Monday, August 24, 2015

The New Monday Quiz: Grudge Match Week Begins!


We've made it through a whole century!  And learned a lot about the High Middle Ages, and of course had a lot of good clean fun.

Let's take a break before plunging into the twelfth century.  Here's a Very Special New Monday Quiz to kick off Grudge Match Weektm!


1. What was the very large grudge match that started with a bypassing of the Maginot Line?

2. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall played the leading roles in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not. What was the next project they starred in together?

3. Rome won the First Punic War. Who won the Second and Third Punic Wars?

4.
When they met again, two days later, it was ________ who was breathless, who was, somehow, betrayed. Her porch was bright with the bought luxury of star-shine; the wicker of the settee squeaked fashionably as she turned toward him and he kissed her curious and lovely mouth. She had caught a cold, and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever, and _________ was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.

Who was breathless, was, somehow, betrayed when they met again?


5. The Godfather, Part II won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but then so did the original Godfather. Only one other sequel has won Best Picture -- in 2004 -- and its predecessors had not. What is this movie that won its makers' grudge match, so to speak, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?


6. Who were Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean?

7. The Latin word Filioque, meaning "and (from) the Son", is included in some later forms of the Nicene Creed but not in others. This discrepancy is considered an important element of what major world grudge?

8. He was defeated and deposed in the War of the Sixth Coalition, but after the Hundred Days he was able to provoke a grudge match.  Who was he, what was the name of the battle, and did he win it?

9. The composer wrote
that the derisive laughter that greeted the first bars of the Introduction disgusted him.... The demonstrations grew into "a terrific uproar" which, along with the on-stage noises, drowned out the voice of Nijinsky who was shouting the step numbers to the dancers. The journalist and photographer Carl Van Vechten recorded that the person behind him got carried away with excitement, and "began to beat rhythmically on top of my head," though Van Vechten failed to notice this at first, his own emotion being so great.

The conductor, meanwhile
believed that the trouble began when the two factions in the audience began attacking each other, but their mutual anger was soon diverted towards the orchestra: "Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued to play on."

That was its famous premiere, but the piece being performed won its grudge match with history and became a canonical piece of classical music. What's it called?


10. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the United States boycotted the 1980s Moscow Olympics. This set up what grudge lack-of-match?

BONUS: The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, sang the Kingston Trio:
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much.

Why, in the 1950s, did Italians and Yugoslavs have a grudge against each other?



Through History With the New Monday Quiz: the 1080s

1. Kyansittha and the Pagan Empare -- the beginning of Burma.
2. Captured by the Seljuks in 1084: Antioch.
3. Robert Guiscard was from Normandy, and had led the Norman Conquest... of southern Italy. They were on a roll.
4. The Domesday Book was an extensive census, recording who lived where in England, and what they owned.
5. The Almoravids came from Morocco.
6. The Tripitaka Koreana is a treasure of Korea, of course; Hanja script is basically the Korean language written in Chinese characters.
7. William the Conquerer's younger son got England; his older one got Normandy, of course.  Whether that reflects priority, or his dad's conviction that England was the family future and his numbskull oldest son would bungle it, is not clear.
8. Shen Kuo thought that the petrified bamboo in an area that didn't have bamboo was evidence of climate change.
9. The oldest U is the U of Bologna.  Go Bologna!  Beat Bologna State!
10. David the Builder's reign was the beginning of the golden age for Georgia.

The winner is immersive baptism!  No, wait, that was someone hijacking my blog to advance their theory of Christian practice.  It was unusually interesting spam!  But actually, the most winnerest is pfly, although the Owl gave him a fine run for his money!

Through History With the New Monday Quiz: the 1090s

1. The islands occupied by the Normans are Malta.
2. An Occitan singer-songwriter is a Troubador.
3. Malcolm III was king of Scotland.
4. Pope Urban II, the Council of Clermont, Deus Vult! -- The First Crusade was underway.  So were The Crusades generally, I suppose.
5. The oldest English U is the U of Oxford.  Go Oxford!  Beat Cambridge State!
6. Tanguts, Khitans, and Song -- China in the 1090s.
7. The later Ghaznavid Empire was centered about where Pakistan is now.  I'm giving some love for Iran, although that part of the early Ghaznavid Empire pretty much got taken away back at mid-century by the Seljuks, as they headed south and west.
8. Chaco Canyon is, and Anasazi civilization was, in the Southwestern United States of America..
9. Seljuks, Fatamids, Latins: Not a great time to live in Jerusalem.
10. King Magnus Barefoot - an odd story of the last real Viking king.  Of Norway.

