1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us! 6+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The programmer
The ones that got away 1) Bullfighting is legal in Spain, Portugal and which other EU country? 2) How many hearts does an octopus have? 3) Which president created the post "Chief Technology Officer of the United States? 4) What four word Bible quote was the first message sent by Morse code? 5) Martha Masters, Lawrence Kutner, Chris Taub and Remy Hadley were all employed by which fictional character created by David Shore? 6) In 2004 a Fender Stratocaster nicknamed Blackie sold for $959,500 at Christie's setting the then record for the world's most expensive guitar. Who did it belong to? 7) In which movie did Tom Cruise shoot to stardom with the help of tight white underpants, prostitutes, and Joe Pantoliano? 8) In which movie did Cameron Diaz make her feature film debut? 9) Name two of the four sisters in Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women. (You need both for the point.) 10) What is the longest common English word that can be formed using only letters that rhyme with "E"? (When asked, the American quizmaster added that as he pronounces the letter Z as "zee" we should consider that in our deliberations.)
The answers
1) France 2) 3 3) Barack Obama 4) What hath God wrought 5)Dr. Gregory House, M.D. ('House' suffices) 6) Eric Clapton 7) Risky Business 8) The Mask 9) Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (surname March, in case you were wondering) 10) DETECTED (given the word 'common' in the question, and the general complications of "which dictionary?" alternatives, however plausible, are not accepted)
Our excuses
1) We made a fairly basic mistake here and put Andorra which, predictably, isn't even in the EU. Even without that slip-up I'm still not sure we would have picked France of the remaining options, although given its proximity to Spain it does seem the 'obvious' answer. 2) The doctor thought octopuses had a heart for each chamber that a normal human heart has, giving a total of four. Apparently they have one heart pumping blood through each gill and then a third for the rest of the body. Needless to say I'm adding this to the doctor's list of 'medical' questions he's inexplicably got wrong. 3) Theorizing this was one of those "oh, it'll be more recent than you think" questions we were debating between Clinton and (W) Bush before going for the latter. The position was actually first created in 2009, so at least we'd got the spirit of the question correct... 4) The doctor had a vague memory of this, and suggested 'let there be light' which I thought worked rather well, though admittedly not as well as the actual answer. 5) A rather successful show that we've almost never seen. After watching one episode a few years ago the doctor decided "watching this as a doctor is like being a chef and watching a drama about cooking where everyone could fly and they spend all their time trying to fly and flying and none of their time cooking". Pithy. 6) There only really seemed to be two options for this: Hendrix and Clapton. Except I was the only one thinking of Clapton and didn't mention it because I only vaguely know who he is. 7) Not one any of us were familiar with, our early Tom Cruise repertoire being limited to Top Gun (1986) and Cocktail (1988) both coming rather later than Risky Business in 1983. Able to rule out Top Gun, at least, we were left with Cocktail as our 'better than nothing' guess. Risky Business was Cruise's sixth feature film appearance, his debut coming in 1981's Endless Love. 8) Another toss-up that went the wrong way. We spent a long time considering The Mask before going with There's Something About Mary which, coming out in 1998, was a whole four years later. 9) An obscenely famous book the details of which we were all entirely ignorant of. A case of "pick some random oldish names and hope for the best" for us. 10) Given our enjoyment of word puzzles I was a bit disappointed we missed this. The letters available are BCDEGPTVZ and we got as close as "if only we could use F, then DEFECTED would work" without the penny dropping. Our seven letter TEEPEED (thinking of the act of throwing toilet roll over someone's house) is, alas, not yet in my dictionary.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (6 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) Excluding Vatican City (which is not a member of the UN), Andorra is the fifth-smallest country in Europe, name all four European countries which are smaller. 2) What character, almost certainly on your keyboard, is known by several names including 'octothorp'? 3) Barack Obama's name only has two different vowels (a and o), but which US President is unique in having a name (first and last) that contains only one unique vowel (of a, e, i, o or u)? 4) Classic trivia: what was eventually revealed to be the first name of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse? He was named after the ship James Cook took on his first 'voyage of discovery' to Australia and New Zealand. 5) In an apparent analogy to Sherlock Holmes' opium use, Dr Gregory House is depicted as being dependent on Vicodin, a painkiller consisting of the opiate hydrocodone and which much more common analgesic also known as acetaminophen? 6) Eric Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of which two bands?
Question 7
7) In Risky Business Tom Cruise's character does some naughty things, including driving his dad's car recklessly without permission. What make is that car? A segment of its logo is pictured here in case you can't quite remember the movie. 8) In the movie, the titular mask supposedly belongs to which Norse god? 9) In a 1997 episode of which TV series does one of the male lead characters put a copy of The Shining, and later Little Women, in a freezer because they made him too scared and too sad, respectively? 10) A hit for Perry Como in 1949, "'A' You're Adorable" takes the form of an alphabetic acrostic, with the first 11 lines matching up with a letter of the alphabet (before they presumably got bored/stuck). Fill in two of the four missing words below!
