Bar Wars: Return of the Quiz

After two whole agonising weeks away, Bar Wars kindly returned this Sunday with a new energy and a cash prize pot big enough to salivate over. Sadly we didn't get our grubby mitts on the money, but we did win the main quiz, so we can't complain too much. Are you in the mood to get quizzical then? Just look at you, I can see you are...

The Money Round questions have now been added below the main quiz questions.

14/09/2014
Venue: First Bowl Hereford Arena      Team: Me + 4 others
Score: 69/77 (1st)               Final Fling: 11/15 (joint 2nd) - No cash

We had an excellent week this time, only dropping 7 questions (one being worth 2 marks). This was no doubt in part thanks to a fairly comfortable Clued Up round (guess the celebrity) and another music round ('Lyrically Speaking') where you had to identify the song from the lyrics. Could you have covered us in even more glory? Here's your chance to be a bit of a know-it-all...

Questions

Question 1

1) Identify this celebrity from her picture.

2) In the medical profession, what does SRN stand for?

3) Which supermarket is launching a new '50 Shades of Grey' range of underwear?

4) How many countries are represented in the inaugural Invictus Games?

5) Which Hollywood star died 5 years ago this week?

6) Clued Up: Identify the celebrity from this clue: 'I was born in Consett, County Durham, in 1955. I had three brothers, one of whom narrowly lost the UKIP leadership election in 2000.'

7) Music Round: Which group performed 'I Can Make You Feel Good'?

I'm not too shaken up by not knowing this bunch straight off the mark, and thankfully it was all academic for us. How did you do?

Answers

1) Lisa Snowdon

2) State Registered Nurse

3) Tesco

4) 13

5) Patrick Swayze

6) Rowan Atkinson

7) Shalamar

Analysis/Excuses

NOT Lisa Snowdon

1) Probably should have got this one, but it's been a long time since I've seen Lisa Snowdon on the box (probably the M&S adverts). The team's answer was Khloe Kardashian, and I was in no position to argue.
Fact File: Snowdon was born Lisa Snawdon in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1972. She was signed and spotted in 1991 by Premier Model Management. She has since been the face of Gucci and Avon lingerie amongst others. She also hosted and judged on Britain's Next Top Model from 2006 - 2009. She reached the final of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, coming 3rd to Tom Chambers (Snowdon partnered Brendan Cole). Snowdon currently presents Capital Breakfast alongside Dave Berry on London radio station Capital London, where she earned the nickname 'Eggy'.

2) We assumed that this must be some sort of disorder, which explains why our resident biologist didn't really know. The best we could come up with was 'Sensory Receptor Neuron', which although it sounded quite nice, sensory receptors and sensory neurons are separate things.
Fact File: In order to practise in the NHS, you need to register on the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which requires a nursing degree (the nursing diploma was phased out completely as of 2013).  As of 2013, there were around 372,000 registered nurses working in the NHS and you can find out more here.

3) 50 Shades of Grey is a perennial quiz favourite as it makes all sorts of news, and yet nobody wants to admit to knowing anything about it. However, we actually didn't have any idea on this one. We went for Asda, thinking it might be more their style.
Fact File: The 50 Shades series is a trilogy of erotic novels by E. L. James first released in 2011 featuring wealthy businessman Christian Grey and submissive university student Anastasia Steele (not that you needed me to tell you that). It emerged from E. L. James' fan fiction piece 'Master of the Universe', which was based on the Twilight series. It became the fastest selling paperback of all time in the UK. Tesco's F&F clothing released this line with a few months to go before the film based on the series is due to impact the world of cinema.

4) The Invictus Games have been very well publicised this week, so there wasn't really an excuse, but as always I'm not too into sport. The Games opened this week in London and are based on the US's Warrior Games. They were organised by Prince Harry and see competition between wounded servicemen and women. The UK has 130 competitors taking part out of 400 over all. The 13 countries taking part are Canada, the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Estonia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Australia and New Zealand.

5) I thought that he had died more recently. The only people going through my mind were Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett (who died on the same day), but I was pretty sure that both of them had died in July. (It was actually June 25th). I don't think I would have thought of Swayze however much time I had.
Fact File: Swayze was born in Houston, Texas in 1952. He is probably best known for his breakthrough role as Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing and as Sam Wheat in the 1990 film Ghost. Presumably thanks to his steamy pottery scene with Demi Moore in Ghost, Swayze was named the Sexiest Man Alive in 1991 by People Magazine. Somewhat unusually for a Hollywood star, Swayze was married to his wife, Lisa Niemi for 34 years, from 1975 until his death from pancreatic cancer.

