Are they counting plays that are partly set in London, or entirely set in London? If it’s the latter, your source is absolutely right (although this seems excessively picky…)
Otherwise, the answer is somewhere between nine and thirteen, depending on where King Lear, Cymbeline, and King John are understood to have their palaces, and where in England Macbeth IV. iii. takes place.
Clyde is the fourth of the ghosts that chase Pac-man after Inky, Pinky, and blinky.
In the “Tie me kangaroo down, sport” question I must’ve got kookaburra wrong because it doesn’t scan. I’ll try platypus instead.
Q. In their debut story, ‘The Daleks’, what gave the Daleks their motive power?
Could it be magnetism? I seem to recall something to that effect from the Peter Cushing movie
Q. Who is described as “a wobbly, bobbly, dribbly, squiggly dog”?
Timmy, from the Enid Blyton Famous Five books?
MonkeyMensch: For Q. Which game has a playing area of 9 feet by 5 feet, with its upper surface 30 inches above the floor?
I think snooker.
It’s worse than you think – a full size snooker table is 12 feet × 6 feet. I’m pretty sure table tennis is right for that one.
The wobbly bobbly etc. dog is Rex the Runt.
Thus endeth my contribution, please don’t fight over me at the next Londope…
<rant>
It’s Olbers’ paradox, not Olber’s. OLBERS’. His name was Olbers, not Olber.
This kind of stuff makes me nuts.
</rant>
Anyway, Olbers asked “Why is the sky dark at night?” This is in a very real sense the basis of modern cosmology. The answer is that the Universe is finite both in space and time.
And hey, BA. didn’t you like my good call on the Earth rising and setting on the Moon?
Mary Martin was famous for going to the “South Pacific”, which I believe was already posted. Her more famous son, Larry Hagman, played J.R.Ewing on “Dallas.”
Sorry! Mea culpa.
I’ll eventually post the answers when it looks like entries are finished coming in; there are, however, still a few questions that have not been correctly answered (although I can mention that pingalondon’s contribution is 100% correct ;)).
Q. What is unusual about the sheep on the Scottish island of Foula?
c) They eat sea birds
Q. Capybaras are large guinea-pig-like animals that live in Venezuela. According to zoologists, they are mammals. But for culinary purposes the Roman Catholic church classifies them as what?
fish
Q. Does a duck’s quack echo?
yes
Q. Where are you more likely to find the largest number of living organisms (including microbes) in one gallon of water?
c) Caribbean Sea
Q. After whom was the late Dolly The Sheep named, bearing in mind that the cell from which she was grown was originally taken from a mammary gland?
Dolly Parton
Q. What did Peter Sellers call “The Gateway to the South”?
Balham
Q. Which British organisation has an avocet as an emblem?
RSPB
Q. What and where is Muckle Flugga?
northern-most point of the British Isles, in Shetland
Q. In 1924, the architect Giles Gilbert Scott won a national competition with a design codenamed K2. What was K2?
b) The red telephone kiosk
Q. What did the word “chipping” mean, as used in English place names such as Chipping Norton and Chipping Campden?
market
Q. By what name is the variety of lettuce sometimes called “Romaine” better known, so called after the Greek Island where the variety is said to have originated?
Kos
Q. Which inventor of the deep freeze has had his name immortalized in a brand of frozen food?
Clarence Birdseye
Q. Eggs from a lobster are referred to as:
?
Q. What food derives its name from the German for “Devil’s Fart”?
pumpernickel
Q. What sweetens Drambuie?
heather honey
Q. The largest arena of its kind is in Tokyo, and accommodates 504 games simultaneously. What is played there?
ten=pin bowling?
Q. The Monopoly board game has appeared in hundreds of different versions encompassing hundreds of different cities and other locations. What city provided the property names for the original Monopoly game?
Atlantic City
Q. Which game has a playing area of 9 feet by 5 feet, with its upper surface 30 inches above the floor?
table tennis
Q. What, in cricketing terms, is a “pair of spectacles”?
out for no runs in both first and second innings
Q. Sir Peter Teazle did it in 1787, Cardinal Beaufort did it in 1805, as did Captain Cuttle in 1922. It usually takes just over two and a half minutes to do. What is it?
