Friday, April 28, 2006

Blah blah BH no.64 ... the witty headlines well has dried up

Oi, Pi calm down. Sorry, the chinchilla is making like a combination of Javier Sotomayor and Asafa Powell. Pi is a legend, however, and should not be fed ham (why did you do it Robin, and you're a vegetarian, tsk).

That Previous Query
On to business: One billion rupees is at the time of writing equal to £12,207,103.67, which truth be told, ain't bad for a TV show jackpot.

Missing the Buzzer Time
Masoquizm is now on May 20 meaning that I cannot attend on account of being at ATP. I had a moment of quiet devastation, but have now recovered and am looking forward to future buzzer quizzes. I miss them so. But think of me when you are answering toss-ups on American literature. And do not confuse the legendary likes of the Dread Pirate Roberts with such historical upstarts as Blackbeard.

I am considering going all the way to Novi Sad (in Serbia!) to the Exit Festival between July 6 and 9. Therefore do not make the terrible mistake of organising a quiz tourney that weekend. I will certainly regret it. Though I will certainly not regret going to Serbia. A castle, Franz Ferdinand, Pet Shop Boys and Billy Idol and unreconstructed greasy metalheads, possibly, neo-Nazis. I'm looking forward to it already.

Goodbye My Beautiful Books
June 3 is the World Quizzing Championship. With just over a month ago, this means I am about to swap the pleasure of reading fiction for the gruesome toil of reading reference books and question files for a few antisocial weeks. It is all in aid of a glorious cause. I love competition and when it is global, well, who could resist locking horns with the best.

However, once I did put down Q & A I was going to say that that book was the last, then I picked up The Cadence of Grass by Thomas McGuane and read the first 20 pages. I couldn't help myself. It is a hard habit to give up due to the conscious act of switching my brain into revision and absorption mode, and McGuane has become one of my most famous authors; one of the reasons being his ability to pull out some hilarious, biting gem of description or wit. I may leave it at 20 pages until June. Who knows? It is a mystery I will soon solve, apparently.

1 Directed by Allan Silliphant, what 1969 soft-porn movie is the most profitable 3-D film in history having grossed $27 million on a $100,000 budget?
2 Chung Mong Koo has been arrested on charges of embezzling over $106 million. He is head of which motor company?
3 At which popular tourist town in Tasmania did a massacre take place in which a lone gunman killed 35 in 1996?
4 Which country became an independent state once again with 1952's Treaty of San Francisco?
5 To whom or what did Edith Piaf dedicate her recording of the song Non, je ne regrette rien?
6 What electrical device moves energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling with no moving parts?
7 From the Latin for "between spaces", what term was first coined in 1990s to refer to any work of art whose basic nature falls between, rather than within, the familiar boundaries of accepted genres or media, making it difficult to easily catergoris within a single artistic discipline?
8 A former club of the "Bald Beckenbauer" and Southampton player Chris Marsden, the football club Busan I'Park was founded in 1983 by what corporation?
9 Giving its name to the beer, what part of the city of Freising north of Munich is site of the oldest brewery in the world at the Benedictine abbey that was founded in 725?
10 Which American character actor is best known for playing the McCarthy-like Senator Joseph Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate and the loudmouthed Inspector Luger in the TV show Barney Miller?
11 Horfield Wood has a historical reputation for being a haunt of thieves and vagrants. Near which English city is it found?
12 Sometimes compared to WB Yeats, which Russian poet first gained fame with Verses About a Beautiful Lady, a cycle of poetry he dedicated to his wife, Lyuba Mendelyeva, the daughter of the chemist?
13 Known by her first name, which US pop singer has the names Lyn Newkirk?
14 Which knighted English painter and decorator (1842-1921) is known for such works as A Procession in Honour of Bacchus and An Audience at Athens?
15 What order of chivalry was founded by George I on May 18, 1725?
16 Directed by Vincente Minnelli, what 1953 MGM musical comedy starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse popularised the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz song That's Entertainment and also featured Dancing in the Dark, Triplets and Girl Hunt Ballet?
17 Maersk Air is a low-fare airline based in which country?
18 The Secret Army was a force of 30,000 men trained by the CIA that was made up of which tribesmen?
19 Which Seinfeld character had the first name Paul, although the series creators never actually revealed the information in an episode?
20 Certainly started, what name was given to the secret project to upgrade the British Polaris missile system?
21 Which US president's presidency was marked by a disappearance of partisan politics after the politically charged War of 1812 and came to be known as the Era of Good Feelings?
22 Seriously wounded after being conscripted into the Soviet army in 1942, which Russian writer is known for such works as The Snow is Melting (1958), Theft (1966), Czar Fish (1975) and Sad Detective (1986)?
23 What medically-related legal case of 1610 saw Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, asset the supemacy of common law in England?
24 Called Pursuit of the Graf Spee in the US, what 1956 Powell and Pressburger film portrayed a 1939 naval battle?
25 Which three Royal Navy cruisers were involved in that battle?

Answers to BH no. 63
1 Chinchillas 2 1776ft 3 Clara Furse 4 Recursive grammar 5 Dahab 6 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 7 1926 8 Sultana 9 Pergamon 10 SA Andree 11 Afghanistan 12 Jus sanguinis 13 Santeria 14 Juche 15 Vietnam 16 Tenrikyo or Tenri 17 Thailand 18 Augustus Julliard 19 Sir Colin Davis 20 Tannhauser 21 1748 22 Bibliography 23 Ludovico Ariosto 24 Matteo Maria Boiardo 25 Diana Wynne Jones 26 Vientiane 27 Hong Kong 28 Wallpaper group 29 World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (WWE), previously the WWF 30 Through-the-night bicycle race

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