6) Atkinson was floating through my mind, but I had no idea about his brother challenging for the UKIP leadership. I also thought he was from Newcastle rather than County Durham, but Newcastle was actually where Atkinson went to university. However, the penny dropped on the second clue and we got 8 out of the 10 points available.
Fact File: Atkinson went on to get a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Queen's College, Oxford, where he was brought to stardom through the Oxford Revue and would later meet Richard Curtis, with whom he wrote the first series of Blackadder. Atkinson is also well known for starring as Edmund Blackadder, for his performances on Not the Nine O'Clock News and for Mr. Bean, a role he reprised for the London Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012. He has been dubbed 'the man with the rubber face'. He is also a noted petrolhead.

7) We all knew the song, but not who did it. It was really just a case of 'put anything down'. But we had a very decent music round this time, so I'm not complaining.
Fact File: Shalamar were a Los Angeles based disco group who reached their peak popularity in the 1980s. They were formed through the medium of the hit soul music show Soul Train in 1977 and were instrumental in bringing 'body-popping' to the UK. Shalamar released 'I Can Make You Feel Good' in the UK in 1982 from the critically acclaimed album 'Friends', at which time the group consisted of Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett and Jody Watley.

Too easy for you?

Here's what you've all been waiting for then. The dosh. The spondoolicks. The £££. Remember, you would only have needed to answer any two of these correctly in order for you to be splitting £250 six ways with us. Can you handle the pressure?

Questions

1) Which electronics company invented the first all electric compact calculator in 1957?

2) The Henley Regatta is always held on the first weekend of which month?

3) Which number in Bingo corresponds to the call 'Staying Alive'?

4) Who is the oldest footballer to score a goal for England?

Answers

1) Casio.
This blunder was my fault as the team suggested Casio and I was sure that I had heard somewhere that it was Sony. I pushed for Sony and I can only offer my heartfelt apologies, but this question alone would still have only put us in a head to head with winning team Quizzle My Nizzle and not earned us the moolah.
Fact File: Casio was founded in 1946 as Kashio Seisakujo in Tokyo by Tadao Kashio. Whilst the company's first success was the yuwiba pipe, the profits from this intriguing invention were used to manufacture the Model 14-A. This calculator can technically claim to be 'compact' by the standards of the day, but the machine still weighed 140kg (or just over 22 stones), was built into a desk, and as you can see from the picture, wouldn't exactly fit in the palm of your hand anyway. Nevertheless, it was certainly a big step forward and the company rebranded itself as the Casio Computer Company in the same year. You can find out more here, if the mood takes you...

2) July.
We were one month out with August. This is just one of those questions, I suppose, where you can always field a decent guess but can never rely on getting the right answer without having been there.
Fact File: The Henley Royal Regatta was originally held in March 1839. It is held every year on the Thames in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and takes place from Wednesday to Sunday (2nd - 6th July in 2014). All competitions take place over a course of the length of 1 mile and 550 yards, which is known as the Straight Course. The best known trophy is the Grand Challenge Cup contested by Men's Eights. It is part of the British Social Season.

3) 85.
It was pretty clear that this must be a number ending in 5. We went with 55.
Fact File: Bingo is a popular game of chance in Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, and there are many premises in the UK devoted to the game, though it is now becoming more popular online. It differs from the US version and Canadian version and you can find a summary of the British rules here. The game is thought to have begun in Italy in 1530 when it was known as 'Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia'. The UK version uses 90 numbers. I'm not going to go through all the calls for there various numbers here, though you may like to have a look at this list. 55, for the record, is typically known simply as 'All the Fives'.

4) Sir Stanley Matthews.
This was probably one we should have got. But then, you know me and sport.
Fact File: Known as the 'Wizzard of Dribble', Matthews was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1915 and is regarded as one of the best ever English footballers. He won the first European Footballer of the Year Award in 1956 and was knighted in 1965. Matthews, an outside right player, began his career at Stoke City in 1930. He moved to Blackpool in 1947 and back to Stoke in 1961. He retired in 1965, briefly going on to manage Stoke's rival club, Port Vale. He became the oldest player to score a goal for England in 1956, aged 41 against Northern Ireland, At 42 years, he remains the oldest footballer to ever represent England on the field. He died in Tenerife in 2000.

