The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3-7) The five unexpected society members
The ones that got away
Question 5
1) The word 'ghost' comes from the Old English for which emotion? 2) According to tradition, if you're born on Halloween what special ability do you have? 3) According to tradition, if you look into a mirror at midnight on Halloween, what will you see? 4) Including the one broadcast this year (on October 19th) how many Simpsons 'Treehouse of Horror' Halloween special episodes have there been? 5) Who is the celebrity pictured here? 6) According to tradition, seeing what creature on Halloween indicates a loved one is watching over you?
The answers
1) Anger, rage, fury (something along those lines gets you the point) 2) To see and talk to ghosts (again, talking to the dead or similar will do) 3) Your true love/future spouse 4) 25 5) Heidi Klum 6) A spider
Our excuses
1) Appropriately enough, it's Halloween quiz time! Someone suggested 'aghast', which no-one was particularly convinced was really an emotion per se, whereas 'fear' at least made sense even if it looked nothing like the word. As is often the case with old etymologies, the truth seems more than a little complicated, but it does seem to (eventually) lead back to 'anger'. 2) Got to love 'according to tradition' questions that don't specify where the tradition is from. With this (and the ones that follow) google suggests more than a few alternatives, but for me 'talk to the dead' seemed plausible. Unfortunately an earlier question in the quiz had asked about necromancy and the doctor deemed this sufficient grounds to dismiss it being the answer here, and instead we went with seeing the future. 3) Plenty of suggestions for this one, but the main two were "your own death" and "your future spouse". The former seemed rather more appropriately gruesome. 4) We were agonizingly close here, as I (correctly) remembered the Simpsons started in 1989, but the first Halloween special didn't air until season 2, and so we were one out with 26. (Further reading reveals the first episode aired on December 17, which I should perhaps have remembered as the fairly famous 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire'.) 5) We have enough trouble recognizing celebrities at the best of times, let alone when they're completely covered in a costume, and predictably while we could identify the god (see below) we weren't able to spot Heidi Klum. (Whom we only know about from her appearances in Spin City.) 6) My hypothesis here was that it would have to be a creature you're fairly likely to see (a superstition is more prone to take hold if it happens relatively often) but the team got a bit preoccupied with birds and ultimately put down 'owl'.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 5
1) In the 1990 movie Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This gave her the 'O' component of her eventual 'EGOT' - the term for winning four major entertainment awards. What awards do the letters E, G and T represent? 2) If you're born on Halloween what star sign are you? As a hint (and to avoid this being the most boring question ever, and to hopefully help you remember in future) it's arguably the creepiest of star signs. 3) What is the name of the magical mirror in the Harry Potter universe which shows the viewer what they most want in the world? For the non-Potter fans, it's the odd one out of the following: a) Dertah, b) Erised, c) Ekilsid, d) Tseted. 4) Besides the main family (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie) which character has appeared with a speaking role in the most episodes of the Simpsons? First name suffices. 5) Obviously this is a picture of Heidi Klum, but which Hindu god is she dressed as? 6) This picture of a (seven-legged) spider went viral a few years ago (even featuring on the BBC's Have I Got News For You) after its creator David Thorne attempted to use it for what?
Question 6
The answers
1) Emmy, Grammy, and Tony 2) Scorpio (the scorpion is, for my money, the only 'creepy-crawly' in the set, unless you find crabs scary) 3) b) Erised, which is 'desire' backwards (it's the odd one out as the others spell hatred, dislike and detest backwards) 4)Moe Szyslak (although Milhouse is a close-ish second) 5) Kali 6)To settle a bill [VIDEO]
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Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 9 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 27th October. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the Nørdiphiles vs. the Nightwatchmen? Check it out here!
It's elimination o'clock on Only Connect! The Politicos (seen off by the Felinophiles in Episode 1) and the Oxonians (victims of the History Boys in Episode 2) are back with a second chance to stay in the competition. There's not much of a form guide - the teams having lost by ten and nine points, respectively - but the Oxonians had five more points under their belts (assuming they wear belts, I wasn't paying enough attention during the walls). The Politicos are probably most memorable for offering 'Cock and Cock' as an answer during their previous missing vowels round. Fortunately such missing-vowels-based lewdness happening again is a statistical impossibility.
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) The Murder of Gonzago; Inferior Cheese; Includes Thing-A-Ma-Jig and Bowling Ball; World's longest running play 2) Music: Rainy Night in Georgia (Randy Crawford); On the Sunny Side of the Street (Benny Goodman); Misty (Johnny Mathis); Windy (The Association) 3) From its coastal capital city; From its highest mountain; From being estbalished by freed slaves; From being a republic in the centre of Africa 4) Diamond Sutra; Benin Bronzes; Rosetta Stone; Elgin Marbles 5) Jaws 19; Mr Fusion; Self-tying shoes; Hoverboard 6) Pictures: The Mummy; West Ham; Hammer throw; MC Hammer
The answers
1) Mousetrap 2) ____y weather 3) Names of African countries 4) British Museum controversies 5) Back to the Future's 2015 6) Hammer
Our thoughts 1) Credit to the setter for managing to think of four things that all clue to mousetrap. The doctor was onto this early and I should have joined the dots on 'inferior cheese' when it became apparent there was some sort of word link going on. The penny dropped for me on the third clue, as childhood memories of obsessing over Rube Goldbergian delights of the Mousetrap board game came flooding back, and the final clue was an attempt to give it away. While mousetrap came up in the Politicos' discussion they unfortunately didn't say it when it mattered and the Oxonians picked up an early bonus. 2) A bit of a jazzy set this week, without the usual diversity to give an easier route into the question. This didn't stop the Oxonians (just about) getting a point as their initial guess of "types of precipitation" was expanded into the more general "weather". I think some might argue it was a little generous to allow them another chance (after all, precipitation is simply incorrect when 'sunny' is in there), but I reckon when a team has been too specific it's reasonable, especially in a repechage game. We took an audacious buzz on 5 as I'd recognized what sounded an awful lot like Randy Crawford (of whom I'm something of a fan) and supposed it would either be weather (from 'rainy') or US states (form 'Georgia'). Unfortunately we went with the latter, but at least were proved correct to have gone early; given our form on music rounds we thought it highly likely we wouldn't get any help from the remaining clues, which we duly didn't. 3) A lovely one, this, as from the first clue it's easy to be thinking along the right lines, but it's then a race to see at what point it becomes clear how specific one needs to be. It would have been a brave guess for 5, and we made a bad mistake as an over-confident doctor buzzed in at home for 3 to say "South American country derivations". The Politicos got a little caught up with Liberia and perhaps didn't have time to see the wood for the (Central African Republic) trees, allowing the Oxonians in for another bonus. In case you're curious, these relate to Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia and, of course, the Central African Republic. I make this the third Pointless reference of the series, which is enough for even the most sceptical among us to be suspicious of some grand BBC quiz show conspiracy. The public must be told. 4) A straight case of how well do you know your British Museum pilfering. The doctor and I knew it well enough for 3 points, while the Oxonians took it for 2. (The countries who want their stuff back, by the way, are China, Nigeria, Egypt and Greece.) 5) Delightful. From knowledge of (real) historical artifacts to (fake) futuristic ones. The doctor picked this up for the full 5 while the Politicos got off the board with a solid 2. 6) A relatively straightforward picture set to finish off the round as the Oxonians did the mild cerebral gymnastics necessary to go from West Ham to the Hammers to Hammer Horror and take 3 points and end the round with an 8-2 lead. Remarkably it was the sports-allergic doctor who got this at home, meaning he's now reached his target of football-related quiz questions for the next decade. This final question did rather sum up how we seemed to be looking at an easier challenge this week (as we'd expect with a game between first-round losers). Here in particular it seems tough to see many not scoring at least 2 points, and most of the questions in this round were unmissable if you didn't buzz in too early.
