Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I never travel without The Wednesday Quiz.

It's:



The Wednesday Quiz, in its third incarnation, is basically the same old weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!  With a minor twist that will probably make it rather difficult at first!  


Traditionally, it is a closed-book quiz.

It is very possible that answers will come out over the weekend.

1. It's a hormone and neurotransmitter that increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, dilates air passages, and basically gets you either all fired up or all in a panic. It is more commonly referred to by its popular name. (Indeed, it seems like the name I have in mind for it here isn't even used outside of the U.S., so international participants may think of this as question 5b.)

2. Probably the greatest single figure in the history of scientific study of barnacles -- he dedicated much of his career to them -- was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. The two men are perhaps equally famous. Who am I talking about?

3. The Princess Imogen is the heroine of the Shakespeare play with the memorable stage direction Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. What is the play called?

4. Whoops!  I accidentally erased another title from a movie poster!  What is the name of the classic film here advertised?


5. You hear a lot about this place if you read much history. It was a major center of the Eastern Mediteranian in the first millenium c.e., a major center of early Christianity, and the main center of European control of the crusader kingdom. Why don't we hear about it these days? Well, a series of earthquakes didn't help anything, but it was the 1268 sacking, burning, and massacre of its inhabitants that really knocked the city off the map. Welcome to _______________.

6. Introduced in the 1990s as an alternative to beer and wine coolers, this product -- a flavored malt liquor -- was heavily marketed and, for a time, quite popular. Interest tailed off rapidly, however, and the massive MillerCoors alcohol-producing conglomorate eventually discontinued manufacture in 2008.

7. Between the Lancastrians and the Tudors came this lively family -- brought to life vividly, if perhaps a little unfairly, in Richard III.

8. Introduced in the 1990s as an alternative to crime dramas, hospital soap operas, and situation comedies, this product was heavily marketed and, for a time, quite popular. Interest tailed off, however, and the massive Fox media conglomerate eventually discontinued manufacture in 2002. And here is a picture of one of its sets:



9. He wrote "A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally," "A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her," " I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train," and various other clever things.

10. You expected The Arnolfini Portrait, but here's something else by the 15th century Dutch master for a change.  What is his name?


--

Put your answers in the comments in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle.  

10 comments:

Christine M. said...

1. adrenaline
2. Darwin?
3. dunno
4. The Bicycle Thief
5. Antioch
6. Zima (shudders)
7. dunno
8. X-Files
9. Oscar Wilde
10. Roger Van Der Weyden

Elaine said...

1/ Adrenalin (or epinephrine)
2. Charles Darwin
3. The Tempest
4. La Strada (not really; it's something like 'The Kid' but in Italian
5. Carthage
6. Colt 45
7. The Yorkists (Poor Richard being the Duke of York and last of his line)
8. Are we Alone? some kind of sci-fi thing
9. Oscar Wilde
10. Rubens (no real idea) Hals is another possibility

I think I maybe have three right. Pooh.

Anonymous said...

1. Epiphrane??
2. Darwin
3. Cymbaline
4. Bicycle Thief
5. Alexandria
6. Zima
7. Yorks
8. X-Files
9. Wilde
10.Van Dyke

Voron X said...

1. Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
2. Darwin
3. Sigh. I feel like I should know this. I wanted to say "Christabel", but that's a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I know it's not A Comedy of Errors. Troilus & Cressida, Julius Caesar, and Antony & Cleopatra have Cs, but don't start with C, and the last two are unlikely to have Jupiter, being histories. And I dont have all of Bill's plays memorized, so I can't just go through the list. They never covered this one in high school.
I guess I'll have to go with Clash of the Titans. (which would have Zeus, not Jupiter.)

4. The Bicycle? (worth a shot)
5. Aleppo
6. Zima!
7. York
8. The X-Files! (I was a huge fan!)
9. Walt Whitman?
10. Van Dyke? (sounds Dutch)

Voron X said...

3. Ah - Cymbeline! I think I've heard of that.
4. - So close! I think I've heard of this film too. Haven't seen many classic movies.
5. Argh! Antioch! I SO should have got that. Apparently Aleppo is rather thriving.
9. I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't read/studied Oscar Wilde, it would seem.
10. Van Eyck!! One letter (and a scramble) off!! But I don't know art, so that doesn't bother me, but this guy has popped up before on quizzes. Couldn't the question have been: "This person directed the 1997 movie adaptation the 1960 Hugo award winning Robert Heinlein novel of the same name."?
I would have gotten that. Would anybody else?

cecil said...

Egah! egah!

1. Epinephrine
2. Douglass
3. Coriolanus Cymbeline
4. Bicycle thief
5. Antioch
6. Zynga
7. York
8. X files
9. Waugh
10. Vermicelli

gS49 said...

1. Epinephrine
2. Darwin, C.
3. Coriolanus
4. Bicycle Thief
5. Antioch
6. Zima
7. York
8. X-Files
9. Wilde
10. Vermeer

DrSchnell said...

1. That sounds like adrenaline, but you'd have to spell it backwards to make this start with the appropriate letter, so I dunno.
2. Darwin?
3.Cymbeline
4. The Bicycle Thief
5. A...lbuquerque?
6. Zima
7. Yorks. When entering York, PA, and Lancaster, PA on the interstate, each of them has an appropriate colored rose on an overpass as you enter the city.
8. The X-Files
9. That'd be the ever-so-amused-by-his-own-cleverness Oscar Wilde
10. Van Dyck (sp?)

Chuckdaddy said...

Zima!!! Oh wait, I shouldn't be admitting that's the first and pretty much only one I got. Oh and x-files, but I don't think that's helping my intellectual case. Two others I'll go with are bicycle thief and Assyria.

Michael5000 said...

1. Epinepherine ("Grandma called it adrenaline!")
2. Chuck Darwin
3. Cymbeline
4. The Bicycle Thief
5. Antioch
6. Zima
7. Yorkists
8. X-Files
9. Oscar Wilde
10. Van Eyck. If you spend the next five minutes Googling Van Eyck paintings, your time won't have been wasted.