That's your lot then. Did you get two of those or more? You could have been looking at a hefty amount of cash. Let me know how you did.

With any luck I'll be updating with our performance in the Victory quiz tomorrow. See you back here soon!

Weekend Quiz

Despite the reappearance of new series of Pointless and the Chase on TV recently, I'm resisting the urge to theme this week's quiz around a gameshow, and instead, I'm opting for a standard general knowledge workout. I may theme future quizzes around these two shows if I get the inclination in the near future however. Shall we get started?

For Competitors:
For Question 1, you can have one point for the correct Odd One Out, and two points for the correct reason. For the rest, you can award yourself one point for each easy question, two for a medium and three for a hard question.

News 



2. Kim Jong-un

1. Rupert Murdoch

Q1) This question takes the shape of my first ever Odd One Out, which is a question form that I have loved ever since I first saw it done so well on Have I Got News For You. I therefore thought I'd do one for a news item this week. So which of these 4 is the Odd One Out and why? Answer at the very bottom of the page.

4. Queen Elizabeth II

 

3. The Sunday Herald

 Easy Questions

 Geography

 1) In which country would you find the Aachen and Cologne Cathedrals?

Art

2) Which Italian painter finished the Last Supper in 1498?

Science

3) Cumulonimbus and stratus are types of what?

Music

4) Which band's UK No. 1 hits include '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' and 'Jumping Jack Flash'?

Food & Drink

5) What is the name of the process in which bread rises due to the addition of yeast?

Sport

6) In which sport is the Grand National contested?

History

7) In which country did Idi Amin seize power after a coup in 1971?

Film

8) In which film series are C-3PO and R2-D2 regular characters?

Politics

9) John Bercow currently holds which position in the House of Commons?


Easy Answers

1 point each for any of these.

1) Germany
2) Leonardo da Vinci
3) Clouds
4) The Rolling Stones
5) Leavening
6) Horse Racing
7) Uganda
8) Star Wars
9) Speaker


Medium

Geography

1) Which city is the capital of the German state of Saxony?

Art

2) The Last Supper is to be found on a wall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie, in which city?

Science

3) In which layer of the Earth's atmosphere would you expect to find the majority of clouds?

Music

4) The remastered version of which classic Rolling Stones double album topped the UK albums chart in 2010?

Food & Drink

5) If the 'crust' is the name of the outer part of a loaf of bread, what is the name for the white inner part? 

Sport

6) Which notable obstacle at Aintree has undergone extensive modification since the death of 3 horses in the late 1980s?

History

7) During Amin's dictatorship, to which airport was an hijacked Air France flight taken and later rescued with the help of Israel?

Film

8) C-3PO was built by which Star Wars character?

Politics

9) Who did Bercow succeed as Speaker in 2009?


Answers

Medium - 2 points each

1) Dresden
2) Milan
3) The Troposphere
4) Exile on Main Street
5) Crumb
6) Becher's Brook
7) Entebbe International
8) Anakin Skywalker
9) Michael Martin


Hard

1) Which museum was founded in Dresden in 1912 by Karl August Lingner and was later used by the Nazis to produce propaganda for the concept of the Ayran race?

2) Which disciple of Jesus, whose fate was to be skinned alive, is depicted on the extreme left of the Last Supper?

3) Of which gas are the clouds in Venus's atmosphere composed?

4) Which song covered by the Rolling Stones is considered to be the only blues song to ever top the UK Singles Chart?

5) What is the name of the process that turns bread stale quickly after refrigeration/freezing?

6) Name 2 of the 3 horses that died as a result of jumping Becher's Brook in 1987 or 1989.

7) On 4th August 1972, Amin claimed that God had appeared to him in a dream and told him to do what?

8) C-3PO claims to be fluent in over 6 million forms of communication, and Luke Skywalker's uncle, Owen Lars hires him on the basis that he knows which one?

9) Before Michael Martin, who was the last Speaker to be forced by the House to resign, doing so in 1695 after accepting 1000 guineas to help push a bill through the legislative process?


Answers

Hard - 3 points each

1) The German Hygiene Museum
2) Bartholomew
3) Sulphur Dioxide
4) Little Red Rooster
5) Retrogradation
6) Dark Ivy, Seeandem and Brown Trix
7) To order Uganda's Asian community to leave the country
8) Bocce
9) Sir John Trevor

Odd One Out - 1 point for the correct answer and 2 for the correct reason

You've been waiting for this one haven't you?