Epsom Derby
Q. The Canary Islands are named for what animal?
dog (canis)
Q. To the nearest 10 percent, what percentage of Monaco’s residents regularly gamble at Monte Carlo?
0
Q. During which president’s term were Alaska and Hawaii admitted as states?
Eisenhower
Q. Which is farther from Pago Pago – Walla Walla or Wagga Wagga?
Walla Walla (USA)
Q. From the Earth we can see the moon rise and set. When the day comes that we can live on the moon, will we see the Earth rise and set?
no
Q. In ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, what did the Dalek chasing the Doctor do when he made a getaway up some stairs?
d) Shouted impotently after him
Q. In their debut story, ‘The Daleks’, what gave the Daleks their motive power?
they drew power from the metal floor
Q. Which Doctor Who actor faced being eaten in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and why?
Peter Davison, he invited the diners to try a slice of him
Q. How many ‘balls’ (hemispheres) encircle the base of the average Dalek?
1,2,3,4,…errr…,many
Q. There were 3 different incarnations of K-9 throughout the series. To whom did the Doctor give each one?
?
Q. Which country’s national anthem would take the longest to sing in its entirety – Greece’s, Japan’s, or Qatar’s?
Japan
Q. “Tie me kangaroo down, sport.” What other pets are you asked to mind in this song from Down Under? Name three out of the four.
koala, wallaby, cockatoo
Q. This tenor instrument of the zink or cornetto family is shaped like a flattened letter “s”. Although the tone of this wind instrument is generally considered to be pleasing to the ear, it has a cloudy, rather foggy timbre. Is it a:
b) Snake, as previously observed, better known as the Serpent
Q. Which 20 year old singer was voted female “Rear Of The Year” for 2003?
Natasha Hamilton
Q. What was Vivaldi’s profession aside from violinist and composer?
priest
Q. You’re walking through a deserted parking lot when from behind you hear, ‘Helen… be my victim.’ Who or what is after you?
Candyman
Q. It’s a sunny day. Standing in the middle of the street with three other people, you turn as a man says, ‘You got a letter? I got run over, Helen gets her hair chopped off, Julie gets a dead body in her trunk, and you get a letter? Oh, that’s balanced!’ You recognize these people from what movie?
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Q. You’re looking in a mirror at a plain girl in a pink semi-formal dress. Behind you, your mother is yelling, ‘They’re all gonna laugh at you!’ Who are you?
Carrie
Q. You’re in a deep well. A shadowy figure at the top of the well shouts down, ‘It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.’ What movie are you in?
?
Q. You see a tiny woman explaining something to a woman and a man. She says, ‘It lies to her. It tells her things only a child can understand. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is The Beast.’ What movie did you fall into?
Poltergeist II
Q. Which musical is currently playing at the Prince Edward Theatre on Old Compton Street?
Mama Mia
Q. Which famous anthropologist (who died in 1978) had her centenary year in 2001?
Margaret Mead
Q. In art history, what term is commonly associated with the “Vanitas” style of still life paintings, typically containing skulls, extinguished candles, decaying fruit and similar reminders of the ephemerality of life?
?
Q. Which Texas-born actress became famous for going to the South Pacific, while her real-life son became even more famous for living in Texas?
Mary Martin
Q. Which literary character, promoted several ranks on his first day in the Army, would only see people in his office when he wasn’t there?
Major Major
Q. Who is described as “a wobbly, bobbly, dribbly, squiggly dog”?
?
Q. Which animated characters are members of “The Loyal Order of Water Buffalos”?
Fred and Barney
Q. To whom does Pilchard the cat belong?
Bob the Builder
Q. Who are Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup?
?
Q. Name the missing member of this group: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and…?
?
Q. In 1978, what book achieved the dubious record of being most frequently stolen from public libraries in England?
?Bible, or ?Guiness Book of Records
Q. A classic novel was written by a neighbour of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was dedicated to him. Name the novel and the neighbour.
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Q. In which of these novels does the protagonist NOT commit a murder?
b) Of Human Bondage
Q. Who is the fictional author of the treatises ‘Where God Went Wrong’, ‘Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes’, ‘Who is This God Person Anyway?’ and ‘Well, That About Wraps it Up for God’?