A, you're adorable
B, you're so _________
C, you're a _____ full of charms
D, you're a _______
And E, you're ________
And F, you're a feather in my arms
The answers
1) (In decreasing size) Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco 2) # (hash, pound, or number sign - it has eight 'points', hence 'octo') 3) Lyndon (B.) Johnson 4) Endeavour 5) Paracetamol 6) The Yardbirds and Cream (no half marks, I'm afraid) 7) Porsche (here's the full logo) 8) Loki (often described as the god of mischief) 9) (Joey in) Friends [VIDEO] 10) B: beautiful; C: cutie; D: darling; E: exciting (and if you haven't seen Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise performing this particular number, stop whatever you're doing and watch this video)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 3 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 15th September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the History Boys vs. the Oxonions? Check it out here!
Week 3 of All New Only Connect saw Gilbert and Sullivan fans the Wandering Minstrels against the Doctor Who loving Gallifreyans. Ah yes, light opera, the Time Lords' other other greatest foe.
New! You can now vote for your own favourite Question of the Week - check the poll below!
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) Rachel Carson ecology bible; Franz Gruber carol; Forensic pathology series; (e.g.) ansWer 2) Blender; Tumbler; Grinder; Flicker 3) Peggy Mitchell; Darrin Stephens; Kristine Kochanski; Miss Ellie 4) Steve Jobs; Marcus Garvey; Dave Swarbrick; Mark Twain 5) Busy Doing Nothing (from A Connecticut Yankee in New York); The Importance of Being Idle (Oasis); Lazy Sunday (Small Faces); The Lazy Song (Bruno Mars) 6) Sugar glider; Sugar Ray Leonard; Sugar Plum Fairy; Sugarloaf Mountain
Our thoughts 1) A fairly straight general knowledge one to kick off. Rachel Carson's ecology bible meant nothing to me as a clue, and little more once we worked out the answer, so the Gallifreyans were perhaps a touch unlucky to spot this early but not rake in the points (although the Minstrels were unable to take full advantage). Franz Gruber's carol strikes me as the sort of trivia chestnut that would trigger certain minds, while I assume 'forensic pathology' would get rather more brains on track. We, however, needed all four clues before the penny dropped (reverese engineering Silent Witness to give us the two clues we needed to form a link), but this seemed like a good staggering of difficulty. 2) The doctor immediately thought Blender was some sort of 3D rendering software (which it is, but it isn't Blendr) but for Internet nerds like us Tumbler really gave it away. I'm not sure whether Tumblr is really less well-known than Grindr (or at least, I'd expect the former to have somewhat less specialized penetration) but otherwise this was a neat, if a touch "easy when you know how" question, where either knowing two, or knowing one and making a bit of a leap of faith would get you the points. As it was the Minstrels needed all four to be sure, but better safe than sorry. 3) Another fairly vanilla general knowledge one this, in an area I am so terrible at it's hard for me to pass judgement on difficulty. The Gallifreyans spotted the link thanks to a familiarity with Darrin Stephens in Bewitched, which struck me as rather impressive. We completely bombed on this, only recognizing the names Peggy Mitchell and Red Dwarf's Kristine Kochanski, which was nowhere near enough for us to get anywhere. 4) This again struck us as tough, but was similarly not really in our wheelhouse. Twain's "the report of my death was an exaggeration" is of course ridiculously famous, but Twain was hardly renowned for a scarcity of good quotes. Swarbrick, meanwhile, with his "it's not the first time I've died in Coventry" gives you more of a route into this (there's far less to note about him than Twain) but I had completely forgotten it. The Gallifreyans picked up their first bonus and were starting to look good value after their early slip. 5) A relatively eclectic mix, here, which is always nice to see (or indeed, hear). Clue ordering has always struck me as particularly difficult in this sort of question, as there are doubtless plenty of people who would have recognized Lazy Sunday far easier than The Importance of Being Idle, and vice-versa. That said, the length of the Oasis title made picking out a specific link much harder (ignoring how hard the song is to identify in the first place), while the last two titles were much more to the point. It would perhaps have been neat if they'd found an alternative to using 'lazy' twice; answers on a postcard? Like us, the Gallifreyans took all four clues to get the point. 6) Like the music, an impressive range of topics covered in one clue here. I always enjoy the part of an Only Connect question where you spot a link late and then work backwards, and this one worked particularly well. After suggesting 'Sugar Plum Fairy' (we rattled through the handful of Very Famous ballet dancers or characters we could think of) we then found ourselves tasked with quickly thinking if there was a 'Sugar' boxer and small marsupial. I'm not sure how many would recognize a sugar glider without additional hints (we initially thought it might have been a bush baby) but spotting either a boxer or ballet would seem likely to cover a good chunk of quizzing society. Sugarloaf Mountain, meanwhile, is one of the more distinctive lumps of rock out there, so made for a good final clue (and duly gave the Minstrels the last point of the round).