The Odd One Out is Queen Elizabeth II.
They have all declared themselves in favour of Scottish independence, expect for the Queen, who has refused to express an opinion despite being provoked by both Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage. Salmond states that the Queen would be 'proud to reign over an independent Scotland', whilst Nigel Farage has argued that the Queen has a responsibility to speak out against the possible break up. Easy, right?

Scores are out of 57. Let me know how you did!

UK Million Selling Singles (1940s and 1950s)

This is an overview of every song released in the 1940s and 50s in the UK to have reached the Holy Grail target of selling over 1 million copies. There are only 4 verified from these two decades, with the 1950s seeing the gradual birth of the UK Singles Chart. From 1952 until the end of the decade, the records compiled by New Musical Express are seen as the most authoritative. In 1959, the introduction of a 'Gold Disc' award by Disc magazine for songs which reached 1 million sales signalled the general intention of a desire to keep more comprehensive records of which songs had sold what. Until that point, these are the songs thought to have achieved the goal.

These lists will be in order of release date and not the date that a particular song reached its 1 millionth sale. That information will be included in each individual profile. You can click on the title of a song to be taken to a corresponding video.

1940s

White Christmas
Artist: Bing Crosby
Released: 1942
Label: Decca
Written by: Irving Berlin
Bio: There are a few different accounts of when Berlin wrote the song, but 'White Christmas' was submitted amongst others for the 1942 film 'Holiday Inn', which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It had originally been predicted that the main hit from the film would be 'Be Careful, It's My Heart', but audiences began to respond favourably to White Christmas and the song ended up winning the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1942 Academy Awards. The producers had intended for the song to be sung by the actress Marjorie Reynolds instead of Crosby and the pair performed it as a duet in the film (although Reynolds' vocals are dubbed by singer Martha Mears). The song was popular enough for another film, 'White Christmas', to be written in 1954 featuring it as the centrepiece. It first officially charted in the UK in 1977, after Crosby's death.
Quiz Essentials: White Christmas has the distinction of being the biggest selling song in the world, with at least 50 millions copies of Crosby's versions verified and over 100 million copies when totalled with other versions. It is unlikely to be seriously challenged for a long time, with 2nd placed 'Candle in the Wind 1997' at 33 million verified sales. It has also been calculated as having earned Berlin $36 million dollars, the second most of any song after 'Happy Birthday' at $50 million.
UK Chart Peak: #5 (1977)
Copies sold: 1.02 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 70 years (2012)
Best Selling Song of 1942: n/a
Opening Lyrics: 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know.'
Chorus: 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.'


1950s

(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
Artist: Bill Haley & His Comets
Band Members: Bill Haley (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar), Billy Williamson (Steel Guitar), Marshall Lytle (String Bass), Joey Ambrose (Tenor Saxophone), Johnny Grande (Piano)
Session Musicians: - Danny Cedrone (Electric Guitar), Billy Gussak (Drums)
Released: December 1954
Label: Decca
Written by: Max C. Freedman & James E. Myers (Jimmy DeKnight)
Bio: 'Rock Around the Clock' is another single that largely owes it's massive success to it's inclusion in a movie, this time the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. A slightly different version is played over the film's opening credits. The song was chosen as a representative of what young people were listening to, and its inclusion launched the song to iconic status as one of the world's first hit rock and roll songs, and it has become emblematic of the era. Though Haley was not the first to record the song (Sonny Dae and his Knights got there first), the song's co-author James E. Myers says that it had been written specifically for the group. Enormously influential across the globe, Rock Around the Clock is chronologically the first song to sell over a million copies in the UK and is thought to have sold at least 25 million copies worldwide.
Quiz Essentials: Rock Around the Clock is the best selling song of the 1950s in the UK, despite not actually selling the most copies in a calendar year. The song has reached the Top 20 in the UK 5 times, more than any other non-Christmas song. 10 years after recording the song, Haley performed a 'sequel' called 'Dance Around the Clock' though this did not have nearly as much impact.
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1955) - 5 weeks
Copies sold: 1.43 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 1 year (1955)
Best Selling Song of 1955: No (Tennessee Ernie Ford - 'Give Me Your Word')
Opening Lyrics: 'One, two three o'clock, four o'clock rock,
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight.'
Chorus: 'We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock 'til broad daylight,
We're gonna rock, we're gonna rock around the clock tonight.'