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) Robin Leigh-Pemberton; Eddie George; Mervyn King 2) 1: 7; 2: 41; 3: 12 3) Tommy Docherty; Dave Sexton; Ron Atkinson 4) RD; RNG; YLLW 5) Flt Lt; Sqn Ldr; Wg Cdr 6) Pictures: Thumb; Shoe; Knee
The answers
1) Mark Carney (Governors of the Bank of England) 2) 4: 82 (Reverse-digit seven times table) 3) Alex Ferguson (Manchester United managers) 4) GRN (Spectrum colours as Missing Vowels questions) 5) Gp Capt (RAF officers) 6) Door (This Old Man)
Our thoughts 1) Of course, having just brought up the difficulty of the show and up pops a question that we couldn't manage at home. The final clue was again a giveaway, but even with that we could only get as far as "oh, it's that Canadian dude, er...", whereas the Politicos didn't even need Sir Mervyn to pick up a very welcome 3 points. 2) Something of an Only Connect special here, as it's blindingly obvious when the answer is revealed, but oh-so easy to miss (as we did at home). The Oxonians kept their heads and spotted the (retrospectively) ridiculously simple answer for 2. 3) If in doubt, assume it's Manchester United. The final clue was once again a huge giveaway and the Politicos duly took 2 points of their own. 4) I worry that this question will have had some people rushing to their social media outlet of choice to bemoan how ludicrously easy tonight's episode was. Certainly had the Oxonians needed YLLW it would have seemed embarrassingly easy, but I think getting more than 2 points on this still requires keeping your wits about you. 5) I don't think the abbreviations did all that much to obfuscate what was going on here, and while the Politicos took all three clues that was probably wise for the purposes of elimination of alternatives if not identifying the sequence. I'll admit I found this question a little odd; the correct abbreviation wasn't required (which is probably fair for a playoff game), but similarly the use of abbreviations at all didn't really complicate things. 6) An amusing end to the round as the Oxonians managed to pick up 2 points despite not really knowing why. At home we were thinking it was simply "things that rhyme with one, two, three, four" which would have left us red-faced in the studio as we 'hilariously' went with 'whore'. As it was the Oxonians realized there was some sort of rhyming going on, but not specifically the This Old Man connection. Nevertheless, a correct answer is a correct answer, and they went into the walls with a healthy 15-9 lead.
The gentle difficulty of the show continued into the walls, with the Politicos scoring a perfect 10 while the Oxonians couldn't quite narrow down their "British Islands...Shetlands and Orkneys? Um..." to the specifically required Shetlands. The Politicos' wall in particular was an odd beast, featuring two groups of the familiar 'blank' format ("___ book" and "The Golden ___").
With a 3 point lead going into the vowels the Oxonians were looking good albeit not entirely comfortable. As it was they took a (rather long) round 11-5 to emerge victorious 33-24 in a predictably high-scoring game. Highlight of the episode has to be the "Big things" clue "SS" where I strongly suspect thousands of people across the country were shouting "ASS!" at their favourite erudite TV quiz. Incredibly, the Oxonians tried this as well, and despite the intended answer being 'Issue' (as in, The Big Issue) VCM admitted they had to let them have the point. I am mildly suspicious that whoever set this particular clue had precisely this outcome in mind.
Question of the Week
This episode showed that good Only Connect does not have to be difficult Only Connect. We were certainly watching slightly easier questions than we've seen so far this series (every single question in the first two rounds was correctly answered, for example) but there were nevertheless a number of fun, imaginative questions, albeit sometimes slightly spoiled by being too easy by the final clue. Consequently we had a few favourites (and I suspect African country names will prove popular on the poll), but for a superb encapsulation of why Only Connect is great our Question of the Week goes to Reverse-digit seven times table. Embarrassingly simple, and yet so easy to miss, it's why we simultaneously love and hate this show.
But what do you think? Vote for your favourites with the poll below!
1+ out of 8: Well done, you beat us! 4+ out of 8: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) In 1989 which 59 year-old became People magazine's oldest ever 'Sexiest Man Alive'? 2) In which decade of the 20th century was the world's first electric red and green traffic light installed in Cleveland, Ohio? 3) Henry Manicni's jazzy theme was used for which movie series reboot that began in 2006? 4) Which Hasbro-owned product has no characters or plot, but nevertheless has inspired a movie released in the United States this week? 5) With depths in excess of 220m, which is the deepest river in the world? 6) Literally meaning 'bicycle snake', in which European city can you find the elevated bicycle highway called the Cykelslangen? 7) Identify the movie from these DVD chapter titles: Arletta Let's Go, A Long Road, 50 Eggs on a Bet. 8) Identify the movie from these DVD chapter titles: Fredrik Zoller, Lunch With Goebbels, Apple Strudel and Creme Fraiche.
The answers
1) Sean Connery 2) 1910s (1914, to be precise) 3) The Pink Panther 4) The Ouija board 5) The Congo 6) Copenhagen 7) Cool Hand Luke 8) Inglourious Basterds
Our excuses
1) Not easy, but certainly one we could have worked out. I don't think we really gave this enough thought and went with Hugh Hefner (who, at least, is only four years older). 2) It always seems to be earlier than you think with these, and we were agonizingly close with the 1920s. 3) A frustrating miss as I knew I knew it, but couldn't drag it up from my memory of getting hold of the Pink Panther music for my sixth form panto. (That sixth form panto was great, by the way, David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson had to save the world...somehow.) 4) The time of year really should have been a hint, but even then I don't think we'd have ever considered that the Ouija board was owned by anyone, let alone a toy company. Suffice to say we saw one in a toy shop the very next day. Good quizzing chestnut, I think. 5) This one, meanwhile, is almost certainly a chestnut, just not one I'd come across before. We tried to think of a famous river that wasn't the Nile or the Amazon (I'm not really sure why we discounted these) and came up with the Ganges. 6) The word 'Cykelslangen' narrowed down our options to "somewhere nearish Germany" but that's about as good as our European linguistic skills get; we veered off into the cycle-loving Netherlands and offered Amsterdam. Google Translate reckons 'cycle snake' is Zyklus Schlange in German, and cyclus slang in Dutch, so I don't feel too stupid, at least. 7-8) More questions about super famous movies we've never seen. We went with The Producers for the second one, which at least makes some sense, and Steel Magnolias for the first, which really doesn't.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 3
1) Since People started running their 'Sexiest Man Alive' feature in 1985 four men have been named twice. All actors, name two of them. 2) In the UK the term 'pelican crossing' derives from PELICON, a portmanteau of which three words? 3) Picture: In which famous location is the Pink Panther here? 4) Which Hasbro franchise, reinvigorated by a recent animated television series, has characters called Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, among (many) others? 5) The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of a handful of UN member states to contain the name of another member state in its name (in this case, Congo). Other examples include Sudan (in South Sudan) and Dominica (in Dominican Republic), but only two country names are entirely contained within another country name - that is, not at the start or end. One pair is an Asian country contained in a European one, the other is an African country contained in another African country - can you name either pair? 6) Copenhagen has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest three times; name two of the three cities to have hosted it more often. 7) In the movie, Paul Newman's character earns the nickname Cool Hand Luke after winning at what game? 8) Present in most other promotional material for the film elsewhere in the world, what has been removed from the German publicity website for Inglourious Basterds, depicted here?
