Boring to MeThis is Part 2 of all the questions I have swapped for ones I thought were, like, way better man, in the QB. Some are new; others are embellished versions of Qs I have already put on this blog many years ago (about three actually); a whole load of others clashed mildly with other questions, so instead I put in something completely different.
Here you go...
BH161: They Didn't Quite Make It1. Which company manufactures the i-MiEv electric car (pronounced “eye-meev”), a saloon capable of carrying four adults and reaching a top speed of 87mph, making it the first automobile of its type capable of breaking the UK speed limit?
2. A member of the Bamana ethnic group, which high-born Malian singer released her debut album
Mouneïssa (on Label Bleu) in 1997, and her second,
Wanita, in 2000?
3. Which company makes the luxury "man bag" known as the Nomade Keepall?
4. The music scholar William Waterhouse (1931-2007) was a renowned player of which instrument?
5. What common name is given to the
Symphysodon genus of three species of freshwater cichlid fishes (the common, the Heckel & Symphysodon tarzoo), which are native to the Amazon River basin and are noted for their laterally compressed and markedly rounded body shape?
6. A German-speaking Mennonite community in Filadelfia, originally founded by Russian Mennonites who had fled from the USSR in 1930, is found in which country?
7. The Georgian director Géla Babluani is due to remake his French-language 2005 debut film, - regarded as one of the most original European thrillers in recent years - in New York City. What is its title?
8. Made from chopped tomato, onion and chilli peppers, which fresh condiment in Mexican cuisine has a name meaning ‘rooster's beak’?
9. Sonny the Cuckoo Bird is the mascot of which breakfast cereal in the US?
10. Tom Singh, elder brother of science writer Simon, founded which clothing chain in Taunton in 1969?
11. Members of which genus of Spiny-tailed lizards is eaten in North Africa where it is called
dhaab or ‘fish of the desert’ and India, one writer saying “the meat is said to be excellent and white like chicken ... the tail is considered a great delicacy”?
12. Which French Resistance fighter is perhaps the least remembered member of “Les Six” and wrote his only opera
L'Occasion while working at his home in St. Tropez?
13. What two-word term was coined by social psychology founder George Herbert Mead in an eponymous 1969 book to describe a major sociological perspective, which he summarised as people act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them? These meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation.
14. The British artist Emma Woffenden (b.1962) principally works with what material?
15. Sachin Tendulkar plays for which team in India's domestic first-class championship?
16. Rodgers & Hart are said to have pioneered the realistic musical, complete with squalid titular hero, in which work of 1940 that was based on a 1939 epistolary novel by John O’Hara?
17. Which well-known coin was first minted in 1140 by Roger II of Sicily?
18. The man who gave his name to a 565m-tall mountain in the Marseille-Cassis calanques, which French artist and architect executed his caryatids for the balcony of the Hotel de Ville of Toulon (1655-57)? His last work, an unfinished bas-relief of the Plague of Milan, was placed in the council chamber of the town hall of Marseille, his birthplace.
19. First broadcast on TF1 in 1996, what is the title of French soap opera that centres on the Saint-Tropez-based lives of Laure (sensitive doctor), Caroline (wilful singer-lawyer) and Jessica (beautiful American blonde bartender-model-dancer) in its native land?
20. Acquired by Elisabeth Murdoch's production company Shine Limited in early 2007, what is the television company behind such hit series as
Life on Mars,
Spooks, and
Hustle?
21. The last ruler of a united Roman Empire, which Spaniard became sole emperor on defeating Eugenius and was succeeded by his sons Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West)?
22. Now available in a new digital version, which letter denoted the legendary Leica camera series favoured by Henri Cartier-Bresson?
23. As seen in Catalonia, what type of festival is denoted by the word
Correfoc?
24. One of the oldest in the world, what is the national airline of Columbia?
25. Premiered in St Petersburg in 1913 at the Lunar Park and written in the language Zaum,
Victory over the Sun was the first ever opera in which genre?
26. The 3rd Earl of Burlington built which London street in 1735, naming it for his wife Dorothy?
27. Which US state shares its name with the river on which Philadelphia stands?
28. The London station Radio ORLA broadcasts in which language?
29. In the world of finance, what is an I.P.O.?
30. The Inka Terra Association (ITA) is a conservation NGO based in which country?
31. The Bang Bang Club, near the Mitte district's Hackescher Markt station, is one of which city's top venues for indie music?