?
Q. Which book had, by law, to be owned by every member of the population of the country between 1966 and 1971?
?
Q. Sphragistics:
**c) The study of engraved seals. **
Q. Ulotrichous
**a) Having short curly or woolly hair. **
Q. Recrement:
b) A bodily secretion that is reabsorbed.
Q. Facinorous:
a) Exceedingly wicked
Q. Queer Plunger:
?
Q. What recently caused a power struggle between the US and Canada?
?
Q. Why did Veronica Lake, Billy Idol, Elvis and Saddam Hussein all appear in the same front-page Guardian article this week?
?
Q. Why were a family boating off the coast of Australia glad when the one they caught got away?
?
Q. What has got an Irish government minister incensed with the Roman Catholic Church?
?
Q. Which Republican group recently attempted to take over a royal residence?
?
Q. What are Mizaru, Mikazaru, and Mazaru famous for not doing?
evil stuff (three wise monkeys)
Q. Who began selling toys in London in 1760, calling his outlet “Noah’s Ark”?
Mr. Hamley
Q. In number of sales per year, what company is the world’s largest manufacturer of feminine apparel?
M&S
Q. Which army’s motto is “Blood and Fire”?
Salvation Army
Q. Which aid to breathing underwater takes its name from the ventilating tube for submerged submarines first introduced in German U-boats during World War II?
snorkel
Q. Which 20th-century oratorio features the immortal line “Chatter clatter chatter clatter – mon-KEE!”?
Mask of Time
Q. Which important figure did Nathuram Godse assassinate on January 30th 1948?
Gandhi
Q. Which famous family sold their house at 1 Richmond Crescent in London for £615,000 in 1997?
Blair
Q. Where will you find the letters C, D, E, F, L, O, P, T, and Z, and no others?
eye chart
Q. In signal processing, noise that is spread evenly across a given frequency range is known as ‘white noise’. What name is given to noise biased towards the low frequency end?
?
Q. How many nanoseconds are there in a second?
1,000,000,000
Q. In computer terminology 8 bits = 1 byte. What is the term for 4 bits?
nibble small bite, geddit?
Q. What is being described here: Approximately 4.5 inches across, with a transparent plastic coating, the metal beneath this is etched with microscopic pits carrying a digital code. It was introduced to Britain in December 1983?
CD
Q. Which object, measuring just over 14 feet in length and 3.5 feet wide, has been in its present location, the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, since 1578, although its history prior to the fourteenth century had been the subject of much conjecture?
Turin Shroud
Q. What famous scientist proposed the theory of a ‘Conditioned Response’ and whose results were published in 1897 in his book entitled, ‘Work of the Digestive Glands’?
Pavlov
Q. What is the lifespan of a human taste bud:
b) 10 days
[Omitted for verification]
Q. Thomas Hardy’s novel, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, deals with the theme of retribution. What sin was the protagonist guilty of committing?
he sold his wife and child
Q. Only two books of the Bible are named after women. Name both of them.
Esther Ruth
Q. The Edda is a body of two thirteenth-century collections of which country’s early poems and mythologies?
Iceland
Q. When Jeffrey Archer was made a Lord in 1992 he became Lord Archer of where (which town)?
Weston-super-Mare
Q. Which famous sporting trophy, donated in 1892 by the then-Governor General of Canada, has at various points in its history been kicked into a canal, left in a snowbank by the side of the road, dropped in swimming pools (at least twice), and used as a flowerpot, baptismal font, dog bowl and urinal?
Stanley Cup
Q. Who owns the Oval Cricket Ground, home of the Surrey County Cricket Club?
Ducky of Cornwall
Q. Which group from the punk era fronted by Hugh Cornwell released the single “Peaches” in 1977 that reached number eight in the charts despite being banned by BBC radio because of offensive sexist lyrics?
Stranglers
Q. Which is the only one of the Seven Dwarfs to wear glasses?
Doc
Q. What term commonly refers to the NCAA College Basketball Championships in the United States?
?
