BH quiz #41
Our Quiz League of London season ended with a whimper last night with the BHs going down 48-41 to the Telstars. There were a few mucky mistakes involving German wine and the first names of the Montgolfier and Lumiere brothers, but we never really looked like doing enough to overcome the 14-point handicap given us by the cup's preconditions. And so memories of previous some very respectable cup runs (finalists 2004, semifinalists 2005) remain firmly on the pedestal of pleasant All-London cup memories. I'm not really that disappointed for that is the price you pay for a sterling showing in the top division. Other top teams tumbled out too in similar fashion.
This is Stainer's take:
BHs' cup campaign ended at the first hurdle last night after a defeat to Telstars. We beat them 41-34 on the night but it wasn't enough to surmount their 14 point start on us which meant they won 48-41. Individual scores were Ian with 13, TQG and me with 11 apiece, and Kathryn with 6.
Next week is Brain of London preliminaries for four places in the final. Six BHs are battling it out in the 32-strong field, and it is always a competitive little individual tourney which Kevin always ends up winning. For he is the king of this format.
My personal aim? The semifinals, like my first two years doing it. The less said about my dismal and scatty showing last year the better. However, I do now know how to handle my ration of bonus attempts and will hopefully, not choke in such spectacular fashion as I did in 2004 (aaarggh - the Straits of Bonifacio ... of course ... the memories of my amusing implosion still sting).
This quiz is set purely from the issue of Time magazine I read on the train ride home. It is bountiful source of facts, I found, and I will surely take far more regular notice of it in the future.
1 What "first" will William J Levada soon achieve?
2 A pocket watch that belonged to Albert Einstein is being publicly displayed for the first time at a special exhibition at the Historiches Museum in Bern. Which company, founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier in Switzerland and which currently holds the oldest registered trademark for a watch company, a winged hourglass, made it?
3 Where have the Janjaweed militia (infamously) wreaked havoc?
4 In the US, the bureau associated with the initials ATF deal with which three commodities?
5 Which Finnish-Swede founded the company Nokia in 1865 on the rapids that gave it its name (although they were called Finnish Rubber Works then)?
6 And where in Finland are its HQ located?
7 In 2003, who said to Wall Street bankers on why they should invest in his country: "We have the most beautiful secretaries in the world"?
8 Which Thai prime minister once refused to answer press questions last November due to astrological reasons, saying: "Mercury is no good"?
9 Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh have brought a court case against DaVinci Code author Dan Brown due to plagiarisation accusations resulting from which 1982 non-fiction book that they wrote?
10 Lennart Meri, who has died aged 71, was the much-respected first President of which independent country, following its 1991 split from the USSR?
11 Which, Paris-born designer who has died aged 92 convinced Jackie Kennedy to have one chief couturier and created her signature elegant dresses and pillbox hats, his mottos being: "Be mobile at all times"?
12 Which philsopher is responsible for the (translated) maxim: "He who would act the angel becomes the beast"?
13 Which university is home to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs?
14 In which country are 44 parties competing for 450 seats in the parliament known as the Verkhovna Rada?
15 The place of his birth, in which town has Slobodan Milosevic been buried beneath a 100-year-old linden tree?
16 The largest ever oil spill in Alaska's North Slope has happened at an oilfield in which bay?
17 Which Chinese Muslim eunuch famously embarked on seven epic voyages that took him to southeast Asia and India, Arabia, and Africa almost 600 years ago?
18 And which Chinese emperor put an end to such travels when he made it a capital offence to go to sea in a ship with more than two masts without special permission in 1500, officials being ordered to destroy all large ships 25 years later?
19 Whose Boston shipyard launched such vessels as the Flying Cloud and The Champion of the Seas, the fastest clipper ever built, from 1824?
20 What famous public company was founded in 1933 with a name translated as Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory by the co-founder Yoshida Goro and his brother-in-law Uchida Saburo, it being funded by Takeshi Mitarai, Uchida's close friend?
Some bullfighting questions:
21 What three-word phrase describes the ornate sequinned constume worn by matadors?
22 Called "the world's most prestigious bullring", what Madrid auditorium is situated in the barrio of Guindalera in the district of Salamanca and was inaugurated on June 17, 1931?
23 Born of French and Moroccan parentage, which 20-year-old has been dubbed the first "Muslim Matador"?
24 What Spanish term described the running of the bulls?
25 What is an apprentice bullfighter called?
And some on the Bard...
26 Then sold at the price of 20 shillings, the equivalent of over 100 loaves of bread, the editors of which work wrote in its introduction: "The fate of all bookes depends upon your capacities, and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Whatever you do, buy"?
27 What famous speech begins: "taH pagh taHbe", in Klingon?
28 Also known as Helsingor, what real-life castle in Elsinore, Denmark, is the setting for Hamlet?
29 A replica of the Globe Theatre, constructed before London's opened where, near to Dusseldorf, in Germany in 1991?
30 Kenneth Branagh is directing a 19th century Japan-set film of which Shakespeare play for release in the summer?
31 After three years' research, the National Portrait Gallery has concluded that Shakespeare most likely sat for which portrait?
