One Big Push for The Blockbuster
It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, er, I Mean, Quiz-Setter
(Not very subliminal message: please e-mail theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com and ask kindly if you could possibly purchase a copy of the said quiz for your fantastic enjoyment. Message over.)
Yep, the time has come at last for me to sell, shill or what have you to my dear potential customers - ye reader you - my latest big quiz on this blog, having been hard at work on my other loadsofquizquestions-related project - and I mean bloody hard, so hard my eyes are doing raw cartwheels of stripped pain in my head, as my elbows and fingers creak under the tappety-tappety stress of keyboard business and my brain asks me for a wee little recuperation to prevent complete central nervous system collapse. Instead, I douse it in caffeine and sugar and say "On and on, we're almost there. Just 50 hours more good old fashioned, up the chimneys and down the pits toil, and we might be in a decent position to start thinking about the next phase. Chin up. You neurons you".
Not that I literally talk to my brain; I just give it subtle and not-so subtle non-verbal hints that something must be finished (just like the new year books resolution ... I am trying on that front. I really am).
Obviously, I will reveal all after I have got round to doing this: The Die Hard Die Harder Sell
I have a new huge do-at-home quiz consisting of 502 general knowledge questions. I thought about calling it The Leviathan or The Mighty Supergiant, but I thought nah, they're a bit silly; let's go with The Blockbuster. No idea why. It just seemed the right thing to do at the time.
Taking into customer feedback from The Behemoth, I have slimmed down the question lengths resulting in 1400 less words, but a whole lot less brain ache.
Remember, it's still 502 questions. The time limit is 195 minutes or 3 hours and 15 minutes, unless your first language is not English. Then you can have another half hour to use dictionaries to translate.
So you're thinking what if it's a load of absolute rubbish? Why waste 195 minutes of my life when I could be watching The Godfather PART THREE!. Well, I would sharply disagree with you. The following people, men of wholesome and trustworthy character it is believed, would do likewise...
Testimonials from My Testers
If Rob doesn't mind me pilfering his feedback with indecent haste, here's a new Blockbuster testimonial hot off the presses: "Thanks for another great quiz. I've not really got anything to say as I thought the quiz was almost perfect."
Pat Gibson, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jackpot winner, World Quizzing Champion 2007: "I enjoyed the Blockbuster set very, very much - hundreds of interesting questions to wrestle with. The time limit is a factor but not as severe as on the Behemoth - your reduced word count has made a difference"
Steven De Ceuster, Founder and President of the Flemish Quiz Ranking, IQA Director Western Europe: "I found the time to take your Blockbuster quiz and it was time well spent. Interesting questions and I had the impression a little bit easier than last time. A great way to spend an evening."
Chris Jones, Director of Quizzing.co.uk and IQA: "Once again I really enjoyed the quiz. There were a number in there which, once I'd ferreted out the answer (or, rather, what I hope is the answer), I was left with a small glow of satisfaction. Class!"
How to enter
You enter by e-mailing theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com. I will acknowledge receipt of your e-mail as soon as possible.
I will then give you details on how to pay along with a snail mail address for cheques (and eventually, postal entries) - Paypal, cheque, even cash if you dare - and put you down on the participant list. You can enter any time as long as it is before the deadline date for the return of your completed answer sheets.
CRUCIAL UPDATE: Myron is right. I did leave out the pricing bit. The price is £7.50/$14/11 euros for a copy of The Blockbuster. Same price for The Behemoth if you missed out on that. £3 each for my first and second big quizzes: The Monster and The Colossus.
Once your payment (though I will go on trust for everyone, such as previous participants, I personally know and e-mail them the quiz ASAP) has been received, the quiz will then be e-mailed to you and you can return your answers any time before the deadline - Wednesday, February 6 (11.59pm to be precise) by snail mail or e-mail.
Within the week of the deadline - February 14 - the answers and any errors in the questions or helpful additional information competitors have pointed out and would like to share with everyone, will then be sent to every competitor by old fashioned snail mail (the postage cost will be taken out of £7.50 fee, though foreign competitors will receive such sheets grouped together where possible since they will pay less to take part). They will NOT be e-mailed out.
Every payee receive the answers
Again, everyone will receive the answers even if they do not submit a completed sheet - you have paid an entrance fee; therefore you get the full package. Yet again the bonus for taking part and doing all of the above in the recommended fashion, participants will also receive one of three originally-set 100-question quizzes, designated by the imaginative names A, B and C in the post with the answer set. You can purchase the other two bonus quizzes you have not have receied after the deadline date for £1.50 each if you so wish.
