Even across generations of quizzers, a subset of common knowledge exists. There also exists some consensus on the question: what is quiz-worthy and what is not.
I find it rather strange when names like Dag Hammarskjold roll off the tips of the tongues of young quizzing neophytes (quizzerlets?). And everybody seems to answer by reflex to questions like "Who killed the man who killed JFK?" !
1) Magazines/Newspapers keep repeating stuff
a. When records get broken, the same lists are published. The same goes for awards, which are annual affairs.
b. They focus on the same set of personalities, embedding their names and activities in the collective subconscious- laying the foundation for "imaginative, brilliant guesses"
c. Events are regularly commemorated with special issues - serving as time-machines with
2) Quiz masters
a. QMs often repeat questions that they like from other quizzes they might have attended in the past. Repeats become part of the quizzer's armoury - the so-called "chestnuts".
3) Books
Quiz Books and GK books can only get you to the banks of the river.
a. There exists a set of quizzer must-reads. And there is always a "current fad book" - examples from the present would be books like Freakonomics, The World Is Flat. If you keep abreast of the fad books, you're sure to get some points in some quiz or the other, sooner or later. You don't need to read the book; sometimes just reading the review suffices! :-)
b. Science-fiction and pseudo-historical fiction ('fact'ion :-)
Wild, interesting and entertaining theories, generally correct, abound in these books making them gold-mines for quizmasters.
So,
* READ (ABOUT :-) THE FAD BOOKS.
* ATTEND AND OBSERVE QUIZZES.
* PUT THE QUIZ-MASTER'S HAT ON.
* IT'S OK EVEN IF YOU DON'T PORE OVER THE NEWSPAPER EVERY SINGLE DAY.... THE IMPORTANT THINGS WILL REPEAT.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Friday, December 09, 2005
Queuriest - V
-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - V
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. You've heard about the Big Bang. But what's the Interrobang?!?
*
2. A very un-Gentile question, possibly un-gentle as well. What is the Bat Mitzvah? (There has been no misspelling.)
*
3. What is iatrophobia the fear of? Cryptic clue: This might make you eat apples!
*
4. If Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the Moon, who was the last?
*
5. Hesperus & Phosphorus. What's the connection? Real beauty this one, if you know the answer . . .
*
6. In 1982, TIME Magazine chose the PC as the Man of The Year. The next time TIME chose a thing rather than a person for the honour, what was chosen?
*
7. Computers. What is a `frugal floppy'?
*
8. In HG Wells's The Invisible Man, what's the invisible man's name?
*
9. The guitarist of this band lost the tips of his right-hand fingers in an industrial accident just before the release of their debut album around 1970. However he readjusted his style & guitar to give this band its characteristic sound. Which band?
*
10. Which ball-game invented by Niko Brokehysen includes (necessarily) both men and women on a team? Cryptic Clue: Expectorate, maybe?
*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Jan 3, 2003 2:10 pm
Subject: Queuriest - V
hi folks!
here's the fifth edition of Queuriest.
questions are slightly tougher this time around, i think. but the hints should be helpful. . .MAY THE CLUES BE WITH YOU!. . .USE THE CLUES. . .- QM Yoda
a new year's resolution in case you don't have one yet: Say No To Google :-), while answering these quizzes. hey, what's so new about 2003?- i'm still preaching, ur still searching...well? :-) just kidding!
Happy New Year everybody!
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
--------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Thu Jan 9, 2003 12:16 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - V
hi there!
am early with the answers. my apologies to those of you who were planning to write in today..
fabulous reponse this time. 31 in all.
thought this was kinda tougher but was surprised. Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...and of course, maybe on googling also! :-( . . .really, lots of you googled which has forced (reluctant) me to reissue the dread(ed/ful) DISCLAIMER, which was in the cupboard for some episodes now...sorry...
when the going gets tough, the tough get googling?
anyway, here are the answers...
luv
thomas
-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - V
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. You've heard about the Big Bang. But what's the Interrobang?!?
* combined symbol of ? and !
It didn't catch on at all. That's why I was surprised it was so popular among all of you...
RK: ?! by martin spector head of ny ad agency
AJ gives you http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ . Honesty appreciated, you get 0.5
Somebody told me that I was getting predictable, incorporating the symbol in the question a la tittle etc.
2. A very un-Gentile question, possibly un-gentle as well. What is the Bat Mitzvah? (There has been no misspelling.)
* It's the coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish girls. Bar Mitzvah is it for the Jewish boys. Bar Mitzvah for girls is good enough. It means daughter of the commandment literally.
a couple of you corrected me that it was __bar__mitzvah in spite my claims of 'no misspelling'...without that, it'd have done in more of you I guess... :-)
3. What is iatrophobia the fear of? Cryptic clue: This might make you eat apples!
* The fear of doctors.
The clue which was not at all cryptic made it pretty obvious, I guess.
SS said it is the fear of doctors induced by circumcision: I don't know about that, perhaps you're pulling my leg here by connecting it to the previous question?? Jews... ;-)
4. If Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the Moon, who was the last?
* Eugene (Gene) Cernan.
He went on the Apollo-17 in 1972.
Most people got it right.
5. Hesperus & Phosphorus. What's the connection? Real beauty this one, if you know the answer . . .
* Venus. That's why that was a real beauty! :-) Goddess of beauty-Venus...ZZZZ...
Hesperus= Morning Star and Phosphorus=Evening Star, both of which refer to planet Venus
SS adds Gottlob Frege used them as examples for his theory on usage of words
TU: Hesperus = Phosphorus...the object model used by Gottlob Frege in his work 'Of Sense and Nominatum'.
Full points only if you have mentioned Venus. A bit controversial this, but then, `the real beauty' part of the question should've guided you...
6. In 1982, TIME Magazine chose the PC as the Man of The Year. The next time TIME chose a thing rather than a person for the honour, what was chosen?
* The Endangered Earth in 1988
Possibly the sitter of the quiz
7. Computers. What is a `frugal floppy'?
* Frugal floppy is an 8" floppy drive/disk.
Anybody seen one? Biggest I've seen is the 5.25". Lots of you must have, judging from the number of correct answers...well...:-)
8. In HG Wells's The Invisible Man, what's the invisible man's name?
* Griffin gets you credit. The first name is not mentioned in the book though SC said Hawley Griffin and some others Jack and yet others James. I think the first names came only with the movies
9. The guitarist of this band lost the tips of his right-hand fingers in an industrial accident just before the release of their debut album around 1970. However he readjusted his style & guitar to give this band its characteristic sound. Which band?
* Band: Black Sabbath.
Guitarist: Tony Iommi
+I is that He was left-handed.
+I: Def Leppard's drummer lost a hand in an accident.
10. Which ball-game invented by Niko Brokehysen includes (necessarily) both men and women on a team? Cryptic Clue: Expectorate, maybe?
* Korfball is the answer. There was a major tournament in India some time last year, that's when I first heard about it. Easily gettable from the clue, ehhem ahhem.....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order):
1. Mamatha Balasubramaniam - 2 (early bird gets 2 worms! ;-)
2. Shiraz - 9 (great show boss)
3. Sylvia - 1 (and...,u thought right!)
4. Sukhamaya - 6.5 (kemp is the doctor)
5. R.Krishna - 8.5 (no venus=0.5)
6. Shash Shekar - 8.5 (thanx for the +Info)
7. Syam Prasad - 7 ( am a lithomaniac though)
8. Satyajit Chetri - 5 ( advice:better vague than incorrect)
9. Biswabijoy Sen - 3 (pentapploformula=gastric trouble?)
10. Venkateshwar KR - 2 (enjoyed ur effort as always)
11. Sujith Vijay - 6 (Superb effort, nice tries)
12. Debashree Mitra - 6 (think you got venus q mixed up but it's all right)
13. Ankur Jain - 6.5 (ray of light in a net of darkness)
14. Anish - 4.5 (not specific enough on q1)
15. Mahesh M Nair - 7 (bat mitzvah answer not good enough)
16. Venu Gopal - 6 (good going)
17. Pauline Daniel - 5 (run-a-ball effort)
18. Bharat Jayakumar - 2 (pretty cool)
19. Thejaswi Udupa - 6.5 (thanx for the comps)
20. Usha Ramaswamy - 1 (keep the posts coming in)
21. Rajiv Rai - 5 (nice guessing,appreciate that)
22. Vimal Vikrant Vardhan M - 1 (more tries please!!!)
23. Rahul Jayanthi - 8 (keep it up)
24. Ajay Sahoo - (blank mail was what i got)
25. Kunal Malhotra - 4 (nothing about girls in Bat Mitzvah)
26. B. Sreeram - 5 (getting too predictable, huh?)
27. Shrijit Plapally - 1 (enjoyed the answers)
28. Kewl_Kittein - 2 (0.5 each for 1 & 2)
29. Vilayannur Viswanathan - 4 (who comes of age in q2?)
30. Stephen Mathew - 3 (enjoyed ur guessing)
31. Satish K - 5.5 (solid effort boss)
--------STATS ----------------------------------------------
Funnest!-
Mr.Glass on Invisible Man
Floppy which refuses to give information! on Frugal Floppy
Mouse on TIME's MoY
Interrupted net connections on Interrobang
Batman's Birthday on Bat Mitzvah
Ridiqulest!-
E.T on TIME's MoY
Paper Clip on TIME's MoY
The day Waugh learnt to bat (Bat meetsWaugh) on Bat Mitzvah
Guessest!- nice guessing
Spitball on Korfball
New key on Apple keyboards on Interrobang
Mixed Doubles on Korfball
Bar Mitzvah party where women are present on Bat Mitz
Internet on TIME's MoY
First ever floppy on Frugal floppy
Fear of diseases picked up in hospital on iatrophobia
Circumcision etc on Bat Mizvah
* Most popular wrong answer: Invisible Man has no name
* All questions were answered
* Shiraz tops the quiz with 9 points
* Average score : 4.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER - Not applicable where void
The QM's congratulatory remarks regarding the maintenance of the state of elevation* conditional to the respondent's abstinence from the use of deprecated extraneous assistance - automated or otherwise. All responses accepted as accurate transcriptions of the respondent's cranial contents. Reponses not matching aforementioned description, if any, constitute breach of trust and are deplored.
*=keep it up etc
Any inconvenience/distress to genuine respondents as a result of this disclaimer is regretted.
QUEURIEST - V
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. You've heard about the Big Bang. But what's the Interrobang?!?
*
2. A very un-Gentile question, possibly un-gentle as well. What is the Bat Mitzvah? (There has been no misspelling.)
*
3. What is iatrophobia the fear of? Cryptic clue: This might make you eat apples!
*
4. If Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the Moon, who was the last?
*
5. Hesperus & Phosphorus. What's the connection? Real beauty this one, if you know the answer . . .
*
6. In 1982, TIME Magazine chose the PC as the Man of The Year. The next time TIME chose a thing rather than a person for the honour, what was chosen?