Q. Which three moderators oversee General Questions?
bibliophage, xash, DrMatrix
Q. ‘Olber’s Paradox’, named after the German astronomer who discussed it in a work of 1826, concerns itself with which simple question?
why is the night sky dark
Q. In 1926, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. were all defeated in Warner Brothers popularity polls. By what superstar were they outshined?
Rin Tin Tin
Q. Which “gentleman” English actor, although a top Hollywood star, returned to England to fight as soon as war broke out in 1939 and finished the war a Lieutenant Colonel serving with the rifle brigade and the commandos?
David Niven and we won’t talk about the goat’s droppings
I think there’s enough correct answers collectively posted to warrant a list of the correct ones. A few questions (but only a few) managed to stump the panel. Add up your own points and feel an appropriate level of smugness.
If you haven’t tried your luck yet and still want to, read no further, because I sure as heck am not going to put in a giant spoiler box.
So, without further ado…
You’re An Animal! [Zoology]
Q. What is unusual about the sheep on the Scottish island of Foula?
a) They eat seaweed
b) They eat seashells
c) They eat sea birds
d) They eat each other
A. c) They eat sea birds (nesting chicks, mostly). In 1999 a flock of Foula sheep also pushed a 61-year-old woman off a cliff when she went to feed them.
Q. Capybaras are large guinea-pig-like animals that live in Venezuela. According to zoologists, they are mammals. But for culinary purposes the Roman Catholic church classifies them as what?
A. Fish (so that they could be eaten on Fridays)
Q. Does a duck’s quack echo?
**A. Yes it does. ** In fact, researchers at the University of Salford put a duck in an echo chamber just to prove this. Money well spent, say I.
Q. Where are you more likely to find the largest number of living organisms (including microbes) in one gallon of water?
a) Arctic Ocean
b) Caspian Sea
c) Caribbean Sea
d) Mick Jagger’s swimming pool
A. a) Arctic Ocean
Q. After whom was the late Dolly The Sheep named, bearing in mind that the cell from which she was grown was originally taken from a mammary gland?
A. Dolly Parton
This Septic Isle [All About the UK]
Q. What did Peter Sellers call “The Gateway to the South”?
A. Balham
Q. Which British organisation has an avocet as an emblem?
A. Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds (RSPB) - an avocet is a black and white wading bird
Q. What and where is Muckle Flugga?
A. The rock and lighthouse on Unst, Shetland Islands
Q. In 1924, the architect Giles Gilbert Scott won a national competition with a design codenamed K2. What was K2?
a) The red pillar postbox
b) The red telephone kiosk
c) The red double-decker bus
d) The blue police callbox
**A. b) The red telephone kiosk. **
Q. What did the word “chipping” mean, as used in English place names such as Chipping Norton and Chipping Campden?
**A. The site of a regular market. **
Through the Cakehole [Food and Drink]
Q. By what name is the variety of lettuce sometimes called “Romaine” better known, so called after the Greek Island where the variety is said to have originated?
A. Cos (although in the US “Romaine” is more common)
Q. Which inventor of the deep freeze has had his name immortalized in a brand of frozen food?
A. Clarence Birdseye
Q. Eggs from a lobster are referred to as:
a) Tamale
b) Caviar
c) Coral
d) Milt
A) c) Coral, as are eggs from all crustaceans. They turn red when cooked.
Q. What food derives its name from the German for “Devil’s Fart”?
A. Pumpernickel
Q. What sweetens Drambuie?
A. Honey
**Balls to You [Sports and Leisure] **
Q. The largest arena of its kind is in Tokyo, and accommodates 504 games simultaneously. What is played there?
A. [Ten-pin] Bowling
Q. The Monopoly board game has appeared in hundreds of different versions encompassing hundreds of different cities and other locations. What city provided the property names for the original Monopoly game?
A. Atlantic City, NJ
Q. Which game has a playing area of 9 feet by 5 feet, with its upper surface 30 inches above the floor?
**A. Table tennis (or Ping Pong) **
Q. What, in cricketing terms, is a “pair of spectacles”?
**A. A double duck (a duck in each innings of a match). ** And people say cricket is hard to understand.
Q. Sir Peter Teazle did it in 1787, Cardinal Beaufort did it in 1805, as did Captain Cuttle in 1922. It usually takes just over two and a half minutes to do. What is it?
