A Resounding Return To Form!

Once again, our Thursday outing was sadly undeliverable. On discovering that everybody else in the pub was there to watch the England vs San Marino game, we left for a completely different type of experience. We entered a quiz played using Android devices, in which we came second, so it wasn't such a catastrophe after all! We probably lost out on not being able to press the phone buttons fast enough, as several points we scored on the basis of being the first team to press. It was great fun to try, but we'll attempt to return to business as (sort of) usual next Thursday. However, I am happy to be able to bring you the result of a very satisfying Duck and Scholar outing. Without further ado then...

Venue: The Duck & Scholar                                                    Team: Me + 2 others
Score: 47/60

Not a win unfortunately, but it more than makes up for last week's disaster. Not all of this was fertile territory for us, but we made a decent fist of it. The 1st place prize was 6 crates of beer, so this was take or leave as far as I was concerned. Shall we get started?

Questions

1) A new law introduced in Jersey requires under 14 year olds to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle at all times. But what is the punishment for failing to do so?
a) They bike is confiscated    b) They are banned from cycling for a year   c) They receive a £50 fine

2) Nancy Birtwhistle won the fifth series of the Great British Bake Off this week. But what 'type' of cake did she bake in the final?

3) A Frenchman was 'recently' asked to leave an American Airlines flight for what reason?

4) What was the name of the Captain of RMS Titanic?

5) Which was the last US state to join the Union? (*CONTROVERSIAL*)

Identify these two Muppets:

6)                                                                        7)

                  
                          
8) Which two months does the starsign 'Leo' span?

9) What is the name for a fox's den?

10) What breed of dog is Mickey Mouse's pet Pluto?

Identify these songs and the artist (1 point each) from their introduction. You're allowed to listen to about 10 seconds (close your eyes before clicking the link)

11) Song No. 1

12) Song No. 2

Answers

1) c) They receive a £50 fine
2) A windmill cake
3) He smelt too bad
4) Edward Smith
5) Answer Given: Alaska - Actual Answer: Hawaii
6) Waldorf
7) Statler
8) July and August
9) An earth
10) Bloodhound
11) The Best Thing (That Never Happened) by We Are the In Crowd
12) Beekeeper's Daughter by the All-American Rejects

Post Match Analysis

1) We ruled out the £50 fine on the grounds that we thought this was a little too much to expect a 14 year old to stump up (especially on the spot!). I've been to Jersey before and given that I knew there are only around 100000 inhabitants of the island, I thought maybe the year long ban was enforceable.
Fact File: Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands and is a crown dependency of the UK, which means that it has a high degree of self government, though the UK manages its foreign and defence affairs. It is therefore not part of the UK. This helmet law is the first of its kind in the British Isles.

2) I hadn't seen it, but I had glimpsed part of a round up of the previous year in which at least one of the finalists made a wedding cake, so I thought this might be a regular challenge.
Fact File: The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) began in 2010 and is judged by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood and presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. As part of the final round, the 3 contestants were asked to make two different versions of Viennoiserie (Viennese style baked products) in a 'Signature' round, 12 Victoria sandwiches, tartes au citron and scones in the Technical Round and a 'Showstopper' in the form of a piece montee. Birtwhistle's Red Windmill cake was based on the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris. She beat Luis Troyano and series favourite Richard Burr to become the show's fifth winner.

3) I remembered this story vaguely from a couple of months ago, but it is mildly outrageous to call this question 'news'. We went for 'bad breath'.
Fact File: 27 year old Medhi claims that he 'covered himself with Dior perfume' before boarding the flight. He has since filed a discrimination complaint with the airline. The flight he was supposed to take was from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to Dallas, Texas.    

4) Our memories failed us on this one, and I have reason to believe that the Captain did go by the name 'John' (his middle name), but I will have to check this later.
Fact File: Edward John Smith was born in Hanley (now part of Stoke-on-Trent) in 1850. He was (the Titanic aside) regarded as a safe pair of hands and became known as the 'Millionaire's Captain' as the very wealthy felt secure with him at the helm. A statue was build at Lichfield in his honour.

5) Yet another delightful factoid that was just plain wrong. Questions like this can cost you the win! (But not on this occasion.)
Fact File: Alaska joined the Union on January 3rd 1959 and Hawaii was admitted on August 21st.

6 & 7) I don't really watch the Muppets (spectacularly failing to go and see the Muppets film in 2011), but I was really pleased with myself on the picture round. I managed 8 on limited knowledge, and only tripped up by mixing the names of these two gentlemen.
Fact File: Statler and Waldorf have featured in The Muppet Show since its beginnings in 1976. They are best known for heckling other members of the cast. The pairing became popular enough to have their own internet show on Movies.com from 2005 to 2006, in which they would discuss movies. They are both named after famous New York hotels - Statler after the Statler Hilton and Waldorf after the Waldorf-Astoria (with Waldorf's wife's name being Astoria).

8) I try with starsigns, but I have been known to foul them up. I was sure on this one, but I often get confused with where to place Leo and Libra.
Fact File: Leo is the 5th sign of the Zodiac and based on a lion. The symbol for the lion is, according to Wikipedia, based on the Nemean Lion (which was slain by Hercules as part of his 12 Labours). Leo is a Fire sign and usually spans July 23rd to August 21st.

9) I wouldn't have remembered this, though I had heard it before. Going by what we knew of the quiz from last week, we thought this might be a trick question and went with 'den' on the off chance.
Fact File: Foxes are part of the dog family (canidae) and are apparently found on every continent except Antarctica. An 'earth' can also refer to a group of foxes, but the term 'skulk' is more typically used. You can read a brief foxy lowdown here...

10) At the last minute I put down 'beagle', but the team did suggest that he might be a hound. It was partly due to time pressure.
Fact File: Pluto was first introduced in the Walt Disney Productions cartoon 'Chain Gang' in 1930, and was briefly known as 'Rover'. Along with Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy and his owner Mickey, Pluto is one of the 'Sensational Six'. He first received his own series of cartoons in 1937.

11) I had never heard this song before, so I was next to useless with this one. At least it wasn't played in slow motion this week...
Fact File We Are the In Crowd are a pop punk band formed in Poughkeepsie, New York. The band are notable for suffering in 2009 from an ex band member hacking their Myspace page and deleting sensitive data. 'The Best Thing' was released in 2013 and is taken from their second album 'Weird Kids'.


12) Ditto, although I had heard of the band. Music wasn't too bad for us this week, but far from a highlight (as usual).
Fact File: The All-American Rejects are a rock band from Stillwater, Oklahoma who burst onto the music scene with their self titled debut album in 2003. They are probably best known for the 2008 song 'Gives You Hell' and have sold over 10 million records worldwide. 'Beekeeper's Daughter' was released in 2012 and is taken from their fourth album 'Kids In the Street'.


There we go. I hope you enjoyed this long overdue update. Don't forget to comment or tweet me at @MPRTaylor if you got any of these and you might have swung it for us. Happy quizzing and see you soon!