*
7. Computers. What is a `frugal floppy'?
*
8. In HG Wells's The Invisible Man, what's the invisible man's name?
*
9. The guitarist of this band lost the tips of his right-hand fingers in an industrial accident just before the release of their debut album around 1970. However he readjusted his style & guitar to give this band its characteristic sound. Which band?
*
10. Which ball-game invented by Niko Brokehysen includes (necessarily) both men and women on a team? Cryptic Clue: Expectorate, maybe?
*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Jan 3, 2003 2:10 pm
Subject: Queuriest - V
hi folks!
here's the fifth edition of Queuriest.
questions are slightly tougher this time around, i think. but the hints should be helpful. . .MAY THE CLUES BE WITH YOU!. . .USE THE CLUES. . .- QM Yoda
a new year's resolution in case you don't have one yet: Say No To Google :-), while answering these quizzes. hey, what's so new about 2003?- i'm still preaching, ur still searching...well? :-) just kidding!
Happy New Year everybody!
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
--------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Thu Jan 9, 2003 12:16 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - V
hi there!
am early with the answers. my apologies to those of you who were planning to write in today..
fabulous reponse this time. 31 in all.
thought this was kinda tougher but was surprised. Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...and of course, maybe on googling also! :-( . . .really, lots of you googled which has forced (reluctant) me to reissue the dread(ed/ful) DISCLAIMER, which was in the cupboard for some episodes now...sorry...
when the going gets tough, the tough get googling?
anyway, here are the answers...
luv
thomas
-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - V
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------
1. You've heard about the Big Bang. But what's the Interrobang?!?
* combined symbol of ? and !
It didn't catch on at all. That's why I was surprised it was so popular among all of you...
RK: ?! by martin spector head of ny ad agency
AJ gives you http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ . Honesty appreciated, you get 0.5
Somebody told me that I was getting predictable, incorporating the symbol in the question a la tittle etc.
2. A very un-Gentile question, possibly un-gentle as well. What is the Bat Mitzvah? (There has been no misspelling.)
* It's the coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish girls. Bar Mitzvah is it for the Jewish boys. Bar Mitzvah for girls is good enough. It means daughter of the commandment literally.
a couple of you corrected me that it was __bar__mitzvah in spite my claims of 'no misspelling'...without that, it'd have done in more of you I guess... :-)
3. What is iatrophobia the fear of? Cryptic clue: This might make you eat apples!
* The fear of doctors.
The clue which was not at all cryptic made it pretty obvious, I guess.
SS said it is the fear of doctors induced by circumcision: I don't know about that, perhaps you're pulling my leg here by connecting it to the previous question?? Jews... ;-)
4. If Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the Moon, who was the last?
* Eugene (Gene) Cernan.
He went on the Apollo-17 in 1972.
Most people got it right.
5. Hesperus & Phosphorus. What's the connection? Real beauty this one, if you know the answer . . .
* Venus. That's why that was a real beauty! :-) Goddess of beauty-Venus...ZZZZ...
Hesperus= Morning Star and Phosphorus=Evening Star, both of which refer to planet Venus
SS adds Gottlob Frege used them as examples for his theory on usage of words
TU: Hesperus = Phosphorus...the object model used by Gottlob Frege in his work 'Of Sense and Nominatum'.
Full points only if you have mentioned Venus. A bit controversial this, but then, `the real beauty' part of the question should've guided you...
6. In 1982, TIME Magazine chose the PC as the Man of The Year. The next time TIME chose a thing rather than a person for the honour, what was chosen?
* The Endangered Earth in 1988
Possibly the sitter of the quiz
7. Computers. What is a `frugal floppy'?
* Frugal floppy is an 8" floppy drive/disk.
Anybody seen one? Biggest I've seen is the 5.25". Lots of you must have, judging from the number of correct answers...well...:-)
8. In HG Wells's The Invisible Man, what's the invisible man's name?
* Griffin gets you credit. The first name is not mentioned in the book though SC said Hawley Griffin and some others Jack and yet others James. I think the first names came only with the movies
9. The guitarist of this band lost the tips of his right-hand fingers in an industrial accident just before the release of their debut album around 1970. However he readjusted his style & guitar to give this band its characteristic sound. Which band?
* Band: Black Sabbath.
Guitarist: Tony Iommi
+I is that He was left-handed.
+I: Def Leppard's drummer lost a hand in an accident.
10. Which ball-game invented by Niko Brokehysen includes (necessarily) both men and women on a team? Cryptic Clue: Expectorate, maybe?
* Korfball is the answer. There was a major tournament in India some time last year, that's when I first heard about it. Easily gettable from the clue, ehhem ahhem.....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strange things cease to be strange on repetition...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order):
1. Mamatha Balasubramaniam - 2 (early bird gets 2 worms! ;-)
2. Shiraz - 9 (great show boss)
3. Sylvia - 1 (and...,u thought right!)
4. Sukhamaya - 6.5 (kemp is the doctor)
5. R.Krishna - 8.5 (no venus=0.5)
6. Shash Shekar - 8.5 (thanx for the +Info)
7. Syam Prasad - 7 ( am a lithomaniac though)
8. Satyajit Chetri - 5 ( advice:better vague than incorrect)
9. Biswabijoy Sen - 3 (pentapploformula=gastric trouble?)
10. Venkateshwar KR - 2 (enjoyed ur effort as always)
11. Sujith Vijay - 6 (Superb effort, nice tries)
12. Debashree Mitra - 6 (think you got venus q mixed up but it's all right)
13. Ankur Jain - 6.5 (ray of light in a net of darkness)
14. Anish - 4.5 (not specific enough on q1)
15. Mahesh M Nair - 7 (bat mitzvah answer not good enough)
16. Venu Gopal - 6 (good going)
17. Pauline Daniel - 5 (run-a-ball effort)
18. Bharat Jayakumar - 2 (pretty cool)
19. Thejaswi Udupa - 6.5 (thanx for the comps)
20. Usha Ramaswamy - 1 (keep the posts coming in)
21. Rajiv Rai - 5 (nice guessing,appreciate that)
22. Vimal Vikrant Vardhan M - 1 (more tries please!!!)
23. Rahul Jayanthi - 8 (keep it up)
24. Ajay Sahoo - (blank mail was what i got)
25. Kunal Malhotra - 4 (nothing about girls in Bat Mitzvah)
26. B. Sreeram - 5 (getting too predictable, huh?)
27. Shrijit Plapally - 1 (enjoyed the answers)
28. Kewl_Kittein - 2 (0.5 each for 1 & 2)
29. Vilayannur Viswanathan - 4 (who comes of age in q2?)
30. Stephen Mathew - 3 (enjoyed ur guessing)
31. Satish K - 5.5 (solid effort boss)
--------STATS ----------------------------------------------
Funnest!-
Mr.Glass on Invisible Man
Floppy which refuses to give information! on Frugal Floppy
Mouse on TIME's MoY
Interrupted net connections on Interrobang
Batman's Birthday on Bat Mitzvah
Ridiqulest!-
E.T on TIME's MoY
Paper Clip on TIME's MoY
The day Waugh learnt to bat (Bat meetsWaugh) on Bat Mitzvah
Guessest!- nice guessing
Spitball on Korfball
New key on Apple keyboards on Interrobang
Mixed Doubles on Korfball
Bar Mitzvah party where women are present on Bat Mitz
Internet on TIME's MoY
First ever floppy on Frugal floppy
Fear of diseases picked up in hospital on iatrophobia
Circumcision etc on Bat Mizvah
* Most popular wrong answer: Invisible Man has no name
* All questions were answered
* Shiraz tops the quiz with 9 points
* Average score : 4.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER - Not applicable where void
The QM's congratulatory remarks regarding the maintenance of the state of elevation* conditional to the respondent's abstinence from the use of deprecated extraneous assistance - automated or otherwise. All responses accepted as accurate transcriptions of the respondent's cranial contents. Reponses not matching aforementioned description, if any, constitute breach of trust and are deplored.
*=keep it up etc
Any inconvenience/distress to genuine respondents as a result of this disclaimer is regretted.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Queuriest - IV
------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - IV
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Merry X-mas folks (belated) ! But tell me, why is it X in X-mas? C-mas would've been better abbreviations for Christmas, right? What's the story? ------ The question, in short, is : Y X?
*
2.If it is Dr. Watson for Sherlock Holmes, who is it for Hercule Poirot?
*
3.George Orwell's 1984 gave us the terms Big Brother, doublespeak etc. What was 'the ultimate' torture room in the novel called?
*
4.Absolute sitter this one. Which fabric literally means `cloth of the king'? Work it out!
*
5.Eminently guessable one. Which rock star named himself (or/and his band) after a 17th century witch? Maybe you gotta be eighteen to answer this one. . .
*
6. How would most of us better know a virgule as?
*
7. What is the claim to fame of two people called Dismas and Gestas? For Christ's sake, don't google on this one...
*
8. Elementary question! Name the only elements that exist as liquids at 0C (zero degree celsius). Clue: There are words derived from them in the English language. Calling Mr.Webster?....
*
9. It's all Greek to me! Who was killed by Zeus after Pluto complained to him that Hades was getting underpopulated?
*
10.Which four-letter word did Dr. Seuss coin in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo"? Do not search excessively, you just might become one! ;-p
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
********* Bonus Q for no points:*********
**Gimme a word with the sequence `uqu' in it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:05 pm
Subject: Queuriest - IV
hi everybody!
Here's the fourth edition of Queuriest.
Hope this edition gets more responses than the previous one (if that is possible!). Get the answers straight from the heart (or wherever it is that you keep ur facts ;-) No WYSWIG (=what you search is what i get) please. Gimme what you got. Make me happy...flood me with replies!
answers in a week's time. get cracking!!!
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
--------------
hi folks!
pretty good response to the quiz. there were 25 responses in all. was expecting more though...(never get enuff of you!) :-) what with more responses to the previous edition.
were the clues too obvious? that's what put some of u off? don't want no more clues? questions too easy? tell me when u answer to Queuriest-V.
the answers follow...
luv
thomas
------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - IV
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Merry X-mas folks (belated) ! But tell me, why is it X in X-mas? C-mas would've been better abbreviations for Christmas, right? What's the story? ------ The question, in short, is : Y X?
*X looks similar to the greek alphabet chi,which in greek is the first letter in the name Christ, Chi was used to represent the name Christ ,so christmas=chimas or Xmas
2.If it is Dr. Watson for Sherlock Holmes, who is it for Hercule Poirot?
*Captain Arthur Hastings
I think the Poirot short-stories were almost knocking-copies of the SH stories...personal opinion. everything corresponds
to the Advs of SH&W. Novels pretty good though.
