I was wondering about that … but I’ve got a hunch that this one is convoluted enough to win it!
1. They should never have greased their rifle cartridges with animal fat.
The British used animal fat to grease rifle cartridges of their new Enfield rifles to ease loading into the muzzle. Rumors among the sepoy (native Indian soldiers) said the fat was made from cows (sacred to Hindus) or pigs (sacred to Muslims). As such, biting the cartridge was sacrilegious. This was one of the causes of the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
2. Now I’ve got to remember the baptism, the wedding at Cana, the proclamation, the transfiguration, and the Eucharist in addition to all the others!
The Luminous Mysteries.
3. When Dulce Maria tries to save a little lamb, she discovers a gang of counterfeiters!
Judith Kerman translated poetry by Dulce Maria Loynaz and wrote a book on Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?. Of course, replicants are counterfeit.
4. What’s the significance of the graffiti’ed "TURK 182?"
Jimmy’s brother, Terry, injured his back saving a girl from a fire. Because he was off-duty and drunk, ‘Turk’ is denied pension. Jimmy fights back by scrawling TURK 182 (his brother’s badge number) on everything.
5. The musical Oliver! was inspired by Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” set in London. But what sort of songs might end up in a musical inspired by Oliver Brown, set in Topeka, Kansas?
Well, there’d be a song by Oliver Brown about how segregation just wasn’t right, and then a keen dance number by the Board of Education about how separate but equal just couldn’t be wrong, and don’t forget the grand finale where every dances arm-in-arm and the schools are integrated. (And on review, I swear I wrote this before seeing Leaper’s answer.
6. Are you talking about the guy that hung out with Rerun and Dwayne, or the period of British dominion over India?
Well, that’s either Roger “Raj,” or the 1858-1947 British Raj.
7. What traditional trial must a Slayer face to ensure she can depend on her wits, instead of her strength?
The Tento di Cruciamentum.
8. Who was Khan quoting when he activated the Genesis device?
Captain Ahab, of Moby Dick fame.
9. Bullfighters may hear the word differently, but what’s OLE to a Windows application?
Object Linking and Embedding, which is a technology that allows you to link elements from different applications within each other.
10. We don’t know if the Simpsons ever visited San Francisco, but one could argue that Bart was already there.
BART: Bay Area Rapid Transit. System of under and above ground light rail running throughtout the Bay Area (and even under the Bay!)
11. What gives crème bruleé the light brown color on top?
It’s caramelized sugar, but it’s the torch that does it.
12. How does the Major General manage to rescue his daughters from the first encounter with the pirates?
The Major-General pretends to be an orphan, so the pirates take pity and release both him and his daughters. Or maybe they were just tired of all of the singing.
13. STRANGE QUESTIONED IN HORSE MUTILATION, said the headline, but the typesetter had made a small error.
Alan Strang was the kid who mutilated horses in Peter Schafer’s excellent play “Equus.” His dad was a printer (typesetter).
14. “Although I feel like I have two left feet, I like dancing.” Is ‘dancing’ a verb as used in the preceding sentence? Discuss.
No, it’s a verbal – a gerund, to be specific.
15. In which Hercule Poirot story was the narrator the murderer?
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
16. Consider a parallelogram with vertices at (0,0), (1,1), (1,2), and (0,1). Rotate this area around the Y-axis. What’s the volume of the resulting solid?
Pi (units^3). Take the section bounded at (0,0), (0, 1) and (1, 1) and slide that up to (0,1), (0,2) and (1,2) and you’ve got a pretty cylinder with height 1 and radius 1. It fits neatly, too.
17. What do prison inmates mean by ‘tossing my salad’?
Licking another inmate’s anus. For some reason that wasn’t in Shawshank Redemption…
18. Let’s see, Seward’s Folly was buying Cuba, and Fulton’s Folly was the car engine, right?
Alaska, and a steamboat.
19. Can the President pardon a person for a federal crime that hasn’t been committed yet?
No. Although a pardon may be granted before a conviction, it cannot be granted until the crime has actually been committed.
20. Yum! Ground-up almonds, sugar, and water, in the hands of a pastry chef.
Marzipan.
21. What’s the tangent of y=4x^2 at x=3?
y = 24x - 36.
22. What winter clothing should I avoid if the fortune-teller says I’m going to suffer the fate of Isabella Duncan?
You shouldn’t worry at all. If, however, the fortune-teller had said Isadora Duncan, then you should avoid wearing scarves. Particularly long ones
23. What occurred at Owl Creek bridge?
An incident; specifically a prolonged hanging.
