1+ out of 8: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 8: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away
Question 6!
1) In Friends, how many categories of towel does Monica have? 2) YouTube co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim met while working for what e-commerce company? 3) Easybird, rise, and toaster are (in a social media context) examples of what? 4) In what year was Pluto demoted to 'dwarf planet' status by the International Astronomical Union? 5) Name all the planets in the Solar System which have rings. (You need all of them for the point.) 6) This is a picture of a moon in the solar system. For 1 point, name the moon and the planet it orbits. 7) Which is the densest planet in the solar system? 8) Which company beat SpaceX to become the first to launch and land the same rocket twice?
1) ahahahahahaha, what a cracker of a question. This is basically "do you remember this one specific episode of Friends?" and the answer is either a) "no, I am a normal person", or b) "yes, what do you think Rachel smells like?" 2) We'll totally cop to the fact that we were wrong, but this question *is* muddied by the fact that (I believe) PayPal was *owned* by eBay at the time :3 3) This is actually probably a fair-ish question, like... I wouldn't think a question about Twitter was dumb and this was the social media round (I think). I just don't like/am not good at taking photos so I've never used Insta (as the kids call it... don't check that, I didn't actually ask any kids). 4) The Statistician's father was actually part of the group of astronomy people who were all like "yeah, F Pluto tbh", so we should have probably known this. Questions where it's just like "what year was this" are pretty much the worst. It's either like, "this is something *ridiculously* famous like the moon landing (or like, the date the Illuminati lizard-people faked the moon landing, if you like) OR it's like, nobody knows and nobody cares. These are the only two options. Also I don't know when the moon landing was because I am rubbish, sorry. 5) Jupiter has rings. God dammit. I bloody knew that. (We had the others, obvs.) 6) We're not *great* on moons, but I thought the image looked like a moon covered in ice... and the only one I know that's like that is Europa... turns out that was completely wrong, but that was the thought process at least. 7) Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, there's really not much in it, I don't think this is a good question.... we put Mercury because like, maybe the sun baked it or something. We didn't have any strong feelings other than "it's probably not a gas planet", really. 8) Huh, apparently Blue Origin is the rocket project of Amazon, that's kinda crazy! Who are they gonna deliver parcels to up there? Unless... does this mean there are BEINGS!?! LIVING ON THE MOOOON!? ORDERING BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!?!?!!! ... the answer is "yes, probably, what else would they be doing?".
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more points)? 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 1) Towel Day, celebrated on 25 May, is a tribute to which author? 2) In summer 2010, YouTube added a button which would add the sound of what to 'enhance' watching videos? 3) What two words is 'instagram' a portmanteau of? 4) The debate surrounding Pluto involved the creation of a formal definition of a 'planet'. This definition states that in the Solar System, a planet is a celestial body that has 'cleared the neighbourhood' around its orbit, has sufficient mass to assume a nearly round shape, and what other property? 5) Excluding moons of Jupiter, name any of the other 3 moons in the Solar System with a larger volume than Pluto. 6) .io is the Internet country code top-level domain for what British overseas territory? 7) It's a bit of a quizzing 'chestnut' that osmium is the densest element. What element is the least dense? 8) Talk of relaunching rockets inevitably makes me think of Thunderbirds, and since I already asked one portmanteau, here's another. Made famous by Thunderbirds, the 'Supermarionation' puppetry technique is a portmanteau of what three words?
The answers
1) Douglas Adams 2) Vuvuzelas 3) Instant telegram 4) It orbits the Sun 5) (In decreasing order of size): Titan, Earth's moon, Triton 6) British Indian Ocean Territory 7) Hydrogen 8) Super marionette animation
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us! 4+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The secret German 4) The rich-person otherkin
The ones that got away 1) Within 10%, what is the total distance covered in an Ironman triathlon? (You can answer in miles or kilometres) 2) What brand of beer did E.T. get drunk on in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? 3) Which of these is not a real lizard: a) Australian Thorny Devil; b) Legitimate Night Lizard; c) Mutilating Gecko; d) Ornate Crevice Dragon; e) Variable Blood Sucker 4) Prior to the recent relocation of the St Louis Rams (back) to Los Angeles, which NFL team had most recently relocated?