32. King Juan Carlos inaugurated which building on October 17, 1997?
33. What does the Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper name
Kung Kao Po mean?
34. The subject of several Goya portraits (e.g. The White Duchess), which Duchess and grandee (1762-1802) is believed to have modelled for his twin naked and clothed "Majas"?
35. Who composed an opera on the traditional Helen of Troy,
Paride ed Elena, in 1770?
36. Distinguished from other creatures of the same name by their small size; round, rather than vertical eye pupils; and each digit terminating in a single, round adhesive pad or scale;
Sphaerodactylus (‘round-finger’) is a genus of which lizard?
37. Born Jessé Gomes da Silva Filho, which Brazilian samba and pagode musician has made 15 albums, including
Patota de Cosme (1987),
Pixote (1991), and
Uma prova de amor (2008)?
38. Known for her extensive use of a JamMan pedal, which French singer, born in Grenoble in 1976, recorded her first album
The Cheap Show (a pun on “peep show”) live in January 2004?
39. Named after a people of Finnish origin who were conquered by Ivan the Terrible and annexed to Russia in 1552, which Republic or federal subject is situated between Nizhny Novogorod and Kazan on the left bank of the Volga? Its capital is Yoshkar-Ola.
40. What is the maximum numbers of characters allowed in a Twitter message?
41. In drag and modified car racing, what term is used to describe the extremely dangerous practice in which drivers deliberately spin out and skid sideways at high speeds?
42. Who painted the c.1514-15 portrait of Baldassare Castiglione in the Louvre?
43. The successor to the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, which music awards are doled out every year by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie and are determined by the previous year’s sales (which makes them very boring)?
44. King George V gave the first broadcast to the Empire by any monarch on Christmas Day 1932. Which famous author scripted it?
45. Dobdrovody is a 4th millennium BC site of the Trypillian culture that is believed to have been the home of up to 10,000 citizens. It is in which modern day country?
46. Sometimes called Cerro Chaltén, after the Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word for ‘smoking mountain’, it is situated near the village of
El Chaltén in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, on the Argentine-Chilean border. First climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone, it has the reputation of being “ultimate” not due to its elevation (3,375m/11,073ft), but because of its sheer granite sides. Which mountain?
47. How did African-American Gertrude Baines succeed Portugal’s Maria de Jesus in January 2009?
48. The first production vehicle to feature the Integrated Motor Assist system, the Insight was based on the J-VX concept car and is a hybrid electric car manufactured by which company?
49. Which concept of an impersonal force that resides in people, animals and inanimate objects is common to many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian?
50. While on the Third Crusade, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I drowned in which Turkish river in 1190?
51. First published in
The Guardian as a weekly comic strip, Posy Simmonds’ 2007 graphic novel
Tamara Drewe is a modern reworking of which 19th century novel?
52. Italy invaded Ethiopia following Menelik II’s repudiation of which treaty, signed by the said emperor and Count Pietro Antonelli on May 2, 1889, in an eponymous town?
53. With a Superheavyweight gold at Atlanta and a then 59-0 record, which Russian Greco-Roman wrestler became the first man to win the same division three times in a row?
54. The newspaper,
La Capital, was founded in 1867 by Ovidio Lagos. It is Argentina's oldest newspaper and is based in which city in the province of Santa Fe?
55. The first Chinese inductee into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (in 2000), which gymnast won six medals at the 1984 Olympics, including three golds (floor exercise, pommel horse, rings), and ignited the cauldron at opening ceremony of the Beijing Games?
56. Which American expat (1887-1962) opened the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company at 12 rue de l'Odéon in 1919, and was the first person to publish Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922?
57. Named for the woman who formed the Berkshire String Quartet in 1916, which prize was established for “eminent services to chamber music” in 1932?
58. Susi Susanti, Mia Audina and Maria Kristin Yulianti were/are noted players in which sport?
59. Which US
Vogue magazine editor-at-large wrote the autobiography
A.L.T: A Memoir (2003)?