A. Winning the Derby (names of horses, not jockeys)
**Don’t Even Go There [Geography] **
Q. The Canary Islands are named for what animal?
A .Dogs. The original name was Insulas Canarias, or “Island of the Dogs”.
Q. Within 10 percent, what percentage of Monaco’s residents regularly gamble at Monte Carlo?
A. Zero. Local gambling is illegal.
Q. During which president’s term were Alaska and Hawaii admitted as states?
A. Dwight Eisenhower
Q. Which is farther from Pago Pago – Walla Walla or Wagga Wagga?
**A. Walla Walla (Washington) is much farther from Pago Pago (Samoa) than is Wagga Wagga (Australia) **
Q. From the Earth we can see the moon rise and set. When the day comes that we can live on the moon, will we see the Earth rise and set?
**A. No, as the moon’s rotation is synchronized with its revolution around the earth. ** To an observer on the moon, the earth will always appear to be at (roughly) the same point in the sky, although it will appear to rotate.
Who Did You Say You Were Again? [Doctor Who]
Q. In ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, what did the Dalek chasing the Doctor do when he made a getaway up some stairs?
a) Took a nearby lift and cut him off.
b) Hovered up after him
c) Signalled to another Dalek at the top of the stairs.
d) Shouted impotently after him
A: b) Hovered up after him. Whoda thunk it?
Q. In their debut story, ‘The Daleks’, what gave the Daleks their motive power?
A. Static Electricity
Q. Which Doctor Who actor faced being eaten in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and why?
A. Peter Davison, who was playing The Dish of the Day in the Milliways scene. He was married to the actress who played Trillian in the TV series, and wanted to do the part just for fun.
Q. How many ‘balls’ (hemispheres) encircle the base of the average Dalek?
A. 56 - fourteen panels with four balls on each. The combined forces of garius and Steve Wright calculated this correctly in a frighteningly short period of time.
Q. There were 3 different incarnations of K-9 throughout the series. To whom did the Doctor give each one?
A. K-9 Mark I stayed with Leela on Gallifrey. K-9 Mark II remained in E-Space with Romana. And K-9 Mark III was given to Sarah Jane Smith.
Wow – Those Are Some Savage Breasts! [Music]
Q. Which country’s national anthem would take the longest to sing in its entirety – Greece’s, Japan’s, or Qatar’s?
A. Greece’s, with 158 verses. Japan’s has only four lines, and the anthem of Qatar has no lyrics at all.
Q. “Tie me kangaroo down, sport.” What other pets are you asked to mind in this song from Down Under? Name three out of the four.
A. Wallabies, cockatoo, koala, and platypus (Watch me wallabies feed, keep me cockatoo coo, take me koala back, mind me platypus duck)
Q. This tenor instrument of the zink or cornetto family is shaped like a flattened letter “s”. Although the tone of this wind instrument is generally considered to be pleasing to the ear, it has a cloudy, rather foggy timbre. Is it a:
a) Lizard
b) Snake
c) Chameleon
d) Toad
A: Surprise! The answer is a) Lizard. The larger (bass) version is called a serpent.
Q. Which 20 year old singer was voted female “Rear Of The Year” for 2003?
A. Natasha Hamilton (Atomic Kitten)
Q. What was Vivaldi’s profession aside from violinist and composer?
A. He was a priest.
The Horror…The Horror… [Horror Films]
The following questions involve you being dropped into the middle of a horror film. You have to identify the film.
Q. You’re walking through a deserted parking lot when from behind you hear, ‘Helen… be my victim.’ Who or what is after you?
A. Candyman
Q. It’s a sunny day. Standing in the middle of the street with three other people, you turn as a man says, ‘You got a letter? I got run over, Helen gets her hair chopped off, Julie gets a dead body in her trunk, and you get a letter? Oh, that’s balanced!’ You recognize these people from what movie?
A. I Know What You Did Last Summer
Q. You’re looking in a mirror at a plain girl in a pink semi-formal dress. Behind you, your mother is yelling, ‘They’re all gonna laugh at you!’ Who are you?