3.George Orwell's 1984 gave us the terms Big Brother, doublespeak etc. What was 'the ultimate' torture room in the novel called?
* Room 101 is what the torture room was called.
When Winston Smith was taken there, he got rats. It contained ur worst fears, whatever that was. His was rats.
GB: Room 101. Where your ultimate personal nightmare is given shape?
4.Absolute sitter this one. Which fabric literally means `cloth of the king'? Work it out!
*Corduroy was what I was expecting. CORD DU ROI
But many of you came up with rexine, working the rex part superbly. Good work but points only for corduroy as rexine is not cloth, just a leather-substitute.
5.Eminently guessable one. Which rock star named himself (or/and his band) after a 17th century witch? Maybe you gotta be eighteen to answer this one. . .
Alice Cooper. the clue had something to do with AC's song Eighteen. among the world's first shock-rockers...white makeup, lipstick etc onstage
6. How would most of us better know a virgule as?
* Slash, the "/", forward slash more precisely.
AV said: comma. in French. FYI puan is a fullstop, and Puan-Virgule, a semicolon.
QM:what would a backslash be called, i wonder . . .
7. What is the claim to fame of two people called Dismas and Gestas? For Christ's sake, don't google on this one...
* These are the people (thieves) who were crucified along with Jesus Christ. The clue was a dead giveaway I guess.
Most of you got it right.Assignment for u: who was on the left and who was on the right?
8. Elementary question! Name the only elements that exist as liquids at 0C (zero degree celsius). Clue: There are words derived from them in the English language. Calling Mr.Webster?....
* Bromine & Mercury
Not too many got both right.
9. It's all Greek to me! Who was killed by Zeus after Pluto complained to him that Hades was getting underpopulated?
* Aesculapius, who was bringing people back to life. Zeus afraid that it would violate the exclusivity of the Gods' immortality, strikes him down with thunderbolt as some versions have it.
BJ complained:MAJOR MISTAKES IN THE QUESTION #1 Zeus- Greek (=Jupiter in Roman) and Pluto- Roman #2 Hades-God of the underworld in Greek mythology (NOT greek for hell!!)
QM:well, Hades IS the name for the Greek underworld as well as the god, as you mentioned. It was named so after the god, I think.And...Pluto, as you mentioned, is Roman but Hade's (the god's) equivalent. I used Pluto just to avoid the confusion between the god and the place. And one more thing,Hades(the place) is not hell: it is the abode of the dead, not a place of punishment like Hell.. . .well, maybe the question would've been better framed as ...Hades complained that the Underworld was...? anyways...
10.Which four-letter word did Dr. Seuss coin in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo"? Do not search excessively, you just might become one! ;-p
*Nerd
Many of you came up with geek which was pretty good work i thought. A lot of other 4-letter words also did come up. . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------
********* Bonus Q for no points:*********
**Gimme a word with the sequence `uqu' in it.
Not too many attempted this, bouquet was the only one that turned up. i guess that's the only word. my anagrammer dug out these obscure words from my comp dictionary:albuquerque,bouquet, chautauqua,chibouque,dubuque,duque,duquesne, ololiuqui, ololiuquis, ottauquechee,tuque. But none of these seem to be 'normal' words. Strange, considering that words with 'uq' would also be the same, since q is always followed by u! Is bouquet the only real word?
------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order):
1. Ravikiran Rao - 3.5 ( not 205 sorry, .5 for Hg)
2. Aishwariya V - 4 (the French connection!)
3. Debashree Mitra - 6.5 (good going)
4. Vaidyanathan - 7 (great show boss)
5. Dinesh Krothivasan - 6.5 (thanx for the comps)
6. Mamatha Baloo - 3 (roll the dice sometimes)
7. Ramkumar Shankar - 3 (geek was good)
8. Venkateshwar - (but having major fun though!)
9. Abhinandan LN - 7 (100%hit rate!)
10.Ananya Deb - 5.5 (.5 for Greek god part tho Aeschylus was somebody else)
11. R.Krishna - 7 (nice work)
12. B.Sreeram - 5 (cafe-panic-amnesia? :-)
13. Bharat Jayakumar - 2 (xQ = 0.5! )
14. Pauline Daniel - 4 (guess more!)
15. Vimal Vikran Vardhan M - 2.5 ( V3M :-)
16. Bhaskar Singh - 2 (hi nerd pal?? ;-)
17. Rajaram Sethuraman - 1 (enjoyed ur effort)
18. Sourabh Issar - 1.5 (Bromine, not Iodine)
19. Girish Bhat - 3 ( u nu no uqu in sequence didn't u? ;-)
20. Syam Prasad - 4 (It's Winston Smith in '84)
21. Ryan Michigan - 8.5 (ref my expl on Q9. )
22. Husain Poonawala - .5 (BS named after a movie)
23. Partha Sengupta - 1 (Dude! ;-)
24. Debanjan Ghosh - 5 (solid show)
25. Mahesh M Nair - 5.5 (back in tvm?)
----- STATS --------------------------------------------------------------
Funnest!-
Classroom/School on Room 101!
X stands for the cross, rotated by 45 degrees on Xmas
People who became words: Dismal & Gestapo! on Dismas/Gestas
Most of us know it as an unknown word! on Virgule
Guessest!- good guessing
Rexin,Shahtoosh on Corduroy
Geek on Nerd
Rat Trap on Room 101
Alice In Chains on Alice Cooper (QM: same Alice I wonder?)
* Ryan Michigan tops with 8.5 points
* Average score : 4
* All the questions were answered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - IV
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Merry X-mas folks (belated) ! But tell me, why is it X in X-mas? C-mas would've been better abbreviations for Christmas, right? What's the story? ------ The question, in short, is : Y X?
*
2.If it is Dr. Watson for Sherlock Holmes, who is it for Hercule Poirot?
*
3.George Orwell's 1984 gave us the terms Big Brother, doublespeak etc. What was 'the ultimate' torture room in the novel called?
*
4.Absolute sitter this one. Which fabric literally means `cloth of the king'? Work it out!
*
5.Eminently guessable one. Which rock star named himself (or/and his band) after a 17th century witch? Maybe you gotta be eighteen to answer this one. . .
*
6. How would most of us better know a virgule as?
*
7. What is the claim to fame of two people called Dismas and Gestas? For Christ's sake, don't google on this one...
*
8. Elementary question! Name the only elements that exist as liquids at 0C (zero degree celsius). Clue: There are words derived from them in the English language. Calling Mr.Webster?....
*
9. It's all Greek to me! Who was killed by Zeus after Pluto complained to him that Hades was getting underpopulated?
*
10.Which four-letter word did Dr. Seuss coin in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo"? Do not search excessively, you just might become one! ;-p
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
********* Bonus Q for no points:*********
**Gimme a word with the sequence `uqu' in it.
------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:05 pm
Subject: Queuriest - IV
hi everybody!
Here's the fourth edition of Queuriest.
Hope this edition gets more responses than the previous one (if that is possible!). Get the answers straight from the heart (or wherever it is that you keep ur facts ;-) No WYSWIG (=what you search is what i get) please. Gimme what you got. Make me happy...flood me with replies!
answers in a week's time. get cracking!!!
luv
thomas
ANSWERS
--------------
hi folks!
pretty good response to the quiz. there were 25 responses in all. was expecting more though...(never get enuff of you!) :-) what with more responses to the previous edition.
were the clues too obvious? that's what put some of u off? don't want no more clues? questions too easy? tell me when u answer to Queuriest-V.
the answers follow...
luv
thomas
------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - IV
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Merry X-mas folks (belated) ! But tell me, why is it X in X-mas? C-mas would've been better abbreviations for Christmas, right? What's the story? ------ The question, in short, is : Y X?
*X looks similar to the greek alphabet chi,which in greek is the first letter in the name Christ, Chi was used to represent the name Christ ,so christmas=chimas or Xmas
2.If it is Dr. Watson for Sherlock Holmes, who is it for Hercule Poirot?
*Captain Arthur Hastings
I think the Poirot short-stories were almost knocking-copies of the SH stories...personal opinion. everything corresponds
to the Advs of SH&W. Novels pretty good though.
3.George Orwell's 1984 gave us the terms Big Brother, doublespeak etc. What was 'the ultimate' torture room in the novel called?
* Room 101 is what the torture room was called.
When Winston Smith was taken there, he got rats. It contained ur worst fears, whatever that was. His was rats.
GB: Room 101. Where your ultimate personal nightmare is given shape?
4.Absolute sitter this one. Which fabric literally means `cloth of the king'? Work it out!
*Corduroy was what I was expecting. CORD DU ROI
But many of you came up with rexine, working the rex part superbly. Good work but points only for corduroy as rexine is not cloth, just a leather-substitute.
5.Eminently guessable one. Which rock star named himself (or/and his band) after a 17th century witch? Maybe you gotta be eighteen to answer this one. . .
Alice Cooper. the clue had something to do with AC's song Eighteen. among the world's first shock-rockers...white makeup, lipstick etc onstage
6. How would most of us better know a virgule as?
* Slash, the "/", forward slash more precisely.
AV said: comma. in French. FYI puan is a fullstop, and Puan-Virgule, a semicolon.
QM:what would a backslash be called, i wonder . . .
7. What is the claim to fame of two people called Dismas and Gestas? For Christ's sake, don't google on this one...
* These are the people (thieves) who were crucified along with Jesus Christ. The clue was a dead giveaway I guess.
Most of you got it right.Assignment for u: who was on the left and who was on the right?
8. Elementary question! Name the only elements that exist as liquids at 0C (zero degree celsius). Clue: There are words derived from them in the English language. Calling Mr.Webster?....
* Bromine & Mercury
Not too many got both right.
9. It's all Greek to me! Who was killed by Zeus after Pluto complained to him that Hades was getting underpopulated?
* Aesculapius, who was bringing people back to life. Zeus afraid that it would violate the exclusivity of the Gods' immortality, strikes him down with thunderbolt as some versions have it.
BJ complained:MAJOR MISTAKES IN THE QUESTION #1 Zeus- Greek (=Jupiter in Roman) and Pluto- Roman #2 Hades-God of the underworld in Greek mythology (NOT greek for hell!!)
QM:well, Hades IS the name for the Greek underworld as well as the god, as you mentioned. It was named so after the god, I think.And...Pluto, as you mentioned, is Roman but Hade's (the god's) equivalent. I used Pluto just to avoid the confusion between the god and the place. And one more thing,Hades(the place) is not hell: it is the abode of the dead, not a place of punishment like Hell.. . .well, maybe the question would've been better framed as ...Hades complained that the Underworld was...? anyways...