Question 8
The answers
1) Richard Gere (1993 and 1999), Brad Pitt (1995 and 2000), George Clooney (1997 and 2006) and Johnny Depp (2003 and 2009) 2) Pedestrian Light Controlled (if you said 'control' instead of 'controlled' you can still have the point) 3) The New York Stock Exchange (he's ringing the closing bell) 4) My Little Pony 5) Oman in Romania, and Mali in Somalia 6) Dublin (six times), London (four times) and Luxembourg City (also four times!) 7) Poker (after bluffing with a hand worth nothing, Luke comments "sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand") 8) The Swastika (one in the title logo, and one in the helmet)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 8 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 21st October. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the Orienteers vs. the Romantics? Check it out here!
Episode eight means we're through the first pass of this mega-series, with tonight's team the final two to join the class of 2014 (and a bit of 2015). In the blue corner sat the Nørdiphiles (James Keeling, Will Day and Joanna Murray) while across the Only Connect Sea were the Nightwatchmen (Jonathan Wilson, Robert Winder and Daniel Norcross) who, if the name stumps you, are linked by cricket. (Cue the doctor exclaiming "I can't believe we weren't allowed a team name that was a pun based on the open source software movement when these guys get away with some cricketing nonsense". Hashtag never forget.) Captain Daniel revealed that he'd taken part in pilots for the show several years ago; intriguingly one of them involved 3 teams of 2, rather than 2 teams of 3. The mind boggles.
From the off I was supporting the Nørdiphiles for no particular reason other than that their name sounds a bit like 'naughty philes' and I thought I could make a good joke out of that on the recap. (Turns out I couldn't.) On with the show!
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) Best Picture Oscar nominees (2010); Uefa Euro Championship teams (1996); Wimbledon seeded players (2001); Lotto price (2013) 2) Ruddigore; Straw Dogs; Jamaica Inn; Doc Martin 3) Dr. Evil's Number Two; Snake Plissken; Rooster Cogburn; Danger Mouse 4) Music: Positively 4th Street (Bob Dylan); The 59th Street Bridge Song (Simon and Garfunkel); Dark End of the Street (James Carr); Street Life (unclear, but I'm going to pretend it would've been Randy Crawford, because she's great) 5) Miedinger & Hoffmann; Hoefler & Frere-Jones; John Baskerville; Eric Gill 6) Pictures: Scafell Pike; Rosamund Pike; A pike (the dive); Another pike (the weapon)
The answers
1) Things that doubled 2) Set in Cornwall 3) Fictional eye-patch wearers 4) Streets 5) Typefaces and their creators 6) Pike
Our thoughts 1) The Nightwatchmen got a tiny bit lucky here, buzzing in after the second clue to say "things that have increased in number" only to stumble onto the all-important doubling when pressed to be more specific. I thought this was a fun idea and it would have been interesting to see a team puzzle it out slightly further, whereas from the comfort of home it seemed a tad easy (I got it for 5 as my ability to remember numbers just about overpowered my inability to remember anything to do with films). 2) The Nørdiphiles' opener, in contrast, seemed rather tough, and the Nightwatchmen were able to come in for a good bonus point. Ruddigore is certainly not your common-or-garden Gilbert and Sullivan, while Straw Dogs and Jamaica Inn were well outside our wheelhouse. The doctor's suggestion that Straw Dogs was "something to do with the Rwanadan genocide" made the prospect of it relating to Doc Martin at the very least intriguing, but by this point settings seemed plausible but we knew none of them. 3) We felt this one added to the list of "surely it's not that easy" questions from this series, although I think that's in part down to the first two clues being characters we're unusually familiar with. Still, we spent a while debating which eye was patched but that wasn't required and the Nightwatchmen took another 2 points. It turns out all but Number Two wore their patches on the left, eye-patch fact fans. 4) It's hard to judge music questions from home, let alone when the team in the studio nails it after just two clues. We were still trying to remember the name of the Simon and Garfunkel song ("it's not just Feelin' Groovy, is it?") when the Nørdiphiles opened their account with an impressive 3-pointer, and I suspect we'd have been nowhere on this even with all four clues. 5) It's been all of two weeks since we last saw a typography question, and it seemed a tiny bit too straightforward from home. The Nightwatchmen spotted this for 2, which was the first name we recognized, and I felt a bit frustrated not to have gone for this a little earlier. 6) Identifying Scafell Pike seems a tall order, but the Nørdiphiles recognized Rosamund Pike and cleverly deduced the first picture was probably England's highest mountain. I'd have been interested to see if a team could spot a specific dive (although there aren't too many most of us could be expected to know, I suspect), but it would have been fun to see the penny drop on the final clue and the subsequent reverse engineering. Still, after a tricky start the Nørdiphiles had pulled out a couple of impressive solves to trail by just 8 points to 6 after a high-scoring opening round.
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) Seine; Setter; Ottoman 2) Pictures (in matchsticks): 1; 2; 6 3) Johnson: The Vantage Point; Carter: The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer; Clinton: Between Hope and History 4) 2004: Beckham and Vassell; 1998: Ince and Batty; 1996: Southgate 5) Haffaz; Brüno; Borat 6) 3 Elves; 7 Dwarves; 9 Mortal Men
The answers
1) (e.g.) Novel (Consecutive Italian numbers) 2) An 8 made out of 7 matches (4, 5, 6, 7 matches) 3) (e.g.) Obama: The Audacity of Hope (Books by Democrat presidents) 4) 1990: Pearce and Waddle (England penalty shootout misses) 5) Ali (Sacha Baron Cohen) 6) 1 Dark Lord (Verse of the Rings)
Our thoughts 1) Ooh, nasty. This had the faint hint of being "one of them wordy ones" but spotting that still left you several kilometres from the actual answer. The Nightwatchmen initially were thinking of sofas, but remarkably got most of the connection after the time, only to still not quite get the correct answer. This is a neat little question, but does seem a bit brutal for a first round game. 2) While this is the sort of question I really like, it suffers a tiny bit from the '1' not being written in standard 7-segment (i.e. 'calculator') display. Although we were dealing with matches rather than calculators I think, given the sequence terminates at 7, it seems likely it's the latter they had in mind. Apparently any number written with 7 matches would have been accepted, but the Nørdiphiles took the intended path and picked up 2 points to tie the game. 3) If you know your Presidential books exceptionally well you may have been onto this for five, although spotting the sequence as being democratic, rather than merely any, President would be a tricky ask. (As far as I can tell Bush Senior hasn't written anything of note, and so a straight Presidential books question wouldn't work.) As soon as Carter appaers you know you're dealing with Presidents, and skipping out Nixon and Ford makes it clear it's democrats we're looking for. At this point I think most teams will know the connection and it's just a case of remembering an Obama book, but the Nightwatchmen took all three clues to be sure. Notably they didn't quite get the name right (they said something like "Dreams...around...my father?") but were given the benefit of the doubt and a further 2 points. 4) Quite gettable for 5 if you're a real football buff, and very gettable for 3 which was when the Nørdiphiles came in. I felt a bit miffed that this sequence ended at Pearce and Waddle, rather than Southgate, as the former is just too early to be seared onto my brain and I could only remember one of them. That's just a personal annoyance however, as it's hard to deny that that 1990 shootout is the natural end point. (In case you're wondering, it could've started "2006: Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher" if you're as obsessed with Only Connect questions ending Gareth Southgate as I am.) 5) Quite an elegant one, this, as it would take a reasonable fan to remember The Dictator is actually called Haffaz, while Brüno is a much bigger clue (but meant nothing to us at home). The Nightwatchmen had this for 3 points, whereas at home we took it for 2 (by which point is was unfortunately, but inevitably, very easy). 6) A lovely question to finish, as the fantasy nerds watching (yes, that includes us) will have had the connection early but perhaps struggled for the exact wording required. The Nørdiphiles knew it was Lord of the Rings but couldn't remember (or didn't spot) that they needed the specific owner of the One Ring, not just that it was "to rule them all", while the Nightwatchmen couldn't pick up the bonus. This one had shades of the Deathly Hallows question in our semi-final; I've seen some comment that it's a little harsh the Nørdiphiles weren't given this (as they clearly knew the link) but for me it's clear they're looking for that extra bit of knowledge. 13-11 to the Nightwatchmen going into the walls.