However, if Blockbuster participants happen to have done the paper before the Northampton Quizzing Grand Prix and brought it along they will receive the answers and their random bonus quiz on the day since I will be in attendance on January 26. A small reward for punctuality, if you will. Quiz League of London players can also expect to receive the aforementioned papers, hand-delivered by myself, should I be playing them towards the end of this month.
Participants, whose completed entries arrive after the deadline, will get the answers and bonus quiz too, but will not be entered into the final scorers table. Having said that, they probably will be.
And please, if there are people out there who have still not got the answers for The Behemoth and a copy of an ABC quiz then please tell me ASAP and I will mail them straight away. Many apologies if I have forgotten you.
Prizes
The prizes remain the same. Apart from the chance of competing against and comparing yourself with the likes of such quiz gods as "Egghead" Kevin Ashman and "World Quizzing Champion" Pat Gibson in a massive quiz from the comfort of your own home and winning the wondrous respect of your peers, the premier primo prize - since cash awards are not viable when I must rely on the honesty of competitors doing it at home where they can access the internet, reference books and their loved ones for the stuff that is teetering on the top of their tongue - is that the overall winner will receive a refund of their entrance fee and free entry into the next quiz.
There will also be a refund and free entry again for those who finish number one in each country where there is more than three "Blockbuster" competitors.
And to encourage those wary of possible humiliation (though you can enter under a pseudonym if you prefer) and just want to give it a shot, the overall bottom five finishers will also get their money back and free entry next time, as long as their answer sheet has been returned and convincingly attempted, i.e. filled with top-to-the-bottom with proof they have done their best to tackle it (those with barely any answers and blank sheets will be ignored).
25 Sample Questions from the last quiz: The Behemoth (answers at the bottom)
1. Townsend Investigations was the name of the detective agency, whose employees were taken away from the "hazardous duties" of police work by its eponymous founder, in which TV series that ran from 1977 to 1982?
2. Having emigrated to the US in 1894, the Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine isolated which hormone from animal glands, thus becoming the first scientist to accomplish this for a glandular hormone?
3. Which Greek god, born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia to Maia, gives his name to the art of interpreting hidden meaning or the study of the theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts?
4. In the name of the South Korean chaebol or electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate, what does the LG in LG Group stand for?
5. BoKlok, translated as "live smart" and pronounced "book look", is the name given to which company's range of readymade homes?
6. Italo Marcioni invented which edible food holders in 1904?
7. Fraxinus is the name of the genus of tree, which provides the wood for most baseball bats. What is its common name?
8. The 2006 novel Cell is the latest from which horror writer?
9. The late Johann Holzel, a one-time Austrian classical music prodigy, is better known by what single-word stage name with which he had a 1986 US no. 1 with Rock Me Amadeus?
10. At which 202BC battle did the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio defeat Hannibal's Carthaginian forces and earn himself the honorary surname Africanus?
11. Kongo Gumi, the world's oldest continuously operating family business, closed in 2006 having constructed what type of buildings in Japan since 578AD?
12. Sandor Posta, Odon Tersztyansky, Endre Kabos, Rudolf Karpati and Tibor Pezsa were among the nine Hungarians who won which men's fencing event at every Olympics from 1924 to 1964?
13. Which Argentine composer and guitarist, the main organiser of the Bajofondo Tango Club, a musical collective that links tango to modern dance and electronic music, has won two Oscars for his work scoring the films Brokeback Mountain and Babel?
14. Known for its MP5 submachine gun, high precision PSG1 sniper rifle and USP handgun series, which German weapons manufacturing company takes its name from the surnames of the two men - Edmund and Theodor - who founded it in 1949?
15. The film that made him a star across Asia, which 1971 martial arts film starred Bruce Lee as Cheng, a Chinese man from Guangdong who goes to work in an ice-house along with his cousins, only to find it is a front for drug smuggling?
16. Known for its triangular shape and a spelling partly based on the Italian word for a kind of nougat, the name of which chocolate bar was devised in 1908 by production company co-founder Emil Baumann and was patented the next year?
17. Founded in a merger in 1994 by television production companies owned by the two men whose surnames combine to give it its title, which Netherlands-based company has been responsible for such worldwide TV hits as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Fear Factor and International King of Sports?
18. Nicknamed "Slava", which Baku-born cellist and dissident recently died after celebrating his 80th birthday and was also renowned for a 29-year teaching career at the Moscow Conservatoire in his "Class 19"?
