The Debatable Land

The Toughest Quiz You'll Tackle All Year

Lost amidst my Christmas hiatus was the annual brain-hurting attempt at the King William's College (Isle of Man) end of year quiz, thoughtfully published, as always, by those nice people at the Guardian. It is almost certainly the hardest quiz you'll attempt this year. Find the entire list of questions (all 180 of them!) here. Just for fun, here's a sample of what it's like:

9) Journeying on what, between which termini, might one's thoughts
turn to:
1. sleepwalking?
2. elliptical orbits?
3. the quintessential libertine?
4. a soldier without a passport?
5. the founding father of the EU?
6. the royal prisoner of Sönderborg?
7. Judith and three mute wives?
8. clothed and naked versions?
9. the mount of Bellerophon?
10. melting clocks?

Have a crack at the entire thing (without Googling!) and let me know how you get on. Me? I need more pondering time before I admit defeat.

End of year trivia

The King Williams College annual quiz is perhaps the daddy of all such end-of-year brain-wreckers. The 2007 edition is here.

Good luck!

UPDATE: After a first (and Google-free!) run through the questions I am reasonably confident about the answers to about 25 of the 180 questions and have an idea about a couple of dozen of the others. As I say, it's not for the faint of heart.

St Stephen's Day Trivia

Jane Austen fans should run on over to Norm's place to tackle his Boxing Day quiz. This blog may yet have a few New Year teasers for you all.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

My friend James Forsyth picks up on another of my favoured non-trivial campaign trivia questions*:

Barack Obama got the question about who he would invite to his ideal dinner party from a newspaper in New Hampshire. The guest list of Jesus, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln was revealing about how he sees himself. First, it is noticeable that Obama doesn’t pick a Democrat. Second, no figure from the civil rights movement is included. Finally, the mention of Jesus is typical of Obama’s comfort with talking about faith.

Well, with all due respect to James, maybe. But if any normal person gave this answer you would, quite rightly, laugh at them. Could there be a more cliched, yet priggish selection than this? No real person could possibly consider this the ideal guest list for the dinner party of your dreams. Apart from anythnig else, this party promises to be exceptionally dull. Twenty seconds thought produces half a dozen more obviously interesting and appealling trios**. Yet Obama smiles and says it's "Not a bad list". If James is right that his selection reveals how Obama sees himself then god help us all.

So, that being the case, what would have been a better answer for Obama to give?

*Standard Rules apply: these matters are illuminating because they are more likely to show us who a candidate really is than the so-called Big Picture questions. Plus, if they can't tell the truth answering this sort of trivia then when can or will they? True, this is a better indicator of character than how they'll actually perform in office but, hey, you can't have everything.

**Off the top of my head: Aaron Burr, James Boswell, Muhammad Ali; Rudyard Kipling, John Paul Jones, Benjamin Disraeli; Learie Constantine, Simon Bolivar, Ferdinand de Lesseps; Harry Flashman, Frederick Twistleton 5th Earl of Ickenham, Sebastian Dangerfield... And that's before I even start to think of the ladies...

Monday Trivia!

Yeah, so it's been a long time since I posted any trivia questions. Rather than wait for the weekend, here's something to distract your attention on a Monday afternoon. As always, no googling, no prizes - it's just for fun. Email me your answers or leave them in the comments:

1. Can you connect a once busy arrival point with a writer who began with less than nothing but became a poster-boy for a generation and a boy who picked it up and ran?

2. Why might a Washington Wizard, an Anglo-Irish essayist, and a man first encountered at Twelve Oaks all have been eligible to join the Ganymede club?

3. She was a darling in song, he was an actor who wasn't perfect, while he disdained the cuckoo clock: why would they be in the same family as a civil servant?

4. One baton holder had a farm made famous in rhyme while another sounded rather equine; others included one who ruled Sweden and another who married his boss's sister and became Neapolitan? What's the general link between them? Who was their conductor?  And, collectively, why could they be said to have been given the boot?

5. A 1980s American soap opera, a Georgian sports team and a famous Balkan chronicle could be linked to taking wing in a far away galaxy. How?

After a sabbatical, Weekend Trivia returns!

No prizes, no googling: it's just for fun!

1. In the bible, who or what killed one quarter of the world's population?

2. Who said:
a) "Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House."
b) "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." 

3. What is Auguste Dupin's claim to literary fame? And where was he first called upon?

4. A most famous naval victory, a west coast American city, a Hibernian waterway, a dog's skipper and a numerical field can all be found on British radio. Where?

5. The winner of the men's singles at the French Open tennis tournament receives La Coupe des Mousquetaires. Can you identify the Musketeers?