While they were trailing I thought the Nørdiphiles had put in an impressive performance so far and perhaps hadn't quite got the rub of the green on their questions. They continued to impress in the wall by spotting cities missing their final letter as their first group and eventually scoring a solid 7 (only failing to recognize the Florida Keys). The Nightwatchmen, meanwhile, managed a perfect 10 to stretch their lead to 5 points going into the vowels.
That's a pretty big lead, but not unassailable, and the Nørdiphiles proved just that running out 10-3 in the final round to take the show 28-26. My favourite missing vowel clue was THHRRRTHHRRR in 'last lines of films', kudos to the setter for that particular gem. Another pair of very competent looking teams, then, and with the standard we've seen this series some good ones are going to be going home pretty soon.
Question of the Week
We resisted the temptation to go with our five-pointer spot on 'things that doubled' and while 'Italian numbers' is a superb question it just seems Too Hard for a first round game. Instead we're betraying our (not-so) secret geekiness and giving Question of the Week to Verse of the Rings. Part of this is undoubtedly that it's fun to see questions about nerdy stuff, but we like how even those who don't know too much about the books should at least be able to work out it's "something to do with Lord of the Rings". From there while you may not know the verse specifically, you could make a guess that the answer will be something to do with the one ring, and I hope that the then quite-gettable Sauron would have been accepted. (Hopefully someone will correct me if not.)
Maybe you disagree (and with my track record, you probably do), but even if you don't do vote for your own favourite questions with the poll below!
1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us! 5+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The anthropologist 4) The other anthropologist
The ones that got away 1) In what year was the pink ribbon first adopted as the official symbol of Breast Cancer Awareness Month? 2)2 point question! The oral contraceptive raises the risk of breast cancer and which two others? (1 point each!) 3) Which of these authors never fought in an actual war: Ernest Hemingway, J. R. R. Tolkien, H. G. Wells or Leo Tolstoy?
Question 7
4) Three films share the honour of most Oscar wins with 11. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Titanic are the two most recent, what's the other? 5) What is the best-selling fictional novel in history? 6) Which of these was invented via a misunderstanding: the tea bag, Plexiglas (i.e. safety glass), the match, or penicillin? 7) Name the country from its outline (pictured); its name is something of a misnomer. 8) Which US president, on a visit to Poland, was mistranslated as saying "I desire the Poles carnally"? 9) What do the following have in common: IKEA furniture, a jury, and News Team!?
The answers
1) 1992 2) Liver and cervical 3) H. G. Wells (Hemingway and Tolkien participated in the First World War, Tolstoy in the Crimean war) 4) Ben-Hur 5) Both A Tale of Two Cities and Don Quixote were accepted 6)The tea bag 7) Venezuela (meaning 'little Venice', although there's some debate) 8) Jimmy Carter 9) They can all be assembled (the last being a reference to Anchorman)
Our excuses
1) Figuring this would be later than the use of the red ribbon for AIDS awareness, but still seeming like something that had been around forever, we thought the early nineties were a good bet. Alas, while our train of thought was accurate, we got off slightly late and went with 1993. 2) Good work from the doctor as always, who plumped for ovarian and endometrial. The truth is, of course, rather complicated. 3) We were fairly sure Tolkien and Hemingway had been involved in the First World War, but decided the 'red herring' of Tolstoy's War and Peace was too tempting to pass up. 4) Some fairly classic trivia went begging here. We went with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which, being one of three movies to win the 'Big Five' Academy Awards, seemed at least a reasonable bet. (Unfortunately, it didn't win any others.) 5) This one seems at least a little bit debatable, as unsurprisingly no-one's really all that sure how many copies of Don Quixote (first published in 1605) have been sold. Without much hope we went with the Harry Potter option (namely, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), but with 'only' 107 million copies sold it comes in fourth on the all-time list behind The Little Prince (140 million), The Lord of the Rings (150 million) and A Tale of Two Cities (200 million). 6) Only able to rule out penicillin with any certainty, we had a bit of meta-game fail here as we incorrectly supposed that Plexiglas seemed an unlikely option to include if it wasn't the answer. On retrospect I had heard about the tea bag story (samples of tea that were meant to be taken out of the bags they were packaged in) but it clearly evaded me on the night. 7) My main excuse here is that this question was one of the last of the evening and we were given about a minute to think about it before the sheets were taken in. I'm usually quite good at country outlines (after a long run with a pub quiz in the UK which would have one every week) but they can take a bit of time to figure out. I'd got as far as deducing there was probably a body of water to the north (from which there really aren't very many options to work through) but didn't have the time to get much further than that. 8) With little to go on we took the 'safe' option of George W. Bush (thinking that's what most other teams would put even if they didn't know the answer). 9) Groan. I imagine if you get the Anchorman reference then this works out nicely, but we were left struggling with just the other two clues (and eventually went with 'instructions').
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (5 or more)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions 1) Charity/disease awareness ribbons come in a remarkable array of colours, but what disease was originally symbolized by a clear ribbon to reflect air and it often going unnoticed by others? It later switched to pearl/white-coloured ribbons because, in an unfortunate (but predictable) twist, clear ribbons were difficult to see. 2) Derived from the latin 'quater die sumentus', how often should you take a drug if your doctor has scribbled 'q.d.s' on your prescription? 3) Which actor and director, perhaps best known for Citizen Kane, narrated the infamous 1938 radio drama adaptation of The War of the Worlds? 4) Earlier this year Disney's Frozen joined a long list of (fully) animated movies to win how many Oscars, the most for any animated film? 5) Seamless link alert: the two titular cities in Dickens' novel are London and Paris. Published in 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London is, despite being a memoir, the first full-length work by which author? 6) Classic trivia: suggesting it could be drunk prior to eating food, what did the letters PG in the tea brand PG Tips originally stand for? 7)2 point question! Venezuela and Ecuador are the only two South American members of a specific international economic group, half of whose current members are in the Middle East. For 1 point: give the 4-letter initialism of this group. For a bonus point: give the full name. 8) The John F. Kennedy quote "Ich bin ein Berliner" is often incorrectly described as translating to "I am a doughnut". In Berlin the doughnut in question would be known as a 'Pfannkuchen', which translates to what seven letter English word? 9) In an apparent parody of Apple's notoriously over-the-top adverts, IKEA released a video describing its 2015 catalogue as "not a digital book, or an e-book" but a what?
The answers
1)Lung cancer 2) 4 times a day 3)Orson Welles 4) 2 (Frozen won Best Animated Feature and Best Original song, the latter being a common scalp for Disney movies: between 1989 and 1995 the studios took home five such gongs) 5)George Orwell 6) Pre-Gest (post-war labelling regulations meant companies could no longer market tea as a digestive aid) 7) OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for the bonus point) 8) Pancake 9)A bookbook
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll, and don't forget the 2-point question!
Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 7 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 14th October. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the Chessmen vs. the Linguists? Check it out here!
Canadian Thanksgiving is over, and so after a brief(ish) delay I'm back with this week's Only Connect Post Mortem. Gracing our screens this week are the Orienteers (Simon Spiro, Paul Beecher and Sean Blanchflower) and the Linguists (Owen Rees, Phil Nelson and Daniel Tuite). Notable among this motley crew (at least in terms of high brow BBC quiz shows; I'm sure they're all special in their own way) are the Orienteers. Simon and Paul were members of the Season 2 runners-up the Cambridge Quiz Society (thus ensuring, along with the History Boys and the Chessmen, representation in this series from all three teams defeated by the Rugby Boys) while Sean - unless it's a remarkable coincidence - is responsible for the most comprehensive University Challenge archive on the web.