19. The Lincoln County Process used to make what?
20. Developed by Swiss engineer Karl Muller in 1990, MBT trainers have curved soles that promote some instability and encourage a rolling front-to-back action meant to mimic the walking stride of which East African tribe? (Clue: It is denoted by the M in the acronym MBT)
21. Johnny Cash's cover of the song Hurt was his greatest success in the final stages of his career. Written by Trent Reznor, which hard rock group originally released it?
22. Sharing his surname with the capital of a Commonwealth in the United States, which rugby league legend retired in 1970 and became the landlord of The Griffin, a pub located close to his old club Wigan's ground?
23. As applied to Mohandas K. Gandhi, which Hindu term for a person of special holiness means "Great Soul" in Sanskrit?
24. Set in 2002 at a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds, the record for which 1,150-mile long race is held by Martin Buser?
25 Which hydrocarbon compounds have a single carbon-carbon bond and form an homologous series whose first members are methane (the simplest possible such compound and the parent moelcule), ethane, propane and butane?
Remember the E-mail Entry Address & the Deadline!
Just one more time for an increasingly annoying effect, e-mail: theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com and get your answers in by 11.59pm, Wednesday, February 6.
Final Note
But I must remind you in tiresome but vital fashion: Please do not go over the time limit or CHEAT by looking anything up no matter how strong the temptation is. It is utterly unfair on the people who have respected the stated rules in good faith. Please keep yourself honest, or as much as you can be.
S
O
M
E
R
O
O
M
Answers to sample Behemoth questions
1 Charlie's Angels 2 Adrenaline 3 Hermes (as in Hermeneutics) 4 Lucky Goldstar 5 IKEA 6 Ice cream cones 7 Ash 8 Stephen King 9 Falco 10 Zama 11 Temples 12 Sabre 13 Gustavo Santaolalla 14 Heckler & Koch 15 The Big Boss 16 Toblerone 17 Endemol 18 Mtislav Rostropovitch 19 Bourbon whiskey or Jack Daniel's 20 Masai 21 Nine Inch Nails 22 Billy Boston 23 Mahatma 24 Iditarod dog sled race 25 Alkanes
(Do the quiz. You gotta help me out! Please, I'm thirty grand in the hole. They're going to take my thumbs!!)
(Not very subliminal message: please e-mail theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com and ask kindly if you could possibly purchase a copy of the said quiz for your fantastic enjoyment. Message over.)
Yep, the time has come at last for me to sell, shill or what have you to my dear potential customers - ye reader you - my latest big quiz on this blog, having been hard at work on my other loadsofquizquestions-related project - and I mean bloody hard, so hard my eyes are doing raw cartwheels of stripped pain in my head, as my elbows and fingers creak under the tappety-tappety stress of keyboard business and my brain asks me for a wee little recuperation to prevent complete central nervous system collapse. Instead, I douse it in caffeine and sugar and say "On and on, we're almost there. Just 50 hours more good old fashioned, up the chimneys and down the pits toil, and we might be in a decent position to start thinking about the next phase. Chin up. You neurons you".
Not that I literally talk to my brain; I just give it subtle and not-so subtle non-verbal hints that something must be finished (just like the new year books resolution ... I am trying on that front. I really am).
Obviously, I will reveal all after I have got round to doing this: The Die Hard Die Harder Sell
I have a new huge do-at-home quiz consisting of 502 general knowledge questions. I thought about calling it The Leviathan or The Mighty Supergiant, but I thought nah, they're a bit silly; let's go with The Blockbuster. No idea why. It just seemed the right thing to do at the time.
Taking into customer feedback from The Behemoth, I have slimmed down the question lengths resulting in 1400 less words, but a whole lot less brain ache.
Remember, it's still 502 questions. The time limit is 195 minutes or 3 hours and 15 minutes, unless your first language is not English. Then you can have another half hour to use dictionaries to translate.
So you're thinking what if it's a load of absolute rubbish? Why waste 195 minutes of my life when I could be watching The Godfather PART THREE!. Well, I would sharply disagree with you. The following people, men of wholesome and trustworthy character it is believed, would do likewise...
Testimonials from My Testers
If Rob doesn't mind me pilfering his feedback with indecent haste, here's a new Blockbuster testimonial hot off the presses: "Thanks for another great quiz. I've not really got anything to say as I thought the quiz was almost perfect."
