Queuriest - VIII

-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VIII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. Eminently workoutable one for starters, especially if you read this aloud! What is echolalia? echolalia. . .
*

2. Who made his debut in the 1934 film `The Wise Little Hen'? Cryptic Clue: Bradman gets out for zero!
*

3. "Asking the ignorant to use the incomprehensible to decide the unknowable." Who defined what thus?
*

4. Question framed with a purpose?...What is chindogu?
*

5. USSR / Russia: Cosmonaut :: USA: Astronaut :: China:: ________?
*

6. Who or what is a Lazy Susan? Clue: Pass!
*

7. BeeGees, as in the pop band, was actually (obviously?) an abbreviation. What does it stand for? They were the . . .
*

8. Asterix question, or . . . is it? What was the codename for the spy Vitriolix?
*

9. Not so comical question, I swear, by Apollo! What is a nosocomical infection?
*

10. The name adopted by which dictator literally meant "Glorious Sun"? Direct Clue (for a change!) : He had Chinese blood in him.
*

------------------------------------
Fear is only a preference.
When one's enemies are
too strong, one chooses
weaker ones!
------------------------------------

From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003 6:49 pm
Subject: Queuriest - VIII

hi everybody!

welcome to episode 8 of Queuriest.

answers in a week's time.

luv
thomas


ANSWERS
---------------

From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Tue Feb 11, 2003 8:49 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - VIII

hi folks!

23 responses in all.

am out with the answers early 'cos answers've stopped coming...what with so many quizzes being posted in the previous 2 days...and most of the regular respondents having sent their post in... WHY WAIT?

apologies to anyone who was planning to send in answers today. but hey, you can check out Queuriest-IX.

In the previous answers post, I'd queried:

>I wonder if this is the only flag with a bird on it...(Papua New Guinea)
Sreeram: Flag of Mexico has an eagle
Peter: Guatemala's flag has a quetzal
...there may be many more...futile search for a new question...:-(

>Moonraker is the term for a native of _______
got no responses for this one. but found out that this is applied to residents of Wiltshire, England

...thanx for the responses.

luv
thomas

-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VIII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. Eminently workoutable one for starters, especially if you read this aloud! What is echolalia? echolalia. . .
* Echolalia is a condition in which one tends to repeat words one has heard, usually the last word or sentence. So it pays to follow instructions. . . So it pays to follow instructions. . . So it pays to follow instructions....;-)

2. Who made his debut in the 1934 film `The Wise Little Hen'? Cryptic Clue: Bradman gets out for zero!
* Donald Duck
Many of you worked it out from the clue which made it pretty obvious, I guess. I don't know whether this is true, but I've heard this story that Walt Disney was in the stadium during this match / heard commentator exclaiming "Donald Duck"! --> name of Mr. Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

3. "Asking the ignorant to use the incomprehensible to decide the unknowable." Who defined what thus?
* Judge Hiller Zobel of the US (yeah the Louise Woodward/Mathew Eappen "nanny" case judge) criticizing/defining the jury system.
He mentioned this after the OJ Simpson case.
Nobody cracked this one fully. AS & TU got as far as "juries" but couldn't get the person right
Not too many attepts either...was waiting to be flooded with imaginative

4. Question framed with a purpose?...What is chindogu?
* It is the Japanese art of making "useless inventions" or devices that seem to be useful but actually are not. Like this question perhaps...totally useless information!...but hey I'm not Japanese!

5. USSR / Russia: Cosmonaut :: USA: Astronaut :: China:: ________?
* Taikonaut is what you would call a Chinese space-traveller
AS: taikong is the actual Chinese word

6. Who or what is a Lazy Susan? Clue: Pass!
* A revolving tray placed on a dining table. Pass...if you can't reach the pudding!