Questions 8 and 9
5) Which 2 films earned the most Oscar nominations (12 and 10) this year? You need both for the point. 6) According to the US Department of Agriculture, how hot should the internal temperature of chicken be to consume safely? 7) The quote "Old and busted, new hotness" is from which film and said by what actor? You need both for the point. 8) Name this character, played by Alan Rickman in the movie Galaxy Quest. 9)2 point question: Name the character played by Alan Rickman here, and the movie. 1 point for each.
The answers
1) 140.6 miles or 226.2 km (so 126-155 miles or 203-249 km gets you the point; it's a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run) 2) Coors 3) Legitimate Night Lizard 4) Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans 5) Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road 6) 165 F/75 C 7) Men in Black 2, Will Smith 8) Alexander Dane/Dr Lazarus 9) Colonel Brandon, Sense and Sensibility
The doctor's excuses
1) A person I know once did an Ironman triathlon and I basically spent the whole time being annoyed that there weren't special athletic events for other Marvel heroes. Also I don't care about how long distances in a race are. It's number 7 in my top 10 list of "things I don't care about". (Our answer was 115km, after the statistician remembered our previous wrong answer when we were asked about Ironman distances.) 2) All we could remember, as a group was, "it's one of those terrible American beers", and we were right! ... we just got the wrong beer (Miller), that's all. 3) Hahahahahaha, Ornate Crevice Dragon XD 4) Maaaaaaaaaan, there's a lot of North American sport, huh? This whole thing where teams can be relocated between cities is pretty messed up too. Like it's kind of fun I guess, but defo also pretty messed up. Kind of the whole US in microcosm really. We put Bengals (Cincinatti) because I like their hats. 5) I actually looked at the Oscar nominations but there's too much stuff like "best editing" and "fanciest camerawork" and stuff so I got super bored super quickly. We knew "The Revenant" was one right answer, but missed Fury Road. Instead we plumped for The Martian, as it was, like, the only other major film of the year we could remember the name of. 6) Holy poultry, Batman! Another question with a numerical answer based on a topic I know nothing about! This must be the work of The Riddler! Oh no, it looks like he's uszzing sleeeeeping gasssz zzzzzzzzzz. *Snore* 7) I wasn't super familiar with the quote in question, but one of our team thought it was "a fat white guy" who said it, so we went for Jonah Hill in The 40 Year-old Virgin. An almost impressively wrong answer. 8) Alan Rickman died, it's all very sad (mainly for him, I suspect). That said, we hadn't quite gotten around to rewatching Galaxy Quest, which is a pity! It's a good one. As such we were basically poop out of luck in terms of remembering such a deliberately generic and immemorable name. Sorry Al, RIP :( 9) We spaffed this one pretty hard, because one of our team had a feeling that it was Sense and Sensibility, but because nobody could remember a plausible character and we needed both points to stand a chance we went for Mr. Wickham (since he definitely was in Pride and Prejudice). I'm generally pretty pleased that we at least spotted that it was an Austen novel, TBH.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more points)? 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 1) As with more standard triathlons, there is no 'overall' world record for the Ironman. However, records are kept for the annual Hawaiian Ironman, considered one of the most prestigious events. With that in mind, what is the current fastest recorded time for this Ironman? You get the point if your time lies between the men's record and the women's record. (Hint: the women's record is 48 minutes, 18 seconds slower.) 2) The Coors Brewing Company boasts a large portfolio of other beer brands. What beer, whose name is the portugese word for 'snake', did it buy a controlling interest in in 2011? 3) Lizard Point is, of course, the most southerly point on mainland Britain. But in which country can you find Cape Froward, the most southerly point of any 'mainland' territory? (For clarification: I'm looking for the country whose southernmost mainland point is more southerly than any other country's - so forget about islands and overseas territories and Antarctica.)
