The earliest version of the Jabberwocky appeared in a periodical called Mischmasch written by Lewis Carroll for his family's amusement

We're back! :D

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us and we'd have won with you!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
1) What Japanese car brand existed from 1932 to 1983?
2) What was the currency of Greece before the Euro?
3) What is the name of Don Quixote's imaginary love?
4) According to ancient Greek myth, what is the name of the giant with 100 eyes?
5) What Sylvia Plath poem begins "You do not do, you do not do, any more, black shoe"?
6) Part of a traditional English breakfast, kippers are made from what type of fish?
7) Within 10%, what is the distance between Montreal (Canada) and Boston (USA) in kilometres?
8) Who plays the main character in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley?
9) Who plays the main character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More?

The answers

1) Datsun
2) Drachma
3) Dulcinea
4) Argus
5) Daddy
6) Herring
7) 404km (so 363.6km to 444.4km gets you the point)
8) Matt Damon
9) Ellen Burstyn

The doctor's excuses

1) We've all heard of this brand but, like... no, sorry. There are things I am willing and able to be super boring about, but this is not one of them. What can you do, eh?
2) Yeah, this should have been an easy get, it's primary school history (at least where I grew up). We put dinar thinking of the denarius - the Roman coin that succeeded the drachma as the US dollar of its age (easier to launder though, I bet).
3) I read a comic of Don Quixote as a kid. It was terrible, like properly properly bad. I have no idea if the real book is anywhere near as abject. Presumably not? Given it's so famous? But then again, have you ever tried to read some Dickens, for example? A lot of great literature is fucking dreadful. Anyway. That's why we didn't know the answer. Because the past was boring and things from the past are boring too.
4) To be fair, our answer of "Geryon" was damn close. Geryon was a giant with unusual body parts (varying according to account: one body and three heads - three bodies - six hands, six feet and wings) who looked after cattle. *Argus* on the other hand, was a giant with unusual body parts (too many eyes) who looks after a cow (Io, actually one of Zeus' many human lovers, transformed). So if anything, our answer was actually *better* because it involved more cows.
5) Plath is an embarrassing hole in our knowledge, tbf. Although that said, we basically know bum all about poets in general. Irrespective, sorry Sylvia. :(
6) Fish are friends, not food.
7) I barely contributed to our answer of 800 (basically out by a factor of 2... which is arguably non-terrible) other than saying "I think it's a long way". Anyway, it is legit a long way, so there is that.
8) At the last minute, one of us remembered that Jude Law was a dude from this film. Unfortunately he's the wrong dude. Stephen Fry is in it too, if you like that kind of thing.
9) Haha, Ellen Burstyn. If she's "burstin" then she should go to the loo!!!! (I have not seen this movie).

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

1) Datsun grew out of an automobile named DAT - an acronym of the surnames of three company partners. TASER is another acronym, albeit one that has nothing to do with lasers. It stands for Thomas A. Swift's Electric...what?
2) Pictured is one side of the 1-euro coin of which country?
3) What type of photography is depicted here? It is characterized by simulating a miniature, or toy-like, scene. (Hint: don't forget this somehow relates to Don Quixote.)
4) The giant Argus held the epithet "panoptes" or "all seeing". Which utilitarian philosopher (born 1748) designed the (ahead of its time) "panopticon" prison where all inmates could be monitored at all times.

Question 3

5) On University Challenge, the doctor once mistook Sylvia Plath for British Poet Laureate Carol-Ann Duffy. Sylvia Plath was married to which (other) British Poet Laureate?
6) Which British comedy featured a character played by Chris Barrie who was an alter-ego of another character played by Chris Barrie, and whose catchphrase was 'smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast'?
7) Typically sweetened with molasses or maple syrup, and flavoured with salt pork or bacon, 'Boston' lends its name to a variety of what common (and more typically British) foodstuff?
8) Which movie series stars a character named Ellen Ripley?
9) The most of any of his directed films, two of Martin Scorsese's other movies received 11 Oscar nominations. One is from 2004, one is from 2011. Name either.

The answers

1) Rifle
2) Italy
3) Tilt-shift
4) Jeremy Bentham
5) Ted Hughes
6) Red Dwarf
7) Baked beans
8) Alien
9) The Aviator and Hugo

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