7. BeeGees, as in the pop band, was actually (obviously?) an abbreviation. What does it stand for? They were the . . .
* Brothers Gibb. They were literally a "Band of Brothers". :-)

8. Asterix question, or . . . is it? What was the codename for the spy Vitriolix?
* H2SO4 (echh-too-es-o-four)
(Oil of) Vitriol is sulphuric acid which has the formula h2so4... Z.Z.Z.Z....?
Workoutable one even if you are not an Asterix fanatic. I believe he features in Asterix and the Legionary (not too sure...) Dubbelosix, another spy, a caricature of Sean Connery features in Asterix & The Black Gold.

9. Not so comical question, I swear, by Apollo! What is a nosocomial infection?
* An infection you get from a hospital.
I apologise for a mistake in the question, it is nosocomial, without the second 'c'. (not nosocomical) Sory foks four thi bad speling. ;-)
About the clue: Swearing by Apollo --> Hippocratic Oath --> Doctors --> Hospitals
+I: Apollo is also the god of healing
Many of you worked it out as Apollo--> space, moon, sun etc. Good work but hey, where was the need to interpret it as a clue? I could've been just stating a fact (though I was not! ), nosocomial infections are pretty serious after all. . .and who else can Son Of Delphi swear by, but Apollo! ;-)

10. The name adopted by which dictator literally meant "Glorious Sun"? Direct Clue (for a change!) : He had Chinese blood in him.
* Ne Win of Myanmar. His real name was Shu Maung. He was of mixed Chinese-Burmese descent. He died in December 2002...
Current affairs in Queuriest! I'm SHOCKED!

------------------------------------
Fear is only a preference.
When one's enemies are
too strong, one chooses
weaker ones!
------------------------------------

The scores (in chronological order):

1. Debashree Mitra - 4 (nice going)
2. Prasenjit Sengupta - 2 (la la la liya)
3. Indraneel Sikdar - 1 (Tennyson is my guess)
4. Shobhana Balakrishnan - 2 (More tries please m'lady!)
5. Sreeram - 4 (ex-amnesiac!)
6. Shashi Thutupalli - 4 (nice guessing!)
7. Arjun Siva - 9.5 (Robert Burton's not the guy)
8. CoolDude9456 - 1 (100% cool)
9. Venkateswar KR - 2 ( u light up my quiz!)
10. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 3 (so do u!)
11. Kunal Malhotra - 6 (good show boss)
12. Vittal Avinash - 2 (guess more)
13. Nilesh Sinha - 1 (what's the ureasusan connection?)
14. Shom Biswas - 2 (hope exams went great)
15. Pauline Daniel - 1 (use the clues more)
16. Sandeep Unni - 4 (I love my X-words too!)
17. Rinks S - 3.5 (Stalin & Chinese blood!)
18. Shrinath Nagarajan - 2 ( nice working out)
19. Bharat Jayakumar - 3.5 (It's not Queriest!)
20. Narayan Vinay - 8 (going great guns)
21. Thejaswi Udupa - 7.5 (solid effort)
22. Kensy Joseph - 2 (nice guesses though)
23. Partha Sengupta - 1 (Hollies was great)

--------STATS ----------------------------------------------

Funnest! -
Bill Gates on Linux for JuryQuote!
Answering Queuriest on JuryQuote!
Unuseless inventions on Chindogu
Nomanout on Taikonaut

Ridiqulest! -
Singing in the bathroom on Echolalia
Dogs leading with their chins on Chindogu
Question framed to get correct answer always on Chindogu
Urinal on Lazy Susan

Guessest!- nice guessing
006, 000 on Vitriolix
"Sun"Yat Sen on Glorious Sun
Chinonaut on Chinese Astronaut
Doubleohsix on Vitriolix
Infection from sunlight on Nosocomial infection

* Most popular wrong answer: Pol Pot on Ne Win
* All questions except 3 were cracked fully
* Arjun Siva tops the quiz with 9.5 points
* Average score : 3.3
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Today is Pi Day

Today is 3/14 (March 14) and at 1:59 pm, if you string the date and time together, we would get the sequence 314159 or pi, the magic number. Hence the trivially inclined mathematicians(?) celebrate it as Pi Day!

Exercise for the reader: July 22 is also celebrated as Pi Approximation Day. Work out why.