Pat Gibson, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jackpot winner, World Quizzing Champion 2007: "I enjoyed the Blockbuster set very, very much - hundreds of interesting questions to wrestle with. The time limit is a factor but not as severe as on the Behemoth - your reduced word count has made a difference"
Steven De Ceuster, Founder and President of the Flemish Quiz Ranking, IQA Director Western Europe: "I found the time to take your Blockbuster quiz and it was time well spent. Interesting questions and I had the impression a little bit easier than last time. A great way to spend an evening."
Chris Jones, Director of Quizzing.co.uk and IQA: "Once again I really enjoyed the quiz. There were a number in there which, once I'd ferreted out the answer (or, rather, what I hope is the answer), I was left with a small glow of satisfaction. Class!"
How to enter
You enter by e-mailing theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com. I will acknowledge receipt of your e-mail as soon as possible.
I will then give you details on how to pay along with a snail mail address for cheques (and eventually, postal entries) - Paypal, cheque, even cash if you dare - and put you down on the participant list. You can enter any time as long as it is before the deadline date for the return of your completed answer sheets.
CRUCIAL UPDATE: Myron is right. I did leave out the pricing bit. The price is £7.50/$14/11 euros for a copy of The Blockbuster. Same price for The Behemoth if you missed out on that. £3 each for my first and second big quizzes: The Monster and The Colossus.
Once your payment (though I will go on trust for everyone, such as previous participants, I personally know and e-mail them the quiz ASAP) has been received, the quiz will then be e-mailed to you and you can return your answers any time before the deadline - Wednesday, February 6 (11.59pm to be precise) by snail mail or e-mail.
Within the week of the deadline - February 14 - the answers and any errors in the questions or helpful additional information competitors have pointed out and would like to share with everyone, will then be sent to every competitor by old fashioned snail mail (the postage cost will be taken out of £7.50 fee, though foreign competitors will receive such sheets grouped together where possible since they will pay less to take part). They will NOT be e-mailed out.
Every payee receive the answers
Again, everyone will receive the answers even if they do not submit a completed sheet - you have paid an entrance fee; therefore you get the full package. Yet again the bonus for taking part and doing all of the above in the recommended fashion, participants will also receive one of three originally-set 100-question quizzes, designated by the imaginative names A, B and C in the post with the answer set. You can purchase the other two bonus quizzes you have not have receied after the deadline date for £1.50 each if you so wish.
However, if Blockbuster participants happen to have done the paper before the Northampton Quizzing Grand Prix and brought it along they will receive the answers and their random bonus quiz on the day since I will be in attendance on January 26. A small reward for punctuality, if you will. Quiz League of London players can also expect to receive the aforementioned papers, hand-delivered by myself, should I be playing them towards the end of this month.
Participants, whose completed entries arrive after the deadline, will get the answers and bonus quiz too, but will not be entered into the final scorers table. Having said that, they probably will be.
And please, if there are people out there who have still not got the answers for The Behemoth and a copy of an ABC quiz then please tell me ASAP and I will mail them straight away. Many apologies if I have forgotten you.
Prizes
The prizes remain the same. Apart from the chance of competing against and comparing yourself with the likes of such quiz gods as "Egghead" Kevin Ashman and "World Quizzing Champion" Pat Gibson in a massive quiz from the comfort of your own home and winning the wondrous respect of your peers, the premier primo prize - since cash awards are not viable when I must rely on the honesty of competitors doing it at home where they can access the internet, reference books and their loved ones for the stuff that is teetering on the top of their tongue - is that the overall winner will receive a refund of their entrance fee and free entry into the next quiz.
There will also be a refund and free entry again for those who finish number one in each country where there is more than three "Blockbuster" competitors.
And to encourage those wary of possible humiliation (though you can enter under a pseudonym if you prefer) and just want to give it a shot, the overall bottom five finishers will also get their money back and free entry next time, as long as their answer sheet has been returned and convincingly attempted, i.e. filled with top-to-the-bottom with proof they have done their best to tackle it (those with barely any answers and blank sheets will be ignored).
25 Sample Questions from the last quiz: The Behemoth (answers at the bottom)
1. Townsend Investigations was the name of the detective agency, whose employees were taken away from the "hazardous duties" of police work by its eponymous founder, in which TV series that ran from 1977 to 1982?
2. Having emigrated to the US in 1894, the Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine isolated which hormone from animal glands, thus becoming the first scientist to accomplish this for a glandular hormone?
3. Which Greek god, born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia to Maia, gives his name to the art of interpreting hidden meaning or the study of the theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts?
4. In the name of the South Korean chaebol or electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate, what does the LG in LG Group stand for?
5. BoKlok, translated as "live smart" and pronounced "book look", is the name given to which company's range of readymade homes?