60. Created by “gastronaut” Rud Christiansen of Copenhagen’s Royal Cafe, which new culinary phenomenon is a fusion of Japanese and Danish food?
61. Which muckraking journalist wrote
History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)?
62. Khon is the most stylised form of which country’s classical dance drama? It is performed by non-speaking dancers as the story is told by a chorus at the side of the stage.
63. On which date did Napoleon return to France and overthrow the Directory in 1799?
64. What does the EU agreement known as the “The Dublin Regulation” ensure?
65. Luah, Bodger and Tao make which eponymous trip in a 1961 children’s book?
66. Which linguistic-related organisation of 37 member countries was established in Madrid in 1954?
67. Set in the Alps, which downbeat Swiss feminist road movie of 1979 – described in some quarters as "the original
Thelma and Louise" - from director Alain Tanner shares its title with a month of the French Revolutionary calendar?
68. Traditionally said to have been inspired by watching a glass of beer (though he has refuted this story and said he used beer in experiments on prototypes), what device won the American scientist Donald A. Glaser the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics?
69. Author of "The Banana Trilogy" (1950-60), which 1967 Nobel Laureate and Guatemalan writer, diplomat and exile wrote
Hombres De Maiz /
Men of Maize (1949), in which he combined Mayan mysticism and social awareness in order to indict dictatorial rule?
70. Similar looking to the far larger Komondor, which ancient Hungarian dreadlocked sheepdog is believed to ultimately derive its name from the German word for a poodle?
71. Derived from the Greek for ‘near the Earth’, what word describes the position of the Moon in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth?
72. In American football, what was approved following a campaign by college coach John Heisman began in around 1906?
73. Apart from his gold medal in the division, the Ukrainian featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko won which award at the 2008 Olympic Games?
74. Where will you find the Rettifilo Tribune, Curva Grande and Curva di Lesmo?
75. Allah delivered which holy text to Moses, although this was superseded by the
Qu’ran, while most modern Muslims believe it to be corrupted by Jews?
76. Which bird undergoes the longest regular migration by any known animal (c.25,000mi every year)?
77. What is the only South American country to have coastline on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea?
78. Liverpool FC and NASCAR’s Richard Petty Motorsports co-owner George N. Gillett Jr used to own which NHL team? And which MLB and NHL teams are owned by Tom Hicks?
79. The 27th edition of the Fadjr international festival took place in Tehran in 2009. What is its artistic theme?
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Answers to BH1611.
Mitsubishi. The first Mitsubishi company was a shipping firm established by Yataro Iwasaki in 1870. The name has two parts:
mitsu means ‘three’ and
hishi means ‘water caltrop/chestnut’, and hence ‘rhombus’, which is reflected in the company’s logo.
2.
Rokia Traoré (b.1974). From Kolokani in Koulikoro, she plays (unusually for a female African musician) acoustic guitar,
ngoni (lute) and
balafon (wooden-keyed percussion idiophone).
3.
Louis Vuitton (founded in 1854). People who have exclusively ordered LV baggage include 4 Congo explorer Savorgnan de Brazza, who ordered a combined trunk and bed.
4.
Bassoon. Music historians generally consider the
dulcian to be its forerunner.
5.
Discus. It is a popular aquarium fish, in contrast to similar cichlids from the genus
Pterophyllum. Extended finnage is absent, thus giving them a more rounded shape.
6.
Paraguay. Filadelfia is the capital of
Boquerón Department in the western area of Gran Chaco and is the centre of the Fernheim Colony.
7.
13 Tzameti.
Tzameti is the Georgian word for ‘thirteen’. The film also marked the acting debut of Babluani’s brother Georges, who played the immigrant protagonist Sébastien.
8.
Pico de gallo. In Mexico, the tomato-based condiment is better known as salsa picada (‘minced/chopped sauce’) or salsa mexicana because the colours red (tomato), white (onion) and green (chilli) correspond to the Mexican flag.
9.
Cocoa Puffs (manufactured by General Mills, who make Kix cereal (Rice Krispies in the UK))
10.
New Look. Boasting 600+ locations, it is now headquartered in Weymouth
11.
Uromastyx. Better known members include Mastigures or Dabb Lizards.