Another interesting celebration is that of Mole Day. In honour of Avogadro's constant, 6.023 x 10^23. That is celebrated on October 23, between 6.02 am and 6.02 pm. Same logic.

But I believe June 02(6/02), 10:23 would have been a more appropriate choice for Mole Day! Just a trifle better...How trivial can one get, huh?

Queuriest - VII

-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. Sitter (Flier?) to start off. Which bird features on the flag of Papua New Guinea? Clue: Milton flies!
*

2. What's dentinology the study of? If you know the answer, then definitely you are a dentinologist!
*

3. If beauty is measured in Helens, what is measured in dols?
*

4. Which English author's middle name was Klapta? Yeah, out of three...
*

5. Charles Dickens: Mystery of Edwin Drood :: Douglas Adams: _________?
*

6. What would you have if you had diastimia? Don't grin so much, it's not that evident if you don't!
*

7. Which rock star is nicknamed after a hearing-aid? Maybe he lives on the edge....
*

8. Where would you find the Mountains of the Moon?
*

9. Which country has the Internet domain extension .il ?
*

10. Who or what is a Hoosier? Clue: Mr. Jones!
*

------------------------------
Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloody hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...
------------------------------------

From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Jan 31, 2003 4:13 pm
Subject: Queuriest - VII

Welcome to episode 7 of Queuriest.

sorry for the long delay. (for excuse, please refer answers to previous episode :-) ...and hope none of you have developed queuriest-withdrawal symptoms! ;-) just kidding...

no google-bashing this time around. but hope that does not mean less responses . ( i've noticed whenever i google-bash, more replies pour in! ). be good.

luv
thomas


ANSWERS
--------------

From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003 6:43 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - VII

hi there!

34 responses in all.

low-scoring affair all-round. average score was 3. = questions tougher?

Quote of the Episode: Who needs google?! by Shom Biswas.

luv
thomas

-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. Sitter (Flier?) to start off. Which bird features on the flag of Papua New Guinea? Clue: Milton flies!
* Bird of Paradise. Many got real specific with Kumul.
The clue made it pretty obvious I guess. I wonder if this is the only flag with a bird on it...

2. What's dentinology the study of? If you know the answer, then definitely you are a dentinologist!
* It's the study of collections and/or their naming.
Answers varied from knowledge to morality. The clue was a dead give-away? just kidding...this was answered correctly only by a handful...

3. If beauty is measured in Helens, what is measured in dols?
* Pain is measured in dols
Ugliness was a common response.

4. Which English author's middle name was Klapka? Yeah, out of three...
* Jerome Klapka Jerome.
Sorry for the error in the question where it was Klapta instead of Klapka. Was a tip of the slinger...No, it was not an anti-google measure (google corrects it automatically! i checked)

5. Charles Dickens: Mystery of Edwin Drood :: Douglas Adams: _________?
* The Salmon Of Doubt.
Mystery of Edwin Drood was the unfinished novel of Charles Dickens, when he died.
Prasenjit Sengupta said that Salmon Of Doubt was in fact completed by DA and it is due to be released this year
QM: I believe the book being released is only a collection of pieces by the author. It is named so after the Salmon Of Doubt, an unfinished story by DA about Dirk Gently I think.

6. What would you have if you had diastimia? Don't grin so much, it's not that evident if you don't!
* Diastimia is the gap between your front teeth.
Not too many dentists in here?
OK...now you may GRIN! ;-)
that it had something to do with teeth was universally worked out.

7. Which rock star is nicknamed after a hearing-aid? Maybe he lives on the edge....
* Bono (Paul Hewson) of U2
Definitely he lives on The Edge, U2's guitarist! Aerosmith/Steve Tyler was a popular guess 'cos of the Living on the Edge song interpretation of the clue. A googly?
PS: Boss (Headphone)--> Bruce Springsteen
QM: also accepted though it's a different story!

8. Where would you find the Mountains of the Moon?
* Africa.
Ruwenzori mountain-range between Uganda and Congo was referred to as Mountains of the Moon by Ptolemy 'cos these had snow.
had some answers about them being referred to in a Grateful Dead song also...many answers mentioned palm/knuckles also...