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) Tests precious metals; Disney distribution label; As You Like It's wise fool; Criterion for judgement 2) Music: Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Sinatra); Brass in Pocket (The Pretenders); Hand in My Pocket (Alanis Morissette); You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two (Oliver!) 3) Peace (war); Love (law and order); Plenty (economic affairs); Truth (news, entertainment and education) 4) Pictures: Rabbi Lionel Blue; Jack Black; Jack Straw; Gabby Logan 5) Messiah; Apocalypse; The Heist; Russian Roulette 6) The Brittas Empire; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Vanilla Sky; Dallas (series nine)
The answers
1) Touchstone 2) Pockets 3) Ministries in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' 4) ____berry 5) Derren Brown specials 6) It was all just a dream
Our thoughts 1) A tricky one to kick off with, we thought, and for most I imagine it's a case of if you know your Shakespeare you'll have it off that clue alone. The Romantics did, and correctly deduced the Disney label must also be Touchstone, whereas at home even the last clue didn't help. 2) A standard "once you know two you'll get the points" here, but not the easiest set to work with. The Pretenders fall into the 'before my time' bracket for us but while Alanis Morissette is rather more in our wheelhouse it didn't help much. The Orienteers knew both, however, to hit back with two points of their own while at home we were yet to get off the mark. 3) After impressive work on the first two questions from the teams I'll admit I was surprised to see the Romantics take all four to recognize their Nineteen Eighty-Four ministries. While many will dismiss this as too easy (and it's certainly on that side of things) I nevertheless enjoy this as an Only Connect question as it's gettable for five but only if you've got guts. At home we had it on three while for me Plenty seemed such a giveaway it should have been the final clue. Everyone has their blind spots, however, and if anything the Romantics deserve credit for puzzling this out when they didn't (seem to) know it outright. 4) This could be added to the ever-growing list of "clue two traps" we've seen in Series 9 and 10. If you were able to recognize Rabbi Blue, then the somewhat easier Jack Black could easily see you plump for colours. A canny team might have dodged this by supposing it 'too easy' but it falls a little on the 'trap' side for me. The Orienteers went with simply 'Jacks' after three, and the Romantics were unable to scoop up the bonus. At home I was quite pleased to 'buzz in' after three clues with "Jacks whose real name isn't Jack", as I recalled Jack Straw is actually a John, and supposed Jack Black a bit too cool a name to be real (which turned out to be a good punt; he was born Thomas Jacob Black). 5) A nice set if a little tough for those unfamiliar with Derren Brown's antics, which both teams unfortunately seemed to be. That said, I've watched all four of these but the penny only dropped on Russian Roulette (which, if memory serves, was by far the most notable in terms of making actual news). 6) The Orienteers knew enough to take this for two points, albeit with considerably more confidence than we managed at home (the doctor somehow dredged up that Vanilla Sky had some sort of dream thing going on, and then with rather more confidence tied that into Alice). I really like the gradient on this; there's not that much to know about the Brittas Empire (Chris Barrie, leisure centre, dream) while there's rather a lot to know about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, so you could see a very brave gamble for five or a very impressive answer for three. Vanilla Sky provides a more direct route while Dallas would give it away to most. I'll admit some mild disappointment that Crossroads didn't show up, and if you don't know why, take a moment to read how the series concluded. 4-3 to the Orienteers, then, after a well-balanced (and quite impressive) round 1.
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) 2011 Düsseldorf, Azerbaijan; 2012 Baku, Sweden; 2013 Malmö, Denmark 2) 1st: Sighting; 2nd: Physical evidence; 3rd: Observation/contact 3) Flag of Mauiritius; Adidas shoes; Corporal 4) Gras; Butter; Thirl 5) Poisoned; Stabbed by Prince Ludwig; Becomes Prince Regent 6) Pictures: Green triangle; Red circle; Blue cross
The answers
1) 2014 Copenhagen, Austria (Eurovision hosts and winners) 2) 4th: Abduction (Close Encounters) 3) e.g. Poll balls 9-15 (4, 3, 2, 1 stripes) 4) Winder (Lake District meres) 5) Goes over the top (The fates of Blackadder) 6) Pink square (Playstation symbols)
Our thoughts 1) An absolute gift of a question to any Eurovision fan, and I can't remember the last time I was so certain of a five pointer at home. The Romantics were onto this themselves but took another clue to be safe. There's the essence of a great question in here, as you can imagine the fun in spotting Azerbaijan followed by its capital Baku, and then Malmö following Sweden, and trying to piece these bits together, but the audience for whom this isn't 'too easy' or 'impossible' seems fairly narrow. 2) I was impressed with the doctor for proposing the connection on the first clue, but even more impressed with the Orienteers for doing so and getting the answer (we gambled on '4th: Meeting', supposing that the other clues wouldn't help us). That said, this is perhaps easier if you're familiar with the 1977 movie, but it had never occurred to me (albeit this seems increasingly foolish in retrospect) that there might be close enounters of other kinds. The relevant Wikipedia page is a predictably fun read. It's perhaps a shame that the Orienteers got this so quickly; it strikes me as another question which lends itself well to being figured out clue-by-clue. 3) Flags are trivia bread-and-butter to a certain kind of quizzer, but the Romantics were unfortunate to be unfamiliar with (the admittedly fairly obscure) Mauritius. They were then led astray by reasoning a corporal must have four rather than two stripes, and by missing the classic Only Connect sequence rule of "if you're not sure which direction it's going in, see which endpoint makes more sense". (Having made the same mistake when we were in the studio, however, I will always make pains to acknowledge that under the lights such thinking is rather harder to pursue.) Consequently they proposed a zebra with five stripes, which deserves marks for creativity, but the Orienteers were able to come in for the bonus. At home I was very tempted to take a punt for five, but doubt set in and I needed the second clue to be sure. 4) Blergh. It's hard for me to comment on the difficulty of this, as the only things I know about the Lake District come from GCSE geography, but this really feels like a case of "easy or impossible". Like the Orienteers we were thinking along "Mardi Gras, so Gras is 'fat'? Oh, and butter, that's also fat, er..." lines, but predictably that didn't stick. (I'm going to give the setter the benefit of the doubt and assume this wasn't deliberate misdirection.) The Romantics, however, were able to sneak in for the bonus point. 5) While undoubtedly specialized this question had a lovely gradient with Prince Ludwig doubtless ringing bells for a few fans, while Prince Regent would have rung them for many more (including the Romantics who picked up the two points). We got far too cocky and punted for 'drowned' on the first clue (thinking of Rasputin's demise) but still missed this after seeing all three clues. 6) Some pretty specialized knowledge was required once again here, with little scope to figure it out if you don't know your gamepads. The Orienteers had the link but couldn't remember the colour while the Romantics couldn't pick up the bonus to trail 10-9. A relative gift for us at home, although despite how many hours the doctor has been putting into Destiny we still needed two clues.
With the scores so close a big swing on the wall could prove crucial, but both teams put in perfect performances to leave just one point in it. Interestingly both walls had a Harry Potter group (the Orienteers got Hogwarts staff, the Romantics owls), which I find mildly unsatisfying from a 'playalong' perspective as it means that topic is fresh in one's mind when viewing the second wall. In this instance it's not really much of an issue, as names such as Flitwick and Pigwidgeon are likely to leap out to even a cursory Harry Potter fan, but we have seen previous shows were slightly less obvious - but related - groups have cropped up in successive walls.
