In Japan, Ronald McDonald is called Donald McDonald

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 secret German
4) The metallurgist
5) The rich-person otherkin
6) The meteorologist

Question 4

The ones that got away
1) The highest ranked food services company on the Fortune 500 is McDonald's. What's the second?
2) What word, co-opted by JK Rowling, was originally slang for a marijuana cigarette?
3) In cents, how much money is '2 bits'?
4) Who is being played by Sigourney Weaver here?
5) Which 3 of the following 8 animals are nocturnal? Honey badger, Koala, Lynx, Moose, Red fox, Komodo Dragon, Ostrich, Tortoise. You need all 3 for the point.

The answers

1) Starbucks
2) Muggle
3) 25
4) Dian Fossey (in Gorillas in the Mist)
5) Honey badger, Koala and Red fox

The doctor's excuses

1) Moderately difficult and interesting question. Yum Brands was suggested on account of their ownership of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, which seemed to me to be a sufficiently strong trifecta to make them a decent competitor to Maccy D's. Turns out that Starbucks is 187 and Yum is 228.
2) We immediately discarded "muggle" as being way too obvious to be the real answer and then spent quite a while wracking our brains about it. In the end someone remembered the term "squib" (a child born of magical parents but without magical abilities). Since a squib is a thing you light, and so is wacky tobaccy we thought it seemed like a good shout.
3) In googling something interesting to say about this question, I was reminded that "Shave and a haircut. Two bits" is a well known musical sting. The highlight of that Wikipedia page is the fact that "In Mexico, the tune is highly offensive, as it is commonly used to stand in for the vulgar phrase 'chinga tu madre, cabrón'". I shan't translate that though, as it is jolly rude.
4) I have, on multiple occasions, mistaken Fossey for Goodall, which is weird because I don' t really know much about either person other than "they both did ape research stuff". It turns out they're both rather interesting people. Worth reading up on.
5) I'm not really sure why we put "lynx" here. I think someone had a theory about koalas being definitely diurnal or something? I'm not 100% sure I think I'd been drinking, which makes sense, it is a pub quiz after all.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us? 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!


Our alternative questions

Question 1

1) In 2012 a Nebraska woman sold a Chicken McNugget (pictured) for over $8,000. Why was it so expensive?
2) We asked a question about Harry Potter last week, so here's an HP question instead. According to Heinz.co.uk, what is the most prevalent ingredient in a bottle of HP (brown) sauce? (Hint: it's not vinegar.)
3) In Disney's Tron, 'programs' are associated with 'bits' which are capable of saying only two words: which two?
4) Along with her research on gorillas, Fossey undertook many anti-poaching efforts. But what (pictured below) is, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the world's most illegally traded animal?
5) Have another animal question. What is the common name of the only marsupial native to the USA? One of these creatures was voiced by William Shatner in the movie Over the Hedge, bringing his unique style to a rather overacted 'death' scene.

Question 4

The answers

1) It (supposedly) resembles George Washington
2) Tomatoes
3) 'Yes' and 'No'
4) The pangolin
5) Possom (more formally, the Virginia opossum)

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