My Howard Beale Moment
So we played Oxford yesterday and lost 47-33. Mike and Roger performed in an exemplary manner for the opposition, while we dropped a few silly points on cathedral cities near Havant (Chichester ... I said Winchester despite travelling through it enough times to make me sure of it) and CB Fry and Bishop David Sheppard's country cricket club (I knew it was Sussex, but delegated it to those with more certain fists).
By the end I felt demoralised and slightly pissed off, as you would expect, but not with our poor performance or the obvious quality of Oxford. Oh no. It was the questions.
Do people truly think that breweries, aircraft makers, old radio shows, Grand National winners, and bird families are worthy of being asked week-in week-out? They come up far too frequently for such comparatively meaningless subjects. And I say 'meaningless', in the context, of, say, asking something like who designed the Palace of Versailles? Or who is the new president of Bolivia?
People set what they know. I know this is a fact of quizzing life. But if they continue to set on such parochial yet hard subjects then they will completely turn off young people like myself. It is a clash of generations. I have never listened to the radio, never mind gone to a reference book and read up on shows like the Navy Lark or ITMA. I have never drunk real ale in my life. I do not care for bird-watching and have never laid a bet on the 'orses in my life. I have never even made an Airfix model or gone planespotting. And nobody I have EVER met in their twenties or younger has ever expressed the slightest interest, or even deigned to talk about the above either. I am aware of them, as a quizzer I have to be, but still ... the world has so much more to offer.
I am very tempted to say these are obsessions born of middle aged quiz-setting. No, it is really more routine and habit and common expectation and replication of old ways invoked by decades of quizzing. Yet I often find there is also a corresponding lack of respect for classical subjects such as art, history, science and literature, that would succeed in equalising the age-imbalance, and remove the taint of bias. Yes, they are included but they are nowhere near as challenging as they could be. It is stuff we should be proud of knowing. And I hate how the highbrow is rubbished and world knowledge is ditched in favour of what's happening down the road.
Added to this, there is a fear of the present and the future, of pop culture, and of whatever newspapers write about, and yes, even trash, that runs through so much question setting. Modernity is almost entirely eschewed. And it's about time things changed in this respect. The tendency to shy away from your own areas of ignorance must be tackled, otherwise you will never be a great question-setter.
This is not an attack on the question setters of this particular match. You have my full apologies if you think it is a terrible slight on your abilities. Since yours is the most recent example, sadly, I have to cite it. This outpouring is a result of cumulative feeling from many matches over the years. It's a general belief about a possible malaise that succeeds in shutting off quizzing to a potentially interested populace. Things change. Younger generations like different things. We absorb knowledge in different and new ways, I mean, does the internet even exist in the world of quiz? Many of us use it for hours every day, but it's practically invisible in trivia-setting. If you don't feed them what they want, or at least encourage them, they will be totally turned off. You have to change or quizzing and its pool of participants will wither and die. As a fellow quizzer has said to me: "The questions will only change when the people setting quizzes change - so when the younger generation take over I'm sure we can expect many questions on Halo and GTA - agree there should be a proscribed list, a sort of Index Questio Prohibitorum - with the full might of the Inquisition falling on anyone daring to set the hoary old chestnuts."
What did Nelson Algren write? The slums will have their revenge.
On the other hand I could always go off and swot up on Handley Page and Lockheed, and get my bird family knowledge sorted. This is the way quizzing is and has always been. I should just accept it, and a day later I am in the process of doing so. The putrescent rage has now been reduced to a simmer. But a lot of people don't have my perserverance. Potential future star quizzers turn up on University Challenge every week and disappear into complete obscurity. However, to keep them from doing so you do not encourage them into continuing by hitting them with questions on the aforementioned chestnutty subjects. For example, what do they know of music hall? I'll bet you, absolutely zilch. They'll only see playing conditions that are already stacked against them, and not bother with what will increasingly resemble a silly little hobby.