10.Which four-letter word did Dr. Seuss coin in his 1950 book "If I Ran the Zoo"? Do not search excessively, you just might become one! ;-p
*Nerd
Many of you came up with geek which was pretty good work i thought. A lot of other 4-letter words also did come up. . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------
********* Bonus Q for no points:*********
**Gimme a word with the sequence `uqu' in it.
Not too many attempted this, bouquet was the only one that turned up. i guess that's the only word. my anagrammer dug out these obscure words from my comp dictionary:albuquerque,bouquet, chautauqua,chibouque,dubuque,duque,duquesne, ololiuqui, ololiuquis, ottauquechee,tuque. But none of these seem to be 'normal' words. Strange, considering that words with 'uq' would also be the same, since q is always followed by u! Is bouquet the only real word?
------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order):
1. Ravikiran Rao - 3.5 ( not 205 sorry, .5 for Hg)
2. Aishwariya V - 4 (the French connection!)
3. Debashree Mitra - 6.5 (good going)
4. Vaidyanathan - 7 (great show boss)
5. Dinesh Krothivasan - 6.5 (thanx for the comps)
6. Mamatha Baloo - 3 (roll the dice sometimes)
7. Ramkumar Shankar - 3 (geek was good)
8. Venkateshwar - (but having major fun though!)
9. Abhinandan LN - 7 (100%hit rate!)
10.Ananya Deb - 5.5 (.5 for Greek god part tho Aeschylus was somebody else)
11. R.Krishna - 7 (nice work)
12. B.Sreeram - 5 (cafe-panic-amnesia? :-)
13. Bharat Jayakumar - 2 (xQ = 0.5! )
14. Pauline Daniel - 4 (guess more!)
15. Vimal Vikran Vardhan M - 2.5 ( V3M :-)
16. Bhaskar Singh - 2 (hi nerd pal?? ;-)
17. Rajaram Sethuraman - 1 (enjoyed ur effort)
18. Sourabh Issar - 1.5 (Bromine, not Iodine)
19. Girish Bhat - 3 ( u nu no uqu in sequence didn't u? ;-)
20. Syam Prasad - 4 (It's Winston Smith in '84)
21. Ryan Michigan - 8.5 (ref my expl on Q9. )
22. Husain Poonawala - .5 (BS named after a movie)
23. Partha Sengupta - 1 (Dude! ;-)
24. Debanjan Ghosh - 5 (solid show)
25. Mahesh M Nair - 5.5 (back in tvm?)
----- STATS --------------------------------------------------------------
Funnest!-
Classroom/School on Room 101!
X stands for the cross, rotated by 45 degrees on Xmas
People who became words: Dismal & Gestapo! on Dismas/Gestas
Most of us know it as an unknown word! on Virgule
Guessest!- good guessing
Rexin,Shahtoosh on Corduroy
Geek on Nerd
Rat Trap on Room 101
Alice In Chains on Alice Cooper (QM: same Alice I wonder?)
* Ryan Michigan tops with 8.5 points
* Average score : 4
* All the questions were answered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Living To Fight Another Day
After writing the elimination round of any quiz competition, there is always this doubt in one's mind - Have we scored enough? Will we get through to the final round?
In my experience, I have found that around 50% does it. Of course, the more points you get, the surer you are to get through. But if one is sure about around half the questions, the odds are that you will make it. We might not qualify as the toppers, but we will most probably scrape through - living to fight another day and that's what counts.
On a couple of occasions, I have been eliminated even after touching this magic figure. Each time, there were more than a couple of teams on the same score, we were shot out after a tiebreaker or a coin-toss and apology. It's fair and square, I've been on the benefiting side as well.
Now, suppose you are sure about 60% and you still don't get through.
Chances are that -
a) you were wrong on a few (QM googlies). Oh.......#@*#.....That! How could I have not spotted that! The QM knows better than you.
b) you know better than the QM. He uses an old edition of that book. But there's no point in arguing, remember the cardinal rule : the QM is always, always, no matter what, right.
c) it was not a good set of questions- hugely loaded with current affairs or some niche topic - favouring some teams with specific backgrounds. Was Rembrandt really that good? So many questions... Or is today that important a day?
d) The other teams were fantabulously great. They make it every time, why don't I?
In all four scenarios, it's probably best that you didn't make it. But no matter what, stay to watch the final round. Don't leave the venue disappointed.
On the other hand, if you didn't score around half and the cut off was round about there, it's time for some serious book- or web-crawling!
What say you?
This 50% rule is also the criterion by which I make out who google on my online quizzes and who don't. Generally, I'm right! Or, it was a bad set of questions....More thoughts on what makes a good set of prelims questions, later.
In my experience, I have found that around 50% does it. Of course, the more points you get, the surer you are to get through. But if one is sure about around half the questions, the odds are that you will make it. We might not qualify as the toppers, but we will most probably scrape through - living to fight another day and that's what counts.
On a couple of occasions, I have been eliminated even after touching this magic figure. Each time, there were more than a couple of teams on the same score, we were shot out after a tiebreaker or a coin-toss and apology. It's fair and square, I've been on the benefiting side as well.
Now, suppose you are sure about 60% and you still don't get through.
Chances are that -
a) you were wrong on a few (QM googlies). Oh.......#@*#.....That! How could I have not spotted that! The QM knows better than you.
b) you know better than the QM. He uses an old edition of that book. But there's no point in arguing, remember the cardinal rule : the QM is always, always, no matter what, right.
c) it was not a good set of questions- hugely loaded with current affairs or some niche topic - favouring some teams with specific backgrounds. Was Rembrandt really that good? So many questions... Or is today that important a day?
d) The other teams were fantabulously great. They make it every time, why don't I?
In all four scenarios, it's probably best that you didn't make it. But no matter what, stay to watch the final round. Don't leave the venue disappointed.
On the other hand, if you didn't score around half and the cut off was round about there, it's time for some serious book- or web-crawling!
What say you?
This 50% rule is also the criterion by which I make out who google on my online quizzes and who don't. Generally, I'm right! Or, it was a bad set of questions....More thoughts on what makes a good set of prelims questions, later.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Queuriest - III
----------------------------------
QUEURIEST - III
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
----------------------------------
1. What is a tittle? Clue: There are six of them in this question!
*
2. Connect the seed-drill and scuba. Maybe you should be sitting on a park-bench while thinking this one out!
*
3. Real sitter. Who stays at Apartment 3D, 344, ClintonStreet?
*
4. Which modern-day term was originally used to refer to the high-flying flags on ships in the 18th century?
*
5. Who, according to Don Bradman, "scored goals like runs"?
*
6. "Woods are lovely,dark and deep..." All of us are familiar with these words by Robert Frost. But tell me which poem?
*
7. Who were the signatories of the Treaty Of Park Avenue?
*
8. Pete Sampras currently holds the record for maximum number of Grand Slam titles among me. Whose record did he break?
*
9. If a philanthropist makes charitable donations to increase human well-being, what does a psilanthropist do?
*
10. What kind of people did Gulliver encounter in Glubbdubdrib?
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great men are only agents of a great cause. - Nietschze
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
hello everybody!
hope this edition gets more responses than the previous one.
questions are fairly straightforward this time around. gimme what u got! No What-You-Search-Is-What-I-Get please! rediscover the joy of guessing!
answers in 7 days time. get cracking!
luv
thomas
hi folks!
thanks for the fantabulous response. there were 44 responses in all.
had a lot of fun compiling the stats, scoring the responses etc...and thanks a lot for 'rediscovering the joy of guessing'.
luv
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. What is a tittle? Clue: There are six of them in this question!
*the dot over the i . Almost universally cracked. Did EVERYBODY really know this one?. . . I guess the clue gave it away!!! ...or was it ...? ;-)
AJ adds: - however i think there are eight in ur question...since ur question mark as well as ur exclamation mark have one each (below them) they too are called tittles .....e.g. spanish has an inverted question mark before the question and an inverted exclamation mark before an exclamation (and of course a straight question mark and straight exclamation mark after a question and exclamation respectively) so they too are called tittles.
MM says: A title is a small mark or point added to a letter like the German Umlaut, I'm not sure whether the dot over the i qualifies as a tittle.
QM: tittle literally = A tiny or scarcely detectable amount, Related word: diacritic, check it out.
2. Connect the seed-drill and scuba. Maybe you should be sitting on a park-bench while thinking this one out!
*The seed-drill was invented by a person called Jethro Tull. And Aqualung is another name for the scuba gear which is an album/song by Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull.
Really,you should be specific and clear while answering connection Qs. 1 point only if both JT and AL mentioned.only 0.5 if just one mentioned.
about the clue:'Sitting on a park-bench' is how the song starts...
Not too many takers on this one.
3. Real sitter. Who stays at Apartment 3D, 344, ClintonStreet?
* Clark Kent aka Superman
No controversy on this one. Most of you got it.
4. Which modern-day term was originally used to refer to the high-flying flags on ships in the 18th century?
*Skyscraper.
Only Shash Shekar got this one.
5. Who, according to Don Bradman, "scored goals like runs"?
* Indian hockey team/Dhyan Chand
I'd been thinking that it was about the hockey team alone, but so many of u `remembered' it as being about Dhyan Chand also...maybe it was about Dhyan Chand's Indian hockey team! Points for either.
6. "Woods are lovely,dark and deep..." All of us are familiar with these words by Robert Frost. But tell me which poem?
*Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening.
Had many variants like Walking, winter evening, winter morning..but I've been very generous!
7. Who were the signatories of the Treaty Of Park Avenue?
*Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. The treaty was that whenever asked who the best science-fiction writer was, Asimov would say Clarke, and Clarke would name Asimov.
Shiraz adds: its basically while in the taxi cab on Park Ave that they made a pact
8. Pete Sampras currently holds the record for maximum number of Grand Slam singles titles among men. Whose record did he break?
*Roy Emerson's record of 12 Grand Slam singles titles (A6,F2,W2,U2). He still has the maximum number of Grand Slam titles overall (including doubles, 28).
Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg have 11 each.
9. If a philanthropist makes charitable donations to increase human well-being, what does a psilanthropist do?
* A psilanthropist is a person who believes that Jesus Christ was a mere mortal.
(Perhaps this was the most referred answer. Hail Webster?)
10. What kind of people did Gulliver encounter in Glubbdubdrib?
*Sorcers and Magicians.
Glubbdubdrib was ruled by a sorcerer, who entertains his guests by calling forth the spirits of the ancient world.