32 Where in Japan is there a reconstruction of Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford in an attraction called Shakespeare Country Park?
33 Which playwright's works include the comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613) and the history play A Game at Chess?
And continuing in a random fashion...
34 George Formby outraged which South African politician when he refused to play for a whites-only audience in 1946?
35 Which African capital is holding its second Environmental Film Festival to coincide with the March 29 total eclipse?
36 Vin Diesel has put on a wig and 14kg to portray which real-life mobster in the Sydney Lumet film Find Me Guilty?
37 Named after the city that was previously known as Koromo Town, which company manufactures vehicles under the brand name Scion?
38 A subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries, which car company's name is the Japanese word for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo?
Answers to BH#40
1 Queen of Puddings 2 House Martin 3 Jianzi 4 Witwatersrand 5 Joe Brown 6 Ze Povinho 7 Bantu 8 San Luis Obispo 9 Kingston University 10 Aalva Aalto 11 Four-legged bookcase 12 Milonga 13 Chris Nicholl 14 Isle of Wight 15 Phenotype 16 Yahoo 17 The Brains Trust 18 Earl of Chesterfield 19 Look at That Girl 20 Kilim
This is Stainer's take:
BHs' cup campaign ended at the first hurdle last night after a defeat to Telstars. We beat them 41-34 on the night but it wasn't enough to surmount their 14 point start on us which meant they won 48-41. Individual scores were Ian with 13, TQG and me with 11 apiece, and Kathryn with 6.
Next week is Brain of London preliminaries for four places in the final. Six BHs are battling it out in the 32-strong field, and it is always a competitive little individual tourney which Kevin always ends up winning. For he is the king of this format.
My personal aim? The semifinals, like my first two years doing it. The less said about my dismal and scatty showing last year the better. However, I do now know how to handle my ration of bonus attempts and will hopefully, not choke in such spectacular fashion as I did in 2004 (aaarggh - the Straits of Bonifacio ... of course ... the memories of my amusing implosion still sting).
This quiz is set purely from the issue of Time magazine I read on the train ride home. It is bountiful source of facts, I found, and I will surely take far more regular notice of it in the future.
1 What "first" will William J Levada soon achieve?
2 A pocket watch that belonged to Albert Einstein is being publicly displayed for the first time at a special exhibition at the Historiches Museum in Bern. Which company, founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier in Switzerland and which currently holds the oldest registered trademark for a watch company, a winged hourglass, made it?
3 Where have the Janjaweed militia (infamously) wreaked havoc?
4 In the US, the bureau associated with the initials ATF deal with which three commodities?
5 Which Finnish-Swede founded the company Nokia in 1865 on the rapids that gave it its name (although they were called Finnish Rubber Works then)?
6 And where in Finland are its HQ located?
7 In 2003, who said to Wall Street bankers on why they should invest in his country: "We have the most beautiful secretaries in the world"?
8 Which Thai prime minister once refused to answer press questions last November due to astrological reasons, saying: "Mercury is no good"?
9 Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh have brought a court case against DaVinci Code author Dan Brown due to plagiarisation accusations resulting from which 1982 non-fiction book that they wrote?
10 Lennart Meri, who has died aged 71, was the much-respected first President of which independent country, following its 1991 split from the USSR?
11 Which, Paris-born designer who has died aged 92 convinced Jackie Kennedy to have one chief couturier and created her signature elegant dresses and pillbox hats, his mottos being: "Be mobile at all times"?
12 Which philsopher is responsible for the (translated) maxim: "He who would act the angel becomes the beast"?
13 Which university is home to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs?
14 In which country are 44 parties competing for 450 seats in the parliament known as the Verkhovna Rada?
15 The place of his birth, in which town has Slobodan Milosevic been buried beneath a 100-year-old linden tree?
16 The largest ever oil spill in Alaska's North Slope has happened at an oilfield in which bay?
17 Which Chinese Muslim eunuch famously embarked on seven epic voyages that took him to southeast Asia and India, Arabia, and Africa almost 600 years ago?
18 And which Chinese emperor put an end to such travels when he made it a capital offence to go to sea in a ship with more than two masts without special permission in 1500, officials being ordered to destroy all large ships 25 years later?
19 Whose Boston shipyard launched such vessels as the Flying Cloud and The Champion of the Seas, the fastest clipper ever built, from 1824?
20 What famous public company was founded in 1933 with a name translated as Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory by the co-founder Yoshida Goro and his brother-in-law Uchida Saburo, it being funded by Takeshi Mitarai, Uchida's close friend?
Some bullfighting questions:
21 What three-word phrase describes the ornate sequinned constume worn by matadors?
22 Called "the world's most prestigious bullring", what Madrid auditorium is situated in the barrio of Guindalera in the district of Salamanca and was inaugurated on June 17, 1931?