24. At least La Ciguapa doesn’t need to spend as much on shoes.
These fabled wild women of the Dominican Republic are reputed to have feet backwards, to help elude their pursuers.
25. In this version the people of Nineveh are so morally bereft they routinely hit each other with seafood.
The version presented in Jonah - A VeggieTales Movie.
26. What song was Oz singing when he was trying to find Buffy after Amy turned her into a rat?
“Ben”, a song about rats.
27. If I find a porn story on Usenet that’s rated BD, SM, NC, TG, and MC, what am I in for?
Bondage and Dominance, Sado-Masochism, Non-Consensual, Trans-Gender and Mind Control. If you throw in Natalie Portman, give me the google groups url.
28. What seem to be the pluses and minuses of Potiphar’s wife coming on to you?
You’ll be accused of rape and thrown in prison, but you’ll eventually rise to a position of great importance.
29. Bender hid his stash in Johnson’s underwear.
What if your house … your car … no – what if your dope was on fire?
30. I would have died at noon on the 21st, except that I happened to remember there was an eclipse that day (and Clarence got the date wrong).
Those sneaky Connecticut Yankees!
31. Doctor Heidegger did a little better than Ponce de Leon, but not by much.
“Dr Heidegger’s Experiment”; both searched for the Fountain of Youth.
32. What’s the closest moon to Mars?
Phobos.
33. What brown-butter cookie might you have to fight Proust for?
A Madeleine.
34. Dexy’s Midnight Runners gave us “Come On Eileen,” but what Rushdie book is about a group born when India gained independence?
Midnight’s Children.
35. No truck nor trade with the Yankees!
Quote by Sir John A. Macdonald, a Canadian against free trade with America.
36. From what flavors of quarks do protons and neutrons come?
Up and down.
37. What Thurber character was a Navy officer, an Air Force officer, a surgeon, and a condemned criminal?
Walter Mitty.
38. The German passenger vessel ‘Vera’ wasn’t occupied by Balthazar, Melchoir, or Gaspar, was it?
I don’t really see Three Wise Men on a Ship of Fools.
**39. Sesame Street used to do, “One of these things is not like the other.” If applied to essential amino acids, what would be the distinction used to pick the one that’s required for biosynthesis of niacin and serotonin?**That’s Tryptophan. Its distinction is that, due to its large mass, it is the amino acid least able to cross the blood-brain barrier.
40. Where can I get a copy of the comic book series "White Hating Coon?"
From the author, Hooper LaMont.
41. My roommate tells me has to solve some problem about a bunch of philosophers at dinner for his CS homework - what’s up with that?
The problem: Five philosophers are sitting at a round table, on which five forks are placed. To change from the “thinking” state into the “eating” state, a philosopher needs to have the forks at both his right and left sides. After eating, both forks are laid down again, and the philosopher switches back into the “thinking” state.
A popular problem, it’s used to explore deadlock and resource sharing issues.
42. I heard that the same artist that did ‘The Thinker’ painted ‘Freezing Dancers.’ That sounds interesting.
I don’t think so - Rodin ruminates, Degas dances.
43. Lousia May Alcott’s characters were NOT so little that they were scary, unlike, say, "The Shining."
“Oh, all blank, and no blank, makes blank a blank blank. Oh no-no-no, no, the end when Jack almost kills them all with that blank, but then at last second they get away.”
44. Why did the protagonist in Gogol’s ‘Dead Souls’ care about buying dead peasants, anyway?
Chichikov just wants their names. Everyone thinks he really owns all these (live) serfs, and that he must be rich.
45. What was the first name of Sunnydale Mayor Richard Wilkins’ wife?
Edna. Or Edna Mae, if she’s one of them what says “Jim Bob” is one name.
46. What was unusual about George and Nancy Henderson’s family?
They had a Harry bigfoot.
47. Cyrano helped me hook up with Roxanne. Who am I?
Christian.
48. What’s the name of that kind of hat that Sherlock wears, with the visor at the front and at the back, and earflaps tied up?
Deerstalker.
49. So my meteorologist friend tells me that Dr. Fremantle is a windbag, and he laughed about it. I guess I won’t take any of Dr. Fremantle’s classes, then.
Farming for wind? What are Energy Visions and Pacific Hydro thinking?
50. Blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy are all pretty funny.
You might even call them humour-ess.