9. Which country has the Internet domain extension .il ?
* Israel is the correct answer...and .ps is Palestine...
Iceland and Ireland were common guesses

10. Who or what is a Hoosier? Clue: Mr. Jones!
* Resident of Indiana.
Mr.Jones supposed to remind you of Indiana Jones. Lots of you worked it out as farmer (from Animal Farm - Mr.Jones? ) good work though incorrect.
Can anybody tell me where a Moonraker is from? I don't know the answer myself.
+I : Buckeye - Ohio, Lett - Latvia, Carioca - RioDeJaneiro

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloody hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scores (in chronological order):

1. Indraneel Sikdar - 2 (DA has written plenty of other books)
2. Shashi Thutupalli - 3 (congrats on dentinology)
3. Shashi Shekar - 1 (go to the dentist ok, but why?)
4. Prasenjit Sengupta - 4 (it's coming out this year? yay!)
5. Shiraz - 7 (no it was not an anti-google measure)
6. Mamatha Balasubramanian - 1.5 (nice guesses)
7. Vinay Sriganesh - 0 (I think IM rocks too)
8. Arjun Siva - 4 (first to crack diastimia)
9. Prakash Pillai - 5 (nice effort)
10. U Damodaran - 5 (sorry I don't know the origin either)
11. Vijay Krishnan - 4 (are you from calicut?)
12. Raghav Narayanan - 3 (nice work)
13. Sourabh Issar - 1(keep guessing!)
14. Rahul Chattopadhyay - 6 (solid effort)
15. Shom Biswas - 2 ( Thanx for the compliments man! and sorry the clues misled you! ;-) never mind!)
16. TalonX the Surreal - 2 ( What's not! )
17. B. Sreeram - 4 (Sreeramnesia! )
18. Bhaskar Singh - 4.5 (native of indiana expected)
19. Arun Prashanth - 2 (Both great answers!)
20. Ranjith - 4 (Keep on answering...)
21. Minhaj Alam - 2 (use the clues!)
22. 666 - 2 (Beast, what thy name? ;-)
23. Anand Sivashankar - 3 (cool show dude)
24. Mahesh Nair - 5 (can't give it for missing tooth)
25. Bharat Jayakumar - 3 (Stellarantagonophile maybe?)
26. KrisSriram - 3 (some answers not specific enough)
27. Ian Anderson - 8 (Tull the first one!)
28. Debashree Mitra - 3 (dictionary ok i guess)
29. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 1 (thanx for enlivening the quiz!)
30. Syam Prasad - 4 (hotPOP next time!)
31. Sivaramakrishnan - 3 (Have u read 3 Men on the Bummel, the sequel?)
32. Kamal - 5 (solid effort)
33. Biswabijoy Sen - 3 (Keep guessing! Outrageously..u r welcome!)
34. Partha Sengupta - 3 (Boss was great work)


--------STATS ----------------------------------------------

Funnest! -
Pestering neighbour on Hoosier
A Know-it-all on Dentinology
Cheek pain on Diastimia
Go to a dentist on Diastimia
hmmm on Mountains of the Moon.

Ridiqulest!
Mystery of Columbia on Doug Adams
"Hoosier means nothing actually. It can be used as a substitute word depending on the situation. It is basically a Hoosier word!" on Hoosier.
Blue teeth! on Diastimia


Guessest!- nice guessing
Study of quizzes on Dentinology
Stain on teeth on Diastimia
Study of unusual words on Dentinology
GK Chesterton on Jerome K Jerome

* Most popular wrong answer: Ireland/Iceland on .il
* All questions were answered
* Ian Anderson tops the quiz with 8 points
* Average score : 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------

God From The Machine

A calque is an expression introduced into one language by translating it from another language. For example, "'superman' is a calque for the German 'Übermensch'".

An interesting calque that I came across recently was "deus ex machina" meaning "god from the machine". For the trivially inclined, it is a calque from Greek to Latin! It refers to the use of supernatural plot elements in works of art to explain things or solve seemingly unsolvable problems.