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) 4th: Portugal; 3rd: Angola; 2nd: Mozambique 2) a1: R; b1: N; c1: B 3) Jack Lemmon and Whoopi Goldberg; Johnny Carson; Billy Crystal 4) Picture: Florence; Rose; Endellion 5) 5: Eggheads; 4: University Challenge; 3: Only Conect 6) Subdominant; Mediant; Supertonic
The answers
1) 1st: Brazil (Lusophone countries) 2) d1: Q (Set-up of a chess board) 3) Bob Hope (Oscar hosts up to the most) 4) Cameron (making the full name of David Cameron's daughter) 5) (e.g.) 2: Pointless (Quiz shows with teams of 5, 4, 3, 2) 6) Tonic (Notes of the diatonic scale)
Our thoughts 1) More 'classic trivia' here, which I was utterly infuriated with myself for missing (I looked this list up just the other week, and even remarked to the doctor that Portugal is only the fourth largest speaker of Portugese!). Even without the classic trivia tag this is a lovely question, as knowledge of the countries themselves, or even colonial history, gives you various routes towards the answer. The Gallifreyans took all three clues but worked it out well to kick off the round. 2) As a semi-regular chess player this struck me as fantastically easy for five, but I can fully appreciate that it's something that could really catch a blind spot if you're not familiar with the notation. In fact, I'm not entirely sure if there's much of a way into it if you aren't at all familiar with chess notation, as the a1, b1, c1, seem fairly tricky to work out from the context (not to mention with the additional 'red herring' of N for Knight). The fact the Gallifreyans had the link but couldn't quite remember their chess boards quickly enough does make me wonder if this falls a little too close to the "five points or nothing" zone. 3) After the glory of a chess question, back to one of our own quizzing blind spots with the Oscars. I even got as far as thinking it was something to do with hosts but couldn't get further than that. Another standard general knowledge (and 'classic trivia') one, this, and the Gallifreyans took what seemed a comfortable two points. 4) Unusually for us, we knew what was going on in all three pictures (the doctor even recognizing Il Duemo di Firenze thanks to his antics in the Assassin's Creed video games) but had completely forgotten what is presumably the only noteworthy thing about the Cornish village of St Endellion. This seems near-impossible with only the first two clues, and then immediately becomes a "you know it or you don't" the moment you see Endellion. The Minstrels, however, did know it, to snag an impressive two points. 5) After the chess question, another one that seemed an easy five pointer from the comfort of home. I don't know how many quizzers would see Eggheads and think of anything other than the BBC Two quiz, and from there the link to the number five seems fairly obvious. The only question then is if it's going up to nine or down to two, but if you can think of quizzes with six, seven, eight and nine player teams then let me know. While this latter observation seems fairly obvious, I don't blame the Gallifreyans for taking another clue to be sure under studio pressure (not least because they were already looking at a fairly comfortable lead). On a personal note, I was amused to see that the doctor and I had appeared on three of the four quiz shows listed; we may have to look into Eggheads if and when we move back to the UK! 6) In a sequence round where from our sofa we'd scored either five points or zero on each question, we finished off with another five that was again conveniently in our wheelhouse. The Minstrels were perhaps a bit unlucky to have chosen a team name that left themselves open to mild embarrassment at missing what is some relatively rudimentary music theory, but in fairness is something I think you're unlikely to encounter beyond the classroom. Much like the chess question, I think this suffers a little from being either trivial or near-impossible (although a bit of lateral thinking might guide you to tonic after supertonic), but the Gallifreyans were happy to scoop up the bonus. This question is perhaps more notable for the truly heroic banter that followed, where in response to the Minstrels' defence that liking Gilbert and Sullivan was merely an excuse to drink plenty of gin, the Gallifreyans' John quickly replied that they therefore should have had tonic anyway. Incredible.
Question of the Week
A lot of questions this week felt like relatively straight general knowledge affairs rather than the lateral thinking I personally tend to prefer. I'll admit we were close to taking the unprecedented step of not awarding a QotW, not because the questions this week were particularly bad, just that none particularly stood out. However, as we're only three episodes in I thought using the word 'unprecedented' just might make me look a bit pretentious, so instead we're giving it to our personal favourite: the Sugar glider... picture round! As I noted above, this one stood out a little with the range of topics it covered, as well as providing some fun work once you spot the connection to try and make it fit to the previous clues. If that doesn't convince you, then at least take it as an excuse to look at pictures of sugar gliders; those things are adorable.
Disagree? Then you can vote for your own favourite questions in the poll below!
This weekend the doctor and I got our geek on and headed to Montreal Comiccon. One of the best things about conventions are all the cosplayers - attendees who put together often incredible costumes of their favourite people/characters from movies, TV, music, video games and, of course, comics. Naturally, we took a bunch of photos, and what better way to share them than through a picture quiz?
Here, then, are 22 questions about or inspired by what we saw at the con. Suffice to say this will be on the slightly nerdy side, but I've tried to keep things reasonably accessible. Sincere thanks and credit to all those pictured, some of the efforts on display were truly stunning.
Don't forget to click on an image for a larger version - but be careful: it brings up a slideshow and if you scroll too far you might be spoiled for the answers!
Questions 1-4
1) Which fictional team drive this car? 2) What is the alpha-numeric designation of this dog (hint: he has nothing to do with Star Trek). 3) In the middle here is an excellent portrayal of Rainbow Dash from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, but from which British TV show do the couple flanking her take inspiration? 4) Name the actor on the left and the (fictional) species portrayed on the right. (1 point for each)
Questions 5-8
5) This cosplay is of an operatic character from which 1997 film directed by Luc Besson? 6) Who is this chap? 7) Which Doctor Who 'doctor' has been shopping? I want the name of the relevant actor, please. 8) On which fictional space station might you find this staff member?
