Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Wednesday Quiz. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall.

It's:


The weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!

Answers come out Fridayish.

1. It's probably in the top ten most populous cities in the world and in the top ten most densely populated major cities in the world. And, it's the largest city of a country that is among the top ten most populous in the world, and the top ten most densely populated in the world. It lost half a million people to flooding in 1970 and many thousands to "Operation Searchlight" the next year, but things have settled down somewhat in the interim.

2. What's that word that means "the angle between magnetic north and true north," or, "the latitude that the sun is directly over at a given time," or, apparently, "a polite refusal of an invitation"?

3. Who's the writer that started one of his novels like so?

London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes—gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another's umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.

4. What German artist engraved this memorable image 596 years ago?



5. What do you call it in a book, play, or movie, when there's a plot device whereby a previously intractable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with a contrived introduction of a new character, ability, or object?

6. What do you make like so:
4.5cl (9 parts) White rum
2cl (4 parts) lime juice
0.5cl (1 part) Gomme syrup


Pour all ingredients into shaker with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain in chilled cocktail glass.
7. This is the one where I show you a map and you try to figure out what country it is.



8. It puts religion in the 200s and language in the 400s.

9. What mathematical concept is being illustrated here?

10. This 1981 film was one of the most expensive to make in the history of German cinema, but it earned back over four times its budget. And it's mostly set underwater.

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Time yourself for two minutes -- How many creatures can you name that begin with this week's letter?

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Put your answers in the comments.  Shake well.  

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Dhaka
2. decline
3. Defoe
4. Durer
5. deux ex machina
6. daquiri?
7. Djubouti?
8. Dewey Decimal Classification
9. dunno
10. Das Boot

gS49 said...

1. Dakka
2. Declination
3. Dickens?
4. Durer
5. Deus ex machina
6. Daquiri
7. Djibouti
8. Dewey Deciman System
9. Derivation, or Don't-get-a-perfect-score-this-week!
10. Das Boot

Elizabeth said...

1. Damn geography questions.
2. Declination?
3. Dickens, I expect.
4. Durer (sp?).
5. Deus ex machina.
6. Daquiri.
7. Don't know this one either.
8. Dewey Decimal System!
9. Derivation?
10. Das Boot.

dingo, dromedary, dickcissel, dolphin, dog, digeridoo, dragon

Elaine said...

1. Delhi
2. Decline
3. Dickens
4. Durer (umlaut over the U)
5. Denouement (or just Bad Writing)
6. Daiquiri
7. Djibouti
8. Dewey Decimal System
9. distributive property
10. Das Boot

dickey bird, devil (Tasmanian), dog, dodo, dervish (whirling), demon, diatom, dugong, dogie, doppleganger, dominatrix, dove, doodlebug, duck, dapple-gray, darter (snail), dobbin, doe, deer, diplomat.
That about does it for 'creatures' as my timer went off.

KarmaSartre said...

5. das Rowling.

mrs.5000 said...

1 Decca. Decca? Is that right, or is that just a record company?
2 declination
3 Dickens! the mud, the soot, the fog, and the Chancery Court right in the center...
4 Durer
5 devious doubledealing
6 probably a daquiri
7 this is the one where I guess--Djibouti
8 Dewey Decimal System
9 distributive property
10 Das Boot

Doberman, Dalmatian, dog, dingo, dormouse, dromedary, dung beetle,
dolphin, doppelganger, dratted desert dope, dang it agh.

Ben said...

1. Dehli
2. Declension
3. Dickens
4. Durer
5. I would call that Disappointing. Is it Deus ex Machina?
6. Sounds like a Delicious Drink
7. Dinky (I mean no disrespect)
8. Dewey Decimal System
9. Dunno
10. Das Boot

Eavan said...

