Lacrosse takes its name for the French for 'the stick'

Your targets this week:

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

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The rich-person otherkin
4) The secret German
5) The metallurgist

The ones that got away
1) Brass is an alloy of which two metals? (1 point for getting both.)
2) How many players on a lacrosse team?
3) Which of these is not a real Steven Seagal movie? Hard to Kill; A Man Under Cover; The Asian Connection; Out for Justice; Fire Down Below.
4) In the musical Book of Mormon, to which country are the two main missionaries sent?
5) The musical Cats ran on Broadway from 1982 to 2000. To within 10%, how many shows in total were there?
6) In the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Joseph has 11 brothers. One is called Reuben, for 1 point each, name any 2 others.

The answers

1) Copper and zinc
2) 10
3) A Man Under Cover
4) Uganda
5) 7,493 (so 6,744 to 8,242 gets you the point)
6) Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin

Our excuses

1) It's been a while since I've been so angry for getting a question wrong. I've mixed up brass (copper and zinc) with bronze (copper and tin) for years, and always seem to go the wrong way. (I actually thought this exact question was already on the blog, but currently can't find it.) My new plan? You can get a bronze tan, and tan sounds a bit like tin. Here's hoping it sticks.
2) A bigger game over here than back in the UK, perhaps, but my instinct was '10 or 11', but a teammate thought it was a little lower, so we went with 8. The history of lacrosse is pretty interesting, with Wikipedia offering "In the traditional aboriginal Canadian version, each team consisted of about 100 to 1,000 men on a field that stretched from about 500 meters to 3 kilometers long. These games lasted from sunup to sundown for two to three days straight."
3) Given that our guess of The Asian Connection hasn't been released yet, we felt a tiny bit hard done by, but still.
4) Spoilers: the quiz had a round on musicals, which is a common source of trivia trouble for us. Someone had a hunch on Ethiopia for this, which seemed good enough with nothing else to go on.
5) Having been forewarned of the theme, I'd spent a bit of time looking at the list of longest-running musicals, so was quite disappointed to not get this. Applying some maths I got as far as 6,570 assuming one a day, but was gradually talked upwards. At the last moment I switched from 8,000 to 8,500, putting the cherry on top of what was already a spectacularly frustrating cake of quizzing failure.
6) The doctor had been in a production of this, but could only play the 'pick random names' game, coming up with Aaron and Joshua.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (3 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
1) While most are in fact 'German', which member of an orchestral brass section is often (incorrectly) described by another nationality?
2) Which Canadian ice hockey star was presented with a Tottenham Hotspur shirt this week bearing a slightly mis-spelled version of his name?
3) Which Disney film features a seagull who advises the title character that a salvaged fork is used as a comb? (Seagull? Seagal? Geddit?)
4) Which (real-life) television pioneer (and Mormon) is canonically an ancestor of a (fictional) character from TV series Futurama? Surname suffices.
5) The only real villain in Cats, Macavity's name is a pun based on the names Macheath (of Mack the Knife fame), macuahuitl (an Aztec obsidian sword), and that of which 19th Century literary criminal mastermind, upon whom Macavity himself is supposedly based?
6) Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice shared the 1996 Academy Award for Best Original Song. For 1 point each, what was the song, and what Madonna-starring musical film was it from?

The answers

1) French horn (or, simply, 'horn')
2) Wayne Gretzky
3) The Little Mermaid (the seagull is called Scuttle, and calls a fork a 'dinglehopper')
4) (Philo) Farnsworth
5) (Arthur Conan Doyle's) Professor Moriarty
6) You Must Love Me from Evita

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

While the title is Moby-Dick, the whale is Moby Dick

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us!
2+ out of 9: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The misandrist
4) The programmer

The ones that got away
1) What is the name of Captain Ahab's ship in Moby-Dick?
2) What is the name of Quint's boat used to hunt the shark in Jaws?
3) What was the name of Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar?
4) There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) was the only UK number one single for which artist?
5) ...and who played the harmonica solo on that track?
6) What creature features in the Damien Hirst work titled The Wrath of God?
7) Who were the first Italian team to win the European Cup?
8) In cricket, what fielding position is on the off-side near the boundary behind the slips?
9) What is the combined track distance covered in the women's heptathlon?

The answers

1) Pequod
2) Orca
3) HMS Victory
4) Eurythmics
5) Stevie Wonder
6) A shark
7) AC Milan
8) Third man
9) 1100 metres (100 metres hurdles + 200 metres + 800 metres)