12.
Louis Durey (1888-1979). He was the oldest member and his decision not to take part in the group’s 1921 collaborative work
Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel greatly irritated Jean Cocteau.
13.
"Symbolic interactionism"
14.
Glass. She is known for her ambiguous, androgynous forms and themes of origin.
15.
Mumbai (home ground: Wankhede Stadium, near Churchgate railway station)
16.
Pal Joey. The title character is Joey Evans – played by Frank Sinatra in the 1957 film - the small-time womanising MC and dancer-singer who dreams of owning a nightclub. Songs include ‘I Could Write a Book’; ‘The Terrific Rainbow’; ‘Happy Hunting Horn’; ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’(as sung by Posner in
The History Boys); and ‘I Still Believe in You’.
17.
Ducat18.
Pierre Paul Puget (1622-94)
19.
Sous le soleil. Created by Olivier Brémond and Pascal Breton, it features Bénédicte Delmas, Adeline Blondieau and Tonya Kinzinger in the said roles.
20.
Kudos21.
Theodosius I the Great (aka Flavius Theodosius; r: 379-395). He succeeded Valens in the East and Valentinian II in the West, and made Nicene Christianity the official state religion.
22.
M, as in the M-Series Rangefinder
23.
Fire-running. They are celebrations where "devils" play with fire and the people.
24.
Avianca. Founded in Barranquilla in 1940, its name is an Spanish acronym for A
erovías del Continente Americano, formerly Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia.
25.
Futurist. Aleksei Kruchonykh wrote the libretto, the music was written by Mikhail Matyushin, the prologue added by Velimir Khlebnikov, and the stage designed by Kasimir Malevich.
26.
Savile Row. Located in Mayfair, it runs parallel to Regent Street between Conduit Street at the northern end and Vigo Street at the southern. The Matthew Brown Gallery and Laurent Delaye Gallery are both at no.11.
27.
Delaware. It constitutes the entire boundary between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Named, like the state, after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577-1618), the Native American tribe of the Lenape is also known as the Delaware.
28.
Polish29.
Initial Public Offering. It is also referred to as a "flotation".
30.
Peru31.
Berlin32.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao33.
‘Catholic newspaper’. Launched on August 1, 1928, it is a weekly paper owned and published by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.
34.
Cayetana de Silva (aka Maria del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Alvarez de Toledo y Silva Bazán, 13th Duchess of Alba). Goya executed most of his portraits of the Duchess at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which is one of the Andalusian country seats of the House of Medina-Sidonia.
35.
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-87)
36.
Gecko. The 16mm-long dwarf gecko Jaragua Sphaero (
S. ariasae) is one of the world’s smallest known reptiles. The other is
S. parthenopion, and is native to the British Virgin Islands.
37.
Zeca Pagodinho (b.1959). He had a hit with ‘SPC’. Its title refers to a blacklist of bad debtors from which it is hard to get one’s name removed - SPC stands for ‘Credit Protection Service’.
38.
Anaïs (surname Croze)
39.
Mari El Republic40.
140. Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams in 2006.
41.
Drifting (as in the film title,
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift)
42.
Raphael. Castiglione has been called "the epitome of the Renaissance humanist and gentleman"; and as well as writing
Il cortegiano (1528), served as a renowned ambassador.
43.
ECHO awards. 2009 pop winners - announced in March - included Udo Lindenberg (National Male Artist), Stefanie Heinzmann (National Female), Paul Potts (International Male), Amy Winehouse (International Female), Ich + Ich (National Group), Coldplay (International Group).
44.
Rudyard Kipling45.
Ukraine. The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture flourished c.5500BC-2750BC in the Dniester-Dnieper region. Archaeologist Vicenty Khvoika uncovered almost 100 of their settlements in 1884.
46.
Cerro Fitz Roy / Monte Fitz Roy (named in honour of Robert, the
Beagle captain, who journeyed up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted large parts of the Patagonian coast)
47.
As the world’s oldest living person. A Los Angeleno, Baines was born on April 6, 1894.
48.
Honda. It introduced the second-generation Insight in Japan in February 2009.
49.
