Monday, 22 July 2013
On holiday!
The ones that got away is moving to Canada, so this place will be a bit dead for a bit while we move country, find a place to live, and get hold of some delicious Canadian Internet (I hear it tastes of maple syrup).
Sunday, 14 July 2013
08/07/13: Abu Qatada was born in Bethlehem
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The misandrist
5) The saxophonist
The ones that got away
1) Who's this chap (pictured)?
2) In what year was the film (500) Days of Summer released?
3) Which British newspaper was the first to feature ditloids?
4) Identify the film from its tagline: "You won't believe your eye"
5) Which Labour Prime Minister coined the phrase "A week is a long time in politics"?
6) Abu Qatada was finally deported to Jordan this week, how many years did the legal battle over his extradition last?
7) Who does this logo belong to (pictured)?
The answers
Poll results! 5 votes with 1 scoring 5/7, 1 scoring 4/7, 1 scoring 2/7 and 2 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 7.
The excuses
1) Somewhat unusually, we did propose the correct answer for this one, but were pretty sure Damien Hirst didn't look like that. Admittedly the same could be said for Danny Boyle, which is what we put down.
2) Zigged with 2008 :(
3) Not convinced this is especially gettable (we went with the Telegraph, who were the first to feature Sudoku) and we were disappointed the quizmaster didn't go with his original question which I've shamelessly stolen for the next section.
4) The misandrist suggested the correct answer, we all thought it seemed like a good shout but weren't completely certain so left it blank to fill in at the end if we didn't think of anything better. After we swapped sheets for marking I realized to my horror (not even exaggerating) that I'd forgotten to put it in, and of course it was correct. Ultimately it cost us a tie-breaker for second place, so not as bad as missing out on top spot but still enough to make me feel terrible. Just goes to show the importance of double checking.
5) Strangely, I think everyone on the team independently thought of Callaghan, which is usually a pretty reliable indicator that you've hit upon the correct answer.
6) Zagged with 7 years :( Although looking at his Wikipedia page, it seems rather more complicated and I'm not convinced that there's a non-ambiguous answer to this one.
7) We spent almost the entire quiz convinced this was a sports brand, but unsurprisingly couldn't place it.
The alternative questions
1) Damien Hirst won the 1995 Turner Prize for work including one of his more notorious sculptures Mother and Child, Divided. What animals feature in this work?
2) Name 2 of the 4 English quarter days, traditionally when servants were hired and rents due.
3) The first ditloid was the ingenious 1 DITLOID - can you solve it?
4) Monsters, Inc. was the fourth film produced by Pixar and released by Disney. What was the first?
5) How many general elections did Harold Wilson fight as leader of the Labour party?
6) For 2 points, give the capital of Jordan (the country), for 1 point, give the real name of Jordan (the person).
7) One of PETA's more curious campaigns involved portraying fish as 'kittens of the sea' (pictured), but what foodstuff is marketed under the American brand Chicken of the Sea?
The answers
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The misandrist
5) The saxophonist
 |
| Questions 1 and 7 |
1) Who's this chap (pictured)?
2) In what year was the film (500) Days of Summer released?
3) Which British newspaper was the first to feature ditloids?
4) Identify the film from its tagline: "You won't believe your eye"
5) Which Labour Prime Minister coined the phrase "A week is a long time in politics"?
6) Abu Qatada was finally deported to Jordan this week, how many years did the legal battle over his extradition last?
7) Who does this logo belong to (pictured)?
The answers
Poll results! 5 votes with 1 scoring 5/7, 1 scoring 4/7, 1 scoring 2/7 and 2 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 7.
The excuses
1) Somewhat unusually, we did propose the correct answer for this one, but were pretty sure Damien Hirst didn't look like that. Admittedly the same could be said for Danny Boyle, which is what we put down.
2) Zigged with 2008 :(
3) Not convinced this is especially gettable (we went with the Telegraph, who were the first to feature Sudoku) and we were disappointed the quizmaster didn't go with his original question which I've shamelessly stolen for the next section.
4) The misandrist suggested the correct answer, we all thought it seemed like a good shout but weren't completely certain so left it blank to fill in at the end if we didn't think of anything better. After we swapped sheets for marking I realized to my horror (not even exaggerating) that I'd forgotten to put it in, and of course it was correct. Ultimately it cost us a tie-breaker for second place, so not as bad as missing out on top spot but still enough to make me feel terrible. Just goes to show the importance of double checking.