Our excuses

1) A round on 'famous ships' went largely our way (I think there were a further nine we got correct), but some slipped through the net. This one was on the tip of our tongues for most of the quiz, and despite my memory of it having a 'Q' in the name, we all assumed I was thinking of Queequeg. We went with the mildly creative Hell's Fury.
2) Not too bothered about missing this one (I'm not sure I've ever sat through the entire film), with "guess a girl's name" (Lucy) unsurprisingly not proving successful.
3) Easily the worst of the bunch to miss and a real kicking-ourselves moment, we put down Invincible (presumably thinking of the Falklands) and didn't give it enough of a second thought.
4) A toss-up between Eurythmics and Annie Lennox (who, it turns out, is yet to have a UK number one single), we jumped the wrong way.
5) In fairness if we'd thought about this a bit more we may well have worked it out. Instead we dismissed it as one of those throwaway, 'ungettable' ones and just put down Bob Dylan as the first harmonica player we could think of.
6) This one was particularly frustrating, as we ruled out shark (knowing that was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) and cow (knowing that was Mother and Child (Divided)), so we went with sheep as that was one we couldn't remember the name of. Turns out, of course, that he did more than one of each animal, and it was a different shark. Obviously we didn't know enough to get it right, but one of those where I wonder if we'd known slightly less we might have got it.
7) Yawn. While I follow football I've never been one of those who knows the history of the European Cup. Figuring it was as good a reason as any, I took inspiration from the 'old' in The Old Lady and put down Juventus (who first won the cup over 20 years later, in 1985).
8) One I'll be sure to run by our Canadian quiz team, we were left with little to go on other than a few options we could safely eliminate. Unfortunately, our guess of 'deep cover' is nowhere near, so I probably need to hand in my Englishman Licence.
9) What at first seems like a fun question is really just "do you know your heptathlon events?" in disguise. We were some way off, as while we at least knew the 800m, we swapped the 200m for the 100m and forgot that it's only the men who run the 110m hurdles.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (2 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 8

1) Moby-Dick was first published in London under the title The Whale. What dystopian novel's early title was The Last Man in Europe?
2) What movie franchise supposes that Jaws 19 would be playing in cinemas this year?
3) Which naval rank originates from the title given to the commander of ships at the back of a squadron during battle?
4) Eurythmics is an annoying band name to spell, because you'd think it would have an extra 'h' in it. Which American rock band, formed in 1992, also seems to have a missing 'h' in its name, the nickname of its asthmatic vocalist?
5) The Stevie Wonder single Happy Birthday was written to help Wonder's campaign to make whose January 15th birthday a national holiday in the United States?
6) The compound formaldehyde contains what three elements?
7) Which 4-time European Cup winning team are also named after a mythological Greek hero?
8) The name of this suspiciously grasshopper-looking Disney character is a minced oath for what two-word phrase?
9) Simulating the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines, which multi-discipline Olympic event sees competitors paired with horses at random?

The answers

1) (Orwell's) Nineteen Eighty-Four
2) Back to the Future (specifically, in the second movie)
3) Rear admiral (vice admirals commanded the lead ships; rear admirals were in less danger, so it's a handy way to remember the order of the ranks)
4) Weezer
5) Martin Luther King
6) Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
7) Ajax
8) Jesus Christ (the character is Jiminy Cricket)
9) Modern pentathlon

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

If Edward VIII hadn't abdicated, Elizabeth II would still be the monarch

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 8: Well done, you beat us!
2+ out of 8: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The misandrist

The ones that got away
1) What are the three largest continents by land area? You get 1 point for getting all three, and 2 points if you can put them in descending order of size.
2) Which three countries share a border with Finland? 1 point for getting all three.
3) How tall is the queen (in feet and inches)?
4) What major London building is located on Ludgate Hill?
5) Which British bridge became a UNESCO World Heritage Site this year?
6) Who is the restaurant critic for the Sunday Times?
7) 'How to be a Better Cook' is a 2014 book by which TV chef?

The answers

1) Asia (1st), Africa (2nd), North America (3rd)
2) Norway, Sweden and Russia
3) 5 feet 4 inches
4) St. Paul's Cathedral
5) The Forth Bridge
6) A. A. Gill
7) Lorraine Pascale

Our excuses

1) We had Asia and Africa, but massively overestimated the size of Antarctica for number three (North America is almost twice its size). I suspect I was also partly affected by the tendency for Antarctica to be a 'surprise' answer on any continents quiz question.
2) Sweden and Russia were the obvious two answers, and knowing Norway shared a border with Russia I was relatively sure that was the third, but the programmer talked me into Estonia. Sadface.
3) Haha, no. Maybe a fun guessing game for some teams, but not my cup of tea at all. We averaged everyone's guesses and wound up with a close(ish) 5 foot 2.
4) While I'm firmly playing the "I don't live in London any more" card on this, the doctor's 20-odd years calling the city home somewhat undermines us.
5) Having coincidentally looked at a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites shortly before the quiz, I knew the Forth Bridge was on the list but not how recently it had been added. This was actually written on our sheet for most of the round before we switched to Ironbridge. Argh.
6) The programmer provided quite a surprising amount of input on this, but while we could name a few plausible options (include the correct answer) we had little to choose between them and ended up going with Giles Coren.
7) Continuing the foodie theme, and I hadn't even heard of the answer. This time I think Canada takes some of the blame, with most of her televisual exploits seeming to have happened since we moved away.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 point or more)? Would you have helped us win (2 points or more)? 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) If we use the seven-continent model, which continent has the highest population density, and which has the lowest population density? (1 point for each)
2) Russia's border with Norway is its second-shortest, at 196km. With which country does Russia share an approximately 20km border - by far its shortest?
3) The Queen employs various 'royal standards' depending on which realm she is in. In which country does she use this particular royal standard?
4) Give a year in which St. Paul's designer Sir Christopher Wren was alive.
5) Upon 'inscription' (i.e. becoming recognized as such) UNESCO World Heritage Sites are given a reference number. Which Ecuadorian archipelago, described as a "living

Question 7

museum and showcase of evolution", boasts reference number 1?
6) Which Scottish-born restaurateur did A. A. Gill once describe as "a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being"?
7) Pictured are rows zero to five of Pascal's Triangle, which is a pretty fun thing in mathematics. Can you work out what number has been replaced by a question mark?