We have all seen and experienced this in Hindi movies where towards the climax, when the helpless widow is with the villain..and the situation is hopeless.... the wind starts blowing all of sudden and prayer-bells start ringing and suddenly the villain is knocked down... as a result of the lady-in-distress's or her child's praying in a temple!

That's deus ex machina in play.

On Deja Vu

déjà vu (French: "already seen") describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.

jamais vu (French: "never seen") refers to explicitly not remembering having seen something before. The person knows it has happened before, but the experience feels unfamiliar.

presque vu (French: "almost seen") means almost, but not quite, remembering something.

(Content based on Wikipedia)

Divided We Fall

Disease
Presently, I am running a new series of quizzes on Quiznet . But somehow, I don't seem to be getting the same number of replies (only 10-20) as I used to get (between 30-40) when I ran the original series in 2002-2003. I started to wonder: Have I lost my sting? Should I stop? But a few other old-timers were also complaining that they too were not getting many responses either. I decided to take a look around.

The cause?
I found that a major change from back then was that there were many more quizzing groups around, as was the recent spurt in the number of blogs. Taking into account the similarity in the nature of the quizzes in my two series, perhaps the lackadaisical response had something to do with the fact that I don't crosspost these quizzes, ie, post the same content in different groups.

A cursory examination of the quizzes receiving 30+ replies backed my hypothesis; those were being crossposted.

I believe there too many quiz groups right now. It is getting a bit difficult to keep track of and manage the content in our Inboxes, with the same content appearing on most of the quiz-groups. It also takes more effort to share the information/make announcements; we need to mark copies to all the quiz-groups.

Evils of the crosspost
I understand that the exponential explosion in the number of groups could be because each group has a philosophy of its own. Or does it? If yes, why does the same content appear in most of them? I feel that many are just egotistical pursuits. The duplication of content leads to -
a) Time wastage (Haven't I read this before?)
b) Unnecessary mail-traffic (read as spam; duplicates are as useless as spam)
This is why I don't crosspost.

The group-proliferation is not for the Greater Common Good; indeed, it did much harm. Take a look at the contrast between :-
(pre-blog/multigroup era)
2003 Quiznet Posts : J104 F123 M127 A130 M154 J113 J117 A114 S127 O117 N99 D72
(post-group explosion)
2005 Quiznet Posts : J64 F66 M69 A31 M55 J66 J52 A45 S70 O81 N80 D101

I am reminded of the days when the chess-world was split into the PCA & the FIDE camps. Lots of duplicated and wasted effort and confusion.
Too many cooks spoil the broth: too many groups spoil the fun:: 1:1. What do you think?
....Maybe a grand unified quiz group is the need of the hour?

History shows us the way to go.

Queuriest - VI

-------------------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VI
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. If James Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, who wrote A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man? God knows!
*

2. This one might really whip the bails off you. Who holds the record for the most number of stumpings in Test cricket history?
*

3. Golden Hind: Francis Drake :: Millennium Falcon : _____________?
*

4. What happens when somebody is subjected to defenestration? Linux fans, anyone?
*

5. Easy one. Who led the mutiny onboard the HMS Bounty?
*

6. Codenames! The secret plans for what was called Project Chess?
Crazy Cryptic Clue: A giant that could be royal, Prussian and marine has something to do with it, perhaps? But little to do with Mr. Garik Weinstein though, contrary to what you might think.
*

7. Who, along with superstar pals 'Beatle' George Harrison, 'Heartbreaker' Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison - formed a band called the Traveling Wilburys? The answer, my friend is . . .
*

8. Which month in the calendar is named after Latin for `to open'? You may guess, but think what could be before!
*

9. Surprisingly easy one. What does a thaumatologist do?
*

10. What was codified in a 1942 short story called 'Runaround'? Cryptic Clue: Mt.SinAI !
*


BONUS Question
Q. Can you make 24 out of 4 zeroes only? Use mathematical operations only. ie, make an expression out of 0,0,0,0 such that it evaluates to 24.
*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A match may start a fire. But once the fire is
started, putting out the match will not be of
any use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Thu Jan 9, 2003 12:18 pm
Subject: Queuriest - VI