Question 4
4) Before they relocated and became the Tennessee Titans, the Houston Oilers shared their nickname with the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. Pictured are the logos of two more pairs of teams who each share an animal nickname. For 1 point each, I need the nickname of each team. As a bonus hint, the two NFL teams pictured played each other this past weekend! 5) Attempts were made to shoot Fury Road in 2001 and 2003, but were postponed. The first delay was caused by the September 11th attacks, while the second was caused by what, amid fears it would now be considered a 'politically sensitive' film? 6) Give the first name of either the Celsius or Fahrenheit after whom the tempreature scales are named. (If you know both then feel free to show off, but it's still only worth 1 point!) 7) What 3-syllable word completes this couplet from the Men in Black rap: "But yo we ain't on no government list, we straight don't exist, no names and no ________"? 8) Alan Rickman's final film role will be in an upcoming adapation of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. What animal, given the name Absolem in Tim Burton's films, does he voice? 9) Austen's first novel, Sense and Sensibility was written under what two-word pseudonym? (Hint: if you place an 'M' in front of the pseudonym, and ignore the space between the words, you get a 6-letter word for a disease or ailment.)
The answers
1) If your answer is between 8 hours, 3 minutes, 56 seconds (men's) and 8 hours, 52 minutes, 14 seconds (women's) you get the point 2) Cobra 3)Chile 4) Cardinals (Arizona in the NFL, St. Louis in MLB) and Panthers (Carolina in the NFL, Florida in the NHL) 5) The outbreak of the Iraq War 6) Anders (Celsius) and Daniel (Fahrenheit) 7) Fingerprints 8) The Caterpillar 9) A Lady (with an M you get 'Malady')
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The secret German 4) The metallurgist 5) The rich-person otherkin 6) The fire spitter 7) The whiskey guy
The ones that got away 1)2 point question: which TV series popularized the term 'friend zone', and which character in that series was called the 'mayor of the friend zone'? (1 point for each.) 2) Which of these is not a real dating website: a) 420 Dating; b) Cheapskate Match; c) Gluten Free Singles; d) Meet an Inmate; e) Salad Match 3) Which former French international soccer player is now the coach of Real Madrid?
Question 7
4) During 2015, only two movies grossed more than Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For 1 point, name both. (To clarify: Star Wars has subsequently grossed more than the other 2 films, but we're just talking about revenue during 2015 itself.) 5) The top 'how to' search by Canadians using google in 2015 was 'How to vote'. What app completes "How to use _____" to give the second-most searched? 6)2 point question: Which US state is the only one where execution by firing squad remains an option? (N.B. This question does not concern Oklahoma, where the firing squad is an option if lethal injection is found unconstitutional.) 7)2 point question: Which major talking point or meme of 2015 is represented by this 'abstracted' image?
The answers
1) Friends, Ross (Geller) 2) Cheapskate Match 3) Zinedine Zidane 4) Jurassic World and Furious 7 (also known as Fast Seven, and Fast & Furious 7) 5) Snapchat 6) Utah 7) Pizza rat
The doctor's excuses
1) I think we were all moderately surprised to hear that 'friend zone' was originally a term from a TV show, so that was a pretty fun little revelation. It's also doubly fun that it was popularised by 'Friends (although the "that seems to neat/obvious" trap caught us out here). Basically, this question is nice and I like it... apart from the bit where we got it wrong. We had it correctly pegged as "a very 90s term" and went for a split bet of Seinfeld + Dawson Leary from Dawson's Creek. 90s-tastic! 2) I dunno, man... I've almost literally never dated anyone, and I know that the love world is a weird place these days. All of these seemed fairly ridiculous and *thus* plausible. We went with Salad Match, and I fully expect it to be a real thing by the time this post is published, TBH. 3) Despite The Statistician being all about dem footballz, this was a thing that had only happened that afternoon (or something) and thus was a totally acceptable miss... despite being super big news. We said Thierry Henry, and could not have been more wrong, in both a literal and a follicular sense. 4) We had Jurassic World, but (not being big cinema-goers) went with one of the only other movies we'd seen in 2015 - Avengers: The One Where Tony Accidentally Makes A Genocidal Robot. 5) So, as far as I understand it, Snapchat is where one can take photos, put text on them, send them to another person, and rest assured in the knowledge that the picture will self-delete after a predetermined time period *and* (perhaps most importantly) be told if the recipient took a screencap of your intimate missive. So, if that's true, I can see how that's not particularly straightforward. We put Tinder, because it's popular and people might well be too dumb to know which direction left and right are. Final fact: THE SPOOKY SPECTRE THAT'S THE MASCOT OF SNAPCHAT IS CALLED "GHOSTFACE CHILLAH"!!!!!!!!!!!! 6) We had not very much time for this answer, I think, but even if we had had time I feel we wouldn't have had a great chance of a correct answer. The only think that Utah makes me think of is Normandy landings, Mormons, and that one film festival... I don't particularly think of it as a firing squad sort of place. Well anyway, I'm updating my "things I associate Utah with" list, is what I'm saying... I guess. 7) I think this abstracted picture actually captures the essence of Pizza Rat (which we had heard of... although I prefer that crab with the cigarette), but it just hadn't been a big enough of a deal for any of us to think of it. We suggested that maybe it was a "drone" in some way. Clutching at straws 4 dayz.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more points)? 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 1
