Bar Wars Round Up and Apologies

Hey everyone, apologies for not updating much over the weekend. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. I actually had a splendid weekend, which coincidentally was one that involved plenty of drinking. So unfortunately, most of my notes from the usual Bar Wars shenanigans are at best incomplete, and at worst, indecipherable. I did however, manage to salvage the Final Fling, and I'll still provide a round up of what I can remember. I'll try and make it up to you with another 'Friday Quiz' tomorrow!

03/08/2014
First Bowl Hereford Arena
Team: Me + 4 others
Main quiz: Win(!)   Money Round: Joint 1st (but no cash)

Despite all of us operating below normal mental capacity we actually managed to scrape a win by 1 magical point. 10 of those beauties were, slightly unsatisfactorily, thanks to the one and only Miley Cyrus. One of the rounds this week was to guess a celebrity, with full marks for getting the answer from the first clue. Of course, we only had to hear the words 'Destiny Hope' and '1992' for one of our team to grab the pen and sprint down the stairs to hand our quiz paper triumphantly to our hosts. Who cares if people stared? (We still do.)

As compensation for my reckless lack of professionalism and unbelievably unsteady hand, here is the Final Fling in its entirety.

Questions in bold indicate that we got the point.

1) Ronald Reagan ordered 3.5 tons of which sweet for his inauguration? (He also always kept some in a bowl in his desk.)
2) In which year of the 21st Century did the U.S. Congress pass a resolution apologising for slavery?
3) SANDF is the name of the national armed forces of which country?
4) Romano is a type of which foodstuff?
5) Which principality is located between France and Spain?
6) In shipping, what does GMDSS stand for?
7) Who was born first, John Lennon or Paul McCartney?
8) In which decade did the Berlin Wall begin construction?
9) Dee Dee, Joey, Johnny and Tommy were all members of which band?
10) Until the birth of Prince Charles, it was customary for who to attend all Royal births?
11) Alec Guinness, Robert Carlyle and Ian McKellen have all played which historical figure?
12) Which U.S. Stadium hosted the 1994 World Cup Final?
13) Which rock band shares the name that pilots originally gave to UFOs?
14) Which nymph fell in love with Narcissus?
15) Which movie has the tagline '5 good reasons to stay single'?

So how did you do? I definitely think Leon (the host) made the questions harder this week. A couple in that mix were the height of frustration and many (incorrect) possibilities suggested themselves. Still, I'm not complaining too much. We still came joint 1st - here was our tiebreaker -

16) According to a recent poll, what percentage of women say that wearing the wrong underwear ruins their day? (Or something like that.)

Let's get busy with...

The Answers

1) Jelly beans
2) 2009
3) South Africa
4) Cheese
5) Andorra
6) Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
7) John Lennon
8) The 1960s
9) The Ramones
10) The Home Secretary
11) Adolf Hitler
12) The Rose Bowl
13) The Foo Fighters
14) Echo
15) Four Weddings and a Funeral

16) 30%

Post Match Analysis

1) To be honest, I ought to have remembered this. I've seen enough episodes of Spitting Image, but for some reason I fired a blank on this one. It looks as if the Blueberry flavour jelly bean was developed specifically for the ceremony, in order to go with Very Cherry and Coconut to make up the essential red, white and blue compliment. Reagan's own favourite jelly bean flavour was liquorice. And yes, that is a picture of the ex-President made out of jelly beans.

2) Yes, you did read this question correctly if you were wondering. I'd love to say I knew this but it was just a lucky guess. It is the same year that Barack Obama was sworn in as President.
Although Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, slavery was legally banned in the U.S. after the Civil War with the passing of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. (The British Empire formally ended slavery in 1833, although it was still legal in some territories 10 years afterwards.)

3) This is obvious with hindsight, but time pressure meant we didn't explore all the options. Saudi Arabia seemed like a terrific shout at the time, but when compared with a country that speaks English, the answer loses some of its sheen. SANDF does what it says on the tin (South Africa National Defence Force), while Saudi Arabia is served by the Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia. SANDF was created to replace the South African Defence Force, as part of the ending of apartheid.

4) We went for pizza. Sadly, although I can find many Romano's Pizza restaurants, Romano is a broad category of different cheeses. According to cheese.com (this website does actually exist), Romano cheeses can be made from sheep's, cow's or goat's milk and has been made since the 1st century A.D.

5) Finally one I knew for certain. The President of France is one of the co-Princes of Andorra with the Bishop of Urgell. This means that Francois Hollande is currently the only person in the world to both be a monarch and to lead a republic.

6) Not a hope of getting this one. I think we might have put down 'Global', but whatever else we put down I have no idea. It was wrong anyway. It first came into being in 1999.

7) Lennon was born in October 1940, McCartney in June 1942. Starr was the oldest of the Fab Four (July 1940) and Harrison the youngest (February 1943), his youth leading to him being deported from Germany during the early days of the band. Stuart Sutcliffe, the band's original bassist, had the earliest birthdate of any member of the Beatles, born on 23rd June 1940. Pete Best (the original drummer) was born in November 1941.

8) The official name of the Berlin Wall was the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart, but it was also known as the 'Wall of Shame'. It was 96 miles (155km) in total length with 302 watch towers stationed along it. Building began in August 1961, and it fell (though only partially) in November 1989. Most of the rest of the wall was destroyed the following year.

9) None of the band were actually called Ramone or even related. Dee Dee's real name was Douglas Colvin, Joey was Jeffrey Hyman, Johnny was John Cummings and Tommy, who died last month, was Thomas Erdelyi (or Erdelyi Tamas in Hungarian).


10) This was one of those irritating little nuggets that I had forgotten about. This was in the news when Prince George was born, but I mistakenly assumed it was the Archbishop of Canterbury. The last Home Secretary (which is similar to a Minister of the Interior in most other countries) to attend a Royal birth was Sir John Simon for Princess Alexandra in 1936. Sir William Joynson-Hicks attended Queen Elizabeth's birth in 1926.

11) Alec Guinness played him in 'Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)', Robert Carlyle in 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil' (2003) and Ian McKellen in 'Countdown To War' (1989).

12) I don't know what we put down for this, as I usually hand football questions over completely. The Rose Bowl is in Pasadena, California and opened in 1922. Brazil beat Italy 3 -2 on penalties.

13) Managed to dredge this up from somewhere. Unsurprisingly, foo doesn't actually mean anything. The band was formed by Dave Grohl in 1994, but I doubt you needed me to tell you that.

14) I always knew my book of Greek myths and legends would come in handy, and it does so time and time again. According to Wikipedia, Echo actually used to talk to Zeus's wife Hera for hours on end, while Zeus consorted with other female nymphs behind Hera's back.

15) Four Weddings and a Funeral became so successful that it was nominated for Best Picture at the 1994/5 Oscars, though it lost to Forrest Gump. It was written by Richard Curtis and stars Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell.

16) Whilst the internet is awash with women's underwear, I can't seem to find this specific poll. Even worse, Google now seems to want to remember everything I search for, so I suppose there's a lesson in there somewhere...
We went for 45%, though one of my teammates is very proud of his guess of 34%


At last, I've done it. Watch out for a new quiz tomorrow if I have time, and your feedback is always appreciated. Until we meet again...