With the scores so close an exciting missing vowels round was on the cards, or at least it was until the Orienteers took a clean sweep of the first group. What followed was an overwhelming display as they took the round 13-2 and the show 33-21. (Of minor interest was the Non-Olympic sports clue of 'PL' which by my reckoning takes both 'Polo' and 'Pool' as valid answers.) While the final scoreline is perhaps a touch unfair on the Romantics, it was a cracking show nevertheless, and this series continues to look remarkably strong.
Question of the Week
This week's Question of the Week debate hinges on your opinion of 'too easy'. While the doctor made a strong case for Playstation symbols in the "Only Connect is great because it asks stuff like this" department, I was resistant and instead opted for Close Encounters. While we weren't given the opportunity to see how this question may have played out to those unfamiliar with the concept, I think there's a lot of potential fun puzzling out to do here that some slightly less knowledgeable teams may have demonstrated. Moreover, it gave me (and hopefully others) a "oh huh, I never thought about that" moment in learning of the other kinds of encounter.
You may well disagree, however, so do let us know your own favourites with the poll below!
Just a quick post in case anyone is waiting for this week's Only Connect post. As it's Canadian Thanksgiving there'll be a small delay getting it online; we just need to recover from all the maple syrup and pumpkin pies. In the meantime, and if you haven't already, why not vote for your favourite questions from episodes 1 and 2?
1+ out of 12: Well done, you beat us! 7+ out of 12: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away 1) To within 25km, how far south-east of Newfoundland, Canada, did the Titanic sink? Hint: the answer is between 0 and 750km. 2) What name was Mickey Mouse originally going to be called? 3) Who was the first US president to live in the White House? 4) What was Ernest Hemingway's first published novel? 5) Which Frenchman was born seven months after his friend and colleague in the development of cubism, Pablo Picasso? 6) Which boxer, who won a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics, was nicknamed 'The Golden Boy'? 7) How did Virginia Woolf commit suicide? 8) Who was the first First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union? 9) What is O. J. Simpson's nickname? 10) In which US state was Oprah Winfrey born? 11) In Reservoir Dogs a number of characters use a pseudonym of 'mister' followed by a colour. What colour was used by Tim Roth's character? 12) How high an IQ score do you need to be classified a genius?
The answers
1) 640km (so 615km to 665km, or 383-413 miles gets you the point) 2) Mortimer 3) John Adams 4) The Sun Also Rises 5)(Georges) Braque 6)Oscar De La Hoya 7) Drowning (in the River Ouse) 8) (Nikita) Khrushchev 9) The Juice 10) Mississippi 11) Orange 12) 140
Our excuses
1) The quizmaster added the 'hint' seemingly as an afterthought, and I'm not sure it really helped us much. I was already thinking around 300km and then the hint, if anything, offered mild reassurance (my rationale was that it would likely be in the lower half of the range offered). On a more general note it seems odd to offer a range on a question like this; the degree of accuracy required should be enough of a hint to the (rough) size of the answer. 2) This one was painful as I knew I'd read the answer a few weeks previously (when another quiz threatened to have a Disney round). Alas, we couldn't drag the correct answer out of our brains, and while we resisted the urge to put Willie (Steamboat Willie refers to the song Steamboat Bill Mickey whistles) our "plausible names starting with M" left us with Maxwell. 3) Our discussion on this one was interrupted by a woman who recognized the doctor from University Challenge, and so our initial guess of Ulysses S. Grant ("he was the president in Wild Wild West, and I think they were doing something with the White House in that?") went uncorrected. Had we given it more thought I'd like to think we would at least have gone for one of the early presidents, as we knew it must have been around in the 1810s when the Canadians burned it down. 4) This one seemed strangely tough (although I know very little of Hemingway so this probably just reflects my ignorance) and we were left struggling to remember any Hemingway novels. All we could come up with was Death in the Afternoon which isn't even a novel (it's a non-fiction book about bullfighting). 5) Another one that wouldn't seem out of place on University Challenge. The doctor spent a long time trying to remember a French cubist before remembering, with considerable relief, Piet Mondrian at the last minute. Unfortunately he's not French (he's Dutch) and wasn't a cubist. Instead, "he evolved a non-representational form which he termed neoplasticism". As you do. 6) I'm not sure we've ever got a question about boxing correct on a quiz, but this name at least rang a bell. I struggle to find anything interesting to say about boxers, but Wikipedia reckons (at least as of a few years ago) that he's generated more money than any other boxer in the sport, so if true that's possibly exciting. 7) I can't help feel slightly uncomfortable when quizmasters set questions about the relatively morbid, and based on the reactions of other (more normal) participants I'm not the only one. We made a blind guess of sleeping pills. 8) A somewhat confusing question (not least because at first the quizmaster seemed to say "the first Secretary" rather than "the first First Secretary"). Part of the confusion arises because there have been five titles given to the leader of the Communist Party over the years (Technical Secretary, Chairman of the Secretariat, Responsible Secretary, and General Secretary being the other four). Thinking that the founder of the party at least seemed a reasonable bet, we went down the "if you don't know just put Lenin" route. 9) We were starting to despair a little by this point, and barely gave this any thought. I vaguely remembered the name 'Nugget', thus becoming the first person to ever confuse NFL superstar/convicted felon O.J. Simpson with Plumstead snooker player/cookbook author Steve Davis. 10) Like most people (I imagine) we could at least hear Oprah Winfrey's voice in our heads, but as she was just shouting "You Get a Car! You Get a Car! Everybody gets a Caaaaar!" this didn't help much. 11) What is it about pub quizzes and Reservoir Dogs? You'd think by now we'd have finally got the message and watched it, but no. Instead we managed to rule out Brown (he's played by Quentin Tarantino, which we learned at a pub quiz a month or two ago) and Pink (he's played by John Steve Buscemi, which I learned last week when researching P!nk), which still left Blue, Blonde, Orange and our eventual guess of White. 12) A question to which you know there won't be a definitive answer, and so it's a matter of guessing a number and hoping it matches whichever source the quizmaster happened to use. What's more, an IQ score is meaningless if you don't know what scale it's on (hence why if someone tells you their IQ but doesn't know on what scale, they're probably not as clever as they want you to believe). Surprisingly, the doctor immediately offered the correct answer, but I wasn't convinced. I knew that Mensa requires something around 130, but that seemed far too low to be a 'genius', whereas 150 seemed to me a more likely round number for that sort of cut-off.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (7 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 3 (click for big!)
1) What do the letters RMS (as in, for example, RMS Titanic) stand for? 2) Mickey Mouse was originally created as a replacement for an earlier Disney cartoon character. Named Oswald, what type of animal was Mickey's predecessor? 3) Based on this image of the White House's West Wing, in which numbered office would you expect to find the Vice-President? 4)Death in the Afternoon is a cocktail invented by Hemingway for a 1935 cocktail book with contributions from famous authors. His instructions were: "Pour one jigger ______ into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly". Can you fill in the missing (and highly alcoholic) ingredient?
Question 5
5) Pictured is a charcoal drawing by Picasso of which figure shortly after his death in 1953? Inexplicably, it was not met with universal acclaim. 6) The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the Untied States, but to a player in what position - and for what achievement - is the Golden Glove awarded in football's Premier League? 7) Virginia Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Set, a group of influential English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. Which of its more notable members had the initials JMK? (Surname alone will do.) 8) Since the position was established in 1991, how many different men have served as President of Russia? 9) Give the three words which complete the rhyming (catch)phrase from O. J. Simpson's trial, concerning a single leather glove: "If it doesn't fit, ...". 10) Since 1999 Forbes magazine has compiled an annual list of the most powerful celebrities of the year. Oprah Winfrey is the only person to appear in the top 10 of this list for each of the 16 years it has been running. Just two other people make more than ten appearances, one who works in the film industry and the other in sports. Name either. 11) Which orange Mr. Men character - the first in the Roger Hargreaves series of books - begins his story by eating a biscuit without getting out of bed? 12) What comes next in this sequence?