Mana. In Hawaiian,
mana loa means ‘great power’ and can be obtained through birth or warfare. People or objects that possess it are accorded respect. In Maori, a tribe that has
mana whenua is considered to have demonstrated their authority over a given piece of land.
50.
The Saleph. Both its sources arise in the Taurus Mountains and it is now called the Göksu.
51.
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (anyone who did the Brits Highbrow Quiz can see why this question went on the scrapheap). It's a good read. Far better than I had expected it to be, and thus a very good Xmas present from Chris. Cheers, matey.
52.
Treaty of Wuchale / Treaty of Ucciale. The First Italo-Ethiopian War climaxed at the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896, where Ethiopia defeated Oreste Baratieri’s forces.
53.
Aleksandr Karelin (b.1967). He took silver in Sydney, with American Rulon Gardner winning. Nic answering this correctly in the pub ensured its excision from the QB. Mwa-ha-hee-tee-hee. Should really stop with the textual laughter. I'm doing far too much of it at the moment. I've realised, it just ain't funny.
54.
Rosario. It is known as "
Decano de la Prensa Argentina" - ‘Dean of the Argentine Press’.
55.
Li Ning (b.1943). Resident in Hong Kong under the "Quality Migrant Admission Scheme", he founded an eponymous footwear and sports apparel company (Li-Ning Company Ltd) in 1990.
56.
Sylvia Beach. The shop was ordered shut in 1941 after she denied a German officer the last copy of
Finnegans Wake. It never reopened, though George Whitman opened an S&C in 1951.
57.
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal (after the US pianist (1864-1953)). Britten was a recipient.
58.
Badminton. They are all Indonesian. Susanti won the Olympic singles in 1992.
59.
André Leon Talley (b.1949). He is the gay African American right-hand man of Anna Wintour (if she could be considered to have a "right-hand man"), who introduced Michelle Obama to Jason Wu, from whom she bought her inauguration evening gown.
60.
Smushi. It combines traditional Danish smørrebrød with a contemporary sushi twist.
61.
Ida M. Tarbell (1857-1944)
62.
Thailand. Tradition dictates the costumes, while "demons" wear coloured masks.
63.
18 Brumaire / November 9-10. Boney boy established his own Consulate and restored Catholicism.
64.
An asylum application submitted in an EU nation is handled by one, and only one, country (got this one from the Nobel Peace Centre. Then I realised it bored me a bit, then a bit more, until I was utterly senseless from the boredom of it all. I mean, EU regulation questions. PAH!)
65.
The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford. Luath is a Labrador, Bodger is an English Bull Terrier, and Tao is a Siamese cat. They are owned by the Hunter family.
66.
Latin Union (its member nations all use a Romance language). Argentina, the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta are "permanent observers". Site:
http://www.unilat.org/67.
Messidor. The original name comes from the Latin messis, meaning ‘harvest’.
68.
Bubble chamber. It is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid (most often liquid hydrogen) used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it.
69.
Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (1899-1974). Asturias’s other notable novels include
El Señor Presidente (1946), which explored the nature of political dictatorship.
70.
Puli (from
Pudelhund; pl.
Pulik). Introduced to Hungary about 1,000 years ago by the Magyars, its most characteristic colour is a unique dull black.
71.
Perigee. In celestial mechanics, "perigee" and "apogee" refer to orbits around the Earth, while "perihelion" and "aphelion" both refer to orbits around the Sun. During the Apollo program, the terms "pericynthion" and "apocynthion" were used when referring to the Moon.
72.
Forward pass73.
Val Barker Trophy (awarded to the outstanding and most stylistic boxer of each Olympic Games since 1936 and established in honour of the first Honorary Secretary of the Federation Internationale de Boxe Amateur in 1920)
74.
Monza Grand Prix motor racing circuit. Officially named the
Autodromo Nazionale Monza and located in the namesake city on the river Lambro in Lombardy, 15km north-east of Milan.
75.
Tawrat (the Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew word Torah, aka the the Pentateuch)
76.
Arctic Tern (
Sterna paradisaea)
77.
Colombia. It is the second largest country in South America, after Brazil, and has the third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico and Spain.
78.
Montreal Canadiens;
Texas Rangers & Dallas Stars79.
Theatre