QM: Many of you answered Yahoos for this one. Well, Gulliver met them in the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses. The Yahoos were the human savages there...and Gulliver met the Struldbrugs, a race of immortals, in Luggnagg.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
1. Pauline Daniel - 2 (that was such a quick response!)
2. Gautham Ravichander - 2 (Great work on Jethro Tull )
3. Husain Poonawala - 4 (cool show)
4. Shiraz - 7 (superb show man! hope u enjoyed the rediscovery process! :-)
5. Shobhana Balakrishnan - 2 (stopping by, not walking thru,but I'm generous!)
6. Krishna T - 1.5 (First to get hockey team as such!)
7. Aishwariya V - 3 (had planned 2 put ur lace tidbit as a Q in fact. but now NO!!!)
8. Vaidyanathan - 5 (why duplicates? confused me.)
9. Mohit Sud - 6.5 (y didn't u mention Aqualung?)
10. Naveed Mohammed - 7 (right on Laver/Borg but Emerson has 12. )
11. Abhishek Hariharan - 2 (nice try)
12. Sourabh Issar - 1 (GlubbDubbians was a cheeky one! ;-)
13. Rajesh Malviya - 3.5 (It's not Doug Adams)
14. Syam Prasad - 4.5 (way to go man! it was not too much after all, eh?)
15. Madhu M - 2 (a tittle of a doubt! but dot over i good enough to get points here)
16. Biswabijoy Sen - 5 (Aqualung could not have been answered in a better way!)
17. Ranganathan Sairam - 4 (y didn't u answer prev quiz if u liked it? anyway,thanx for the compliment.)
18. Samir Bora - 4.5 (Superman/(Superman+Mask) = 0.5 )
19. Debashree Mitra - 6 (solid!)
20. Quizgeek - 6 (who's the man behind the mask?)
21. Anshuman Mishra - 5 (OK!OK! I wish you luck ;-P )
22. B.Sreeram - 6 (How old are you anyway, huh?)
23. Sameer Baxi - 7 (Check out RAMA series by ACC)
24. Ramsu - 7 (It's not Pele! Go head! Kick urself :-)
25. Ramkey - 3 (100% hit rate! u should've made more attempts!)
26. Soumyadipta B - 5 (glad to know u appreciate the Qs)
27. Harish J Prabhu - 6 (Bradman's grandkids LOL!!!)
28. Satish K - 5 (no points for meaning of tittle sorry. u should have used the clue!)
29. Kasthuri - 6.5 (glad to know u used the clue. and...is ur heart content now? ;-p)
30. Raghavendra Achar - 1 (Good guesses but hard luck :-(
31. Thejaswi Udupa - 8.5 (about history textbook-people. he met only their ghosts thru way of necromancy.)
32. Dhiraj Ramakrishnan - 2 (nice try)
33. Aseem - 4 (solid)
34. Udayan Chakrabarti - 2.5 (y didn't u mention Jethro Tull)
35. Shrijit Plapally - 2 (enjoyed ur answers ;-)
36. Dhananjay Shettigar - 3.5 (good work on hockey team)
37. Amit De - 5 (willie renshaw was that guy who kept winning Wimbledon right? he ever win anything else?)
38. R.Krishna - 7 ( is the middle name really jerome? please confirm)
39. Ankur Jain - 7 (Holmes Jain!!!)
40. Bhaskar Singh - 2 (William Renshaw won a few Wimbledons.But that was it, I guess)
41. Venkateswar - 2 (there were some queery answers after all hey?)
42. Shash Shekar - 6 (congrats on skyscraper)
43. Bharat Jayakumar - 4 (hi there. mudblood? :-)
44. Siddharth K - 2.5 ( No AL on JT = 0.5)
--------------------STATS--------------------------------------
*Honestest! -
SP who said `He believes that Christ was only a man. (Do not give me marks for this. I consulted my Dictionary.) '
Queuriest! -
Response to q2 seed-drill & scuba
UC: Aqualung yes but no Jethro Tull !
MS & DS: Jethro Tull, yes but no Aqualung !
Cryptickest!-
SB who said IS IS POINTS to What is a tittle?
and QM deciphered as is I's points! yay!!!
Funnest!-
Monica Lewinsky on Clintonstreet
Raymonds on Treaty Of Park Avenue
Snot nosed- drippy nosed people on Glubbdubbdrib
Misspell Philanthropist on Psilanthropist
Himself playing football with his grandchildren on Don's comment
...and now the cricketers score runs like goals! on Don's comment
(thought it gooddest not to reveal authors.)
* Thejaswi Udupa tops the quiz with 8.5 points
* Average score: 4.5
* Everybody scored!
* All the questions were answered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great men are only agents of a great cause. - Nietschze
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - III
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
----------------------------------
1. What is a tittle? Clue: There are six of them in this question!
*
2. Connect the seed-drill and scuba. Maybe you should be sitting on a park-bench while thinking this one out!
*
3. Real sitter. Who stays at Apartment 3D, 344, ClintonStreet?
*
4. Which modern-day term was originally used to refer to the high-flying flags on ships in the 18th century?
*
5. Who, according to Don Bradman, "scored goals like runs"?
*
6. "Woods are lovely,dark and deep..." All of us are familiar with these words by Robert Frost. But tell me which poem?
*
7. Who were the signatories of the Treaty Of Park Avenue?
*
8. Pete Sampras currently holds the record for maximum number of Grand Slam titles among me. Whose record did he break?
*
9. If a philanthropist makes charitable donations to increase human well-being, what does a psilanthropist do?
*
10. What kind of people did Gulliver encounter in Glubbdubdrib?
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great men are only agents of a great cause. - Nietschze
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
hello everybody!
hope this edition gets more responses than the previous one.
questions are fairly straightforward this time around. gimme what u got! No What-You-Search-Is-What-I-Get please! rediscover the joy of guessing!
answers in 7 days time. get cracking!
luv
thomas
hi folks!
thanks for the fantabulous response. there were 44 responses in all.
had a lot of fun compiling the stats, scoring the responses etc...and thanks a lot for 'rediscovering the joy of guessing'.
luv
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. What is a tittle? Clue: There are six of them in this question!
*the dot over the i . Almost universally cracked. Did EVERYBODY really know this one?. . . I guess the clue gave it away!!! ...or was it ...? ;-)
AJ adds: - however i think there are eight in ur question...since ur question mark as well as ur exclamation mark have one each (below them) they too are called tittles .....e.g. spanish has an inverted question mark before the question and an inverted exclamation mark before an exclamation (and of course a straight question mark and straight exclamation mark after a question and exclamation respectively) so they too are called tittles.
MM says: A title is a small mark or point added to a letter like the German Umlaut, I'm not sure whether the dot over the i qualifies as a tittle.
QM: tittle literally = A tiny or scarcely detectable amount, Related word: diacritic, check it out.
2. Connect the seed-drill and scuba. Maybe you should be sitting on a park-bench while thinking this one out!
*The seed-drill was invented by a person called Jethro Tull. And Aqualung is another name for the scuba gear which is an album/song by Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull.
Really,you should be specific and clear while answering connection Qs. 1 point only if both JT and AL mentioned.only 0.5 if just one mentioned.
about the clue:'Sitting on a park-bench' is how the song starts...
Not too many takers on this one.
3. Real sitter. Who stays at Apartment 3D, 344, ClintonStreet?
* Clark Kent aka Superman
No controversy on this one. Most of you got it.
4. Which modern-day term was originally used to refer to the high-flying flags on ships in the 18th century?
*Skyscraper.
Only Shash Shekar got this one.
5. Who, according to Don Bradman, "scored goals like runs"?
* Indian hockey team/Dhyan Chand
I'd been thinking that it was about the hockey team alone, but so many of u `remembered' it as being about Dhyan Chand also...maybe it was about Dhyan Chand's Indian hockey team! Points for either.
6. "Woods are lovely,dark and deep..." All of us are familiar with these words by Robert Frost. But tell me which poem?
*Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening.
Had many variants like Walking, winter evening, winter morning..but I've been very generous!
7. Who were the signatories of the Treaty Of Park Avenue?
*Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. The treaty was that whenever asked who the best science-fiction writer was, Asimov would say Clarke, and Clarke would name Asimov.
Shiraz adds: its basically while in the taxi cab on Park Ave that they made a pact
8. Pete Sampras currently holds the record for maximum number of Grand Slam singles titles among men. Whose record did he break?
*Roy Emerson's record of 12 Grand Slam singles titles (A6,F2,W2,U2). He still has the maximum number of Grand Slam titles overall (including doubles, 28).
Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg have 11 each.
9. If a philanthropist makes charitable donations to increase human well-being, what does a psilanthropist do?
* A psilanthropist is a person who believes that Jesus Christ was a mere mortal.
(Perhaps this was the most referred answer. Hail Webster?)
10. What kind of people did Gulliver encounter in Glubbdubdrib?
*Sorcers and Magicians.
Glubbdubdrib was ruled by a sorcerer, who entertains his guests by calling forth the spirits of the ancient world.
QM: Many of you answered Yahoos for this one. Well, Gulliver met them in the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses. The Yahoos were the human savages there...and Gulliver met the Struldbrugs, a race of immortals, in Luggnagg.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