Diana
Artist: Paul Anka
Released: August 1957
Label: ABC Records
Written by: Paul Anka & Joe Sherman
Bio: Ottawa born singer Anka says that this song was inspired by a girl whom he had barely met, but attended his church. However, it has also been suggested that the song is about a former babysitter. It is not Anka's first single ('I Confess' - 1955), but is undoubtedly his breakthrough. Anka had many more hits, but 'Diana' represents his peak as well as his beginning. The song is thought to have sold at least 9 million copies worldwide, with around 1/7th of those in the UK. For a while during the early 1960s, Diana was the second best selling single of all time, behind only Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas'. It is also the second best selling song of the 1950s in the UK, after Bill Haley and His Comets' 'Rock Around the Clock'.
Quiz Essentials: Anka was only 16 when the song was released, and consequently became a millionaire while we was still a teenager, and set up his own record label (Spanka) when he was 20.
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1957) - 9 weeks
Copies sold: 1.25 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 4 months (1957)
Best Selling Song of 1957: No (Love Letters In the Sand - Pat Boone)
Opening Lyrics: 'I'm so young and you're so old,
This, my darling, I've been told.'
Chorus: 'Oh, please, stay by me, Diana.'

Mary's Boy Child
Artist: Harry Belafonte
Released: October 1957
Label: RCA Victor
Written by: Jester Hairston
Bio: Hairston originally named the song 'He Pone and Chocolate Tea' after he was asked to write a something for a birthday party. However, Hairston later adapted the tune when he was asked by Hollywood composer Walter Schumann to write a Christmas song. Harry Belafonte heard 'Mary's Boy Child' performed by Schumann's choir and asked to record it for his upcoming 1957 album, 'An Evening with Belafonte'. The song can claim to be the UK's second authentic Christmas No. 1 single after 'Christmas Alphabet' by Dickie Valentine in 1955.
Quiz Essentials: Harry Belafonte's version of the song is the first (and by no means the last) Christmas million seller. The best known version of the song was released 31 years later by Boney M as 'Mary's Boy Child - Oh My Lord', which also sold over 1 million copies and claimed the Christmas No. 1 spot, unsurprisingly marking the only time in UK chart history that this particular feat has been achieved (at least by different artists).
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1957) - 7 weeks
Copies sold: 1.19 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 2 months (1957)
Best Selling Song of 1957: No (Love Letters In the Sand - Pat Boone)
Opening Lyrics: 'Long time ago in Bethlehem,
So the Holy Bible say.'
Chorus: 'Hark, now hear the angels sing,
A new King born today,
And man will live forever more,
Because of Christmas day.'


That's all of them for these two decades, but watch out as there will (hopefully) be many more of these to come. Until next time then...

A Victory Wrenched From Our Hands

Back to our regular haunt this week. There were 27 teams at the pub this time, which is pretty good going by most standards. We are proud to say that we managed to triumph over 25 of these bands of quiz warriors, but alas, the winner's title is still evading us for the time being. We stormed the first half with 50 out of 50, but unfortunately we met our nemesis in 1990s music. It would have only taken one extra question for a draw and two for a win, so if you're into 90s hits (or Danish fruit) then you could have been our saviour. Shall we get down to business then?

09/09/2014
Venue: The Victory Pub                                   Team: Me + 4 others
Score: 94/100 (1st - 96)                                    Snowball: Not chosen

All in all we had a pretty fantastic run, with a slight dip in the 2nd half. There are not too many questions this week, but as usual I am including all 4 of the snowballs so you can see if you might have been able to walk away with the big money. We'll start with the main quiz slip ups first.

Questions

1) Who had a 1992 hit with 'Jump Around'?

2) 'Gravenstein' is a variety of which fruit?

3) 'My head's spinning, boy I'm in a daze' are the opening lyrics to which song?*

*This is the question as it was read to us on the night. It is debatable as to whether these are the opening lyrics to the song as there is a spoken section beforehand.

Could you have swung it for us?


Answers

1) House of Pain

2) Apple

3) 'Never Ever' by the All Saints

Analysis and Excuses

1) I was aware of the song, with its trademark dying horse sound effect throughout, but the best I could dredge up from the back of my mind was that the group had three words in it. I knew that the chances of me remembering the right combination was pretty slim, so we cut our losses and moved onto some of the others.
Fact File: The song was a No. 3 hit in the US and a No. 8 hit in the UK upon its re-release in 1993. The 'horse' sound effect is actually an altered saxophone squeal sampled from the 1967 song 'Shoot Your Shot' by Junior Walker and the All Stars. The sound effect appears a total of 66 times in the song. House of Pain were a New York trio made up of Erik 'Everlast' Schrody, Leor 'DJ Lethal' DiMant and Daniel 'Danny Boy' O'Connor and originally existed from 1991-1996. The name 'House of Pain' is taken from H. G. Wells' 1896 work 'The Island of Dr. Moreau'.

