less any expected question about Henry VIII's wives.
for the long-running soap question i thought i was being exceptionally clever by going for the welsh 'Pobol y cym'.
Unfortunately it appears to be about 100 behind Neighbours, despite starting a good 9 years before the Aussie show. Shame because it would have been a nice obscure answer for me.
- I got Alan due to his turn as the evil(ish?) patriarch on The OC. Thanks, occasional obsession with teen soaps! - I was proud of myself for even remembering the name of the one Take That song I could remember. Then I looked it up and it was called "back for good," not "want you back." Shit. - Guessed correct on the Feedback band because they like dumb names. Everything else I whiffed on. - I cannot believe that portrait.
"Just remember CAJACC (or 'cadge-ack' out loud) and that each non-unique wife is in alphabetical order: Aragaon, Cleves and Howard for the Catherines, Boleyn and Parr for the Annes."
ReplyDeleteThe mnemonic is in the right order, as is the fact they're in alphabetical order, but it was Anne who was of Cleves and Catherine Parr rather than the other way around.
...not to mention my dodgy spelling of Aragon. Thanks for the catch, now fixed.
DeleteI always remember the chronological order of wives of Henry VIII (and the names themselves) by the rather strange mnemonic "All Barons Should Carry Heavy Parcels", where the first letter of each word respectively refer to Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard and Parr (so either their last names or the location in their name). That combined with "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" gives the answer to more or less any expected question about Henry VIII's wives.
ReplyDeleteNice! Certainly rather less contrived than my approach :)
Deletei go for a similar approach - able bodied snails climb high peaks. always worked for me.
DeleteThe order of Henry's wives is just one of those things that has stuck without needing a particular mnemonic for me.
ReplyDeleteDespite that oddity, though, I still can't stop myself writing her name as Catherine of Aragorn.
for the long-running soap question i thought i was being exceptionally clever by going for the welsh 'Pobol y cym'.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it appears to be about 100 behind Neighbours, despite starting a good 9 years before the Aussie show. Shame because it would have been a nice obscure answer for me.
- I got Alan due to his turn as the evil(ish?) patriarch on The OC. Thanks, occasional obsession with teen soaps!
ReplyDelete- I was proud of myself for even remembering the name of the one Take That song I could remember. Then I looked it up and it was called "back for good," not "want you back." Shit.
- Guessed correct on the Feedback band because they like dumb names. Everything else I whiffed on.
- I cannot believe that portrait.
Legit impressed.
Delete