1. Pauline Daniel - 2 (that was such a quick response!)
2. Gautham Ravichander - 2 (Great work on Jethro Tull )
3. Husain Poonawala - 4 (cool show)
4. Shiraz - 7 (superb show man! hope u enjoyed the rediscovery process! :-)
5. Shobhana Balakrishnan - 2 (stopping by, not walking thru,but I'm generous!)
6. Krishna T - 1.5 (First to get hockey team as such!)
7. Aishwariya V - 3 (had planned 2 put ur lace tidbit as a Q in fact. but now NO!!!)
8. Vaidyanathan - 5 (why duplicates? confused me.)
9. Mohit Sud - 6.5 (y didn't u mention Aqualung?)
10. Naveed Mohammed - 7 (right on Laver/Borg but Emerson has 12. )
11. Abhishek Hariharan - 2 (nice try)
12. Sourabh Issar - 1 (GlubbDubbians was a cheeky one! ;-)
13. Rajesh Malviya - 3.5 (It's not Doug Adams)
14. Syam Prasad - 4.5 (way to go man! it was not too much after all, eh?)
15. Madhu M - 2 (a tittle of a doubt! but dot over i good enough to get points here)
16. Biswabijoy Sen - 5 (Aqualung could not have been answered in a better way!)
17. Ranganathan Sairam - 4 (y didn't u answer prev quiz if u liked it? anyway,thanx for the compliment.)
18. Samir Bora - 4.5 (Superman/(Superman+Mask) = 0.5 )
19. Debashree Mitra - 6 (solid!)
20. Quizgeek - 6 (who's the man behind the mask?)
21. Anshuman Mishra - 5 (OK!OK! I wish you luck ;-P )
22. B.Sreeram - 6 (How old are you anyway, huh?)
23. Sameer Baxi - 7 (Check out RAMA series by ACC)
24. Ramsu - 7 (It's not Pele! Go head! Kick urself :-)
25. Ramkey - 3 (100% hit rate! u should've made more attempts!)
26. Soumyadipta B - 5 (glad to know u appreciate the Qs)
27. Harish J Prabhu - 6 (Bradman's grandkids LOL!!!)
28. Satish K - 5 (no points for meaning of tittle sorry. u should have used the clue!)
29. Kasthuri - 6.5 (glad to know u used the clue. and...is ur heart content now? ;-p)
30. Raghavendra Achar - 1 (Good guesses but hard luck :-(
31. Thejaswi Udupa - 8.5 (about history textbook-people. he met only their ghosts thru way of necromancy.)
32. Dhiraj Ramakrishnan - 2 (nice try)
33. Aseem - 4 (solid)
34. Udayan Chakrabarti - 2.5 (y didn't u mention Jethro Tull)
35. Shrijit Plapally - 2 (enjoyed ur answers ;-)
36. Dhananjay Shettigar - 3.5 (good work on hockey team)
37. Amit De - 5 (willie renshaw was that guy who kept winning Wimbledon right? he ever win anything else?)
38. R.Krishna - 7 ( is the middle name really jerome? please confirm)
39. Ankur Jain - 7 (Holmes Jain!!!)
40. Bhaskar Singh - 2 (William Renshaw won a few Wimbledons.But that was it, I guess)
41. Venkateswar - 2 (there were some queery answers after all hey?)
42. Shash Shekar - 6 (congrats on skyscraper)
43. Bharat Jayakumar - 4 (hi there. mudblood? :-)
44. Siddharth K - 2.5 ( No AL on JT = 0.5)
--------------------STATS--------------------------------------
*Honestest! -
SP who said `He believes that Christ was only a man. (Do not give me marks for this. I consulted my Dictionary.) '
Queuriest! -
Response to q2 seed-drill & scuba
UC: Aqualung yes but no Jethro Tull !
MS & DS: Jethro Tull, yes but no Aqualung !
Cryptickest!-
SB who said IS IS POINTS to What is a tittle?
and QM deciphered as is I's points! yay!!!
Funnest!-
Monica Lewinsky on Clintonstreet
Raymonds on Treaty Of Park Avenue
Snot nosed- drippy nosed people on Glubbdubbdrib
Misspell Philanthropist on Psilanthropist
Himself playing football with his grandchildren on Don's comment
...and now the cricketers score runs like goals! on Don's comment
(thought it gooddest not to reveal authors.)
* Thejaswi Udupa tops the quiz with 8.5 points
* Average score: 4.5
* Everybody scored!
* All the questions were answered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great men are only agents of a great cause. - Nietschze
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, October 17, 2005
Better Incomplete Than Incorrect
While answering a question in a quiz, if you're not sure about the entire answer, omit the parts of the answer that you are not really sure about.
Also, say the parts you are sure about loud and confident (in oral rounds) or conveniently abbreviate. Maybe the QM won't notice or the answer that you say might be unambiguous enough for him.
Let's say the answer to a question is John F Kennedy, but you are not sure about the John part. Just say Kennedy. Never say James (often you will be sure that the name starts with a J) or, god forbid, Robert Kennedy (another person famous in his own right).
Even if the answer is incomplete, the QM might give you half-points but if it is wrong you won't get any. Mask your ignorance in the quiz. But be aware of your ignorance and work towards gaining some knowledge in that area afterwards. Questions do repeat and next time around, you might not be so lucky.
Also, say the parts you are sure about loud and confident (in oral rounds) or conveniently abbreviate. Maybe the QM won't notice or the answer that you say might be unambiguous enough for him.
Let's say the answer to a question is John F Kennedy, but you are not sure about the John part. Just say Kennedy. Never say James (often you will be sure that the name starts with a J) or, god forbid, Robert Kennedy (another person famous in his own right).
Even if the answer is incomplete, the QM might give you half-points but if it is wrong you won't get any. Mask your ignorance in the quiz. But be aware of your ignorance and work towards gaining some knowledge in that area afterwards. Questions do repeat and next time around, you might not be so lucky.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Queuriest - II
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - II
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A pricky question (piquant?) that could leave you in stitches? Tell me, what you would do with Buffon's needle?
*
2. Name the Sherlock Holmes stories in which Holmes himself is the narrator? Points only if you get all of them.
*
3. Calling all Purpleheads...What was peculiar ( queuerious? ;-) about the way in which Deep Purple's mid-70s lead singer David Coverdale used to sing Deep Purple's all-time classic and possibly their most famous song "Smoke On The Water"? Why? (If you know the lyrics to the song, this is very much workoutable.)
*
4. Chess. Who or what is known as a patzer? (Cryptic clue: A Remus would be a good option for them! )
*
5. Was grass ever for Indian cows? Who was the first Indian to be seeded at Wimbledon?
*
6. Art Spiegelman's Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 . What's the distinction?
*
7. The absolute sitter of this quiz possibly. You've heard about telegrams and anagrams. But what is a pangram?
*
8. Rama, Shiva, Sugriva. What's the connection? (apart from the fact that they are mythological characters etc). Unleash your imagination! I'm waiting to learn more . . .
*
9. Who is a picaninny? You should never call them this!
*
10. How do we better know Mosi-o-Tunya? Cryptic clue: Smoke that thunders rises when a monarch capitulates?
*
hi folks!
here's the next installment of Queuriest.
the questions are fairly straightforward. there are no deliberate misspellings or hazification of questions in order to prevent you from googling. do justify the trust placed in you. there are lots of clues in the questions! tell me if they helped you work out the answers.
hope u enjoy cracking the Qs as much as I did setting them!
luv
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
`Curiouser and curiouser!'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
1. * You could try to find the value of pi.
Sathish: Buffons needle is experimental method used to calculate the value of pi. one of the method is like this, say you got a needle of length 'x',draw parallel lines of distance 's' apart. if you drop the needle 'n' timesand it touche the lines 'y' times then the value of pi can be calculates as app (2*n*x)/(y*s).
Kamal:Buffon's Needle is one of the oldest problems in the field of geometrical probability. It was first stated in 1777. It involves dropping a needle on a lined sheet of paper and determining the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines on the page. The remarkable result is that the probability is directly related to the value of pi.
2. *Only two - The Adventure of The Blanched Soldier and The Adventure Of The Lion's Mane. Only Sreeram gets both.
3. * The song goes `We all came out to Montreux. . .', it was about an fire episode during a Frank Zappa concert that the members attended. Those days Ian Gillan was their lead-singer. After David Coverdale replaced Gillan in the band, at concerts/shows whent the band played the song, DC sang the song with 'We' replaced by `They', since he was not involved in the episode. (`They all came out to Montreux' etc). He sure was a sentimental guy!
4. * A patzer is a poor(moderate to inferior in quality) chess player. Of course, patzers are bound to be poor as well! :-) About the clue - Remus is German for draw, patzers would be very happy if they manage to draw the game?
Sathish: Patzer is a term for novice in chess. the persons elo rating is around 1400.
5. * Dilip Bose was seeded 15 in 1950. He could reach only the 2nd round. He had reached the 4th round in 1948.
6. * First cartoon/graphic book to win the Prize. In fact a whole new category was created for it,it seems.
7. * A sentence or poem which contains all the letters of the alphabet. eg. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
8. *The key word was pithecus.All have hominids named after them, Ramapithecus, Shivapithecus etc.
Cracked only by Sreeram.
Bharat says: RSS. (The party's alternate expansion!!)
Sreeram asks: Are there parts of Niagra which are named after them?
QM: I know there's some such trivia Q about Niagara but forget what exactly it was. Or was it about Colorado? HELP!!!
9. * It's a derogatory term for a Black child.
SK: Dominant racial carricature of Black children. They are described with bulging eyes, unkempt hair and wide mouths. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin explains better.
10. * Victoria Falls. That's its local name. Literally means 'smoke that thunders'. So, the clue was not so cryptic after all, huh?
-------------------------------------------
hi everybody!
Here are the answers to Queuriest -II.
Why were there only so many responses? Just 5! Was this because of my criticism of googlaholics (ref: DISCLAIMER in the prev Answers post)? Is this the size of the nongooglaholic population within Quiznet? ;-) But really, was expecting more... :-(
anyways. . .
luv
thomas
The scores (in chronological order):
Sathish.K - 6.5 (some answers were not specific enough)
Kamal Rathi - 5 (Computer opponent was a good try)
Sreeram - 4 ( <=4 prediction ---> =4 = 4 ! )
Kunal Malhotra - 4.5 (patzer answer vague)
Bharat Jayakumar - (:-)) Keep ur creativity going though!!!
* The only unanswered question was the one about Smoke On The Water
No disclaimer needed this time around!!!
QUEURIEST - II
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A pricky question (piquant?) that could leave you in stitches? Tell me, what you would do with Buffon's needle?
*
2. Name the Sherlock Holmes stories in which Holmes himself is the narrator? Points only if you get all of them.
*
3. Calling all Purpleheads...What was peculiar ( queuerious? ;-) about the way in which Deep Purple's mid-70s lead singer David Coverdale used to sing Deep Purple's all-time classic and possibly their most famous song "Smoke On The Water"? Why? (If you know the lyrics to the song, this is very much workoutable.)
*
4. Chess. Who or what is known as a patzer? (Cryptic clue: A Remus would be a good option for them! )
*
5. Was grass ever for Indian cows? Who was the first Indian to be seeded at Wimbledon?
*
6. Art Spiegelman's Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 . What's the distinction?
*
7. The absolute sitter of this quiz possibly. You've heard about telegrams and anagrams. But what is a pangram?
*
8. Rama, Shiva, Sugriva. What's the connection? (apart from the fact that they are mythological characters etc). Unleash your imagination! I'm waiting to learn more . . .
*
9. Who is a picaninny? You should never call them this!
*
10. How do we better know Mosi-o-Tunya? Cryptic clue: Smoke that thunders rises when a monarch capitulates?
*
hi folks!
here's the next installment of Queuriest.
the questions are fairly straightforward. there are no deliberate misspellings or hazification of questions in order to prevent you from googling. do justify the trust placed in you. there are lots of clues in the questions! tell me if they helped you work out the answers.
hope u enjoy cracking the Qs as much as I did setting them!
luv
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
`Curiouser and curiouser!'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
1. * You could try to find the value of pi.
Sathish: Buffons needle is experimental method used to calculate the value of pi. one of the method is like this, say you got a needle of length 'x',draw parallel lines of distance 's' apart. if you drop the needle 'n' timesand it touche the lines 'y' times then the value of pi can be calculates as app (2*n*x)/(y*s).
Kamal:Buffon's Needle is one of the oldest problems in the field of geometrical probability. It was first stated in 1777. It involves dropping a needle on a lined sheet of paper and determining the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines on the page. The remarkable result is that the probability is directly related to the value of pi.
2. *Only two - The Adventure of The Blanched Soldier and The Adventure Of The Lion's Mane. Only Sreeram gets both.