Welcome to episode 6 of Queuriest.

a few words about the Queuriest series. I intend these quizzes to be competitive in nature. That's why I toss in a few sitters and also why clues abound, so that there's something for everybody. I don't bury the questions in voluminous prose (obscurification). Neither do I introduce deliberate misspellings or inaccurate info. (Two anti-googling strategies commonly employed). Direct & honest, trust implied. That's what I like...

and if you attempt to answer the Qs honestly, then the answers stay longer in your head when they come. That's the ultimate aim, right? Plus that way it's more fun and satisfying for all involved...and there need be no shame in getting 'just' 1 or 2. And 50% in a set of Qs set by another person is very good indeed.

and in case you do google for a question (when it absolutely CAN't wait!!) , at least indicate that in the answer, I'll give you half the points. CONSCIENCE, not CON-SCIENCE! ;-) That way it would be fair both on googlers (some reward for searching so hard) and on others who attempt the Qs by themselves ...and give me some extra info also please :-)

If, on the other hand, you feel that these quizzes are just google-guides, then please tell me, I'll stop posting the scores, just the answers should do fine then, won't it. . .I feel it's unfair on the genuine, competitive respondents otherwise (sometimes it breaks my heart to place a googler above a genuey :-(. . .also, I need not frame the questions all that carefully then, you would find the errors anyway, huh? :-)

I hope I do not lose my audience because of these lamentations of mine! Not possibly, 'cos it's the other guy that I was complaining about, right? :-)

GET CRACKING NOW!!!!

luv
thomas


ANSWERS
-------------

From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Sun Jan 26, 2003 11:00 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - VI


Hi everybody!

45 responses in all. Perhaps this was the cluesiest episode yet. Most questions had clues - used very imaginatively by respondents!

sorry for the LOOOOOOOOOOONG delay in posting the answers. Now, what excuse can I give? ....

"And on the seventh, He Rested."? :-Queuriegenesis 1:18
;-)


luv
thomas

----------------------------------------------
QUEURIEST - VI
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
----------------------------------------------

1. If James Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, who wrote A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man? God knows!
*Joseph Heller, the Catch-22 guy. God knows was the clue. It's another book he wrote.
Dylan Thomas wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog

2. This one might really whip the bails off you. Who holds the record for the most number of stumpings in Test cricket history?
*Bert Oldfield of Australia. He was the wicketkeeper in the middle 20th century. '30s I guess. 52 in career.
Pure statististics. Never mind if you didn't get this one.

3. Golden Hind: Francis Drake :: Millennium Falcon : _____________?
*Han Solo, in Star Wars
AC:Lando Carlrissian is the actual owner, Han Solo gets it only later.
does anybody know whether there's an expansion for R2D2 or C3PO?

4. What happens when somebody is subjected to defenestration? Linux fans, anyone?
*He gets thrown out of the window.
The Linux comment was just a bit of fun from me. I'm not too sure whether it applies to removing windows from computers ...or .... does IT?
refer Defenestration of Prague & Thirty Years also.

5. Easy one. Who led the mutiny onboard the HMS Bounty?
*Fletcher Christian
Some answered Bligh, Bligh is the author/captain.

6. Codenames! The secret plans for what was called Project Chess?
Crazy Cryptic Clue: A giant that could be royal, Prussian and marine has something to do with it, perhaps? But little to do with Mr. Garik Weinstein though, contrary to what you might think.
*Project Chess was the secret plans for the IBM PC, the PC itself I believe was codenamed Acorn.
The clue wasn't called __Crazy___ Cryptic Clue for nothing! Giant=> Big + royal, Prussian,marine=>Blue (shades of) together => Big Blue => IBM. Garik Weinstein =>original name of Garry Kasparov. little to do with him => Project Chess has nothing to do with chess.