Leave your answers in the comments...

UPDATE: The answers (thanks to commenter Internet Ronin for reminding me!)...

1. Cain

2. a) Calvin Coolidge b) Harry Truman

3. He was the first fictional detective, appearing in Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue

4. On the Radio 4 Shipping Forecast: Trafalgar, Portland, Shannon, Fitzroy (captain of the Beagle), Forties (North Sea oil field) are all sea areas frequented by British shipping.

5. Nothing to do with Alexandre Dumas: the Four Musketeers were the great French tennis players of the 1920s and 30s, each of whom won multiple Grand Slam titles: Lacoste, Borotra, cochet and Brugnon (the doubles specialist, the others all won singles titles).

Weekend Trivia

No googling! No prizes! It's just for fun.

1.Who connects Kenneth More, Robert Donat and Robert Powell?

2.Who wrote these books and what do they have in common?

a) Playback
b) Weir of Hermiston
c) Bouvard et Pecuchet
d) The Good Soldier Svejk

3. J.P Richardson, aka "The Big Bopper" was only on the plane that crashed and killed him, along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens because he had a cold and asked Holly's bass player to give up his seat. Who was the fortunate bass player?

4. Connect a bible of parliamentary procedure, an Irish president of revolutionary stock and a Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton.

5. Why was the Cabal Ministry advising Charles II so named? And who was in it?

Have at it in the comments section...

UPDATE: The Answers!

1. Yes, all three playeed Rchard Hannay in film adaptations of The 39 Steps.

2. Each of these novels was left unfinished. They were written by:

a) Raymond Chandler b) Robert Louis Stevenson c) Gustave Flaubert d) Jaroslav Hasek

3. The fortunate bass player was the one and only Waylon Jennings.

4. Erskine is the connection: Erskine May, Erskine Childers and Erskine Bowles respectively.

5. Yup, it was named in part because of the intrigue and secrecy surrounding its deliberations. Also that its members names were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale - spelling out CABAL.

More this weekend!

Weekend Trivia

No Googling! It's just for fun!

1. A road trip takes you to: An apostle, three US Presidents, a legendary frontiersman, an Iron German and a stony Frenchman. Where have you been?

2. Though he never won, Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for a Best Director Oscar five times. Name the films. And, for bonus marks, which Hitchcock movie DID win the Best Picture Oscar and who won the Best Director award that year and for what film?

3. What type of dogs were owned by:

a) Bill Sikes
b) Stiffy Byng
c) Dr Mortimer

4. What links Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy?

5. First lines:

"XXXX XXXX was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to XXXX."

To whom did this mean a lot and in which novel?

Have at it in the comments! Answers will be posted in a few days.

UPDATE: The keenly awaited answers...

1. Yes it's a road trip through various US state capitals: St Paul (Minnesota), Madison (Wisconsin), Lincoln (Nebraska) and Jefferson City (Missouri), Carson City (Nevada), Bismarck (North Dakota) and Pierre (South Dakota).

2. Hitchcock was nominated for: Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960). Rebecca did win the Best Picture Oscar, but Best Director went to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath

3. a) Bill Sikes owned a Bull Terrier named Bullseye in Oliver Twist
b) Stiffy Byng owned a Scotch (Aberdeen) Terrier named Bartholomew in  Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves
c) Dr Mortimer owns a small "curly-haired" spaniel in The Hound of the Baskervilles

4. The trophies awarded to the Senior All Ireland Football and Hurling champions are named after Mr Maguire and Mr McCarthy respectively.

5. These are the first two lines of The Sun Also Rises. Robert Cohn was the middleweight boxing champion at Princeton.

Weekend Trivia

No prizes; just for fun!

1. What connects Ernest Shackleton, Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse?
2. America: 42 is to 3 as 40 is to 16. How so?
3. It's happened four times to William Trevor and to Beryl Bainbridge on five occasions. What?
4. What's the link between The Smiths final album and the first LP recorded by Shane McGowan's back-up band, The Popes?
5. Imran Khan, Donald Bradman, Kim Hughes and Tony Greig. The connection?

Leave your answers in the comments if you like. I'll post the answers in a couple of days.

UPDATE: THE ANSWERS

1. All are former pupils of Dulwich College.
2. William Jefferson Clinton and Ronald Wilson Reagan are the only US Presidents whose middle name is also the name of a US President.
3. Short-listed for the Booker Prize without winning.
4. Both cite British prisons in their title: Strangeways Here We Come and Holloway Boulevard respectively
5. All were dismissed without scoring in their final test innings.