3. * The song goes `We all came out to Montreux. . .', it was about an fire episode during a Frank Zappa concert that the members attended. Those days Ian Gillan was their lead-singer. After David Coverdale replaced Gillan in the band, at concerts/shows whent the band played the song, DC sang the song with 'We' replaced by `They', since he was not involved in the episode. (`They all came out to Montreux' etc). He sure was a sentimental guy!
4. * A patzer is a poor(moderate to inferior in quality) chess player. Of course, patzers are bound to be poor as well! :-) About the clue - Remus is German for draw, patzers would be very happy if they manage to draw the game?
Sathish: Patzer is a term for novice in chess. the persons elo rating is around 1400.
5. * Dilip Bose was seeded 15 in 1950. He could reach only the 2nd round. He had reached the 4th round in 1948.
6. * First cartoon/graphic book to win the Prize. In fact a whole new category was created for it,it seems.
7. * A sentence or poem which contains all the letters of the alphabet. eg. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
8. *The key word was pithecus.All have hominids named after them, Ramapithecus, Shivapithecus etc.
Cracked only by Sreeram.
Bharat says: RSS. (The party's alternate expansion!!)
Sreeram asks: Are there parts of Niagra which are named after them?
QM: I know there's some such trivia Q about Niagara but forget what exactly it was. Or was it about Colorado? HELP!!!
9. * It's a derogatory term for a Black child.
SK: Dominant racial carricature of Black children. They are described with bulging eyes, unkempt hair and wide mouths. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin explains better.
10. * Victoria Falls. That's its local name. Literally means 'smoke that thunders'. So, the clue was not so cryptic after all, huh?
-------------------------------------------
hi everybody!
Here are the answers to Queuriest -II.
Why were there only so many responses? Just 5! Was this because of my criticism of googlaholics (ref: DISCLAIMER in the prev Answers post)? Is this the size of the nongooglaholic population within Quiznet? ;-) But really, was expecting more... :-(
anyways. . .
luv
thomas
The scores (in chronological order):
Sathish.K - 6.5 (some answers were not specific enough)
Kamal Rathi - 5 (Computer opponent was a good try)
Sreeram - 4 ( <=4 prediction ---> =4 = 4 ! )
Kunal Malhotra - 4.5 (patzer answer vague)
Bharat Jayakumar - (:-)) Keep ur creativity going though!!!
* The only unanswered question was the one about Smoke On The Water
No disclaimer needed this time around!!!
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Sudoku
Sudoku's all the rage nowadays. Have attempted two thus far, completed one.
The word Sudoku means "single number" in Japanese. The first puzzle was created by Howard Garnes, a freelance puzzle constructor, in 1979. It was originally called Number Place.
Should appear in a quiz near you in the near future...
The word Sudoku means "single number" in Japanese. The first puzzle was created by Howard Garnes, a freelance puzzle constructor, in 1979. It was originally called Number Place.
Should appear in a quiz near you in the near future...
Friday, September 02, 2005
Queuriest - I
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - I
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Here's to all you dedicated Googlers. What's the building in which Google's HQ is based called? You are allowed to google only if u get this one! ;-)
*
2. Question for hairy men? tell me what Occam's razor is.
*
3. Who was the first Indian cricketer to get a Man Of The Match in the World Cup?
*
4. What is Korsakoff's Syndrome? Cryptic clue: People who play golf and sum up their scores rarely get it!
*
5. From sick to verse!
The night has a thousand eyes,
The day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When its love is done.
Who's the poet?
*
6. Bland question. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972?
*
7. Expand JRR as in JRR Tolkien.
*
8. Who called M.K. Gandhi "Mahatma Major" and himself "Mahatma Minor"?
*
9.Van Halen's first album with Sammy Hagar as lead singer was 5150. Now 5150 was used as a code for the criminally insane by the police. Their next album was called OU812. What's the story?
*
10. How many faces does a icosahedron have? Go ahead, sit on it.
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Sat Dec 7, 2002 12:33 am
Subject: Queuriest - I
hi everybody!
here's the first edition of Queuriest. Ten questions for you to crack. Answers in a week.
cool words to know: . . .phthisis. . . chthonian. . .looks like they've been misspelt huh?
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTI-GOOGLING SONG
lucifer is the light-giver
go ogle in the egg loo,
you'll get goo leg
evil one,
if you didn't get the first one
you deserve it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(To discourage googling for the answers. Some resorted to other search engines!)
ANSWERS
-------------
Date: Sat Dec 14, 2002 12:46 am
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - I
hi everybody!
Here are the answers to Queuriest -I.
well, about the name Queuriest. . .Pronounced kyooriyest. Inspired by `curiouser and curiouser!'. supposed to be curious-est contracted and spelled with Q (the best letter of them all! ). some of you thought it was supposed to be `queer'iest, and so came up with some queer answers. well?
about the words (did all of u know the meaning?)
-phthisis = Involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body
-chthonian= Of the underworld
the literal meaning of lucifer is light-giver, really. i was not kidding in the anti-google poem . . .and luciferin is a pigment that's there in fireflies.
luv
thomas
-------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
>1. Googleplex.
It's at Mountain View, CA ? . . .and 1 followed by a googol zeroes is called a googol-plex. yawn? a googol is one followed by a hundred zeroes. ZZZZZZZ.....'googol' coined by Milton Sirotta, nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner.
>2. * It is the principle that explanations should not be unnecessarily complicated and that assumptions should not be needlessly multiplied. now that is very clear, is it not? ;-) ) I've been rather liberal on this one. Some of you mentioned this was the same as Principle Of Parsimony and that it is attributed to Willam Of Occam.
>3.* It was Farokh Engineer, in the match vs East Africa in WC'75 at Headingley
Most of you answered Bishan Singh Bedi for his superb spell of 12-8-6-1 in the same match but Engineer was the MoM. I wonder why though. He scored 54* but was not the topscorer either. Gavaskar got 65*. India won the match by 10 wickets.
Turned out to be the Chinaman of the quiz (since the googly was spotted)!
>4. * Dementia observed during the last stages of severe chronic alcoholism; involves loss of memory for recent events although long term memory is intact. (what did i just say?). Occurs due to Vit B1 (thiamine) deficiency. But mostly associated with alcoholism. Only few of you mentioned alcoholism. Only 0.5 if alcoholism not mentioned.
The clue could've ben worked out as -- people who golf tee, sum up score=total. so they could be called teetotallers? yuck, i feel ashamed about the clue now! so twisted. maybe i should've added something about amnesia as well. I'd meant to as well, but forgot!
>5. * Francis William Bourdillon. The poem is called Light.
>6.* Nobody. The prize money was allocated to the main fund of the Nobel foundation (why?)
This was supposed to be the googly of the quiz but was almost universally spotted! :-(
How I hate you, Google!
>7. * John Ronald Reuel
>8. * Eminently guessable, George Bernard Shaw. Most of you got it.
>9.* When spoken aloud, it sounds like "Oh You Ate One Too". This was a dig at their previous lead singer, David Lee Roth's solo album "Eat 'em and smile" which was released about the same time.
>10. * Twenty (20) . Polyhedron having twenty plane faces. Absolutely no controversy about this one!
--------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
Raghavendra Achar - 1 (the first! )
Sukhamaya - 7.5 (keep it up!)
Raghav Narayanan - 6.5 (don't know about ur query regarding women's WC. sorry.)
Shashi Shekar - (better luck next time.)
Rajesh Malviya - 1.5 (Your Hypermetropia of memory answer was way cool man!)
Ankur Jain - 9 (good going. keep it up!)
Venkateshwar KR - 2.5 (enjoyed the queery answers)
Vijay Anand Menon - 6 (good show boss)
Soumyadipta B - 3.5 (ur icosahedron has 2 faces? or did u mean 20? add 1 if that was so)
Binoj George - 7.5 (keep it up!)
Naveed Mohammed - 9 (got two .5s you didn't mention anything about DLR's album for 9 and no alcoholism in 4, sorry)
Sathish K - 7.5 (great show boss)
Kamal Rathi - 6 (thanx for the address of Google's HQ.)
* The Van Halen question was the least attempted question int the quiz. (Not too many Halen fans in here?)
* Most of the .5s are 'coz no mention of alcoholism in Korsakoff's syndrome. I know this is gonna be controversial but this tidbit was what i was looking for.
*Most wrongly answered question was the first Indian MoM at WC. Mohinder Amarnath.
DISCLAIMER: The QM's congratulatory remarks regarding the maintenance of the state of elevation* conditional to the respondent's abstinence from the use of deprecated extraneous assistance - automated or otherwise. All responses accepted as accurate transcriptions of the respondent's cranial contents. Reponses not matching aforementioned description, if any, constitute breach of trust and are deplored.
*=keep it up etc
Any inconvenience to genuine respondents as a result of this disclaimer is regretted.
QUEURIEST - I
Keep Guessing! --- Johnnie Guesser
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Here's to all you dedicated Googlers. What's the building in which Google's HQ is based called? You are allowed to google only if u get this one! ;-)
*
2. Question for hairy men? tell me what Occam's razor is.
*
3. Who was the first Indian cricketer to get a Man Of The Match in the World Cup?
*
4. What is Korsakoff's Syndrome? Cryptic clue: People who play golf and sum up their scores rarely get it!
*
5. From sick to verse!
The night has a thousand eyes,
The day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When its love is done.
Who's the poet?
*
6. Bland question. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972?
*
7. Expand JRR as in JRR Tolkien.
*
8. Who called M.K. Gandhi "Mahatma Major" and himself "Mahatma Minor"?
*
9.Van Halen's first album with Sammy Hagar as lead singer was 5150. Now 5150 was used as a code for the criminally insane by the police. Their next album was called OU812. What's the story?
*
10. How many faces does a icosahedron have? Go ahead, sit on it.
*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Sat Dec 7, 2002 12:33 am
Subject: Queuriest - I
hi everybody!
here's the first edition of Queuriest. Ten questions for you to crack. Answers in a week.
cool words to know: . . .phthisis. . . chthonian. . .looks like they've been misspelt huh?
thomas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTI-GOOGLING SONG
lucifer is the light-giver
go ogle in the egg loo,
you'll get goo leg
evil one,
if you didn't get the first one
you deserve it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(To discourage googling for the answers. Some resorted to other search engines!)
ANSWERS
-------------
Date: Sat Dec 14, 2002 12:46 am
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - I
hi everybody!
Here are the answers to Queuriest -I.
well, about the name Queuriest. . .Pronounced kyooriyest. Inspired by `curiouser and curiouser!'. supposed to be curious-est contracted and spelled with Q (the best letter of them all! ). some of you thought it was supposed to be `queer'iest, and so came up with some queer answers. well?
about the words (did all of u know the meaning?)