1) Unsurprisingly, Friends has won many awards over the years. Pictured are two examples of awards the show has won - for 1 point each, can you identify them? (I just want the generic name of each award, rather than the specific category.) 2) Which religious group is served by the dating website LDSsingles.com? 3) Zidane is nicknamed 'Zizou', which sounds a bit like 'Zazu', the bird (pictured) voiced by Rowan Atkinson in Disney's The Lion King. What type of bird is Zazu? 4) At time of writing, the 3rd most-watched YouTube video is the song See You Again recorded for the soundtrack of Furious 7, by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth. For 1 point each, name the two artists behind the videos that occupy second and first place.
Question 3
5) What video/voice chat application was embroiled in legal issues last year, when an EU court ruled its name was too similar to that of a broadcasting company? 6) Of the 6 US cities to have hosted an Olympic Games (summer or winter), only 2 are currently state capitals. Salt Lake City (capital of Utah) is one, what's the other? 7) Also the term for a historical Italian chief of state, what four-letter term is used to describe this meme (pictured)? For a second point, what breed of dog is featured?
Question 7
The answers
1) Golden Globe, Emmy 2) Mormons/Latter Day Saints 3) Hornbill 4) Psy (for Gangnam Style) and Taylor Swift (for Blank Space) 5)Skype 6) Atlanta (Georgia) 7) Doge, Shiba Inu
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
We won this week, but could you have done even better?
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) What disease has killed more people in human history than any other? 2) Name the 3 main leaders of the Axis Powers for the majority of World War 2. You need all 3 for the point. 3) Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is thought to be a portrait of who? 4) Last month, Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke the record for opening weekend sales. Which movie did it overtake? 5) Meaning 'attendant' or 'sexton', what is the name of the extra light in a Menorah typically set higher than the other eight? 6) In order, name the top 4 all-time points scorers in the National Hockey League. You need all 4, in the correct order, for the points.
The answers
1) Smallpox (although I haven't found a source for this) 2) Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito 3) Lisa Gherardini (although 'la Giocondo' was also accepted) 4) Jurassic World 5) Shamash 6) (From 1st to 4th) Gretzky, Messier, Howe, Jágr
My excuses
1) Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't have a list of diseases ordered by "number of deaths in the entirety of human history", and some cursory extra-credit googling would seem to indicate that this whole question is... complicated, to put it charitably. Malaria is a pretty savage disease if left untreated and unlike smallpox, has not been eradicated yet. If you're asked about modern diseases, ischaemic heart disease (one of my suggestions for this question) is currently Top Gun in terms of people killed recently. 2) Evidence once again that we don't leave out the embarrassing ones. There is no excuse. You don't get through GCSE history (or, indeed, life) in the UK without knowing this stuff. It's basic. Our only defence is festive spirit (by which I mean, beer). Take our embarrassment as a cautionary tale in double-checking! 3) We actually knew that this painting was sometimes referred to as "La Giaconda" (it's the Italian name for it) but didn't think this likely to be good enough, as the QM kept banging on about how they wanted "the specific name" of the portraitee (or something like that). Anyway, we just sort of pulled Andrea of Perugia out of nowhere on a vague feeling. 4) We had seem Jurassic World quite recently (though a long time after it was in cinemas) and agreed that it was "a bit pants". As such, we didn't even really consider it. We put Avatar, since we knew that made a boatload of cash (that is not meant to be a Titanic reference... iceberg). 5) We'd both looked at the Wikipedia page of the humble menorah in preparation for festive questions of this nature. Unfortunately apparently looking was all we did, as clearly neither of us read any of it. 6) This seems oddly familiar... [VIDEO] (At least we remembered Wayne Gretzky this time.) Bonus fact: this question was actually worth 8 points on the night, but since we won anyway the statistician couldn't be bothered to add an extra 8 options to the poll.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (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!