I'm not saying that questions on ye olde radio shows should be banned, because no existing quiz subject should be excised from the canon no matter how much I am repulsed by them, only that others should be included to redress the balance and more questions about websites, the media and hotshot businesses for instance, should be seen. There should also be far more current affairs, because what better sign is there of being informed and up-to-date with the world is there than a good knowledge of news? And consider next time you are at a quiz event when looking around, why so few teenagers, twenty-somethings, and early thirty somethings are in such short supply. Making it relevant to their lives is the key. Change is for quizzing's good, and therefore you must mould the source material and use it as an encouragement and a bait.
Okay, on a far less serious note, here is the friendly. It scored 39-23 to Oxford. It was a bit hard. And I even missed out questions 3a and 3b in one of the rounds (man, I hate it when that happens ... so embarrassing). Hey! Spot the pair on graphic novels I have put in instead. I would never dare to ask that in a real friendly, but someday, they should be ask-able question material in my view. Unanswered questions (by both sides) are starred.
President's Cup friendly 12/03/06
Round 1
1a Which singer had her first top ten hit when the Banana Boat Song reached number eight in 1957?
SHIRLEY BASSEY
1b The only female Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, which prophetess was married to a man called Lapidoth and prophesied the victory of Israelite forces led by General Barak, although she predicted that he would not achieve the final victory over Canaanite general Sisera himself?
DEBORAH
2a What is the last stage of development of an insect after the last ecdysis of an incomplete metamorphosis or after emergence from complete metamorphosis?
IMAGO
2b Only occurring in the life stage of such insects as moths, butterflies and beetles that undergo complete transformation, what term describes the actual life stage of transformation that they undergo?
PUPA or PUPAL stage
3a Which late British director's films include Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man?
JOHN SCHLESINGER
3b Shirley Bassey's first number one was which re-entry in 1959 that had previuosly charted at number 27 the year before?*
AS I LOVE YOU
4a One of the last Israelite Judges before the rule of kings, who was the main priest who trained the young prophet Samuel and had two wicked sons called Hophni and Phinehas who were struck down by God?
ELI
4b Which late British director's films include High Noon and From Here to Eternity?
FRED ZINNEMAN
Round 2
1a Old Tom Morris remains the oldest man to win which sporting competition, having been victorious in 1867 at the age of 46 years and 99 days?
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP or BRITISH OPEN
1b Taking place on July 2, 1644, what is said to have been the largest battle of the English Civil War?
MARSTON MOOR
2a The German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen won the first ever Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for his work on what?
X-RAYS
2b Who voiced the cartoon character Donald Duck?*
CLARENCE NASH
3a Taking place almost a month after Naseby, which English Civil War battle of July 10, 1645 near Yeovil, Somerset, saw Sir Thomas Fairfax destroy the last Royalist field army?
LANGPORT
3b Jean Henry Dunant shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his work founding what organisation?
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
4a Who voiced the cartoon character Sylvester the Cat?
MEL BLANC
4b Sometimes described as golf's first superstar, which British player holds the record for most Open Championship victories, having won six times between 1896 and 1914?
HARRY VARDON
Round 3
1a Name two of the five traditional ingredients in the herb mixture herbes de Provence.*
THYME, ROSEMARY, LAVENDER, MARJORAM, BASIL (accept LAVENDER)
1b Used in Cantonese cuisine, name two of the traditional ingredients in five-spice powder.
CINNAMON, CASSIA, STAR ANISE, GINGER ROOT, CLOVES
2a Located in the fourth smallest city in England, which cathedral was founded on the ruins of St Wilfrid's abbey in about 680, the only part which still survives being the crypt St Wilfrid's Needle?
RIPON
2b Which Dickens novel features the characters Seth Pecksniff, Mark Tapley and Montague Tigg?*
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT
3a Which Dickens novel features the characters Bella Wilfer, Nicodemus Boffin and Lizzie Hexam?
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
3b From the Greek for 'lime', which element was first isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphrey Davy?
CALCIUM
4a Named after a Scottish village, the metallic form of which element was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy?
STRONTIUM
4b Located in England's second smallest city, which cathedral is home to famous bellringing Mute Swans and became the seat of the diocese for which Athelm, the man who crowned King Athelstan, became its first bishop in about 909?
WELLS
Round 4
1a Invented in the mid-1910s, what kind of soft felt hat takes its name from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, the heroine of which wore a similar style of hat?
