Another crushing win for Fools and some of us.

WE WIN WE WIN!!

For the first time in ages. A narrow 3 point win over the pigs!

Colin is being modest again. He was singlehandididddly responsible for 10/10 for the first round based on what year events took place. We did miss Mr Tim Jones when it came to the question - who was NZs first sci-fi writer with his book "blah blah AD -2000 .. and women". Former Prime Minister Julius Vogel. I wanted to shout "Tim Jones" and in fact I did.

Bill says: Well done those braniacs.I don't think I would have done particularly well on identifying rap stars. Except for Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.

Colin says: A great win last night thanks to Peter's former colleagues in ACC (The Fools) who used encyclopaedic recall to get us 9 out of 10 for photos of rap stars. We also did well in answering questions on years and on banned books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_books#A Our win got us an $80 bar tab. But The Fools enjoyed themselves so much they'll be back next week. So if we wish to partake we'll have to join them.

Fast Finnish

I have recalculated the score as if we had jokered the geography round instead of space and I can declare...

WE ARE THE WINNERS!!!!

But official statistics put us 4th equal. Too many Ur-Anus questions to be had in the SPACE round.

However, some good deductering in the Winter Sports round. Chicago Blackhawks is the ice hockey team and Bill correctly deducterised the name of the pilots of thunderbirds 4 and 5.

..by that much

Well done everyone.  Pipped at the post by the Monkeys.

Of course the crucial question may have been the Dead Man's Hand question.  Answer:  Wild Bill Hickock = Wild Cat,  but we had many other nearlys as well.  Good jokering and many a fantastic story.

$50 for next time's bartab.

Solid Display

A very solid display of solidarity from our large team which consisted of Bill, Colin, Tim, Mart[ain][ane][ian], Louise and Pedro. Our guest only informed us he was a doctor after the internal to NOIDEA question of "name 10 body parts with three letters - no slang".

Also tried internally were "name the 10 ways of being dismissed in cricket".

We Jokered Music but should have been Literature as we got 10.

Try to get the 1973 song and artist from these:

Those were such happy times and not so long ago.

There was also a round called drinks when we found out that The Bloody mary is in fact knwn as the Royal Drink.

A quite solidy 2nd earning us some more bar tab for next time. Well done that team!!!

[Late addition from Bill:

See Martyn and Tim surrounded by the lost souls of The Backbencher Bar captured inadvertently in this mysterious photo.]

A close run thing

A half mark was all that separated Team No Idea between third place and the rest of the craven masses that coveted our Bar Tab of Bronze. And we only got that because Peter noticed Mr Boycie was a bit crap on the addition stakes, so well done Peter.

Right, so we now all know there have been six incarnations of Star Trek on the telly.

Classic Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Yawn, Voyager, Enterprise and Number 6! The Animated Series.

The other one we missed in the Sci Fi round was the number of the crew that went to re-start the sun in the movie Sunshine. Mr Boyce got us all with his misinformation ploy and the actual answer was eight. Including Cliff Curtis who played an Arabian Eskimo Palestinian Iraqi Tongan.
The tag line for this scientific marvel was: If the Sun dies, so do we.

Other points to note was a spectacularly good connections round, 10 points on the word and the questions, and Burt Reynolds was the top box office star from 1978-1983. Who'd have thunk that?




And Evey Hammond was from V for Vendetta which Peter reckoned he suggested but as scribe I didn't hear it. Remember, I start round one a bit hard of hearing, and by round three I am usually rollicking drunk on my two pints of ale, so don't be afraid to labour the obvious.
Well done that team.

Birthday Surprise

Just as Louise was berating Peter for spending an excessive amount of time away from the table on a bog break, the lights dimmed and the room was illuminated by a cake bearing gaily lit candles, for 'twas Ms Louise's birthday, and yea verily did the Backbencher resound with the joyous chorus of Happy Birthday.

No Idea celebrated this joyous occasion with a solid second, just three behind Lipstick on a Pig, who have now become a nigh unbeatable force to rival former phenomenon, Toxteth O'Grady. While obviously packing in the pure geek quiz brain power Toxteth had, LOAP has, on average, much better haircuts.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

And I have no doubt we would have won had one Master Zak and his preternatural knowledge of cinematic arcanery be in attendance.

Here are some movie taglines we did not get correct.