-phthisis = Involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body
-chthonian= Of the underworld
the literal meaning of lucifer is light-giver, really. i was not kidding in the anti-google poem . . .and luciferin is a pigment that's there in fireflies.
luv
thomas
-------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
>1. Googleplex.
It's at Mountain View, CA ? . . .and 1 followed by a googol zeroes is called a googol-plex. yawn? a googol is one followed by a hundred zeroes. ZZZZZZZ.....'googol' coined by Milton Sirotta, nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner.
>2. * It is the principle that explanations should not be unnecessarily complicated and that assumptions should not be needlessly multiplied. now that is very clear, is it not? ;-) ) I've been rather liberal on this one. Some of you mentioned this was the same as Principle Of Parsimony and that it is attributed to Willam Of Occam.
>3.* It was Farokh Engineer, in the match vs East Africa in WC'75 at Headingley
Most of you answered Bishan Singh Bedi for his superb spell of 12-8-6-1 in the same match but Engineer was the MoM. I wonder why though. He scored 54* but was not the topscorer either. Gavaskar got 65*. India won the match by 10 wickets.
Turned out to be the Chinaman of the quiz (since the googly was spotted)!
>4. * Dementia observed during the last stages of severe chronic alcoholism; involves loss of memory for recent events although long term memory is intact. (what did i just say?). Occurs due to Vit B1 (thiamine) deficiency. But mostly associated with alcoholism. Only few of you mentioned alcoholism. Only 0.5 if alcoholism not mentioned.
The clue could've ben worked out as -- people who golf tee, sum up score=total. so they could be called teetotallers? yuck, i feel ashamed about the clue now! so twisted. maybe i should've added something about amnesia as well. I'd meant to as well, but forgot!
>5. * Francis William Bourdillon. The poem is called Light.
>6.* Nobody. The prize money was allocated to the main fund of the Nobel foundation (why?)
This was supposed to be the googly of the quiz but was almost universally spotted! :-(
How I hate you, Google!
>7. * John Ronald Reuel
>8. * Eminently guessable, George Bernard Shaw. Most of you got it.
>9.* When spoken aloud, it sounds like "Oh You Ate One Too". This was a dig at their previous lead singer, David Lee Roth's solo album "Eat 'em and smile" which was released about the same time.
>10. * Twenty (20) . Polyhedron having twenty plane faces. Absolutely no controversy about this one!
--------------------------------------------------------------
The scores (in chronological order)
Raghavendra Achar - 1 (the first! )
Sukhamaya - 7.5 (keep it up!)
Raghav Narayanan - 6.5 (don't know about ur query regarding women's WC. sorry.)
Shashi Shekar - (better luck next time.)
Rajesh Malviya - 1.5 (Your Hypermetropia of memory answer was way cool man!)
Ankur Jain - 9 (good going. keep it up!)
Venkateshwar KR - 2.5 (enjoyed the queery answers)
Vijay Anand Menon - 6 (good show boss)
Soumyadipta B - 3.5 (ur icosahedron has 2 faces? or did u mean 20? add 1 if that was so)
Binoj George - 7.5 (keep it up!)
Naveed Mohammed - 9 (got two .5s you didn't mention anything about DLR's album for 9 and no alcoholism in 4, sorry)
Sathish K - 7.5 (great show boss)
Kamal Rathi - 6 (thanx for the address of Google's HQ.)
* The Van Halen question was the least attempted question int the quiz. (Not too many Halen fans in here?)
* Most of the .5s are 'coz no mention of alcoholism in Korsakoff's syndrome. I know this is gonna be controversial but this tidbit was what i was looking for.
*Most wrongly answered question was the first Indian MoM at WC. Mohinder Amarnath.
DISCLAIMER: The QM's congratulatory remarks regarding the maintenance of the state of elevation* conditional to the respondent's abstinence from the use of deprecated extraneous assistance - automated or otherwise. All responses accepted as accurate transcriptions of the respondent's cranial contents. Reponses not matching aforementioned description, if any, constitute breach of trust and are deplored.
*=keep it up etc
Any inconvenience to genuine respondents as a result of this disclaimer is regretted.
Queuriest - Intro
Queuriest was a series of very "cluesy" quizzes that I ran on Quiznet 3 or 4 years back. If you like cryptic crossword puzzles, it's highly likely that you'll like this also.
The clues were blended into the questions - sometimes as separate clues and sometimes hidden in the framing of the questions. One would not be able to guess the answer from the clue without background knowledge but the clue would help churn out the creamy answer from the depths of your memory. And if one didn't know the answer, when one heard it, one had to have the I-should-have-got-it feeling.
I had a lot of fun compiling the questions and also reading the answers that came in. Be sure to read the comments on the posts as well. There were 10 episodes. It got curiouser and curiouser...
Check them out. These quizzes are also available on Quiznet. You can read the time-capsule versions there if you choose, instead of the retrospective versions here . The answers will be given as comments for each post.
The clues were blended into the questions - sometimes as separate clues and sometimes hidden in the framing of the questions. One would not be able to guess the answer from the clue without background knowledge but the clue would help churn out the creamy answer from the depths of your memory. And if one didn't know the answer, when one heard it, one had to have the I-should-have-got-it feeling.
I had a lot of fun compiling the questions and also reading the answers that came in. Be sure to read the comments on the posts as well. There were 10 episodes. It got curiouser and curiouser...
Check them out. These quizzes are also available on Quiznet. You can read the time-capsule versions there if you choose, instead of the retrospective versions here . The answers will be given as comments for each post.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Time's Man Of The Year
-------------------------
ORACLIQUE - I
Time's MoYs
--------------------------
Feminists, the reason I didn't use Person Of the Year was because the abbreviation TPoY would have unnecessarily reminded one of a certain piece of furniture... :-)
1. First things first. Who was the first person to be chosen as TIME's Man Of The Year?
*
2. In which year was the PC famously chosen as the first non-living TMoY?
*
3. Still on 'it', what was the next non-person TMoY?
*
4. Toughie. Grab that list! Who has been chosen as TMoY the most number of times?
*
5. A relatively easy one. Who was selected as person of the century by the magazine?
*
*
7. Who was the first non-American to be a TMoY? What you wear be you!
*
8. Who was the first woman to be chosen TMoY? Quite possibly the other woman...
*
9. Who is the youngest person to be a TMoY? Strange.. very strange. Could it be that the oldest is also the youngest???
*
10. Who is the only person to have been selected as TMoY in consecutive years?
*
11. Who received the honour in 1938? (Now why would I pick that year?)
*
12. Four people shared the TMoY in a certain year. All of them have also won the Nobel Prize. And strangely enough, they also shared Nobel Prizes when they did get them (separately, 2 + 2). Identify these Nobel couples.
*
13. Just to make it a couple of couple-questions...;-) Who were (was? grammar be my bane!! ) the first couple to be chosen as TMoY?
*
I'll stop at that. An un-nice, un-round number. Round me up!!!
------------------------------------
ORACLIQUE
The Clique Unoblique
-------------------------------------
Answers
-------------
1. Charles Lindbergh. Too many "Charles Augustus Lindbergh"s came in. Sniff, sniff...hmm..ok..Don't think I don't know you don't know ;-)
2. 1982. Point-blank.
3. Endangered Earth in 1988
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Have given points for just Roosevelt as well.
5. Albert Einstein
6. Whistleblowers. They blew the whistle on Enron, WorldCom and FBI respectively.
7. Mahatma Gandhi. Khadi!
8. Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The woman for whose love Edward VIII abdicated the
throne.
9. Charles Lindberg again. He was the first and hence the oldest as well!
10. Richard Nixon. In 1971 and 1972.
11. Adolf Hitler
12. The Peacemakers - Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, F.W. de Klerk and
Nelson Mandela
are the Nobel-couples!!! got so many 'curie'ous answers to this one!
13. Chiang Kaishek and Madam
14) TIME had a Man Of The Decade award once. Who won it? Which decade?
Mikhail Gorbachev. 1980s.
>I'll stop at that. An un-nice, un-round number. Round me up!!!
That's where everybody stopped! No further Qs came in... :-( Too bad each
of you thought that the "other person" would do it...
------------------------------------
ORACLIQUE
The Clique Unoblique
-------------------------------------
Sandeep Unni Adds:
* interestingly Elvis Presley topped the polls for the man of the century,
but time decided to honor Einstein.
Answers
-------------
1. Charles Lindbergh. Too many "Charles Augustus Lindbergh"s came in. Sniff, sniff...hmm..ok..Don't think I don't know you don't know ;-)
2. 1982. Point-blank.
3. Endangered Earth in 1988
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Have given points for just Roosevelt as well.
5. Albert Einstein
6. Whistleblowers. They blew the whistle on Enron, WorldCom and FBI respectively.
7. Mahatma Gandhi. Khadi!
8. Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The woman for whose love Edward VIII abdicated the
throne.
9. Charles Lindberg again. He was the first and hence the oldest as well!
10. Richard Nixon. In 1971 and 1972.
11. Adolf Hitler
12. The Peacemakers - Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, F.W. de Klerk and
Nelson Mandela
are the Nobel-couples!!! got so many 'curie'ous answers to this one!
13. Chiang Kaishek and Madam
14) TIME had a Man Of The Decade award once. Who won it? Which decade?
Mikhail Gorbachev. 1980s.
>I'll stop at that. An un-nice, un-round number. Round me up!!!
That's where everybody stopped! No further Qs came in... :-( Too bad each
of you thought that the "other person" would do it...
------------------------------------
ORACLIQUE
The Clique Unoblique
-------------------------------------
Sandeep Unni Adds:
* interestingly Elvis Presley topped the polls for the man of the century,
but time decided to honor Einstein.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Oraclique Trivia
Welcome to Oraclique...
Steeped in trivia and mystique!
Oracle + Clique = Oraclique
Such words are called portmanteaus. Lewis Carroll is regarded as the inventor of this technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau
Oraclique was a series of quizzes I had started on Quiznet http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quiznet/ with the nick sonofdelphi.
The name is based on the meanings (all angles) of the combining words.
Clique:
1. An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
2. Completely interconnected graph in computer science
And in Greek mythology, the oracle at Delphi had all the answers.
Couldn't be a more meaningful name, huh?
Steeped in trivia and mystique!
Oracle + Clique = Oraclique
Such words are called portmanteaus. Lewis Carroll is regarded as the inventor of this technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau
Oraclique was a series of quizzes I had started on Quiznet http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quiznet/ with the nick sonofdelphi.
The name is based on the meanings (all angles) of the combining words.
Oracle:
1. An authoritative person who divines the future
2. A prophecy (usually obscure or allegorical) revealed by a priest or priestess; believed to be infallible
Clique:
1. An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
2. Completely interconnected graph in computer science
And in Greek mythology, the oracle at Delphi had all the answers.
Couldn't be a more meaningful name, huh?
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