**A. Carrie (White) **
Q. You’re in a deep well. A shadowy figure at the top of the well shouts down, ‘It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.’ What movie are you in?
A. Silence of the Lambs
Q. You see a tiny woman explaining something to a woman and a man. She says, ‘It lies to her. It tells her things only a child can understand. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is The Beast.’ What movie did you fall into?
A. Poltergeist
Things That Make You Go Mmm… [Questions whose answers have multiple words beginning with the letter M (Example: “Mickey Mouse” or “Marilyn Monroe”]
Q. Which musical is currently playing at the Prince Edward Theatre on Old Compton Street?
**A. Mamma Mia! **
Q. Which famous anthropologist (who died in 1978) had her centenary year in 2001?
A. Margaret Mead
Q. In art history, what term is commonly associated with the “Vanitas” style of still life paintings, typically containing skulls, extinguished candles, decaying fruit and similar reminders of the ephemerality of life?
A. “Memento mori”; literally “remember you must die” in Latin.
Q. Which Texas-born actress became famous for going to the South Pacific, while her real-life son became even more famous for living in Texas?
A. Mary Martin, who starred as Ensign Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, and whose son Larry Hagman played J.R. Ewing in Dallas.
Q. Which literary character, promoted several ranks on his first day in the Army, would only see people in his office when he wasn’t there?
A. Major Major Major Major
No, The Answer Is Not ‘Tir’ [Animated Characters]
Q. Who is described as “a wobbly, bobbly, dribbly, squiggly dog”?
A. Rex the Runt, an Aardman studio creation.
Q. Which animated characters are members of “The Loyal Order of Water Buffalos”?
A. Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble
Q. To whom does Pilchard the cat belong?
A. Bob the Builder
Q. Who are Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup?
A. The PowerPuff Girls
Q. Name the missing member of this group: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and…?
A. Clyde. They’re the ghosts from the Pac-Man video game.
Ooh Yeah – Move That Finger! [Literature and Other Scribblings]
The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on…
Q. In 1978, what book achieved the dubious record of being most frequently stolen from public libraries in England?
**A. The Guinness Book of World Records. **
Q. A classic novel was written by a neighbour of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was dedicated to him. Name the novel and the neighbour.
A. “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville.
Q. In which of these novels does the protagonist NOT commit a murder?
a) The Picture of Dorian Gray
b) Of Human Bondage
c) The Stranger
d) Crime and Punishment
A. Of Human Bondage. Dorian Gray kills his friend (and painter), Basil. Raskolnikov kills a pawnbroker in ‘Crime and Punishment’. Meursault kills an Arab in ‘Stranger’. In ‘Bondage’, one of the key characters dies - but not as a result of murder.
Q. Who is the fictional author of the treatises ‘Where God Went Wrong’, ‘Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes’, ‘Who is This God Person Anyway?’ and ‘Well, That About Wraps it Up for God’?
A. Oolon Colluphid. The philosopher Colluphid, invented by Douglas Adams for the Hitch-Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, is said to have a grudge against god due to his mother having been frightened by a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses while pregnant.
Q. Which book had, by law, to be owned by every member of the population of the country between 1966 and 1971?
A. Mao’s Little Red Book (I didn’t say which country, did I?)
** Whaddaya Mean? [Word Definitions]**
I’ll give you a word and three possible definitions. You tell me the correct definition. All definitions, including those not matching the word in question, come from The Superior Person’s Book of Words.
Q. Sphragistics:
a) Contradiction between two authorities.
b) Predicting the future by the use of arrows
c) The study of engraved seals.
A. The study of engraved seals. (And here you thought clubbing them was cruel). Contradiction between two authorities is “antinomy”, and predicting the future by the use of arrows is called “belomancy” (most famously seen predicting the future of the British monarchy at the Battle of Hastings).
Q. Ulotrichous
a) Having short curly or woolly hair.
b) Barefooted
c) With paired nostrils
A. Having short curly or woolly hair. As in the riddle “Where do girls have short curly hair? Answer: New Guinea” The other words are “discalceate” for barefoot, and “dirhinous” for with paired nostrils.
Q. Recrement:
a) A silver coffee pot with a separate container which holds the coffee as it is heated.
b) A bodily secretion that is reabsorbed.
c) An elegantly veiled insult.