For 3 men, the Civil War wasn't hell, it was practice.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

His Whole life was a Million to One Shot
Rocky

One Man's Struggle to take it Easy
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

This is the weekend they didn't play golf.
Deliverance. (I think we put Breakfast at Bernie's)

And a big Well Done Sir!! to Master Colin for his own special brand of arcanery.
Little did I know that Spencer Perceval was Britain's only assasinated PM,




or that Sir Winston Churchill's home was Chartwell.

Such prodigious learning is to be applauded. Next time we'd better well fucking win.

No Close No Cigar

Another quiz, another damn Mr Men question. The author is of course Roger Hargreaves. Oh Woger. So we took a stab at the very familiar connections round and lost. If one looks back one can see that the Ally McBeal lawfirm question WAS asked before. Solid 7s and 8s was not enough and I apologise for putting blade runner instead of the fugitive.

Crashed and Burned

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (1927 – 1967)

Yes, well Team No Idea crashed and burned not unlike Comrade Komarov who went down in history, in every possible way, as being the first person to die in space. Well, his parachutes failed on the way down in 1967 and his retro rockets weren't too flash either.

Apparently, just before impact, Soviet premier Alexey Kosygin told Komarov his country was proud of him. Rumours said that Komarov died cursing the spacecraft designers and flight controllers. Then, a tape from another source was reported to bear Komarov’s distraught unclear transmissions. The recording was made perhaps on his final orbit before reentry.

Anyway, getting that one wrong was the least of our worries.

It was the Mr Men picture round that really scuttled our Soyuz. Two out of 10. Pa-thet-ic.

Still, we have $30 bar tab for next time.

The congruence of Hagen and La Nina

This whole Nena Hagen thing just got spooky when you mix it up with 99 Luftballoons. (See Tim's comment in the previous post. All right, see the ONLY comment on the previous post.)

Nena, who sang it (Gabriele Susanne Kerner) got her nickname from Nina, Spanish for Little Girl.

AND!!!! She grew up in Hagen!!

Christmas Winners

Well, we didn't have silly hats, but we had giant brains what made us winners. All right, I'll admit, I kind of worked against the whole winning strategy with a couple of last-minute changes that turned out to be completely wrong.












In my meagre defence of the La Nina/El Nino cockup, I am an idiot. Everyone knows El Nino refers to the Christ child and La Nina refers to Nina Hagen.


As to the wreath/carol thing, I thought they were talking about Carol Burnett and I knew she wasn't Greek.

(Wikipedia says thusly: It is not clear whether the word carol derives from the French "carole" or the Latin "carula" meaning a circular dance.)

Re: The 12 Days of Christmas, there is a biggish article here (it was at the top of the Google search results so it must be the best in the world)
http://www.cresourcei.org/cy12days.html


While a shorter version says these are what the days represent:

Religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas

1 True Love refers to God
2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation.
7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments.
8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments.
11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles.
12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.

Well done for some clever detective work on that, and blind-luck guessing which also came up trumps.

The next quiz is the first Tuesday in February which is the 3rd. (Waitangi Day falls on the Friday. Huzzah for Long Weekends!) The bar tab lasts till then. Double Huzzah!!

Here, for your Christmas viewing pleasure, is Christmas is all around.

Bill Nighy rules Yuletide.
(Yule likely derives from the word yoole, from 1450, which developed from the Old English term geōl and geōla before 899. The term has been linked to and may originate from the Old Norse Jōl, which refers to a Germanic pagan feast lasting 12 days that was later Christianized into Christmas.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWjl80WFBzY

Tree for Turd

11 teams were there last Tuesday and one of them was us - me, wees and colin. We drank and ate and ate and drank and by the end of the night we still had $6 left on the bartab.

Rounds were Race Horses, Sci-Fi, Bad Guys and General Knowledge. We jokered Sci-Fi ( a good choice as it turned out).

See how well yall can do on the SciFi round

Which Star Trek character did Deforest Kelly play?
Which film had the space ship Nostromo?
What was the name of the computer in 2001 :A Space Odessy?
Who wrote "The War of the Worlds"?
What was first used in the German film Woman in the Moon?
Who wrote Fahrenheit 451?
Who played Deskard in the film Bladerunner?
Who played the 3rd Doctor Who?
Who is Flash Gordon's nemesis?
Who wrote Dune?