5) Strangely, I think everyone on the team independently thought of Callaghan, which is usually a pretty reliable indicator that you've hit upon the correct answer.
6) Zagged with 7 years :( Although looking at his Wikipedia page, it seems rather more complicated and I'm not convinced that there's a non-ambiguous answer to this one.
7) We spent almost the entire quiz convinced this was a sports brand, but unsurprisingly couldn't place it.
The alternative questions
1) Damien Hirst won the 1995 Turner Prize for work including one of his more notorious sculptures Mother and Child, Divided. What animals feature in this work?
2) Name 2 of the 4 English quarter days, traditionally when servants were hired and rents due.
3) The first ditloid was the ingenious 1 DITLOID - can you solve it?
4) Monsters, Inc. was the fourth film produced by Pixar and released by Disney. What was the first?5) How many general elections did Harold Wilson fight as leader of the Labour party?
6) For 2 points, give the capital of Jordan (the country), for 1 point, give the real name of Jordan (the person).
7) One of PETA's more curious campaigns involved portraying fish as 'kittens of the sea' (pictured), but what foodstuff is marketed under the American brand Chicken of the Sea?
The answers
Thursday, 11 July 2013
08/07/13: it is too hot to come up with a subject line fact
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) What were the names of the three tunnels in The Great Escape?
2) What is the name of Channel 4's longest running sitcom? Airing during the 90s, it was set in a Peckham hairdresser.
3) What song wakes up Bill Murray on his radio alarm clock every morning in Groundhog Day?
4) Which 1998 hit song had words from its chorus replaced with 'Anna Friel', much to the amusement of most of the British public?
5) Which badly behaved French striker was signed by West Bromwich Albion last week?
6) Which football team's ground is on White Hart Lane?
7) What does John Major only have one of when most men have two?
8) Which two countries sit either side of Ireland in the UN General Assembly? (You need both for the point.)
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/8, 2 scoring 3/8, 2 scoring 2/8, 1 scoring 1/8, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 8.
The excuses
1) No idea on this one, but obviously a film we'd both seen more than once. We went for the rather boring Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
2) I had at least heard of it, but all I could think of at the time was Bread, which was on the wrong channel, in the wrong city, but still....
3) Curiously, I make this the third Bill Murray-related question I've had to stick on this blog in the last few months, and the second one about Groundhog Day. I guess we should watch that film again.
4) Not the tightest of questions, and no-one in the pub got it. Our answer was, coincidentally, another Madonna song: Don't Cry for me Anna Friel...
5) A frustrating miss given the number of football clubs I follow on Twitter, but as I wasn't aware Anelka was particularly badly behaved he didn't even come to mind.
6) Almost a trick question, mitigated by the pub being a couple of bus stops away from the stadium. The other White Hart Lane is on a rather generic High Road.
7) The deliberate inclusion of the word 'men' in this one threw us, as we assumed it must be testicle. If it was a deliberate bit of misdirection on the part of the quizmaster I'd say it was a tad unnecessary.
8) It's been a long time since I've been so disappointed to miss a question, especially when we then missed the money by one point. Obviously the 'trick' here is to realize the UN is ordered alphabetically, which got me to Iraq and Italy quite quickly. Countries of the world are one of my quiz specialties, and I've little doubt that had I been thorough (by going through the world geographically rather than just trying to think of countries at random) I'd've got Israel eventually. Unfortunately, I was too quick to assume there wasn't a country starting Is and ultimately it cost us. Lesson: if you know you have the knowledge to be certain an answer, don't be lazy!
The alternative questions
1) What links The Great Escape and the winner of the 1999 Turner Prize?
2) What was the first programme aired on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982?
3) In which Pennsylvanian borough is Groundhog Day set?
4) Madonna's 2005 hit Hung Up sampled from which Abba song?
5) A couple of years ago there were three teams, along with West Brom, who between them fought 12 midland derbies in the English Premier League each season. Name all three, please.
6) What type of animal is a hart?
7) Who succeeded John Major as leader of the Conservative Party?
8) Along with Ireland, two other countries have flags consisting of only green, white and orange. Name one of them (or both, I can't really stop you).
The answers
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
The ones that got away
1) What were the names of the three tunnels in The Great Escape?
2) What is the name of Channel 4's longest running sitcom? Airing during the 90s, it was set in a Peckham hairdresser.
3) What song wakes up Bill Murray on his radio alarm clock every morning in Groundhog Day?
4) Which 1998 hit song had words from its chorus replaced with 'Anna Friel', much to the amusement of most of the British public?