DENSWO
CWENSP
BSWENQ
__________
The answers
1) Royal Mail Ship ('Steam-ship' and 'Steamer' are acceptable alternatives) 2) A rabbit (his 'full name' is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) 3)9 4) Absinthe 5)(Joseph) Stalin 6) The goalkeeper with the most clean sheets (most games where no goals were conceded) 7) (John Maynard) Keynes 8) Three - Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin (twice) and Dmitry Medvedev 9) "you must acquit" 10) Tiger Woods (12 appearances) and Steven Spielberg (11 appearances) 11) Mr. Tickle 12) ANSWER (the first letters form the sequence DCBA the last letters form the sequence OPQR and the middle four are the letters NSWE being shifted forward one letter each time)
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 6 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 6th October. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!
Missed last week's recap of the Coders vs. the Gamesmasters? Check it out here!
It was a 'welcome back' to one of tonight's teams, as the Chessmen (Nick Mills, Henry Pertinez and Stephen 'Alex Ferguson' Pearson) returned after 'only' finishing third in Series 2. Following in the footsteps of the History Boys they're now the second team this series who were previously defeated by the Rugby Boys so I'm expecting the Series 2 runners-up Cambridge Quiz Society to show up soon to complete the set. They're up against the Linguists (Virginia Fassnidge, Gail La Carbonara and Tom Fassnidge) who got my support for a) being newbies, and b) having excellent surnames.
Victoria Coren Mitchell opened with some Klingon, which elicited this comment from an associate: "Her Klingon accent is quite poor. I don't think she could pass as a native." I'm afraid to say we both agree, but here's hoping the new tie break decider is Bat'leths at dawn.
Round 1: What's the connection?
The questions 1) N.E. Smith; Jon E.-S.; T (or K); D. O'Lenz 2) Bundeskanzlerin; Boat Race dead heat; English pope; Black US president 3) 19 hand in cribbage; 'Cry Baby' by Jemini; Don Bradman's last Test innings; Blank tile in Scrabble 4) Music: Take a Bow (Rihanna); Hold me now (Thompson Twins); Love Can Build a Bridge (Children for Rwanada, I think); Deck the Halls (some choir business) 5) Pictures: Dad's Army title card; An Easyjet plane; Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys; Only Connect title card 6) Apt; Apposite; Awl; Anion
The answers
1) The Monkees 2) Only one 3) 0 4) All parts of a ship 5) Same typeface 6) Opt, Opposite, Owl, Onion
Our thoughts 1) A decidedly odd one to start, we thought, as after two it seemed too obvious that these were (not particularly well) disguised surnames. The Linguists knew what they were doing, however, and recognized these as not only surnames, but the surnames of the members of the Monkees for a strong opening to the show. This seems like an 'easy or impossible' one, but being entirely unfamiliar with the Monkees (beyond knowing that they, allegedly, monkey around), it's difficult to judge. We spotted that names were going on but couldn't get any further than that. 2) The Chessmen knew their German well enough to recognize that the first clue meant female chancellor (I got as far as remembering that Bundes, as in Bundesliga, means 'federal' or 'nationwide'), and that plus "Boat Race dead heat" was enough to give them three points in return. I think most quizzers would have had this on two, as there's very little to know about the English Pope other than there was only one and his name sounds a bit like Shakespeare, but the opening clue offered an elegant route in for three. 3) Unlike the previous question, here knowing enough about any one of the clues would probably give you the answer. The Linguists (like me) knew their terrible British Eurovision entries well enough to get it for three, and deduced that a 19 in cribbage was something to do with zero (this seems to be more of a colloquialism than an actual gameplay mechanic, though, but thanks to Gavin in the comments, below, who provides an explanation). 4) After a very strong start the music question brought everyone back down to earth with what seemed a spectacularly tough ask. Unusually for us at home we identified the first song correctly and were immediately trying to think of things that Take a Bow could somehow fit into. The next two meant nothing to us, however, and with Deck the Halls coming too late to give any serious thought we joined the contestants in scoring as many as Donald Bradman in his last Test innings. Even if you knew all the songs, picking out the words Bow, Hold, Bridge and Deck seems frightfully tough, and I think you'd need at least three to stand any chance. A fun idea (the titles alone could have been a question without the extra musical challenge) but perhaps one that was a touch too hard, especially for a first round game. 5) Onto the pictures and another one that stumped the contestants but was perhaps easier at home (rather than staring at monitors across a studio floor). It would take particularly sharp eyes to spot Cooper Black lurking in the first three pictures, but the clever use of the Only Connect title card was enough to make you think that something wasn't quite right. Looking at the Wikipedia page, it seems there were a number of other options that could have been used for this question, and I'll be sure to bring up my knowledge of the Tootsie Roll font to impress my North American friends. 6) A straightforward wordy one to finish the round, of a format I expect to see more of over the series. Once again the key is realizing as soon as possible that there really can't be anything linking the actual things listed, and while it took all four at home for this particular penny to drop, the Chessmen had it after three and ended the round trailing by 5 points to 6.
Round 2: What comes fourth?
The questions 1) Thames; Dover; Wight 2) Birmingham 1992; Manchester 1996; Manchester 2000 3) Move MS Word scrollbar left; Bleaching allowed; Play 4) (e.g.) SDR, DDR; Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe; Blackberry creators 5) 4th: Exploded on stage; 3rd: Spontaneously combusted; 2nd: Choked on vomit 6) Pictures: A still; Muddy Waters; People going for a run
The answers
1) Portland (Shipping areas east to west) 2) London 2012 (British Olympic bids) 3) Give way (Rotating triangles) 4) (e.g.) Read-Only Memory (RAM, REM, RIM, ROM) 5) 1st: Bizarre gardening accident (Fates of Spın̈al Tap drummers) 6) e.g. the blue sea (Still waters run deep)
Our thoughts 1) No-one was falling for a possible 'longest rivers' trap here, as any fule kno the Thames is the second-longest in the UK so unlikely to start or end a sequence. After Dover that quiz classic shipping forecasts seemed likely, and at home we were already resigning ourselves to zero points. The Linguists took an impressive two points, however, knowing their late night Radio 4 action well enough to produce the answer Portland. This seemed a bit unsatisfying to me, as I expected to at least think "oh, huh, that makes sense" when the answer was revealed. I assume this means I need to spend more time on the (radio) waves. 2) The years immediately point to Olympics, and the presence of Manchester did hint rather strongly at British bids. Both teams were thinking along similar lines but missed that there weren't any bids between 2000 and 2012, with the sequence 1992, 1996, 2000 making it all-too tempting to opt for 2004. Another plausible thought was that the London bid for the 2012 games was made in 2004 (it was actually in 2003). I think my future tactic for any Olympics sequence question will now be "are we absolutely certain it's not just London 2012 again?". 3) I'd love to know how often knowledge of clothes washing labels helps in a quiz compared with how often it helps with, y'know, washing clothes. I'm pretty sure for me it's entirely on one side of the equation (not that I don't wash my clothes, I hasten to add, just that my wardrobe is hardly one that screams domestic god). The first clue was, however, a bit confusing (the phrasing made me think of keyboard shortcuts rather than the little arrow you can click on the scrollbar) and like the Linguists we needed to see 'Play' to work out what was going on. With a touch more lateral thinking this would seem a fun one to get for three. 4) DDR makes me think of either East Germany or the video game Dance Dance Revolution (an important pair not to mix up), whereas the name Stipe gave the doctor REM. Having seen a similar question of this form the other week (Pep, Pip, Pop, Pup) I'd got my eye in and figured the first clue must be RAM and that it was another progression of vowels. The Chessmen, without the advantage of having seen previous episodes this series, needed to recognize RIM (an impressive feat in itself) and got to the answer from there. 5) Speaking of other questions from this series, this one seemed cut from a similar cloth to the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey affair of a couple of weeks back. If you know your Spın̈al Tap it's just a matter of when you work out what's going on (and a bit of brain-wracking) while the rest of us look on blankly. The Linguists seemed to have this on clue one, but after a (very) long bit of thinking quickly raced through two and three to make sure. 6) Another new 'type' of question that we've seen since the change of question editor in Series 9. I'm still not convinced by these and this one hangs a little too heavily on recognizing Muddy Waters. Without him I think you're nowhere, although even with him it's not easy, and the Chessmen picked up a good two points to head into the walls 9-12 behind.
