Sunday, January 13, 2008

BH148: New Edition Something Bell Biv Devoe Reference

Weakness

THE SALES! THE AWFUL WONDERFUL SALES! I have so far resisted storming into HMV and Fopp with a stolen Tesco shopping trolley ready to be filled to the sickening brim with DVDCDBOOKs whilst wearing a gibbering, rabid facial expression of buy! buy! buy! I must! I must! Buy more cheap Ingmar Bergman movies!, and have successfully swerved violently away at the last minute on at least half a dozen occasions from New and Old Bond Street fancy shops selling clothes I will only be too happy to wear once and then realise why they were so heavily discounted. Because they are basically fancy dan crap no sane man should buy.

Hooray for me. I have learned. Sort of.

But then there is Sussex Stationers in my hometown. It's great because the discounts are so murderous you feel compelled to buy yet another reference work - the books that cost a pricey bollock in most other places - the moment you step on the pleasant, Mogadon-steamed premises. Because I only ever buy my new encyclopaedias, review compendiums, travel guides and other fact-lodes from the aforementioned shop. The price is always so right. And you can get dirty-cheap fiction paperbacks anywhere these days (ugh, Tesco ... yeah, I'll just get me a Pepperami Hot and The Tenderness of Wolves. They cost about the same).

Therefore it was no surprise that I picked up a half price copy of this year's Pears' Cyclopaedia ("The Original Miscellany since 1897" it proclaims in gold lettering on the cover as if to say to Ben Schott: "Up yours you toddler and then some sonny-jim! We will live forever and everyone will hate you to death soon enough!') and the fourth edition of Trevor Montague's A to Z of almost Everything (ooh, it's covered in volcanic lava tones this time. Fiery). I've got the other three so I thought what the hell. Get another one. Couldn't stop myself. A mere 15 quid. Therefore, in honour of this further addition to my bulging reference work arsenal, here's 40 questions I mentally sucked from its pages. Laters ...

Montague's Supply
1 Which major European capital city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1531?
2 "His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however and called himself Sam" is the first line of which Roger Zelazny book?
3 Which Peter Carey novel ends: "Affectionately inscribed to Percival Clarence Buckle, A man of letters, A patron of the arts"?
4 Which monarch founded the Westminster public school?
5 2012 will be the Chinese Year of what?
6 What is the English name of the constellation Grus?
7 Which 20th century art movement had offshoots called Facet, Analytical and Synthetic?
8 What two-word French term describes a large covered entrance for vehicles leading into a courtyard?
9 In which field are the Austrian, Hans Hollein, the Italian, Aldo Rossi and Portugal's Alvaro Siza award-winning names?
10 In which country did General Kassem stage a successful coup in 1958?
11 When is the feast day of St Peter?
12 In which sport might a competitor employ an "Irish whip"?
13 In American football, what four-letter term describes putting the ball into play on the ground by a quick backward movement?
14 Which national side became the first European Champions in 1960, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 in Paris?
15 The Libandia, consisting of the House of Assembly (65 members) and Senate (30 members), is the parliament of which country?
16 Which wader has varieties called the ringed (Charadrius hiaticula) and the golden (Pluvialis apricaria)?
17 Who was the mother of the Dioscuri, the sons of Zeus?
18 Which musical features the songs June is Busting Out All Over, If I Loved You and Mister Snow?
19 Whose Symphony No. 9 in C major is nicknamed "Heavenly Length"?
20 Which Mendelssohn opera, first performed in Berlin in 1827 and with a libretto by F Voight, is based on an episode in Don Quixote?
21 At which August 19, 1099 battle of the First Crusade did Godfrey of Bouillon's crusaders defeat the Saracens under Kilidj Arslan?
22 Didi and Gogo are alternative names for which theatrical characters?
23 What are Pushkin's plays, Mozart and Salieri, The Covetous Knight, The Stone Guest and The Feast during the Plague, collectively called?
24 Which man's name means "defender of men"?
25 The ITT Scandal broke in 1972 when a plan to nationalise which country's telephone company was sabotaged with the aid of the CIA?
26 Which conflict did Frederick the Great instigate in 1778 by invading Bohemia?
27 The 1573 Peace of Constantinople ended the war between the Turks and which Italian city?
28 Who became Duke of Apulia and Sicily in 1059 by the Treaty of Melfi, swearing fealty to the Papacy in the process?
29 What was the first name of the late actor Oliver Reed?
30 Who wrote the poem The Old Ships?
31 Who had a November-December 1962 UK no.1 with Lovesick Blues?
32 Jumala was the supreme god of which people's mythology?
33 In Egyptian myth, what was the primeval ocean of chaos that existed before the first gods?
34 Who were Urdr, Verdandi and Skuld?
35 By what name is the Australian sword lily otherwise known?
36 Also known as Omon, which elite paramilitary police force was formed by the Soviet Interior Ministry in 1987 and had a reputation for ruthlessness, especially in the Baltic states?
37 "Alfaro Viva Carajo!", meaning "Alfaro Lives, Dammit!" - a left-wing nationalist guerilla group - were named in honour of an early 20th century president of which country?
38 Who is the patron saint of cancer victims?
39 Leicester (1906-18) was the first constituency of which Prime Minister, his last being Scottish Universities?
40 Which Jamaican sprinter is the current female 200m Olympic champion?

I

S
H
O
U
L
D

N
O
T

H
A
V
E

A
S
K
E
D

Answers to BH148
1 Lisbon 2 Lord of Light 3 Jack Maggs 4 Elizabeth I 5 Dragon 6 Crane 7 Cubism 8 Porte-cochere 9 Architecture 10 Iraq 11 June 29th 12 Wrestling 13 Snap 14 USSR 15 Swaziland 16 Plover 17 Leda 18 Carousel 19 Schubert 20 The Wedding of the Camacho 21 Ascalon/Ashqelon 22 Vladimir & Estragon 23 "Little Tragedies" 24 Alexander 25 Chile 26 War of Bavarian Succession 27 Venice 28 Robert Guiscard 29 Robert 30 James Elroy Flecker 31 Frank Ifield 32 Finland 33 Nun 34 Norns, Norse goddesses of destiny (past, present and future) 35 Kangaroo paw 36 Black Berets 37 Ecuador 38 Peregrine Laziosi 39 Ramsay MacDonald 40 Veronica Campbell

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home