A. A bodily secretion that is reabsorbed. The obvious example is saliva; we’ll forgo discussion of any others at this particular moment. An elegantly veiled insult is a “charientism”, and the silver coffee pot is called a “biggin”. One should always make a point of asking the hostess at least once during the evening if she has a biggin.
Q. Facinorous:
a) Exceedingly wicked
b) Related to nose-blowing
c) Fat-buttocked.
A. Exceedingly wicked. The word meaning “fat-buttocked” is “steatopygous”, while “emunctory” means “Of nose-blowing” or, as a noun “an organ of the body that disposes of waste products.” I’m sure you’ll all work that into a conversation at the next possible opportunity.
Q. Queer Plunger:
a) An Elizabethan term for a bold, forward, rampant, or wanton woman; a woman who romps.
b) A small explosive device, used by military engineers in medieval times to undermine castle walls, break down drawbridges, etc.
c) A type of 18th-century con man.
A. A type of 18th-century con man. According to Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, queer plungers are “Cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the Society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned person, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, is also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket.” Incidentally, a woman who romps is a “rampallion”, and the explosive device is a “petard” (as in “hoist with his own”).
Live in the Now, Baby [Current Affairs]
Silly season is upon us again…
Q. What recently caused a power struggle between the US and Canada?
A. The power outage which affected major cities on both sides of the border. There was much pointing of fingers as to who was to blame for the failure of the power grid.
Q. Why did Veronica Lake, Billy Idol, Elvis and Saddam Hussein all appear in the same front-page Guardian article this week?
A. This was a report that the US Army was contemplating putting up posters of Saddam’s face photoshopped onto other celebrities’ bodies in order to “draw out” his supporters. This looks more like a case of idiocy on the part of the Guardian than on the US military, as the story doesn’t seem to have appeared anywhere else.
Q. Why were a family boating off the coast of Australia glad when the one they caught got away?
A. It was a humpback whale, which suddenly jumped onto the boat, breaking the mast and otherwise causing a lot of damage before sliding back into the water. I blame Iceland, myself.
Q. What has got an Irish government minister incensed with the Roman Catholic Church?
A. Jim McDade, a former doctor, claims that altar boys and girls are being exposed to unhealthy levels of carcinogenic incense in the course of their duties.
Q. Which Republican group recently attempted to take over a royal residence?
A. The U.S. Government, who asked to move the American Embassy into Kensington Palace from its current “more vulnerable” Grosvenor Square site.
And the rest…
Final jr-pardy [10 points each]
Q. What are Mizaru, Mikazaru, and Mazaru famous for not doing?
A. Seeing, hearing and speaking – they’re the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil monkeys.
Q. Who began selling toys in London in 1760, calling his outlet “Noah’s Ark”?
A. (William) Hamley
Q. In number of sales per year, what company is the world’s largest manufacturer of feminine apparel?
A. Mattel, which sells over 20 million outfits for Barbie dolls annually. Hee hee hee…
Q. Which army’s motto is “Blood and Fire”?
**A. The Salvation Army. **
Q. Which aid to breathing underwater takes its name from the ventilating tube for submerged submarines first introduced in German U-boats during World War II?
A. Snorkel
Q. Which 20th-century oratorio features the immortal line “Chatter clatter chatter clatter – mon-KEE!”?
A. The Mask of Time by Sir Michael Tippett
Q. Which important figure did Nathuram Godse assassinate on January 30th 1948?
A. Mahatma Gandhi
Q. Which famous family sold their house at 1 Richmond Crescent in London for £615,000 in 1997?
A. The Blairs (Prime Ministerial family)
Q. Where will you find the letters C, D, E, F, L, O, P, T, and Z, and no others?
**A. On a standard Snellen eye chart **
Q. In signal processing, noise that is spread evenly across a given frequency range is known as ‘white noise’. What name is given to noise biased towards the low frequency end?
A. Pink noise
Q. How many nanoseconds are there in a second?
A. One billion (1,000,000,000)
Q. In computer terminology 8 bits = 1 byte. What is the term for 4 bits?
A. A nybble
Q. What is being described here: Approximately 4.5 inches across, with a transparent plastic coating, the metal beneath this is etched with microscopic pits carrying a digital code. It was introduced to Britain in December 1983?