FEDORA
1b Which Australian tennis player and Wimbledon men's singles finalist was nicknamed Muscles?
KEN ROSEWALL
2a The most famous UFO-related event to happen in the UK, triangular aircraft were reported to have landed near an American Air Force Base where in Suffolk on December 27, 1980?*
RENDLESHAM FOREST
2b Often made from rabbit fur or muskrats, which Russian fur cap with ear flaps that can be tied up to its crown has a name that literally translates from the Russian as "ear-flaps hat"?*
USHANKA
3a Which Australian tennis player and Wimbledon champion was nicknamed Sunshine Supergirl?
EVONNE GOOLAGONG or CAWLEY
3b A mass sighting of UFOs called Black Triangles happened over which Russian city on February 19, 1997?*
ST PETERSBURG
4a Which member of the group of Russian composers known as The Five or The Mighty Handful never finished the operas Oedipus in Athens, Sorochintsy Fair and Salammabo?
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
4b Which member of The Mighty Handful composed the orchestral piece Sadko, and the operas Mozart and Salieri, and The Tsar's Bride?
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Round 5
1a The game of Janggi is said to be which Asian country or people's version of chess?*
KOREA
1b Who plays Rita Sullivan on Coronation Street?
BARBARA KNOX
2a In which German city, located in the federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg, was Albert Einstein born in 1879?*
ULM
2b Leicester lies on which river?
SOAR
3a Who plays Betty Williams on Coronation Street?
BETTY DRIVER
3b Located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in which German city was Karl Marx born in 1818?
TRIER
4a Lancaster lies on which river?
LUNE
4b The game of Makruk is said to be which Asian country's version of chess?
THAILAND
Round 6
1a Which Czech midfielder and Juventus player won the European Footballer of the Year in 2003?
PAVEL NEDVED
1b Which British Prime Minister took the title Earl of Orford?
ROBERT WALPOLE
2a The man who succeeded Walpole as Prime Minister, Spencer Compton was the first Earl of where?
WILMINGTON
2b What do the initials EAL that come after Anne stand for in the Princess Royal's name?
ELIZABETH ALICE LOUISE
3a The White-Bellied Sea, the Little and Wedge-tailed are the only species of which bird of prey that are native to Australia?*
EAGLE
3b Which German defender and then Borussia Dortmund player won the European Footballer of the Year award in 1996?*
MATTHIAS SAMMER
4a What do the initials PAG that come after Charles stand for in the Prince of Wales's name?
PHILIP ARTHUR GEORGE
4b Name the only two species of eagle that are native to North America.
BALD and GOLDEN
Round 7
1a Which 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury has the first line: "It was a pleasure to burn"?
FAHRENHEIT 451
1b The Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen invented what type of transmitter in 1902 which was the first to transmit continuous radio waves?*
ARC transmitter
2a What 1869 invention of George Westinghouse allowed trains to be stopped with fail-safe accuracy by the locomotive engineer for the first time?
AIR BRAKE
2b Which bearded and left-wing political cartoonist is known for his distinctive caricatures and his comic strip If...?
STEVE BELL
3a Which American writer's graphic novels include Caricature, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and Daniel Boring?
DANIEL CLOWES
3b Which Southend-on-Sea-born author has produced such graphic novels as City of Silence, Ministry of Space and Ocean?
WARREN ELLIS
4a Which political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph has been the newspaper's front-page pocket cartoonist since 1988 and has the surname Pritchett?
MATT
4b Which 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon has the first line: "A screaming across the sky"?
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
Round 8
1a Which French painter's works include the 1910 series of large canvasses titled The Dance which are to be found in the Hermitage, as well as The Moroccans and The Piano Lesson which are at New York's Museum of Modern Art?
HENRI MATISSE
1b As used in Botox, botulin toxin was probably used to kill which top Nazi in 1942 in Operation Anthropoid?
REINHARD HEYDRICH
2a Which leader's favourite cigars were saturated with botulin toxin by CIA agents in Operation Mongoose, though, of course, they have never been used?
FIDEL CASTRO
2b Which romantic French painter's works include 1827's Greece Dying on the Ruins of Missolonghi, as well as Liberty Leading the People and Horatio and Hamlet in the Graveyard which are on show at the Louvre?