It was a mighty set of answers!  By a mighty set of answerers!  I'm going to declare an almost-perfect tie between Christine M., Unwise Owl, and pfly.

8 comments:

mrs.5000 said...

OK, I was too cowardly to take the last two quizzes, and rightfully so reading through the answers, but I do know that Chaco Canyon is in New Mexico, which is not generally considered the Southeastern U.S.

DrSchnell said...

Yeah, what she said....

DrSchnell said...

1. World War II, Electric Boogaloo
2. The Big Sleep. It's either that or Key Largo, but I'm going with the first one.
3. Carthage? Either that, or the Punics, who I don't think existed.
4. Jay Gatsby
5. Toy Story II, Electric Boogaloo
6. astronauts
7. Catholics vs. Protestants?
8. um, Darth Vader, the "Battle of Jar Jar Binks", and yes
9. Rite of Spring
10. the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
Extra Credit: Yugoslavia stole all of Italy's pasta and refused to give it back.

pfly said...

What? Not history this time? I might be in trouble.

1. Oh, well that's history, phew. World War 2.
2. Casablanca?
3. Uh, Rome, yes?
4. I have no idea. Let's say Joe.
5. I'm better at history than movies. Guessing wildly and almost certainly wrong, Two Towers?
6. Founders of LL Bean? Naw.....three guys? Three....I don't know...stooges?
7. Oh, that thing about whether Christ was part human or all god or whatever. I want to say the Arian heresy thing, right? But wasn't it instead, or also, the Catholic/Orthodox split? I can't remember if "Great Schism" is the right term or not, but probably?
8. Sounds like Napoleon, Waterloo, and no, no he didn't.
9. Sounds like the Rite of Spring. By that horse-faced fascist, Stravinsky (cf. Vi Hart "Twelve Tones").
10. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics, right?

BONUS: Um...something to do with Trieste?

PS, can't help but comment on one of the answers from the 1090s:

8. Chaco Canyon is, and Anasazi civilization was, in the Southeastern United States of America.

So, like, Tennessee? (edit: I see others have already mentioned this)

Michael5000 said...

THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The canyon-y part. Of course.

UnwiseOwl said...

Tricky...

1) World War II.
2) I hope it's Casablanca.
3) Ha! You can't trick me here! It's still Rome! Carthage were a bit crap, really.
4) Feels Usonian. I can't place 'Daisy' though, so I'll guess this is Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind.
5) Pffh...Toy Story II? I have difficulty placing these things in time. Wait..wait..."Predessessors"? Ok, Maybe it's Return of the King? Surely that didn't make Best Picture? Was 2004 a real dud year, or am I WAY off base?
6) More Usonians. Only Usonians have middle initials like that, but I have no idea...Pete Conrad is a name I've heard...but...were they a boxing team or something?
7) The Great Schism between the catholics and the eastern church.
8) My My... at Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender.
9) No idea...uh...Madam Butterfly? I still don't know anything about classical music.
10) Presumably the Russians returned the favour in 1984.

11) It always boils down to Trieste, sooner or later. That's why it's always better to move there in Spring 1901 and ask for forgiveness later.

Anonymous said...

1 - World War II
2 - Key Largo
3 - Rome won all
4 - Daisy & Gatsby
5 -
6 - Astronauts
7 - Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox
8 - Napoleon - Waterloo
9 - Sacre du Printemps
10 - Bonus - Dispute over Trieste
Susan

gS49 said...

1. World War II
2. The Big Sleep
3. Rome
4. Gatsby
5. The Two Towers
6. astronauts
7. the Great Scism
8. Napoleon, Waterloo, no
9. Rite of Spring
10. don't know