5) Which badly behaved French striker was signed by West Bromwich Albion last week?
6) Which football team's ground is on White Hart Lane?
7) What does John Major only have one of when most men have two?
8) Which two countries sit either side of Ireland in the UN General Assembly? (You need both for the point.)
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/8, 2 scoring 3/8, 2 scoring 2/8, 1 scoring 1/8, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average voter scored 2 out of 8.
The excuses
1) No idea on this one, but obviously a film we'd both seen more than once. We went for the rather boring Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
2) I had at least heard of it, but all I could think of at the time was Bread, which was on the wrong channel, in the wrong city, but still....
3) Curiously, I make this the third Bill Murray-related question I've had to stick on this blog in the last few months, and the second one about Groundhog Day. I guess we should watch that film again.
4) Not the tightest of questions, and no-one in the pub got it. Our answer was, coincidentally, another Madonna song: Don't Cry for me Anna Friel...
5) A frustrating miss given the number of football clubs I follow on Twitter, but as I wasn't aware Anelka was particularly badly behaved he didn't even come to mind.
6) Almost a trick question, mitigated by the pub being a couple of bus stops away from the stadium. The other White Hart Lane is on a rather generic High Road.
7) The deliberate inclusion of the word 'men' in this one threw us, as we assumed it must be testicle. If it was a deliberate bit of misdirection on the part of the quizmaster I'd say it was a tad unnecessary.
8) It's been a long time since I've been so disappointed to miss a question, especially when we then missed the money by one point. Obviously the 'trick' here is to realize the UN is ordered alphabetically, which got me to Iraq and Italy quite quickly. Countries of the world are one of my quiz specialties, and I've little doubt that had I been thorough (by going through the world geographically rather than just trying to think of countries at random) I'd've got Israel eventually. Unfortunately, I was too quick to assume there wasn't a country starting Is and ultimately it cost us. Lesson: if you know you have the knowledge to be certain an answer, don't be lazy!
The alternative questions
2) What was the first programme aired on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982?
3) In which Pennsylvanian borough is Groundhog Day set?
4) Madonna's 2005 hit Hung Up sampled from which Abba song?
5) A couple of years ago there were three teams, along with West Brom, who between them fought 12 midland derbies in the English Premier League each season. Name all three, please.
6) What type of animal is a hart?
7) Who succeeded John Major as leader of the Conservative Party?
8) Along with Ireland, two other countries have flags consisting of only green, white and orange. Name one of them (or both, I can't really stop you).
The answers
Sunday, 30 June 2013
25/06/13: the blue triangle on the flag of the Czech Republic was added to distinguish it from that of Poland
 |
| Question 6 |
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
The ones that got away
1) In what year was the film Lost in Space released?
2) In Australian rules football there are two ways of scoring points. How many points are each of these two ways of scoring worth? (2 point question, 1 point for each)
3) Who said "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted"?
4) Meadow, Sheep's Fescue, and Quaking are all types of what plant?
5) In what year did the Czech Republic come into existence?
6) Identify the company logo (pictured).
7) Identify the London station from this cryptic clue: "You designed your home yourself?".
8) On which Canary Island island is Santa Cruz?
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 1 scoring 5/9, 2 scoring 4/9, 1 scoring 2/9, and 3 scoring 1/9.
The average voter scored 2.5 out of 9.
The excuses
1) We went with 1999 - another lesson in "it's always longer ago than you think".
2) Thinking it may have similarities with rugby union, we went with 5 and 2. It turns out we'd have had better luck if we'd thought of American football instead, where a touchdown is worth 6 points, and a kicked 'conversion' 1.
3) A very recognizable quote but not one we could quite place - we dabbled with Gandhi before plumping for Nelson Mandela.
4) A very gettable miss, we were too focused on plant meaning flower and went for the 'safety' play of rose.
5) Knowing that the USSR collapsed in 1991, we thought it was a pretty good shout. Unfortunately the USSR didn't go quite so far west.
6) The doctor seemed reasonably confident that this was Suzuki, so presumably had motorcycles in mind. We briefly discussed that the logo was made up of tuning forks, but didn't take this idea as far as we should have done.
7) Not a bad little clue - we got as far as "something house" but couldn't manage the final step.
8) Bit of a crapshoot if you don't know the answer to this one, and sadly we zigged with Lanzarote. Had I known at the time that Tenerife is the largest of the Canaries (which is a pretty standard bit of trivia) we might have zagged instead.