EUGENE DELACROIX
3a Garrafeira, Ruby and Crusted are varieties of which fortified wine?
PORT
3b Algeria, Libya and Nigeria are the only African members of which organisation that was formed on September 17, 1960?
OPEC or ORGANISATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES
4a Currently the only southeast Asian member of OPEC, which country's membership is currently under review since it is no longer a net oil exporter?
INDONESIA
4b Made using a process called 'in perpetuum', what fortified wine is said to have been popularised by the English trader John Woodhouse after he landed at the port that gave its name in 1773?*
MARSALA
Spares
1 Abbreviated SHAPE, what name is given to the headquarters of NATO?
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED POWERS EUROPE
2 Nicknamed the Shakers, which football team play at Gigg Lane?
BURY
3 In maths, what is defined as the power to which a base, such as 10, must be raised to produce a given number?
LOGARITHM
4 Also known as the City of the Kings, which South American capital is thought to derive its name from either the Aymara word for 'yellow flower' or the Quechan for 'talking'?
LIMA
5 Sony announced in January 2006 that they were going to discontinue which robotic pets that originally came in models ERS-110 and ERS-111 when they were introduced in 1999?*
AIBO
By the end I felt demoralised and slightly pissed off, as you would expect, but not with our poor performance or the obvious quality of Oxford. Oh no. It was the questions.
Do people truly think that breweries, aircraft makers, old radio shows, Grand National winners, and bird families are worthy of being asked week-in week-out? They come up far too frequently for such comparatively meaningless subjects. And I say 'meaningless', in the context, of, say, asking something like who designed the Palace of Versailles? Or who is the new president of Bolivia?
People set what they know. I know this is a fact of quizzing life. But if they continue to set on such parochial yet hard subjects then they will completely turn off young people like myself. It is a clash of generations. I have never listened to the radio, never mind gone to a reference book and read up on shows like the Navy Lark or ITMA. I have never drunk real ale in my life. I do not care for bird-watching and have never laid a bet on the 'orses in my life. I have never even made an Airfix model or gone planespotting. And nobody I have EVER met in their twenties or younger has ever expressed the slightest interest, or even deigned to talk about the above either. I am aware of them, as a quizzer I have to be, but still ... the world has so much more to offer.
I am very tempted to say these are obsessions born of middle aged quiz-setting. No, it is really more routine and habit and common expectation and replication of old ways invoked by decades of quizzing. Yet I often find there is also a corresponding lack of respect for classical subjects such as art, history, science and literature, that would succeed in equalising the age-imbalance, and remove the taint of bias. Yes, they are included but they are nowhere near as challenging as they could be. It is stuff we should be proud of knowing. And I hate how the highbrow is rubbished and world knowledge is ditched in favour of what's happening down the road.
Added to this, there is a fear of the present and the future, of pop culture, and of whatever newspapers write about, and yes, even trash, that runs through so much question setting. Modernity is almost entirely eschewed. And it's about time things changed in this respect. The tendency to shy away from your own areas of ignorance must be tackled, otherwise you will never be a great question-setter.
This is not an attack on the question setters of this particular match. You have my full apologies if you think it is a terrible slight on your abilities. Since yours is the most recent example, sadly, I have to cite it. This outpouring is a result of cumulative feeling from many matches over the years. It's a general belief about a possible malaise that succeeds in shutting off quizzing to a potentially interested populace. Things change. Younger generations like different things. We absorb knowledge in different and new ways, I mean, does the internet even exist in the world of quiz? Many of us use it for hours every day, but it's practically invisible in trivia-setting. If you don't feed them what they want, or at least encourage them, they will be totally turned off. You have to change or quizzing and its pool of participants will wither and die. As a fellow quizzer has said to me: "The questions will only change when the people setting quizzes change - so when the younger generation take over I'm sure we can expect many questions on Halo and GTA - agree there should be a proscribed list, a sort of Index Questio Prohibitorum - with the full might of the Inquisition falling on anyone daring to set the hoary old chestnuts."
What did Nelson Algren write? The slums will have their revenge.