Questions 9-12
9) (Top left) Which musician is currently in a legal battle with Disney over attempts to trademark the emblem worn here? 10) (Top right) Which character is this? He was played in a 1992 movie by Danny DeVito. 11) (Bottom left) Rocking some appropriate plaid, which Canadian superhero is this? 12) (Bottom right) This is the lead character from which critically acclaimed American crime drama which ended a year ago this month?
Questions 13-16
13) Looking a little bit lonely, this bad guy is from which comic, television and movie franchise? Its cartoon's first arrival in the UK was marked by the change of one word in its title - considered too violent for children - to 'hero'. 14) Which musician is this? 15) Real name Arthur Curry, which superhero (and founding member of Detective Comics' Justice League of America) is this? 16) Hopefully all of us can recognize a Spock at a hundred paces, but which actor played him in Star Trek?
Questions 17-20
17) (Top left) Which two characters are these? (1 point for each) 18) (Top right) Name any two of the five characters here. (1 point for each) 19) (Bottom left) Ignore what I think is a steampunk zombie and instead check out Thor. What is the name of his hammer? 20) (Two pictures in bottom right) These are two characters from which major fantasy TV series?
21) One of the pictures (and questions) above features precisely one real-life celebrity famous person. Which question/who?
And finally...
22) Where's Wally? :D
Once you've had enough of staring at that little lot, check below for the answers, tally up your score then let the world know how you got on with the poll! The answers
The (real) IT Crowd
1) The Ghostbusters 2) K-9 (from Doctor Who) 3) The IT Crowd (it's Roy and a gender-swapped, race-swapped Moss!) 4)2-pointer: Jim Carrey (portraying Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and a Predator (from Predator) 5) The Fifth Element (the alien Diva Plavalaguna, played by Maïwenn Le Besco, pictured, and voiced by Inva Mula) 6) Hulk Hogan 7) David Tennant (complete with 3D glasses) 8) The Death Star (it's an Imperial gunner, in case you were wondering) 9) deadmau5 ('dead mouse' or similar is fine)
Diva Plavalaguna
10) The Penguin 11) Wolverine (James Howlett and Logan also acceptable) 12) Breaking Bad (it's Walter White) 13) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (it's Shredder) 14) Slash from Guns N' Roses 15) Aquaman 16) Leonard Nimoy 17)2-pointer: Virginia "Pepper" Potts and Tony Stark (from the Iron Man series; pseudonyms also acceptable)
Walter White
18)2-pointer: Standing up from left to right: Elsa (from Disney's Frozen), Mr. Freeze (from the Batman comics, perhaps most notably played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 film Batman & Robin), Emma Frost (from the X-Men), Ice King (from Adventure Time), kneeling is Captain Cold (from the Flash comics). Only two points available but if you knew all five please fill out an application to be friends with the doctor. 19) Mjölnir 20) Game of Thrones (it's Daenerys Targaryen - also know as Mother of Dragons among many others - and Hodor) 21) Hulk Hogan in question six is the real deal :D 22) Right at the back, just to the right of the blue door (circled here)
The latest in computerized identification.
Don't forget the two-point questions: the total score is out of 25!
1+ out of 6: Well done, you beat us! 4+ out of 6: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away
Question 1
1) Name the band pictured. 2) To be classified as a serial killer, at least how many murders must an individual commit over a period of at least 30 days? 3) The Caribbean island of Aruba belongs to which country? 4) Which musical instrument did Mark Twain refer to as the "stomach Steinway"? 5) In da Vinci's The Last Supper, what is Judas depicted knocking over to symbolize his treachery? 6) Which baseball position does Kevin Costner's character Crash Davis play in the 1988 movie Bull Durham?
The answers
1) Led Zeppelin 2) Three 3) The Netherlands 4) The accordion 5) Salt (fourth from the left here) 6) Catcher
Our excuses
1) Considering that the doctor has been frequently compared to at least three of the four members of this band for many years it's verging on the impressive that we missed this. Led Zeppelin crossed our minds but was dismissed in a "surely we'd recognize them" manner. We put T. Rex which for us on a question like this is actually quite a good guess (at least they're a band from the correct era). 2) Slightly weird one, this, and obviously it depends somewhat on who you ask (the FBI apparently go with "two or more"). The doctor had, however, read about this very definition fairly recently but with numbers being very much my part of the quizzing bargain his memory of four was unsurprisingly off the mark. 3) On retrospect putting down the UK for this was probably a bit foolish, as I really should have had confidence in my knowledge of the things we own. As for the question itself, I'm not convinced that 'belongs to' is quite the correct phrase, as Aruba is apparently one of the four "constituent countries" that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands (along with Curaçao, Sint Maarten and, of course, the Netherlands). I wonder if that's been an Only Connect question yet... 4) With 'Steinway' pointing towards pianos both my and the doctor's first instinct was accordion. Unfortunately we then both simultaneously second-guessed ourselves and proposed bagpipes instead (mistakenly supposing the bag is made of an animal's stomach - clearly we shouldn't be let near haggis). Predictably, attempting to verify this quote has proven tricky, with most Google results returning someone asking the same question. 5) For such a famous painting I was surprised we had so little idea, going for the relatively blind guess of wine. Still, it's an excellent excuse (if, like me, you haven't before) to read up on the various symbolism and structure of the piece. 6) Despite this being ranked the greatest sports movie of all time by Sports Illustrated, it nevertheless does not seem to have had much impact outside of North America. As such we were left to educated guessing which was immediately doomed to failure as catcher was the one position we ruled out: "you wouldn't be able to see his face!".