1. Dhakar
2. Declination?
3. Dunno -- sounds so experimental, yet old fashioned.
4. Dunno
5. Deus ex machina
6. Whatever it is, it sounds gross. (Do you have a special fondness for cocktails?)
7. Djibouti
8. Dewey decimal system. Power to the people!
9. Distribution (I cannot believe I still know that)
10. Das Boot

Did anyone else find it hard to think of D-critters? Here's what I got:

Dodo, dog, daphne, deer, deerkiller

Mm mud said...

1. Dhaka- But I've a hard time believing Bangladesh is in the 10 most populous countries.
2. Decline.
3. Who the Dickens.
4. De Chancellor (can't think of any germans in the 1515's)
5. Digressor
6. Delaware Iced Tea??(never used gomme syrup before)
7. Djibouti
8. Dictionary de Arabica- They leaf their pages in reverse so 'R' comes before 'L'
9. Dunno what it is called here but in India it was taught as the BODMAS rule for operations- Brackets-Orders-Div-Mult-Add-Sub
10. Das Kapital under water

Aviatrix said...

1. Now that I have the magic letter I have a perverse desire to answer 'Dakar,' but don't you have to have to have skyscrapers these days to be considered densely populated? No, not really, but I don't think Senegal ranks that high. You have to be third world to lose half a million people in a flood, and I'd guess you'd have to be an enemy of the United States in order for something called Operation Searchlight to be that deadly. Mind you, that last criterion doesn't rule out many places. What countries were the US bombing the hell out of 1970? Oh yeah, land war in Asia. Now I need a city in Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia. Could be Delhi, I suppose, but I don't recall the Americans bombing them. I'll have to go with Delhi.
2. variation, declination, and regrets, respectively. I'll come back later and bold whichever one turns out to be today's magic letter.
3. Dickens cause it's about London and misery and the eighteenth century, and because I'm betting on the second one for number 2.
4. Germany even existed 592 years ago? I thought what is now Germany was then a collection of feuding nation states, without the wherewithal to travel to anywhere that had rhinoceroses. Germanish artist name ... Drücker.
5. I had my answer box over the end of the question and having read as far as "... solved" I immediately typed deus ex machina, but now you're making me second-guess myself, because is the new character, ability or object really necessary? Is there a more specific term?
6. I think a daquiri has crushed ice, but it's the only D-drink that comes to mind.
7. I knew before I scrolled down that it was going to be either Djibouti or Denmark, and Denmark is much more northy-pointy.
8. Dewey Decimal System. Nice clue.
9. Oh I remember commutative and associative, but I'm guessing that this is called the distributive principle.
10. Two German questions at once? Has to be Das Boot. Also has to be a remake, because I thought it was much older and I'm pretty sure it's not Das Boot 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Aviatrix said...

Ooh, I missed the bonus question:

donkey, dog, duck, duckbilled platypus, daddy long legs, dwarf, dinosaur, dullard, dromedary, daschund, dalmation, dormouse, dunce, dingo, dragon, dikdik.

I like the two minute idea.

Michael5000 said...

1. Dhaka, AKA Dacca
2. Declination
3. Dickens
4. Dürer
5. Deus ex machina
6. Daquiri
7. Djibouti
8. Dewey Decimal System
9. The Distributive Property
10. Das Boot

Karma: Very good. Very droll.

Mrs.5000: Decca is, in fact, a record company. I was hoping that I could tell you that it was the record company that released "The Concert for Bangladesh," but it turns out that was Apple. Which makes sense.

Mm: Bangladesh, at number eight in the world population lists, is several millions ahead of Russia. Hardly seems fair, somehow.

Heatherbee said...

1. Delhi?
2. Declination
3. Dickens
4. Duhrer
5. Device
6. Daquiri?
7. DamnedifIknow
8. Dewey decimal
9. Distributive
10.Der D....um, dunno.
dromedary,dog,dogfish,dahlia,dogwood,daphne,dragon,dragonfly,donkey,dinosaur,diggerclam,duck,duckling,drake,dolphin

Heatherbee said...

Okay, I wanted to say Dhaka but wasn't sure how to spell it. Apparently, there is little consensus on that anyway!