A. A compact disc.
Q. Which object, measuring just over 14 feet in length and 3.5 feet wide, has been in its present location, the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, since 1578, although its history prior to the fourteenth century had been the subject of much conjecture?
A. The Turin Shroud, or the Holy Shroud
Q. What famous scientist proposed the theory of a ‘Conditioned Response’ and whose results were published in 1897 in his book entitled, ‘Work of the Digestive Glands’?
A. Pavlov
Q. What is the lifespan of a human taste bud:
a) 10 hours
b) 10 days
c) 10 weeks
d) 10 months
A. 10 days
Q. How many of Shakespeare’s plays are set in London?
A. See above
Q. Thomas Hardy’s novel, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, deals with the theme of retribution. What sin was the protagonist guilty of committing?
A. Selling his wife. While “simony” (as someone above answered) does involve the selling of indulgences, I’m pretty sure those aren’t the sort of indulgences they mean.
Q. Only two books of the Bible are named after women. Name both of them.
A. Esther and Ruth
Q. The Edda is a body of two thirteenth-century collections of which country’s early poems and mythologies?
A. Iceland
Q. When Jeffrey Archer was made a Lord in 1992 he became Lord Archer of where (which town)?
A. Weston-Super-Mare. Lucky them.
Q. Which famous sporting trophy, donated in 1892 by the then-Governor General of Canada, has at various points in its history been kicked into a canal, left in a snowbank by the side of the road, dropped in swimming pools (at least twice), and used as a flowerpot, baptismal font, dog bowl and urinal?
A. The Stanley Cup. These days, however, a representative of the Hockey Hall of Fame accompanies it wherever it goes.
Q. Who owns the Oval Cricket Ground, home of the Surrey County Cricket Club?
A. The Duchy of Cornwall (in effect, the Prince of Wales)
Q. Which group from the punk era fronted by Hugh Cornwell released the single “Peaches” in 1977 that reached number eight in the charts despite being banned by BBC radio because of offensive sexist lyrics?
A. The Stranglers
Q. Which is the only one of the Seven Dwarfs to wear glasses?
A. Doc
Q. What term commonly refers to the NCAA College Basketball Championships in the United States?
A. March Madness
Q. Which three moderators oversee General Questions?
**A. bibliophage, Dr. Matrix, , and xash **[manhattan having recently resigned]
Q. ‘Olber’s Paradox’, named after the German astronomer who discussed it in a work of 1826, concerns itself with which simple question?
**A. “Why is the night sky dark?” **(i.e. if the universe in infinitely big and full of stars, then each line of sight would end on a star and the night sky would be bright. However, the universe is simply too young for light to reach us from distant stars).
Q. In 1926, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. were all defeated in Warner Brothers popularity polls. By what superstar were they outshined?
A. Rin Tin Tin.
Q. Which “gentleman” English actor, although a top Hollywood star, returned to England to fight as soon as war broke out in 1939 and finished the war a Lieutenant Colonel serving with the rifle brigade and the commandos?
A. David Niven
[quibble]I can see that the use of the y in nybble associates it more closely with byte, but the first time I saw the word in print was in an IBM logic manual in 1974/75(?) where it was spelled nibble - maintaining the tradition that the only new word added to the English language by IT is byte (plenty of new meanings, but only one new spelling).[/quibble]
[compromise]Google seems to favour nibble+byte over nybble+byte (17300-2400 but I didn’t audit all the results), but as both spellings are in general use either is acceptable[/compromise]
Anyway, thank you Gyrate for a great quiz. (Are you sure about the Lizard/Serpent thing? - yes, I guess you are.)
The Daleks shouted “Exterminate!”
Not, “Impotently!”
So, who was it voted best ass? I really need to know…
johncole: Don’t you mean [quybble]? 
NoClueBoy: if you’re turn your eyes upwards to the answers I just posted, you’ll see it was Natasha Hamilton from Atomic Kitten. I don’t know which one of the three she is, but then I don’t really care.
“You’ll”
<sigh>