On the other hand I could always go off and swot up on Handley Page and Lockheed, and get my bird family knowledge sorted. This is the way quizzing is and has always been. I should just accept it, and a day later I am in the process of doing so. The putrescent rage has now been reduced to a simmer. But a lot of people don't have my perserverance. Potential future star quizzers turn up on University Challenge every week and disappear into complete obscurity. However, to keep them from doing so you do not encourage them into continuing by hitting them with questions on the aforementioned chestnutty subjects. For example, what do they know of music hall? I'll bet you, absolutely zilch. They'll only see playing conditions that are already stacked against them, and not bother with what will increasingly resemble a silly little hobby.
I'm not saying that questions on ye olde radio shows should be banned, because no existing quiz subject should be excised from the canon no matter how much I am repulsed by them, only that others should be included to redress the balance and more questions about websites, the media and hotshot businesses for instance, should be seen. There should also be far more current affairs, because what better sign is there of being informed and up-to-date with the world is there than a good knowledge of news? And consider next time you are at a quiz event when looking around, why so few teenagers, twenty-somethings, and early thirty somethings are in such short supply. Making it relevant to their lives is the key. Change is for quizzing's good, and therefore you must mould the source material and use it as an encouragement and a bait.
Okay, on a far less serious note, here is the friendly. It scored 39-23 to Oxford. It was a bit hard. And I even missed out questions 3a and 3b in one of the rounds (man, I hate it when that happens ... so embarrassing). Hey! Spot the pair on graphic novels I have put in instead. I would never dare to ask that in a real friendly, but someday, they should be ask-able question material in my view. Unanswered questions (by both sides) are starred.
President's Cup friendly 12/03/06
Round 1
1a Which singer had her first top ten hit when the Banana Boat Song reached number eight in 1957?
SHIRLEY BASSEY
1b The only female Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, which prophetess was married to a man called Lapidoth and prophesied the victory of Israelite forces led by General Barak, although she predicted that he would not achieve the final victory over Canaanite general Sisera himself?
DEBORAH
2a What is the last stage of development of an insect after the last ecdysis of an incomplete metamorphosis or after emergence from complete metamorphosis?
IMAGO
2b Only occurring in the life stage of such insects as moths, butterflies and beetles that undergo complete transformation, what term describes the actual life stage of transformation that they undergo?
PUPA or PUPAL stage
3a Which late British director's films include Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man?
JOHN SCHLESINGER
3b Shirley Bassey's first number one was which re-entry in 1959 that had previuosly charted at number 27 the year before?*
AS I LOVE YOU
4a One of the last Israelite Judges before the rule of kings, who was the main priest who trained the young prophet Samuel and had two wicked sons called Hophni and Phinehas who were struck down by God?
ELI
4b Which late British director's films include High Noon and From Here to Eternity?
FRED ZINNEMAN
Round 2
1a Old Tom Morris remains the oldest man to win which sporting competition, having been victorious in 1867 at the age of 46 years and 99 days?
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP or BRITISH OPEN
1b Taking place on July 2, 1644, what is said to have been the largest battle of the English Civil War?
MARSTON MOOR
2a The German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen won the first ever Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for his work on what?
X-RAYS
2b Who voiced the cartoon character Donald Duck?*
CLARENCE NASH
3a Taking place almost a month after Naseby, which English Civil War battle of July 10, 1645 near Yeovil, Somerset, saw Sir Thomas Fairfax destroy the last Royalist field army?
LANGPORT
3b Jean Henry Dunant shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his work founding what organisation?
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
4a Who voiced the cartoon character Sylvester the Cat?
MEL BLANC
4b Sometimes described as golf's first superstar, which British player holds the record for most Open Championship victories, having won six times between 1896 and 1914?
HARRY VARDON
Round 3
1a Name two of the five traditional ingredients in the herb mixture herbes de Provence.*
THYME, ROSEMARY, LAVENDER, MARJORAM, BASIL (accept LAVENDER)
1b Used in Cantonese cuisine, name two of the traditional ingredients in five-spice powder.
CINNAMON, CASSIA, STAR ANISE, GINGER ROOT, CLOVES
2a Located in the fourth smallest city in England, which cathedral was founded on the ruins of St Wilfrid's abbey in about 680, the only part which still survives being the crypt St Wilfrid's Needle?