The alternative questions
 |
| Question 1 |
2) What shape is an Australian rules football field?
3) In Einstein's famous E = mc2 equation, what constant does the c stand for?
4) What is the principal psychoactive constituent of marijuana? (Its common three letter abbreviation is enough for the point.)
5) Name the five post-Soviet states whose name ends in -stan. Clue: Afghanistan and Pakistan aren't on the list, and are the only two other such countries.
6) Name one of the two products Yamaha originally manufactured when it was established in 1887?
7) In the name of the Government department, what do the letters HMRC stand for?
8) What animal is the Canary Islands' name derived from?
The answers
Sunday, 23 June 2013
18/06/13: George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panagiòtou
 |
| Question 4 Question 7 |
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
The ones that got away
1) Brainteaser: What goes around the world but stays in the corner?
2) Identify the film from its tagline: "Guess who's coming to save the world again?"
3) What George Michael song features the lyrics "I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm"?
4) Identify the company from its logo (pictured).
5) In which country is the Champions Trophy currently (as of 18/06/13) taking place?
6) Which post-war Prime Minster had the first names Robert Anthony?
7) Identify the celebrity from their caricature (pictured).
8) Identify the London station from this cryptic clue: "Some grassy fields in a line are doomed to die by fingers on my hand".
The answers
Update: Poll results! 10 votes with 2 scoring 3/10, 3 scoring 2/10, 3 scoring 1/10, and 2 joining us on zero.
The average reader scored 1.5 out of 10.
The excuses
1) Our own proposals included a compass rose (usually found on the corner of maps) and, for similarly iffy reasons, page numbers in an atlas. Eventually we decided these were a bit rubbish and went with yo-yo, hoping there was some sort of trick we'd never heard of called 'staying in the corner'.
2) An inspired last minute change of heart saw us cross out the correct answer in favour of Men in Black 2 :(
3) Singing along I got as far as "do-do-do-do-do-do-doo-do-do I'm nobody's fool" which seemed a good, albeit wrong, guess. Turns out I was surprisingly close, with the next two lines unhelpfully being "Though it's easy to pretend / I know you're not a fool."
4) We spent a long time debating whether this was Jeep or Land Rover. Of course, it was neither (and none of us had ever heard of the correct answer - apparently they make agricultural machinery).
5) Initially sidetracked by thinking this might be an alternative name for the Confederations Cup we eventually decided it was something to do with cricket and went with Australia.
6) A bad miss, with us initially sticking down the correct answer only to over-think it and put Blair, who is of course Anthony Charles Lynton. (On retrospect it seems that 'post war' was supposed to be a clue to 'near war'.)
7) Our proposals ranged from Rowan Williams to Terry Pratchett and, somehow, Desmond Tutu.
8) As utterly torturous a clue as this was, we had to admit it was very gettable. Our own stab of Harrow and Wealdstone (because you might kill someone by, er, wielding a stone, or something?) was at least slightly more of a fit than usual.
The alternative questions
 |
| Question 2 |
2) Give the first (or, if you're feeling cocky, full) names of the three original Ghostbusters played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (pictured).
3) Which song denied Wham!'s Last Christmas the 1984 UK Christmas number 1 spot?
4) What, especially in the United States and Canada, is a John Doe?
5) Cricket! South Africa qualified for the semi-finals at the expense of their West Indian opponents after a last-ball wicket and a lot of rain gave them an unlikely draw in their final Champions Trophy group match. What method, named after the two statisticians who devised it, was used to calculate this result? (With apologies for such a needlessly long question, but it's a pretty fun result.)
6) Since Arthur Balfour's election in 1902 there have been 21 different Prime Ministers. Of these, just two had surnames in the second half of the alphabet (that is, beginning with N-Z) - who?
7) In which 1993 film did Richard Attenborough play the role of "eccentric developer" John Hammond?
8) London Heathrow is, by passenger traffic, the world's third busiest airport. Name one of the two cities home to the two airports that beat it.
The answers
Sunday, 16 June 2013
1106/13: The 20 million rupees won in Slumdog Millionaire converted to about £200,000 at the time
 |
| Question 1 Question 4 |
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The actuary
5) The gamedev
The ones that got away
1) Who is this chap (pictured)? He starred in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire.
2) In what year was Planet Terror released?
3) Which country's London embassy was besieged for six days in 1980?
4) What is this European country (pictured)?
5) Identify the film from this quote: "There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch."