My alternative questions
Question 2 (click for a bigger version!)
1) Essential quizzing knowledge to start. The word 'malaria' derives from the Medieval Italian for what two-word phrase, describing quite literally what was originally thought to cause the disease? 2) Very few countries remained neutral throughout World War II, with those that did highlighted in grey on this map. Most of these were either European nations or their colonies, along with the (unrecognized) state of Tibet and the former Kingdom of Yemen. Which Asian nation (highlighted) also maintained neutrality?
Question 4
3) What da Vinci drawing is based on the work of an ancient Roman architect? 4) This (very) minor character in the latest Star Wars installment went a little bit viral. It was later discovered (from one of the books, no less) their official designation was FN-2199, but the Internet initially gave them the name TR-8R because they utter what word? 5) What is the interior angle of a regular hexagon? If you can't remember the formula from school, you could try sketching a Star of David and make use of each 'point' being an equilateral triangle.
Question 6
6) Which Premier League football club were left red-faced earlier this season, after presenting Wayne 'The Great One' Gretzky with this mis-spelled shirt? (If you think you have no idea, a closer look at the picture may reveal a clue or two.)
The answers
1) Bad air (if you have something similar I'll trust you to judge whether it's 'close enough') 2) Afghanistan 3)Vitruvian Man 4) Traitor 5) 120 degrees 6)Tottenham Hotspur
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 12: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 12: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) What is the first name of (Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau's wife? 2) Who directed Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? (Hint: it's not George Lucas) 3) By area, what is the second-largest lake in the world? 4) What song's second verse begins "It's always tease tease tease. You're happy when I'm on my knees."? (You just need the song, not the band.) 5) Harrison Ford's second-biggest grossing film is now Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What movie did it relegate to second? 6) Introduced in September, who is the current principal of South Park Elementary School? 7) What country did the Romans refer to as Hibernia? 8) As of December 30, 2015, which singer is the most-followed person on Twitter? They overtook Justin Bieber for the honour. 9)2 point question: Which (American) football team plays at Lambeau Field? 10)2 point question: The international airport serving Budapest, Hungary, is named after which composer?
The answers
1) Sophie 2) Irvin Kershner 3) Lake Superior 4) Should I Stay or Should I Go (by The Clash) 5) Star Wars: A New Hope ('Star Wars', or 'Star Wars Episode IV' are also fine) 6) PC Principal ('Principal' alone does not suffice) 7) Ireland (technically the island of Ireland, but Ireland was the expected answer) 8) Katy Perry 9) Green Bay Packers 10) Liszt
My excuses
1) The perils of Canadian quizzing. We briefly considered bargaining with the quizmaster for half points for knowing David Cameron's wife's name, but decided better of it. Instead, we tried to think of the most French lady name we could, coming up with the slightly close 'Marie'. 2) Despite having marathonned the entire series in preparation for seeing the newest installment, not to mention the doctor's predictably encyclopaedic knowledge of such things, he wasn't able to bring this name to mind. Sadtimes. 3) Canadian quizzes so seldom ask geography questions we've become quite bad at it. Here we tied ourselves in knots thinking the biggest lake was Lake Baikal, when (obviously) it's the deepest. On the plus side, we did correctly deduce that the largest lake that wasn't Lake Baikal was the Caspian Sea, but by that point that wasn't much help. 4) With no idea we decided to put Whip/Nae Nae by Silentó, a song neither of us has actually heard but is rapidly becoming our go-to for any music question here. 5) The second Star Wars question dropped of the night risked the doctor being sent over the edge. Luckily he decided this technically doesn't count as a Star Wars question so that's ok. We put Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which is a tantalizingly close third. 6) Having no idea I speculated (fairly optimistically) that he might 'hilariously' be called something like Mr. Principal, so wrote down 'Principal'. I was (almost) outraged not to be given it. 7) Haha, oh dear again. Being tricked by the existence of Hibernian FC we went with Scotland. This in spite of the fact that we were both fairly sure we'd got a question about Caledonia being Scotland wrong on another quiz some years ago. 8) Incredibly, I'd written a question about this very topic about 2 weeks previously as part of a Christmas quiz I'd planned to administer to the doctor and some friends. Predictably I never actually got around to running the quiz, and couldn't remember the answer myself. We went with the old Twitter staple of Lady Gaga who now ranks at number 7. 