6. Italo Marcioni invented which edible food holders in 1904?
7. Fraxinus is the name of the genus of tree, which provides the wood for most baseball bats. What is its common name?
8. The 2006 novel Cell is the latest from which horror writer?
9. The late Johann Holzel, a one-time Austrian classical music prodigy, is better known by what single-word stage name with which he had a 1986 US no. 1 with Rock Me Amadeus?
10. At which 202BC battle did the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio defeat Hannibal's Carthaginian forces and earn himself the honorary surname Africanus?
11. Kongo Gumi, the world's oldest continuously operating family business, closed in 2006 having constructed what type of buildings in Japan since 578AD?
12. Sandor Posta, Odon Tersztyansky, Endre Kabos, Rudolf Karpati and Tibor Pezsa were among the nine Hungarians who won which men's fencing event at every Olympics from 1924 to 1964?
13. Which Argentine composer and guitarist, the main organiser of the Bajofondo Tango Club, a musical collective that links tango to modern dance and electronic music, has won two Oscars for his work scoring the films Brokeback Mountain and Babel?
14. Known for its MP5 submachine gun, high precision PSG1 sniper rifle and USP handgun series, which German weapons manufacturing company takes its name from the surnames of the two men - Edmund and Theodor - who founded it in 1949?
15. The film that made him a star across Asia, which 1971 martial arts film starred Bruce Lee as Cheng, a Chinese man from Guangdong who goes to work in an ice-house along with his cousins, only to find it is a front for drug smuggling?
16. Known for its triangular shape and a spelling partly based on the Italian word for a kind of nougat, the name of which chocolate bar was devised in 1908 by production company co-founder Emil Baumann and was patented the next year?
17. Founded in a merger in 1994 by television production companies owned by the two men whose surnames combine to give it its title, which Netherlands-based company has been responsible for such worldwide TV hits as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Fear Factor and International King of Sports?
18. Nicknamed "Slava", which Baku-born cellist and dissident recently died after celebrating his 80th birthday and was also renowned for a 29-year teaching career at the Moscow Conservatoire in his "Class 19"?
19. The Lincoln County Process used to make what?
20. Developed by Swiss engineer Karl Muller in 1990, MBT trainers have curved soles that promote some instability and encourage a rolling front-to-back action meant to mimic the walking stride of which East African tribe? (Clue: It is denoted by the M in the acronym MBT)
21. Johnny Cash's cover of the song Hurt was his greatest success in the final stages of his career. Written by Trent Reznor, which hard rock group originally released it?
22. Sharing his surname with the capital of a Commonwealth in the United States, which rugby league legend retired in 1970 and became the landlord of The Griffin, a pub located close to his old club Wigan's ground?
23. As applied to Mohandas K. Gandhi, which Hindu term for a person of special holiness means "Great Soul" in Sanskrit?
24. Set in 2002 at a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds, the record for which 1,150-mile long race is held by Martin Buser?
25 Which hydrocarbon compounds have a single carbon-carbon bond and form an homologous series whose first members are methane (the simplest possible such compound and the parent moelcule), ethane, propane and butane?
Remember the E-mail Entry Address & the Deadline!
Just one more time for an increasingly annoying effect, e-mail: theblockbusterquiz@gmail.com and get your answers in by 11.59pm, Wednesday, February 6.
Final Note
But I must remind you in tiresome but vital fashion: Please do not go over the time limit or CHEAT by looking anything up no matter how strong the temptation is. It is utterly unfair on the people who have respected the stated rules in good faith. Please keep yourself honest, or as much as you can be.
S
O
M
E
R
O
O
M
Answers to sample Behemoth questions
1 Charlie's Angels 2 Adrenaline 3 Hermes (as in Hermeneutics) 4 Lucky Goldstar 5 IKEA 6 Ice cream cones 7 Ash 8 Stephen King 9 Falco 10 Zama 11 Temples 12 Sabre 13 Gustavo Santaolalla 14 Heckler & Koch 15 The Big Boss 16 Toblerone 17 Endemol 18 Mtislav Rostropovitch 19 Bourbon whiskey or Jack Daniel's 20 Masai 21 Nine Inch Nails 22 Billy Boston 23 Mahatma 24 Iditarod dog sled race 25 Alkanes
(Do the quiz. You gotta help me out! Please, I'm thirty grand in the hole. They're going to take my thumbs!!)
posted by That Quiz Guy at 8:05 AM
2 Comments:
You didn't mention the price.
-M
Omission since amended with "Crucial Update". Thank you for noticing.
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