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) When the German Zeppelin Hindenburg was destroyed by fire it was mercifully only carrying half its full capacity of passengers. Its return flight, however, was fully booked, with many of those would-be passengers planning to attend festivities surrounding whose coronation the following week? 2)Serial Thrilla is a song on the 1997 album The Fat of the Land by which British electronic music group? As well as the band's first two UK number one singles, the album also featured a track whose mere title was banned from use on BBC Radio 1. 3) What flavour is Curaçao liqueur? It comes from the peel of a fruit grown there whose flesh is all but inedible thanks to the island's nutrient-poor soil. 4) Samuel Clemens claimed his pen name came from his life on the Mississippi. The riverboatman's cry of "mark twain!" - twain being an archaic word for two - indicated the water was two units of what distance deep and therefore safe to navigate? 5) On which day do Christians traditionally commemorate the Last Supper? 6) Who's missing from the baseball team pictured? (As always, you can click to get a bigger version.)
The answers
1) King George VI (the Hindenburg disaster took place on May 6, 1937) 2) The Prodigy (and if you hadn't guessed, that other single is this one) 3) Orange (the laraha citrus fruit was developed from the Valencia orange transplanted there by Spanish explorers) 4) Fathoms (and don't forget, 1 fathom = 6 feet) 5) Maundy Thursday (although 'Maundy' refers to the foot washing Jesus is said to have carried out after the meal) 6) The first baseman should be labelled 'Who' - these are the named players from Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first?" comedy routine. Note that the right fielder isn't identified in the routine (and if you answered this question with a simple "Yes" you get both the point and my respect).
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 2 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 8th September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the Politicos vs. the Felinophiles? Check it out here!
Only Connect's second week on BBC Two featured a new sight for the show; for the first time a team from a previous series made a repeat appearance. Seen off by the eventual champions the Rugby Boys (including a certain Mark Labbett) 27-18 in the first round of Series 2, the History Boys were back for a second bite at the Only Connect cherry. This time they were up against the Oxonians, about whom there is comparatively little to say, so why not take a moment to enjoy the word Oxonion instead.
Continuing on from last week, then, here were our thoughts on the first two rounds of questions.
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) Music: Die Moritat von Mackie Messer; Comme d'habitude; Io che non vivo senza te; Dorogoi dlinnoyu 2) Pope John XX; The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 2; Australian Open 1986; 3-13 September 1752 -3) the Biography of Great Men (Carlyle); a race between education and catastrophe (Wells); a set of lies agreed upon (Napoleon); more or less bunk (Ford) 4) Henry Pym; Emberiza citrinella; Flavivirus febricis; Musical subaqueous craft 5) Guernsey; Jersey; Balaclava; Bikini 6) Pictures: Ken Dodd's teeth; Merv Hughes' moustache; Betty Grable's legs; The Titanic
The answers
1) Hits in translation 2) Didn't exist 3) Descriptions of history 4) Yellow 5) Clothing named after places 6) Insured by Lloyd's
Our thoughts 1) An interesting question where plenty of us would have had a good inkling on the first clue, but with the challenge of working out precisely what's going on. I didn't entirely like that the first two were songs so strongly associated with one artist (Frank Sinatra), but we're starting to see a trend for questions of this form - where the first two clues carry a soupçon of misdirection - both from this series and the last. The History Boys carefully dodged the Specifically Sinatra trap whereas we would've taken three clues to be sure. Jamie was close to impressing me on this, immediately announcing that Die Moritat von Mackie Messer was from The Threepenny Opera, before helpfully following up with "I know nothing about The Threepenny Opera". 2) I think a certain type of quizzer would consider this an absolute gimme for five, but having never been too interested in lists of Popes or the Wilburys it was only on the Australian Open that I was confident that my first instinct was correct. A really lovely idea for a question, particularly since once the answer comes to you there's fun to be had working out how the previous clues could possibly make sense. 3) Controversy! After the roasting my team the Board Gamers justifiably received for getting a question about a board game during our run, the History Boys get one about, er, history. Except that isn't controversial at all, obviously, but does rather go to show how silly it is to complain about teams getting questions relating to their team name. Another one where once the penny drops (for us, on Napoleon) you get some good fun going back to the previous clues. 4) A particularly frustrating one for Jamie here, who probably knew too much about Henry Pym (AKA Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, Wasp, Scientist Supreme...) and as always had to deal with my incredulity for not recognizing a very rare disease. I think if you hit on 'yellow' a little sooner then it could be inferred that something with 'citrinella' in its name might also relate to the colour, but this still seemed a fairly tough ask for more than two points. 5) This one fell into the category of "it can't be that easy...can it?" for me. Guernsey and Jersey obviously leave a lot of room for possibilities, but once you see Balaclava in a quiz you're pretty limited in what could be expected. 6) Jamie managed to spot this once we got to a picture of a boat, rather than people (who we're reliably bad at recognizing), but I appreciate the fun lateral thinking potential in "why are they pointing at those bits of famous people?".