6) Identify the film from this quote: "For just one night let's not be co-workers. Let's be co-people."
7) Which African city's name means 'new flower'?
The answers
Update: Poll results! 7 votes with 4 scoring 3/7, 2 scoring 1/7, and 1 joining us on zero.
The average reader scored 2 out of 7.
The excuses
1) Two fun facts: according to our answer sheet we went with Amir Khan and the name Patel means 'landowner'.
2) One day there will be something interesting to say here. Maybe.
3) Half the team immediately thought Iran while one member (whose identity shall remain secret for his own sake) was reasonably confident about Libya. Unfortunately he was thinking about the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher.
4) Pretty brutal if you ask me, although gettable, especially when one member of your team once got a University Challenge starter about a Moldovan breakaway territory...
5) - 6) A couple more movie quotes for the album, although the record should note that the programmer did at least suggest the Austin Powers answer.
7) This rang a bell but we couldn't bring it to mind. We went with the not-too-implausible Nairobi but that roughly translates to 'cold water'.
The ones I would have asked
1) The final question in the film Slumdog Millionaire concerns which book by Alexander Dumas?
2) Where did Quentin Tarantino work prior to becoming a film director, citing his experiences of the job as inspiration for his directorial career?
3) As the name of a British army regiment, what do the letters SAS stand for?
4) With the exception of its coat of arms, Moldova's flag is almost identical to that of which of its neighbours?
5) In Austin Powers in Goldmember which singer - then a member of Destiny's Child - played FBI agent Foxxy Cleopatra?
6) The Californian city in which Anchorman is set is an anagram of which eight-letter word meaning to identify a problem?
7) At 2,355m, Addis Ababa is the fifth highest capital city in the world. Name one of the four capitals which are higher.
The answers
Sunday, 9 June 2013
04/06/13: Now with 100% more quiz!
Now with bonus content!
Don't miss the extra question set at the bottom of this post!
Don't miss the extra question set at the bottom of this post!
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The programmer
4) The saxophonist
The ones that got away
 |
| Question 1! |
2) What year was this film released?
3) Which of these (British) army ranks is the highest: captain, colonel or major?
4) Identify the film from this quote: "Smiling is my favourite. You make me smile. That makes you my favourite."
5) Identify the film from this quote: "And all the while I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a crowded room, screaming at the top of my lungs, and no one even looks up."
6) Which English county is bordered by the rivers Stour to the south and Waveney to the north?
The answers
Update: Poll closed, so it's time for results! 6 votes with 1 scoring 3/6, 3 scoring 2/6, and 2 joining us on zero.
The average reader scored 1.5 out of 6.
The excuses
1) The perils of doing a quiz too many times: we were pretty sure this film had come up before on the same question, so ruled it out. Turns out our memory is slightly better than the quizmaster's.
2) Yawn.
3) A lesson in always double checking if you can. The saxophonist assured us the answer was major, having not heard that colonel was an option. As the doctor and I have put far too many hours into Halo 3's multiplayer, we would have been able to work out the answer to this one, but didn't bother.
4)-5) Not much to say (we went for Forrest Gump for the first one, which at least seemed plausible). Amusingly the team we were marking - who eventually came second last - got both of these (along with the Bone Collector questions) correct.
6) A touch unfortunate on this one, as the saxophonist recalled the Stour being somewhere around Dorset of Wiltshire. Turned out he was bang on, but alas the question was referring to a different Stour.
The ones I would have asked
In another new venture for The ones that got away, and to try and break up the monotony of endless movie questions, I thought I'd have a go at taking the ones we got wrong and constructing vaguely related but moderately more interesting questions to ask. I'll try to stick to one of three types: fun facts I discovered when researching the answers above, something you can think about and hopefully work out, or 'classic trivia' that will regularly come up at your local quiz. At the very least they'll hopefully be slightly more interesting than the dregs of our own quizzing experiences.
 |
| Question 6! |
2) Which notable US television drama saw its first episode broadcast on January 10, 1999? It would go on to run for six seasons over the next eight years, winning 21 Emmys and five Golden Globes.
3) What is the full name (including rank) of the Catch-22 character played by Bob Newhart in the novel's 1970 film adaptation? (Remember, this relates to Question 3 above.)
4) In the Harry Potter novels, what do the letters S.P.E.W. stand for in the name of the activism group established by Hermione Grainger?
5) Which shipping company owned the Titanic?
6) Suffolk only boasts one professional football team, whose (slightly modified) badge is pictured. Can you name them?
The answers
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