The walls were, atypically for this series and last, both solved perfectly, complete with the unusual experience for us of spotting a group of four and being sure there were no red herrings (Greek letter homophones). I was pleased to see Star Trek inventions make an appearance (even though I'm sure it means VCM's opening Klingon joke will spawn the usual conspiracy theories). A three point gap in missing vowels is very little, but it made the difference as the Linguists managed to (just) run out winners 26-24 in a very well fought game.
Question of the Week
After an easy decision last week, picking a standout option from this episode has proven much trickier. However, after some serious deliberation (by which I mean, a chat and a cup of tea) we've decided that our Question of the Week goes to Same typeface. While maybe a bit tough on contestants in the studio, for those of us at home this offered a real test of observational skills while the final clue worked as a trigger as you try to figure out why something didn't seem quite right.
It's a very hard one to call this week, however, so do please let me know which questions you enjoyed with the poll below!
1+ out of 11: Well done, you beat us! 7+ out of 11: We'd have won with you on our team!
Note that a couple of questions this week are worth more than 1 point so be sure to keep that in mind when totting up your scores!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The game dev 4) The Klingon 5) The chef
The ones that got away
Yep.
1) Based on passenger traffic, three of the four busiest airports in the world are in Atlanta (USA), Beijing (China) and London (UK). Also in Asia, give either the airport code or the city of the fourth busiest airport in the world. 2) Alcia Beth Moore is the real name of which singer: Lady Gaga, Lorde, P!nk, or Rihanna? 3) Which title character's name from a children's movie comes from the Yiddish word for fear or fright? 4) In South Park what is the supervillain alter ego of the character Leopold "Butters" Scotch? 5) Identify the movie from the last line of one its characters: "Lucius is safe." 6) Along the New York highway system signs for 'Rest Stops' are being replaced, instead now advertising the same locations as '____ Stops' - what four letter verb fills in the blank? 7) 2 Point Question! Which is the only US state to have a royal palace, once used as an official residence of a reigning monarch? 8) 3 Point Question! Which everyday liquid did the Romans use to whiten their teeth?
The answers
1) Dubai (code DXB or OMDB) 2) P!nk (Lady Gaga is Stefani Germanotta, Lorde is Ella Yelich O'Connor, and Rihanna is Robyn Fenty - Rihanna is her middle name) 3) Shrek 4) Professor Chaos (note: you need the 'professor' bit) 5) Gladiator (spoken by the main character Maximus) 6) Text (in an attempt to discourage texting while driving) 7) Hawaii (ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu was the residence of the reigning Hawaiian sovereign) 8) Urine
Our excuses
1) The question on the night asked for all four (with the additional clue that two were in Asia, one in North America and one in Europe) and the three listed in the question above were the three we got. I was a tad frustrated not to get all four, as I'd read up a little on this list after an incident on Channel 4's Five Minutes to a Fortune last year. There a couple were asked to name five of the top ten 'cities with the busiest airports' but went away with nothing. On the show this was supposed to mean 'cities which have one of the world's 10 busiest airports', but after broadcast the contestants claimed that the phrasing was ambiguous. They argued that an answer of New York City (ruled out as incorrect at the time) should have counted as it would be in the top 10 list of cities with the busiest airports combined. New York, of course, has numerous airports which between them add up to a huge number of passengers, but busiest JFK alone only ranks as 18th in the world. Nevertheless the ambiguity meant the contestants went away with £26,000 after all. Dubai seems a very hard get here, although our guess of Shanghai (19th in the world) was still some way off. 2) Celebrity real names are quizzing bread and butter, but not something we've ever been particularly good at. We could at least narrow it down to three (knowing Lady Gaga's real name) but otherwise this was just a one in three guess. 3) We really should have got this, but almost didn't even manage a guess until the doctor hit upon Fieval Mousekewtiz from An American Tail: Fieval Goes West. I'll confess we were quietly quite confident of this (it begins with an F, at least), but were really kicking ourselves when the correct answer was revealed. 4) So near and yet so far. The doctor got halfway with this but put down Doctor Chaos instead of the all important Professor. 5) The name 'Lucius' had us thinking of either Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter franchise or Lucius Fox from Batman comics (and played by Morgan Freeman in the recent movies). The quote didn't really make sense for what we knew of either, however, and we went with a fairly unconvincing guess of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. This seems a very tough question to me, so well done if you managed this tricky bit of movie trivia. 6) Another tough one, but we were on the right lines thinking it would be some sort of safety message. Unfortunately we couldn't think of a four letter word for 'sleep' (the only reason we'd though of for why you may be encouraged to take a break) and ended up going for 'fuel stops' as at least fitting the rules of the question and vaguely making sense. 7) We were kicking ourselves again here, as having theorized the word 'monarch' may not necessarily mean a British one, we nevertheless didn't even think about Hawaii. I remembered that Maryland is the only state whose flag is based on English heraldry, and that its capital Annapolis is named after Queen Anne, which seemed better than nothing. 8) Sometimes you can infer a great deal from how a question is phrased, and I'm typically my team's biggest proponent of this bit of 'meta' game. I wasn't persuasive enough here, however, as after narrowing down our options to vinegar and urine, my argument of "every day liquid would be an odd way to phrase it if the answer was vinegar" ultimately went unheeded.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (7 points or more)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 2
1) In which country can you find airports with the codes NUE, HAM, MUC and CGN? 2) P!nk is one of many artists to include punctuation in her name. Which similarly inclined individual is associated with the 'insignia' pictured? 3) One scene in Shrek references which classic Disney movie with the line "You might have seen a house fly, maybe even a super fly, but I bet you ain't never seen a donkey fly"? 4) The primary ingredients of butterscotch are butter and brown sugar. What substance in brown sugar - a by-product of refining sugarcane into sugar - makes it brown? 5) One of the Gladiators in the classic UK TV series was called Saracen, a European medieval term for members of which religion? 6) Back in the day Nokia mobile phones had a standard text message alert of three short beeps followed by two long beeps and then another three short beeps. What appropriate initialism does this spell out in Morse code? 7) 4 point question! The current official Hawaiian alphabet contains just seven consonants (along with the 'okina - a glottal stop). Three of these consonants - H, N and W - appear in the word Hawaiian. For one point each, name the other four. 8) First name Roman, spell (correctly!) the last name of the Russian businessman and owner of Chelsea Football Club.
The answers
1) Germany (NUE = Nuremberg, HAM = Hamburg, MUC = Munich and CGN = Cologne) 2) will.i.am (the insignia was used as a promotional tool for his #willpower album) 3) Dumbo ('Did you ever see an elephant fly?') 4) Treacle (or molasses) 5)Islam 6) SMS (which stands for Short Message Service) 7) K, L, M and P 8) Abramovich
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