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) Moore: Dr. Kananga; Dalton: Gen. Georgi Koskov; Brosnan: Alex Trevelyn 2) 1st: the aqueduct; 2nd: the sanitation; 3rd: the roads 3) 6th: Heresy; 7th: Violence; 8th: Fraud 4) Picture: Pep Guardiola; Pip (one of Gladys Kight's); Iggy Pop 5) Savannah; Isla; George 6) Mortimer 1961; Haydon Jones 1969; Wade 1977
The answers
1) Craig: Le Chiffre (First villains of successive Bonds) 2) 4th: irrigation (What have the Romans ever done for us?) 3) 9th: Treachery (Circles of hell in 'Inferno') 4) A pup (Pep, Pip, Pop, Pup) 5) Mia (The Queen's great-grandchildren) 6) Murray 2013 (British Wimbledon singles champions)
Our thoughts 1) Bond is one of those areas of trivia that come up time and time again, so it didn't surprise me to see the History Boys take maximum points here. I'm sure many at home would also have got this for five (while grumbling about the show dumbing down, no doubt), but it still takes a calm head to manage it on the show. A nice enough question, but perhaps a bit too much in the "you'll get it for five or not at all" bracket. 2) This question reminded me of the Dead Parrot sketch that came up in our semi-final last year. Then, like now, both teams knew the link but no-one could remember the answer. It's obviously very tricky to judge whether this is just Too Hard or merely an unfortunate blind spot of the six contestants who happened to face it, but particularly when compared to the preceding question it does seem a bit tough. 3) I do enjoy sequence questions where you can get some extra information by using the numerical clues. Starting at 6th you know it's probably going down to 3rd or up to 9th, and when I said that Jamie twigged it must be circles of hell. From there it's just a case of whether you know your Divine Comedy, but again this is a question where I don't think the extra clues help all that much. 4) A nice question even if we did completely mess it up at home (Jamie thought it was 'car insurance mascots'). Recognizing at least two of three should give you enough. 5) Given the latest royal baby news I wonder if someone at OC HQ is kicking themselves for having now used up this question. While Elizabeth does (currently) have four great-grandchildren, and so this makes for a neat Only Connect group, it nevertheless seems tricky to ask a question about them that doesn't end with George. Mia was born back in January, a few months before this series filmed, so it was nevertheless a good spot from the History Boys to remember the name. 6) A fairly standard question to end the round, here, with Virginia Wade the giveaway should you need all three clues. The earlier clues, of course, reward those with a more encyclopaedic knowledge of British tennis (or, alternatively, those who paid more attention to the "he's the first male champion in 77 years!" stories).
Question of the Week
Another strong set of questions, although I think the quality and difficulty was a touch more erratic than last week. Things continue to seem easier (but by no means easy) compared with the infamous series 9, and the teams' scores reflect this. This time around it was a two-horse race for Question of the Week, with 'Descriptions of history' a very close second. For us, though, Pope John XX... takes it by a nose, being both fun trivia and requiring some careful "wait, how could that make sense?" thinking once you land on the answer.
Disagree? You can vote for your own favourite questions in the poll below!
1+ out of 7: Well done, you beat us! 4+ out of 7: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away
Question 2!
1) At 5,642m Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain on which continent? 2) Can you identify the disguised famous face pictured? 3) Which US beer brand was originally sold in miniature Champagne bottles? Its bottles still bear the slogan "The Champagne of beers". 4) Which of the following would you most likely hear at 16th and 17th century feasts? Galliard, Requiem, Capriccio, Passacaglia, Liederspiel, Tafelmusik. 5) Which of these athletes was not a famous figure skater? Vitaly Scherbo, Tenley Albright, Christopher Dean, Dick Button, Viktor Petrenko, Sonja Henie. 6) The US President's plane, Air Force One, is a modified version of which aircraft? Airbus A380, De Havilland Comet, Cessna 140, Boeing 747, Sopwith Camel, McDonnell Douglas DC-7. 7) Which of these movies was given wide release (in the US) in January 2000? Mrs Doubtfire, Babel, A Few Good Men, Toy Story, Magnolia, Saw.