7. Who, along with superstar pals 'Beatle' George Harrison, 'Heartbreaker' Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison - formed a band called the Traveling Wilburys? The answer, my friend is . . .
*...blowin' in the wind. The answer,my friend is Bob Dylan.

8. Which month in the calendar is named after Latin for `to open'? You may guess, but think what could be before!
* April. It's not January as many seemed to think.
Guess! What's before MAY?!! ;-)

9. Surprisingly easy one. What does a thaumatologist do?
*Studies miracles.
A lot of answers mentioned magic. Have given marks for that as well.

10. What was codified in a 1942 short story called 'Runaround'? Cryptic Clue: Mt.SinAI !
* The Three Laws of Robotics. Yeah, the story is by Isaac Asimov. Just robot is not good enough, I'm sorry.
About the clue. Mt.Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. and AI= Artificial Intelligence. Get it? Mt.SinAI.


BONUS Question
Q. Can you make 24 out of 4 zeroes only? Use mathematical operations only. ie, make an expression out of 0,0,0,0 such that it evaluates to 24.
* (0! + 0! + 0! + 0!)!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scores (in chronological order)

1. Asish Koshy - 7
2. Sharad Singh - 4
3. Suki - 1.5
4. Shiraz - 9 (0.5 each for 2Qs)
5. Mamatha Balasubramanian - 2 (nice working out)
6. Sujith Vijay - 9 (o yeah,i know to get 8 with two 0s :-p)
7. Ramkumar Sankar - 1
8. Prasun Ratn - 1
9. Kensy Joseph - 3
10. TalonX the Surreal - 2
11. Avinash Iyer - 3 (Bonus qUIZZER?)
12. Madhu M - 2 (Share ur views on Heller)
13. Kunal Malhotra - 8
14. Partha Sengupta - 3
15. Sreeram - 3
16. Syam Prasad - 5
17. Lahar Appaiah - 5 (May <-- Goddess of fertility Maia)
18. Avjit Chaudhuri - 7
19. Devilcat - 4
20. Sukhamaya - 4
21. Santhosh D'Souza - 9 (nice work on April!)
22. Acharya Rajib - 7
23. R.Krishna - 8
24. Suranjan Chakrabarty- 6 (I believe there's more than 1 album though for TW)
25. Navneet Bal - 5
26. Dinesh Krithivasan - 5.5
27. Samrat Sengupta - 2
28. Aniruddha Gupta - 7
29. Anshuman Mishra - 5
30. Debashree Mitra - 4
31. Koushik Vedaraman - 5
32. Hussain Poonawala - 1
33. Paul Ahmitough - 9
34. Satyajit Chetri - 1
35. Vijay Krishnan - 2
36. Pramod R - 1
37. Venkateswar KR - 0 (queery effort!)
38. Anannya Deb - 4
39. Bhaskar Singh - 0
40. Pauline Daniel - 1
41. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 3.5
42. Thejaswi Udupa - 7
43. Sankle Pradesh - 3
44. Avik Chatterjee - 2
45. Bharat Jayakumar - 1 (may the 44444.. be with U2!)

--------STATS ----------------------------------------------

Funnest!-
Click OK to restart on Defenestration
00:00 = 24 hrs midnight on BonusQ
Plan to kill Bobby Fischer by Soviets on Proj Chess

Guessest!- nice guessing
May, December on April
Phileas Fogg, Frank Poole on Millennium Falcon
Nirad Chaudhuri on Joseph Heller
Picasso,MF Hussain on Artist as Old Man
Turing Test on Runaround
Hitler's submarine fleet on Project Chess

Expectedest!
Removing MSWindows from PC on defenestration
Deep Blue for Project Chess

* Most popular wrong answer: William Bligh has no HMS mutiny
* All questions were answered
* Shiraz,Paul,Santhosh top the quiz with 9 points

* What I realised: Clues are interpreted and used in myriad ways. Sometimes in ways unIMAGINED by framer!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A match may start a fire. But once the fire is
started, putting out the match will not be of
any use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Round Trip

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.

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 - 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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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!!!