RIPON
2b Which Dickens novel features the characters Seth Pecksniff, Mark Tapley and Montague Tigg?*
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT
3a Which Dickens novel features the characters Bella Wilfer, Nicodemus Boffin and Lizzie Hexam?
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
3b From the Greek for 'lime', which element was first isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphrey Davy?
CALCIUM
4a Named after a Scottish village, the metallic form of which element was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy?
STRONTIUM
4b Located in England's second smallest city, which cathedral is home to famous bellringing Mute Swans and became the seat of the diocese for which Athelm, the man who crowned King Athelstan, became its first bishop in about 909?
WELLS
Round 4
1a Invented in the mid-1910s, what kind of soft felt hat takes its name from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, the heroine of which wore a similar style of hat?
FEDORA
1b Which Australian tennis player and Wimbledon men's singles finalist was nicknamed Muscles?
KEN ROSEWALL
2a The most famous UFO-related event to happen in the UK, triangular aircraft were reported to have landed near an American Air Force Base where in Suffolk on December 27, 1980?*
RENDLESHAM FOREST
2b Often made from rabbit fur or muskrats, which Russian fur cap with ear flaps that can be tied up to its crown has a name that literally translates from the Russian as "ear-flaps hat"?*
USHANKA
3a Which Australian tennis player and Wimbledon champion was nicknamed Sunshine Supergirl?
EVONNE GOOLAGONG or CAWLEY
3b A mass sighting of UFOs called Black Triangles happened over which Russian city on February 19, 1997?*
ST PETERSBURG
4a Which member of the group of Russian composers known as The Five or The Mighty Handful never finished the operas Oedipus in Athens, Sorochintsy Fair and Salammabo?
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
4b Which member of The Mighty Handful composed the orchestral piece Sadko, and the operas Mozart and Salieri, and The Tsar's Bride?
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Round 5
1a The game of Janggi is said to be which Asian country or people's version of chess?*
KOREA
1b Who plays Rita Sullivan on Coronation Street?
BARBARA KNOX
2a In which German city, located in the federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg, was Albert Einstein born in 1879?*
ULM
2b Leicester lies on which river?
SOAR
3a Who plays Betty Williams on Coronation Street?
BETTY DRIVER
3b Located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in which German city was Karl Marx born in 1818?
TRIER
4a Lancaster lies on which river?
LUNE
4b The game of Makruk is said to be which Asian country's version of chess?
THAILAND
Round 6
1a Which Czech midfielder and Juventus player won the European Footballer of the Year in 2003?
PAVEL NEDVED
1b Which British Prime Minister took the title Earl of Orford?
ROBERT WALPOLE
2a The man who succeeded Walpole as Prime Minister, Spencer Compton was the first Earl of where?
WILMINGTON
2b What do the initials EAL that come after Anne stand for in the Princess Royal's name?
ELIZABETH ALICE LOUISE
3a The White-Bellied Sea, the Little and Wedge-tailed are the only species of which bird of prey that are native to Australia?*
EAGLE
3b Which German defender and then Borussia Dortmund player won the European Footballer of the Year award in 1996?*
MATTHIAS SAMMER
4a What do the initials PAG that come after Charles stand for in the Prince of Wales's name?
PHILIP ARTHUR GEORGE
4b Name the only two species of eagle that are native to North America.
BALD and GOLDEN
Round 7
1a Which 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury has the first line: "It was a pleasure to burn"?
FAHRENHEIT 451
1b The Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen invented what type of transmitter in 1902 which was the first to transmit continuous radio waves?*
ARC transmitter
2a What 1869 invention of George Westinghouse allowed trains to be stopped with fail-safe accuracy by the locomotive engineer for the first time?
AIR BRAKE
2b Which bearded and left-wing political cartoonist is known for his distinctive caricatures and his comic strip If...?
STEVE BELL
3a Which American writer's graphic novels include Caricature, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and Daniel Boring?
DANIEL CLOWES
3b Which Southend-on-Sea-born author has produced such graphic novels as City of Silence, Ministry of Space and Ocean?