The answers
1) Europe (it's in Russia, near the border with Georgia) 2) Jerry Seinfeld 3) Miller 4) Tafelmusik (literally, 'table music') 5) Vitaly Scherbo (a gymnast) 6) Boeing 747 (although technically any US Air Force aircraft carrying the President can use this call sign) 7) Magnolia, although it had a limited release in December 1999 (release dates for the others were Mrs Doubtfire: 1993; Babel: 2006; A Few Good Men: 1992; Toy Story: 1995; Saw: 2004)
Our excuses
1) Oof. An absolute horror show to start. My only defence is that I thought Mont Blanc was the highest mountain in Europe, and while there is the mildest of controversy on this issue depending on how you define Europe, that really would be clutching at straws. Being relatively sure of most of the remaining mountains that make up the Seven Summits (a Wikipedia page I have read more than once, in fact) I suggested Antarctica whose actual highest peak - Mount Vinson - is over 700m lower. 2) We're bad enough at recognizing celebrities without the additional impediment of some Microsoft Paint shenanigans. Perhaps 'clown' was meant to be a clue, but we thought the conspicuous covering up of the chin was evidence for our initial instinct of John Travolta. One thing I've learned from a year of quizzing in North America: they really like Seinfeld here. 3) Another slightly US-centric one, but still a highly recognizable international brand. A cursory Wiki-ing suggests that this description applies specifically to Miller High Life, the company's oldest brand. 4) A slightly embarrassing miss given our combined musical backgrounds. In hindsight I should perhaps have spotted the potential for 'tafel' to mean 'table' in German, but we went with galliard as I - it seems correctly - remembered from my double bass playing days was popular during roughly the correct time period. 5) Only recognizing Christopher Dean we took a guess on Petrenko thinking that a Soviet-sounding name might be an obvious red herring to throw in. 6) The doctor confidently (and, it turns out, accurately) described four of the six, leaving us with the Airbus and the Boeing 747. My initial instinct was, of course, the latter, but given his confidence in the others I had to defer to his preferred guess. "It has stairs in it, and I've been up and down the stairs of Air Force One enough time in computer games to know it has them too." 7) Having confidently ruled out all but Saw and Magnolia our coin toss went awry. While Saw was at least the 'closest wrong answer' the fact it was still four years out rather undermines any claim we could have to feeling unlucky.
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
Question 3!
1) Named after a 19th century baronet what name is given to mountains in Scotland with a height of over 3,000 feet? I shan't be too picky about spelling, but as a clue it's homophonous with (but not identical to) the names of a US President and a famous actress. 2) The series finale of Seinfeld, airing in 1998, was watched by over 76 million Americans making it the third most-watched series finale in US television history. Broadcast in 1983 and 1993, name one of the two shows whose series finales attracted more viewers. 3) Which English football club, whose crest is pictured here, is nicknamed The Millers? 4) Which composer began his Requiem Mass in D minor in 1791, but died before its completion? 5) When Torvill and Dean made ice dancing history in 1984, Olympic rules dictated that the free dance must be at most 4 minutes and 10 seconds long. The version of Boléro the duo performed to was, however, 4 minutes and 28 seconds long - how did they avoid disqualification? 6) Who became the first (and currently only) sitting US President to travel in a regularly scheduled commercial airline flight, in part to "set an example" during the then energy crisis? The call sign for such a plane, in analogous fashion to Air Force One, is Executive One. 7) Magnolia contains numerous references to the Book of Exodus, including raining frogs - one of the ten Plagues of Egypt. Name five of the other nine plagues.
The answers
1)Munro 2) M*A*S*H (105.9 million viewers in 1983) and Cheers (84.4 million viewers in 1993) - the finale of Friends in 2004 was watched by a comparatively few 52.5 million 3) Rotherham United 4) (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart - it was commissioned anonymously by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the death of his wife 5) They discovered the rule book stated that the timing of the start of a routine began when the skaters started skating. At the beginning of their routine they knelt down, keeping the blades of their skates off the ice for the first 18 seconds. (This is why they do a slightly weird period of kneeling ice waving at the start - here's a video.) 6) Richard Nixon (for more on that energy crisis, see this) 7) Water into blood; Lice; Wild animals/flies; Diseased livestock; Boils; Storms of fire; Locusts; Darkness; Death of firstborn (and in case you're wondering, frogs comes after blood and before lice)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 1 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 1st September. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
In a new venture for The Ones That Got Away I thought I'd take what Jamie and I do each week at home and write up a quick summary of our thoughts on the week's Only Connect questions. The emphasis is on 'quick': I'll just be jotting down short comments on each of the questions in the first two rounds (walls and vowels don't bear too much analysis, I don't think), identifying which ones we really like, which ones we didn't like quite so much, and which one earns the coveted title Question of the Week (coined by quizzing supremos and regular Only Connect question setters @QuizQuizQuiz). I can't promise that this will be something I find time for every week, but if you find it interesting let me know (either here, on Twitter @statacake, or even on Facebook)!
With the show's move to BBC Two many were anticipating a dumbing down of Britain's hardest quiz, but with last season statistically the toughest ever, I'd have to say I wouldn't mind too much if it was just a little bit easier this time around. How then, would the Porticos and the Felinophiles fare, and how devilish would those questions prove? Read on to find out!