23 Born of French and Moroccan parentage, which 20-year-old has been dubbed the first "Muslim Matador"?
24 What Spanish term described the running of the bulls?
25 What is an apprentice bullfighter called?
And some on the Bard...
26 Then sold at the price of 20 shillings, the equivalent of over 100 loaves of bread, the editors of which work wrote in its introduction: "The fate of all bookes depends upon your capacities, and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Whatever you do, buy"?
27 What famous speech begins: "taH pagh taHbe", in Klingon?
28 Also known as Helsingor, what real-life castle in Elsinore, Denmark, is the setting for Hamlet?
29 A replica of the Globe Theatre, constructed before London's opened where, near to Dusseldorf, in Germany in 1991?
30 Kenneth Branagh is directing a 19th century Japan-set film of which Shakespeare play for release in the summer?
31 After three years' research, the National Portrait Gallery has concluded that Shakespeare most likely sat for which portrait?
32 Where in Japan is there a reconstruction of Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford in an attraction called Shakespeare Country Park?
33 Which playwright's works include the comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613) and the history play A Game at Chess?
And continuing in a random fashion...
34 George Formby outraged which South African politician when he refused to play for a whites-only audience in 1946?
35 Which African capital is holding its second Environmental Film Festival to coincide with the March 29 total eclipse?
36 Vin Diesel has put on a wig and 14kg to portray which real-life mobster in the Sydney Lumet film Find Me Guilty?
37 Named after the city that was previously known as Koromo Town, which company manufactures vehicles under the brand name Scion?
38 A subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries, which car company's name is the Japanese word for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo?
Answers to BH#40
1 Queen of Puddings 2 House Martin 3 Jianzi 4 Witwatersrand 5 Joe Brown 6 Ze Povinho 7 Bantu 8 San Luis Obispo 9 Kingston University 10 Aalva Aalto 11 Four-legged bookcase 12 Milonga 13 Chris Nicholl 14 Isle of Wight 15 Phenotype 16 Yahoo 17 The Brains Trust 18 Earl of Chesterfield 19 Look at That Girl 20 Kilim
posted by That Quiz Guy at 4:25 PM
3 Comments:
Current (and not-so-current) magazines are great sources of quiz questions. Current affairs, in America at least, are the great equalizer, because very few people know the answers. Fortunately, I'm a news junkie, so these questions are freepoints for me.
Current literature is a close second on the "stuff no one knows" list, and lucky me, I work in a mall bookstore. The Friday quiz I freequent always includes a book round, and it's serious free points for me.
God help me though, if there's a way to bone up on currently popular rappers. In that case, every time you learn about one, you forget something important. Like Homer Simpson said: "Remember that time I took a home wine-making class, and I forgot how to drive?"
"You were drunk!"
"And how."
-M
I know that current magazines are a very good source of quiz material, but seldom remember to pick up publications like Time. I know it would do me a lot of good.
I think many quizplayers would do a lot better if they religiously read magazines and newspapers, but they don't probably due to force of habit. For the press is, I believe, the crucible in which ultimately most, if not all, quiz questions are formed.
Actually, I have a stack of old Guardians in my room ready to be ransacked for question material but I don't think I have the strength to do it. They are almost five feet high. Instead, I think I'll just have to keep my notebook at hand at all times and remember to write down the interesting facts "in the moment" as I do on occasion.
As for current literature we don't really get questions asked of us that focus on people who regularly appear in the New Yorker. I think if only. Instead we get popular populist folk (e.g. Discworld). In our quiz league match we had a current bestseller asked of us and nobody had a clue; it being Danielle Steele. When the other half of our pair (forgive the English quiz league terminology), I spent ten seconds plumbing the depths of my mind for someone on equal bestselling terms, and eventually came up with Barbara Taylor Bradford. Thankfully, it was right, though it didn't save the match.
As for rappers, no idea. My most modern rap knowledge extends to The Game and 50 Cent because Hate It or Love It inexplicably appeared on my laptop. I knew Akon's real name once but its Francophonic nature has long helped it into my mind's recycling bin, where it was deleted in little time. And this is coming from someone who had a two-year obsession with gangsta rap in his early teens. Reminded of NWA's second album EFIL4ZAGGIN, I am struck with disbelief: did I listen to such foul, childish and insidious rubbish. But then again, swearing was always a prerequisite for my purchasing music. It always made me chuckle, I have to admit, while shaking my head in retrospective shame.
Rappers worth remembering: Three 6 Mafia, winners of this year's Academy Award for Best Song (It's Hard out Here for a Pimp, from the movie Hustle and Flow). Queen Latifah presented them with the award.
Since I'm in the US, Three 6 is easy to remember, because they won the Oscar on March 5th (3-5). 3-6 comes next.
I'm probably going to rip off your quiz setting idea for my blog (although not your questions. That would be gauche.) Questions I can write; paragraphs, not so much.
Hope next week goes well for you.
-M
Post a Comment
<< Home