2) One of our team thought that since 'stein' is German for 'stone' then this would probably be a fruit with a stone in the middle, so we ended up going with cherries.
Fact File: The Gravenstein is the national apple of Denmark, originating in South Jutland in 1669 as a chance seedling, and first recorded in America in 1790. Sonoma County in California regularly hosts a Gravenstein Apple Fair. If you're looking for some vital statistics on the apple, look no further. It is favoured as a cooking apple, used for apple sauce, and also for cider.

3) I wouldn't have got this, and nor I think would the team, even if it hadn't been the last question. I had heard the song, but not since the late 1990s. I discounted 'Dizzy' by Tommy Roe and instead pushed for Feels Like I'm In Love by Kelly Marie, which in my defence, turned out not to be such a bad guess ('My head is in a spin, my feet don't touch the ground').
Fact File: Never Ever was All Saints' second single, taken from their eponymous debut album. It is their 1st UK No. 1 single (out of 5) and their best selling song, having shifted 1.32 million copies in the UK alone. It is also the second best selling song in the UK by a girl group, after 'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls (1.34 million). All Saints was founded as 'All Saints 1.9.7.5.' in London in 1993 and most famously consisted of Melanie Blatt, Shaznay Lewis and sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton. The song won the group the Best Single and Best Video BRIT Awards in 1998. The song's spoken opening words are 'A few questions that I need to know, how could you ever hurt me so?'

If you got those, let me know and I'll confer a 'Where were you when we needed you?' award on you. But it's not over yet. Could you have won either £100 or £50 had you been picked? Here's your next chance to shine...

Snowball Questions

1) Champion boxer Joe Bugner was born in which country?

2) Which model appeared as a pole dancer in the White Stripes video for the song 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself'?

3) What was the name of the cab company in the US TV series Taxi?

4) In which year was Spinning Dog Brewery (which brews for the Victory Pub) founded - 2000, 2002 or 2003?

Snowball Answers

1) Hungary.
Bugner was born Jozsef Kreul Bugner in Szeged on 13th March 1950. After the Soviet crackdown on the 1956 revolution, Bugner's family relocated to the UK, settling in St Ives (then in Huntingdonshire). Bugner went on to be British, Commonwealth and European Heavyweight Champion and fought Muhammad Ali for the title of World Champion in 1975, losing out on points. Bugner retired the following year, though made several comebacks. He also appeared in the 1994 film Street Fighter as Bison's Torturer. He now lives in Australia.

2) Kate Moss.
Moss was born in Croydon, Greater London, in 1974. She was reportedly discovered by Storm Model Management at JFK Airport while she was only 14. Moss is renowned for helping to popularise the distinctive Heroin Chic look during the 1990s. Her signature hairstyle, involving pulling her hair tightly back behind her head, is known as the Croydon facelift. She is also known for involvement in the musical scene, especially her collaborations with Oasis and with the Libertines, notably dating frontman Pete Doherty. Moss has appeared in a number of music videos, and the White Stripes cover of the Bacharach and David song was released in 2003. She is now married to the Kills' guitarist Jamie Hince.

3) The Sunshine Cab Company.
Taxi was a sitcom set in New York based on the lives of Sunshine Cab's employees and ran from 1978 - 1983 on ABC and NBC. It most notably starred Judd Hirsch (Alex Rieger), Marilu Henner (Elaine Nardo), Tony Danza (Tony Banta) and Danny DeVito as the amoral head dispatcher Louie De Palma. It also featured Andy Kaufman as foreign engineer Latka Gravas. The show was nominated for 31 Emmys (winning 18) and 25 Golden Globes (winning 4) during its run. The iconic opening sequence features a taxi on Queensboro Bridge and the theme tune 'Angela' was written specifically for the show by Bob James.

4) 2000.
Given that I go to the said pub every week, this really is the sort of thing I ought to have known! Spinning Dog was founded by Victory landlord Jim Kenyon and named after Cassie, the family dog. You can find more information here.