The answers

1) Asia has the highest, Antarctica has the lowest
2) North Korea
3) New Zealand (the stars are hopefully the giveaway)
4) 1632-1723 (he was heavily involved with the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire in 1666)
5) The Galápagos Islands
6) Gordon Ramsay
7) 10 (each number is equal to the two numbers above it added together)

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

No-one's really sure why New South Wales is called New South Wales

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!

By the way, some of this week's answers are linked in some way. No points for spotting any connection, but it may help make you more certain of one or two answers!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer

The ones that got away
1) Which Scottish-born dancer and actress came to international attention playing the lead role in the 1948 film The Red Shoes?
2) Brisbane is the capital of which Australian state?
3) What type of aircraft was Francis Gary Powers piloting when he was shot down and captured by the Soviets in 1960?
4) Which star of American Sniper is the god-daughter of former TV 'Dragon' Kelly Hoppen?
5) Which indie band, founded in Leeds in 1985, had albums titled George Best, Bizarro, and Seamonsters?
6) Nicknamed 'pitbull', which former rugby union player (later a TV pundit) won 64 caps for England?
7) Now married to The Only Way is Essex cast member Mark Wright, who played Coronation Street character Tina McIntyre until her murder last year? (That is, the character was murdered, not the actor.)

The answers

1) Moira Shearer
2) Queensland
3) U2
4) Sienna Miller
5) The Wedding Present
6) Brian Moore
7) Michelle Keegan

Our excuses

1) Assuming you're not reading this before looking at the answers, you may have spotted a theme of (male) England football captains. Suffice to say we completely missed it. This question is one I've no idea the difficulty of, and while to me it seems like someone stretching to find another Shearer, I'm happy to be informed if it's actually Very Famous Indeed. We put Lauren Bacall, who at least was also alive in 1948 (pretty good going for us).
2) Oops. Australian geography is pretty standard quiz fodder, but they're one of those things I always think I'm better at than I actually am (so I've never got around to trying to properly learn it). To make matters worse, we'd been chatting to a friend of ours earlier in the day about his upcoming trip to - you guessed it - Brisbane, and so all I could remember was that it "wasn't a million miles from Sydney" which should've been, but wasn't, enough help.
3) Considering last week's question about the band, I was frustrated I hadn't been maintaining the blog while away in the UK, as obviously I read about this incident when writing that post. The doctor was torn between U2 and Blackbird, with the latter's first flight coming a good 4 years later.
4) The 'Dragon' clue not helping, we (and by 'we', I mean the doctor and the programmer) were left struggling to remember who was in American Sniper. They eventually settled on Kate Hudson, who is American, but is at least also a woman.
5) Once again with very little helping us out in the question, we tried to think of any 'indie' bands who might have been formed in Leeds in 1985. Apparently we put down Echo and the Bunnymen, who Wikipedia inform me are a rock band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Still, none out of three ain't bad.
6) Our team's combined knowledge of former England rugby union players amounted to Jonny Wilkinson, Will Carling, and (our answer) Mike Catt, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
7) Hahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.

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
1) The Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes concerns a girl whose shoes force her to dance. What Stravinsky ballet - whose premiere resulted in a 'near-riot' - culminates in a girl dancing herself to death?
2) The Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands found off the Queensland coast, between the Australian mainland and which large island?
3) After tricking the Americans into thinking the U-2 pilot had died, which Soviet leader revealed the truth with the enjoyable quote "I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well... and now just look how many silly things the Americans have said."?
4) Reflecting Navy SEALs' training to operate in all environments, what three words are abbreviated to form SEAL?
5) Which legendary squid-like sea monster was given the scientific name Microcosmus marinus by taxonomist Linnaeus in the first edition of his System Naturae? (Reassuringly, the creature was excluded from later editions.)
6) What is the largest score a team can't end a standard rugby union game with? (Assuming, for the sake of this question, that a game could go on forever.)
7) With families moving in on 9th August 1902, Coronation Street was named in honour of the coronation of which monarch?

The answers

1) The Rite of Spring (and while you're here, be sure to check out the Wikipedia page List of classical music with an unruly audience response)
2) New Guinea
3) Khrushchev
4) Sea, Air and Land
5) The Kraken
6) 4 (you can score 3, 5, or 7 points at a time, for a penalty/drop goal, unconverted, an converted try, respectively, and every score from 5 and up is possible; this relates to a moderately interesting thing in American football)
7) Edward VII

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