WARREN ELLIS
4a Which political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph has been the newspaper's front-page pocket cartoonist since 1988 and has the surname Pritchett?
MATT
4b Which 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon has the first line: "A screaming across the sky"?
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
Round 8
1a Which French painter's works include the 1910 series of large canvasses titled The Dance which are to be found in the Hermitage, as well as The Moroccans and The Piano Lesson which are at New York's Museum of Modern Art?
HENRI MATISSE
1b As used in Botox, botulin toxin was probably used to kill which top Nazi in 1942 in Operation Anthropoid?
REINHARD HEYDRICH
2a Which leader's favourite cigars were saturated with botulin toxin by CIA agents in Operation Mongoose, though, of course, they have never been used?
FIDEL CASTRO
2b Which romantic French painter's works include 1827's Greece Dying on the Ruins of Missolonghi, as well as Liberty Leading the People and Horatio and Hamlet in the Graveyard which are on show at the Louvre?
EUGENE DELACROIX
3a Garrafeira, Ruby and Crusted are varieties of which fortified wine?
PORT
3b Algeria, Libya and Nigeria are the only African members of which organisation that was formed on September 17, 1960?
OPEC or ORGANISATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES
4a Currently the only southeast Asian member of OPEC, which country's membership is currently under review since it is no longer a net oil exporter?
INDONESIA
4b Made using a process called 'in perpetuum', what fortified wine is said to have been popularised by the English trader John Woodhouse after he landed at the port that gave its name in 1773?*
MARSALA
Spares
1 Abbreviated SHAPE, what name is given to the headquarters of NATO?
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED POWERS EUROPE
2 Nicknamed the Shakers, which football team play at Gigg Lane?
BURY
3 In maths, what is defined as the power to which a base, such as 10, must be raised to produce a given number?
LOGARITHM
4 Also known as the City of the Kings, which South American capital is thought to derive its name from either the Aymara word for 'yellow flower' or the Quechan for 'talking'?
LIMA
5 Sony announced in January 2006 that they were going to discontinue which robotic pets that originally came in models ERS-110 and ERS-111 when they were introduced in 1999?*
AIBO
posted by That Quiz Guy at 11:07 AM
2 Comments:
A fair point you make about selecting questions that will keep the young 'uns tuning in.
But look at what happens when a consciously middle-aged show attempts to get down wiv da yoot. Poor old Ned Sherrin (on Counterpoint) is forced to quiz 73-year-old Chopin fanatics about the minutiae of UB40's recording career. They haven't a frigging clue what he's on about, he barely understands it either, and 95% of the audience is waiting for something hummable by that nice Rachmaninov.
Whereas, a show like Brain of Britain sticks resolutely to questions about heraldry and Kipling and the advisability of extending the franchise to Papists, and everyone's happy.
Now this might not have exact parallels with the off-air quizzes you're discussing, but it does suggest that there's a specific demographic they want to hit, and you're not it, because you don't remember The Navy Lark. Chill, leave them with their Airfix models, and set up your own under-30s league, with music rounds about grime remixes rather than Ivor Novello.
(BTW, I must be losing it. When I saw your Howard Beale reference, it was some time before I realised it wan't a reference to a long-lost EastEnders character.)
Thanks Tim. My only point is that quiz-setters' myopia will in the long run make quizzing as a regular pastime irrelevant. If people want to be inclusive then they must appeal to all broad churches. Quiz leagues and cups do not purposely appeal to people of a certain age, they want to include everyone and should pride themselves on doing so. But if they are not aware of what they are doing possibly because they have no idea that a sitcom such as My Name is Earl actually exists and is very popular with perople, then they are hamstrung and therefore doomed.
There is an acute lack of self-awareness about this matter. Brain of Britain actually does well to cover the classical and academic subjects, but many quiz league and related cup matches do not. They are somehow frightened of scaring people off with highbrow material. And I do not want to leave them with their Airfix models. I want to tackle them on a level playing field, a playing field, in fact which they think they pride themselves on. Ignorance is no real excuse. I just want a balance of getting down wit da yoot and Airfix models. At the moment the odds are heavily set in the latter's favour, and it must be changed.
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