Hope you enjoyed it this week and please leave a comment should it take your fancy, especially if you could have helped us get 100. See you back here soon.

Any Requests?

Hi all, this is just a very quick update asking if there are any guides to a particular topic that you would like to see me cover. I intend to carry on with Oscar Best Picture Winners and possibly start one on UK million selling singles, but any other suggestions are always appreciated. I also hope to continue with my weekend quizzes asap as well.

Thanks,
John Russ

My Illustrious Return

Hi everybody, did you miss me? I certainly missed you, and I bring with me the dissection of a new type of quiz, this one from the Sun Inn in Pembrokeshire. It was quite refreshing to have a go at a new format. In this quiz, each team was asked a question in turn. If you got your question wrong, it was passed on to the next team, and so on until all teams had failed to answer it. This format suited us pretty well, and we got most of the questions correct, so I'm going to go over the ones which I personally didn't know in order to beef up the amount in this post.  Quiz business should resume as usual on Tuesday, so watch this space. Shall we get started?

03/09/2014
Venue: The Sun Inn                         Team: Me + 3 others
Rank: 1st (out of 4) - 41 points

Questions

I believe that all of these questions came from the Free Pub Quizzes website, if you're interested.

1) The actor who played Derek Harkinson in Eastenders played which character in Dad's Army?

2) How many sides did a threepenny bit have?

3) The Tsetse fly transmits which disease to humans?

4) How many bottles of champagne are there in a Jereboam?

5) How many (different) Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom have there been?

6) Which car manufacturer made the Kitten?

7) 'S' is the international vehicle registration code for which country?

8) Annalise Hartman was a character in which soap?

9) How many cards are used in a game of Canasta?

10) Which London street is highly associated with the medical profession?

11) Jonah Lomu played international rugby for which country?

What did you make of those?

Answers

1) Private Frank Pike (played by Ian Lavender)

2) 12

3) Sleeping sickness

4) 4

5) 53*

6) Reliant

7) Sweden

8) Neighbours

9) 108

10) Harley Street

11) New Zealand

*The answer given was 51, but I have reason to believe from a Chinese zodiac question that this quiz was written in 2004, so I have updated to compensate.

Analysis

1) Not being a devotee of Eastenders, this question meant nothing to me, but when I was met with 'You know, the young one from Dad's Army,' I was then able to leap into action and we got the point. Derek Harkinson, in the show from 2001-2005, was apparently a friend of Pauline Fowler (played by Wendy Richard), who turned out to be gay. Private Pike was 17 at the beginning of Dad's Army, and perhaps a little depressingly for Ian Lavender, this means that he is the only one of the 7 original main characters who is still alive. Pike was in all 9 series from 1968 to 1977, as well as the 1971 movie. Arthur Ian Lavender was born in Birmingham in 1946 and made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe last year as 'Brooksie' in a stage production of the Shawshank Redemption.

2) Not having used the coin myself I wasn't sure, though my granddad had a jar full of them so I knew that it was an irregular number. The threepenny bit was first produced in 1547 on the ascension of Edward VI to the throne, though it was not continuously minted for many years. At the time, there were 240 pence in a pound, or 80 threepenny bits. No. 1 Croydon, a building completed in 1970 (the year that the coin was phased out), was known for many years as the 'Threepenny Bit Building'. 'Threepenny bits' is also Cockney rhyming slang for 'tits'. In addition, the UK Treasury is introducing a 12 sided design for the £1 in 2017, in an attempt to combat forgery, as it is estimated that there are 45 million counterfeit £1 coins in circulation.

3) Also known as Tik-tik flies, the Tsetse fly is native to most of central Africa, equating to 36 countries. Sleeping sickness (officially African Human trypanosomiasis) causes fever, itchiness and pains, leading to a general lack of coordination, and without treatment, will likely result in death. According to the World Health Organisation, there were 7216 recorded cases in 2012, 83% of which were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Luckily, the DRC wasn't on my list of holiday destinations anyway). The fly is also responsible for spreading the disease amongst livestock, when it is known as Nagana.