9) The quizmaster described this as "a really easy one", which is always a good sign with North American sports questions. With things like this we usually just put whatever team comes to mind first, which in this case was the Baltimore Ravens (who play at the highly memorable M&T Bank Stadium). 10) A final embarrassment to round things off. We both immediately said Liszt and then second-guessed ourselves with Brahms because of his ludicrously famous Hungarian Dances. (We also have a strategy on 'high brow' questions here to always go for the most famous option.) Had we remembered his first name was Johannes we might have saved ourselves, but it was not to be.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more points)? Let the world know with the poll below!
(No alternative questions this week as we've been too busy being festive, sorry!)
It's a Ones That Got Away Christmas special! The numbers have fallen off my advent calendar, can you match up the pictures with the answers to these 24 mildly festive questions? For bonus fun, the 24 answers form 6 connected groups of 4, like a slightly enlarged Only Connect connecting wall (phwoar).
The calendar is below the questions, and you can find a big PDF version of the whole thing here (and as a PNG here)! Don't forget you can click on images to make them bigger!
The Questions
Question 5
1) What does a Cockney need to have a butcher's hook at something? 2) In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the third ghost to visit Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas...what? 3) One Major League Baseball team contains the same word twice in its name: once in English and once in Spanish. What (English) word? 4) On what piece of equipment can you compete in Winter Olympic sports including parallel, cross, and slopestyle? 5) Pictured are the (slightly festivized) heads of the two main types of what animal? 6) A traditional term in the Royal Navy for the first lieutenant on board a ship, what two-word phrase is commonly used by Star Trek Captain Jean-Luc Picard to refer to his first officer William Riker?
Question 15
7) What is the Roman counterpart of the brother of the figure depicted on the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus? 8) Despite eventually having almost nothing in common with the original, Disney's Frozen was first intended to be based on which Hans Christian Andersen story? 9) What is both Maverick's Radar Intercept Officer in Top Gun *and* a word, according to urbandictionary.com, meaning "A verb, which means to grab someone between their butt cheeks and to squeeze, almost with an intent to hurt, although it is often done in a joking, playful manner between friends"? 10) What three letters appear in the middle of five-letter words meaning a high temperature, a component of a video game, and the middle name of a Beckham? 11) What type of object may be described informally as an 'icy dirtball', 'deep fried ice cream', or a 'dirty snowball'?
Question 19
12) Familiar to many in the name of a high street sandwich chain, what is the French word for 'eat'? 13) What is the (English) name of the only Serbian football team to have won the European Cup? 14) Most famous for its three Olympic-class ocean liners, how was the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company better known? 15) Oh no! Someone has festivized some ladies. What first name do they all share? 16) Removing the last 2 letters of the third-oldest National Park in England and Wales gives the name of what mountain? 17) Two national flags consist solely of red and white and feature a crescent moon with a single star. One is Tunisia, what's the other? 18) What name links an Orwellian pig and 5 Simpsonian cats? 19) What food is being represented here? 20) Despite being predominantly a different colour, what is the name of the third-highest award for valo(u)r in the United States Armed Forces?
Question 23
21) What word describes Maid Marian in a 1973 Disney animated feature, Krystal from the Star Fox universe in video games, and the nickname of ITV's newest Chaser? 22) What term describes a kebab made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie? 23) What is the title of the upcoming album set to be released on this festivized singer's 69th birthday? 24) What name is shared by: a Russian leader widely regarded as responsible for millions of deaths, a prominent Nazi, and (at birth) Kevin Keegan?