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) Cruft; NPOV; Edit war; Disambiguation page 2) Ascot racehorses; Southern-hemisphere tropical cyclone; Decanter of port; Dealer button 3) Nigel Lawson; Frank Cradock; Ramona Blanc; Nigella Slater 4) Theatre on Argyll St.; London Golf club; UK policeman; US five-cent coin 5) Music: In Paradisum (traditional); Paradise City (Guns N' Roses); Stranger in Paradise (from Kismet); Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio feat. L.V.) 6) Pictures: A boy in a swimming pool with green ring; Some mountains; 3 birds at sunset; A bookcase
The answers
1) Wikipedian terminology 2) Moves clockwise 3) Gender-switched TV chefs 4) Share their name with metals 5) Paradise 6) BBC Four idents
Our thoughts 1) A fun one to kick off for any Internet nerd. We had this on NPOV but cruft was entirely new to me. As Twitterer @DrRhys amusingly noted, Wikipedia's series-by-series recaps of Only Connect are currently being considered for deletion as they're being seen as cruft. An easy-ish start, with most teams I suspect recognizing an edit war when they see one. 2) After two this becomes fairly clearly about direction of travel, but which direction is of course the hard bit. I clawed back memories of watching the famously not-at-Ascot Grand National and all the horses going anti-clockwise, which did the trick. 3) The first controversial question of the series, I suspect. Many will feel the Nigel Lawson clue is a bit of a trap, and I'll admit we fell for it as well. As always with Only Connect, however, lateral thinking is key, and if the connection was simply 'parents of famous chefs' then Nigel Lawson surely wouldn't be the first clue. Naturally things become clear with more clues, but it's easy to jump the gun on this one. 4) If you know where the Palladium is then this is a gift of a question, but otherwise it's a steady simplification as the clues arrive which allows for some enjoyable penny dropping. 5) Playing a bit of Paradise City that wasn't the chorus was a big clue to me that the link would be in the title. Stranger in Paradise confirmed while Gangsta's Paradise was what I like to imagine the Only Connect team thought constituted showing they were in touch with the hoi polloi who watch BBC Two. 6) Not one I can easily comment on as we only recognized the bookcase (it being the ident almost exclusively used for Only Connect on iPlayer). Once we saw that we wondered if the first was BBC One (featuring a circle) and the third BBC Three (featuring three birds); sequence question anyone?
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) Pictures: Brandy; A brand; Bran 2) Suriname; Mexico; Costa Rica 3) Eboracum; Eoforwic; Jorvik 4) Minimum speeding penalty; Rugby conversion; A sharpened pencil 5) 4TH: Tim Henman; 3RD: Roald Dahl; 2ND: Nadine Dorries 6) Michael Spindler; Gil Amelio; Steve Jobs
The answers
1) A bra (Removing last letter each time) 2) Canada (overlapping country names) 3) York (names of York) 4) (e.g.) Armstrong/Osman quiz (3, 2, 1, 0 points) 5) (e.g.) 1ST: Stephen Tompkinson (TH, RD, ND, ST) 6) Tim Cook (Apple CEOs)
Our thoughts 1) A moderately straightforward opener although we very nearly buzzed in at home with "A picture of a Zulu!" thinking the first clue was a glass of whiskey and following the NATO phonetic alphabet to its conclusion. 2) Another one sure to court controversy as it's arguably impossible from one clue. Mexico followed by Côte d'Ivoire and Republic of the Congo is (just about) plausible although the actual sequence staying within the Americas (and English) is much more intuitive. I should probably set out my stall now and say I don't think 'impossible after one clue' questions are really a problem, as they've featured in every series of Only Connect to date, and there will doubtless be more to come. Moreover, expecting all questions to be doable after one makes question setting much, much harder, and so it's a trade-off I'm more than happy with. As it was this was a neat bit of wordplay that was guessable after two clues if you had your wits (very much) about you. 3) A fairly standard general knowledge sequence here, although we only had it after the third clue. 4) After two clues I knew this was points, but wasn't entirely sure if it was starting at three and working down, or starting at one and working up (I was aware you get three points for speeding, but wasn't certain if there was some technicality whereby you it was possible to only get one). The Only Connect Sequence Strategy of "which leads to an easier to think of answer?" worked out for us here: something with zero points came to mind much quicker than something with four. I would have been quite tempted to say "what we'd score if we said the answer to this question was 'blancmange'" but that is probably why I wasn't our captain. 5) This one seemed quite easy to me, but this is very much my 'type' of Only Connect question. The name I came up with was Sandi Toksvig but I think it's tremendous that the chap on the Felinophiles can now tell people he was a correct answer on a quiz show. 6) The third question of the show that got the better of us (after the chefs and the country sequence); another straight general knowledge but ours, getting as far as "Apple...people?" wasn't up to scratch.
Overall I'd say this was a fairly gentle start to Only Connect's time on BBC Two, but with plenty of the tricky puzzles and clever thinking that make the show what it is. Many on social media think it was much easier than normal, but I suspect that's at least in part compared to the final stages of series 9. This felt much more like the level I expect of the opening round of Only Connect, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series has in store.
Question of the Week
But finally, what was our Question of the Week? The standard was generally quite high and so there were no particular stand-outs, but after some serious deliberation in our kitchen, we've decided that Ascot racehorses... is the inaugural winner. This had the hallmarks of some of the best Only Connect questions, being guessable after one if you knew your stuff and had the guts to go for it, as well as some delightfully unrelated-seeming components. That said, with clues relating to horse racing, sailing, port and card games, this is possibly the poshest Only Connect question ever. I guess some BBC Four habits die hard.
Disagree? You can vote for your own favourite questions in the poll below!