4) Wine bottle questions are usually not too taxing if you know what you're talking about, but unfortunately, I don't. Happily, we were not called upon to answer this particular question. I thought I knew that the answer was 6, but the answer given was 4.
It seems, upon investigation, that this depends whether you're talking about still or sparkling wine. Typically for Bordeaux wine, 3 litres or 4 bottles would be called a Double Magnum, with 4.5 litres/6 bottles being a Jereboam. However, for Champagne (or Burgundy wine), 4 bottles would be a Jereboam, with 6 bottles being called a Rehoboam. On a quizzing level, I think it is best to assume that the former case is the typical one, and to watch out for the use of the word 'champagne' in case you need to adapt your answer. If you're looking for a general guide to bottle sizes, I think this site is probably the most useful.
Jereboam was the first king of the breakaway Kingdom of Israel or Samaria. He and his followers had broken away from the United Kingdom of Israel or Judah. Jereboam reigned from c.931 - c.910 B.C.

5) This is the sort of thing that a few years ago, I would have been able to tell you just like that. I would have been able to count, but 1) I didn't have enough time and 2) the quiz was 10 years out of date anyway. The first holder of the office is generally regarded to have been Sir Robert Walpole, who was appointed to the key posts of First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons by King George I on 4th April 1721. While Walpole was never officially Prime Minister, this was how he was commonly referred to, in recognition of his significant political power, and the office evolved into a coherent position over time. Only one woman has held the role since its creation (guess who) and 17 men have held the role more than once, though at nearly 21 years, Walpole still holds the record for longest tenure in the job.


6) We did get this question, but it wasn't a car with which I was familiar. Reliant, based in Tamworth, Staffordshire for most of its life, was founded in 1935 and is probably most famous for the Reliant Robin, a three wheeled model often the subject of many jokes. The Kitten (both a car and van model) succeeded the Reliant Rebel, and was produced from 1975-1982. It was later manufactured in India (as the Sipani Dolphin), where it became notable as a rally car, and it has its own fan society, the Reliant Kitten Register since 1991. Reliant ceased making cars in 2002.



7) Another car question. I like to think I would have guessed this one correctly anyway. Sweden has used the code S as far back as 1911. As far I can see, the first international vehicle registration codes were first issued in 1910, so Sweden was quite quick to adopt one. The first countries (and their respective territories) to adopt the codes were the United States, United Kingdom (including Ireland), France, Monaco, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Hungary (separately), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Russia. The codes have been monitored by the United Nations since 1945 and are officially known as the rather catchy 'Distinguishing Signs used by Vehicles on International Traffic' or DSIT. The code is usually displayed as a sticker on the back of the vehicle, but Sweden (and many others) are no longer required to show this in other European Economic Area nations if the car already displays the EU flag on its number plate (standard practise since the late 1990s).

8) Annalise Hartman (later Kratz) appeared on the show from 1993-96, briefly returning in 2005 and was played by Kimberley Davies. She was portrayed as a manipulative 'bitch' style character and is best known for a storyline where she was jilted at the altar by her fiancé, Mark Gottlieb, who had decided to become a priest. She was notable for having a string of boyfriends on the show, including Lou Carpenter, who she courted for his money despite a 30 year age gap. Davies was reputedly spotted by producers while she was on a night out with her boyfriend, who assessed her as 'perfect for the role'. If only all of us could get a job that way!

9) We got this one wrong, opting for 104. The game utilises 2 standard decks of cards including the jokers, which are used as wild cards.  I'm not going to go into the full rules, but you can find them here. Canasta belongs to the rummy family and was invented in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1939 and it is typically played by four people. Its name comes from the Spanish for 'basket'. The aim is to be the first player or team to reach 5000 points. Interestingly, the highest scoring cards are the red 3s, with their black equivalents among the lowest. Variants include Samba and Hand and Foot Canasta.

10) Harley Street is owned by the de Walden estate and has experienced a sharp increase in the number of medical practitioners from the second half of the 19th century onwards, from 20 in 1860 to over 3000 in the modern era. It is located in the City of Westminster, and has been home to former Prime Minister William Gladstone, artist J. M. W. Turner, King George VI's speech therapist Lionel Logue, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman was born there in 1950.

11) I couldn't place him, but this was academic as we weren't asked, and anyway, my team did know. Lomu was born in Auckland in 1975, played as a winger, and is the all time top Rugby World Cup try scorer, despite not ever winning the tournament. His performance at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa is a particular highlight in his career. He is regarded as one of the all time greatest players, so that doesn't reflect too well on me. There are also plenty of his highlights available online. Lomu retired in 2007.

And there you have it. I hoped you've enjoyed my first blog for ages, and hopefully I have many more left in me. Until next time, and don't forget to write in the comments if you could have helped us along the way, even if this time we didn't really need it. Also, if I've got anything wrong, let me know and I'll investigate. See you soon!