The Calendar
(You may want to click on this to get a larger version.)
How did you do? Let the world know with the poll below! (1 point per correct answer - you don't need to worry about identifying all the groups, but it might help with solving.)
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 secret German 4) The metallurgist 5) The rich-person otherkin
The ones that got away 1) The game Jenga takes its name from the Swahili word for what? 2) Which of these is not a real type of owl? Barking; Elf; Pole; Laughing; Powerful. 3) Which actress, who received her first Oscar nomination for her role in Rachel Getting Married, recently(ish) announced her pregnancy? 4) Which 2-word phrase, a metaphor for the early Internet, was designated the US Dialect Society's 'Word of the Year' in 1993? 5) What was the US Dialect Society's Word of the 20th Century? Hint: it contains 2 'z's. 6) The words 'cyber', 'e-', 'millennium bug', and 'web' were all US Dialect Society Words of the Year in the 1990s. Which was Word of the Year earliest? 7) ...and which was Word of the Year latest? 8) The words 'app', 'bailout', 'subprime', and 'tweet' were all US Dialect Society Words of the Year in the 2000s. Which was Word of the Year earliest?
The answers
1) Build (if you had something similar it's up to you if you think it's 'close enough') 2) Pole 3) Anne Hathaway 4) Information superhighway 5) Jazz 6) Cyber (in 1994) 7) e- (in 1998) 8) Subprime (in 2007)
My excuses
1) One of those questions where you wonder how you've never heard it before. Our discussions went nowhere near the correct answer, instead settling on 'wood'. 2) We misheard 'pole' as 'hole', but it wouldn't have made much difference. We went with 'barking' as it seemed very similar to 'laughing', but much less silly. 3) Haha. So far beyond our wheelhouse that we can't see the boat any more. (I had to actually google what a wheelhouse was, so that's something.) The other half of our team were at least familiar with the movie, but we couldn't get much further than "name an actress who is maybe sort of young but not that young???", which my notes tell me gave us someone called 'Rooney Mara'. 4) Pretty sad to miss this one, as I really enjoy phrases like this (the movie Hackers is easily in my top 5 of all time). We came up with 'dial up', which at least seemed pretty plausible. 5) Someone immediately said jazz, which struck me as an ok idea but hardly screamed 'word of the century'. Then someone said pizza, which the doctor thought was a great idea (I think because he likes pizza). 6-7) With so little separating the options (cyber, web, millennium bug, e- were from 1994, '95, '97 and '98, respectively) this was always going to be tough. We were one year out with both, picking web for earliest and millennium bug for the latest. 8) Subprime, bailout, tweet, app span the years 2007-2010, so another tough set, although our guess of tweet was the second-worst available for this one.
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 2
1) The Disney character 'Simba' takes his name from the Swahili word for what? 2) In comics, the Court of Owls is an organized crime group - specializing in the kidnap of child circus performers - based in which fictional city? 3) Like many quizzers, I only really know about Anne Hathaway (the actress) because of questions about Anne Hathaway (the wife of William Shakespeare). With that in mind, the stage name of which actress, known for her roles in Live and Let Die and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is shared with that of the third wife of another famous 16th Century figure? 4) What 8-letter, German-inspired alternative to 'information superhighway' was coined around the same time?
Question 7
5) Commonly encountered in jazz, what colour describes a note that is sung or played at a slightly different pitch than standard? 6) Word of the Year questions are fun, so here's another. What puzzle was Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year in 2005? 7) Earlier this year, the Royal Mail produced a stamp set to celebrate British innovations. What invention does this (slightly censored) stamp commemorate? 8) Let's pretend that the word 'subprime' means 'whole numbers that are equal to a prime number minus 1'. So for example, since 17 is prime, 16 is 'subprime'. Defined this way, how many subprimes are also prime?
The answers
1) Lion (of The Lion King fame) 2) Gotham City 3) Jane Seymour 4) Infobahn 5) Blue 6) Sudoku 7) Cat's eyes 8) 1 (as every prime number except 2 is odd, every subprime except for 1 must be even, so 2 is the only prime subprime)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