More Glory No Idea

All I can say is thanks goodness for Mr Tim Jones! It was a pleasure to see him, Mary and her mum Jo. And what a contribution. Zak, Colin, Meredith and I were pleased to have such fine company.

Rounds included Extinct, Sport, Arts and Literature, and Cartoons. The picture were all native birds so we gave the pics to Mary and she delivered us 10 out of 10. The Giant Sloth made an appearance.

We also did well on the Arts and Literature. I had been telling an amusing story about the swarming sparrows in The Dark Half by Steve King in response to the question about the extinct American Passenger Pigeon when up popped "Who writes under the pseudonym Richard Bachman?"

We also managed 8 points from the connecting word. See if yall can get it from these four questions as Tim did.

What is the name of the law firm in Ally McBeal?
Which Bond villain had the first name Auric?
Which book told the story of John Merrick?
What was the name of the aeroplane in which Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic?

First Losers

Not that second is that much worse than first. I mean, everyone cherishes the warm fuzzy glow that comes from knowing your're not third ...

Anyways, well done that team for avoiding bronze, despite a spirited mind collapse that once again saw us fail in the goddam connections round. But, as Meredith rightly pointed out, Louise's fortitude in depuzzling the word (which was, I think, play) enabled us to ferret out a few more answers to secure the Glory that is Silver.

OK. So the ship in the harbour full of Argentinian seamen (and yes, I DID have to say it) is the ARA Libertad. She was built in the 1950s at the Rio Santiago shipyards near Buenos Airies. Her maiden voyage was in 1962, and she continues to be a school ship with yearly instruction voyages for the graduating naval cadets.

The Chinese space ship which just returned is Shenzhou-7, the gunman's name for the Book of Infamy is Matti Juhani Saari and he is of course Finnish. As in, are you alive? then I will Finnish you off.

Mr Harry Becks, above, mapped the Tube map of London in 1933 (see this for a bit more info http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673517 ) which we would have probably got had some semi recently relocated Londoners been able to attend. Though I personally don't think it accurate to say he mapped the tube system.

Apparently he got just five guineas for his original job and the only official acknowledgment he received is a plaque at Finchley Station. Not knowing Finchley Station that could either be a tremendous honour or a major slur on his name.

Now according to the timetable, the next quiz is October 14. There is a $50 bar tab. Huzzah!!

More fun questions!

What injury did Williams Renshaw self describe at Wimbledon 1887?

What was Walter Tukesbury's world 100m record set in 1900?

What is Tiger Woods' first name?

What are Patek Phillipe, Jaeger-Lecourte and Brequet?

What are the two deepest parts of the ocean called respectively?

What is D2O?

Which animal has the collective noun of "intrusion"?

Which Oil Tanker sank off the coast of Brittany in 1968?

Challenge Repulsed

In a stunning turnaround. Peter and Louise, Zak, Mary and Colin swept all aside to storm to victory. The group from Peter's work calling themselves 4 fools no horses finished with a booby prize again.

Rounds included: That Sinking Feeling; Science and Nature; Trivia and Sports. We jokered sports.
See if you can get these ones. Answers are on the internet somewhere!!!

Which pacifist Christian denomination was founded in the late 19th century as a Bible Study Movement by Charles Taser Russell and now has 7.6 million followers?

Which 1996 Sony Playstation game has sold 34 million units worldwide?

Which Cat Stevens song from Teaser and the Cat album is being made into a stage musical?

Which extinct member of the cat family has rodent cousins and is also a member of the Felidae family?

Which 2001 film starred Heath Ledger and Sean Puffy Combs?

What is the name of the nautically linked album by The Pogues?

What is the quantum physics phenomanum also known as a thought experiment espoused by an Austrian in 1935?

What is a boxer with a bad chin also known as?

What is the common name for the Herpes Simplex?

What does one put in their ear to understand all languages according to H2G2G?

Find one word to link all the above answers!!!

We have a challenge!

From the scratch FINEOS/SIMPL team that may or may not be known as Norfolk and Chance. So dust off your thinking brains. Its all on!

Curse of the connections round!!

So what happened, crew?
US States? Surely You cannot be serious.

What's The Story

And as Zak has quite rightly pointed out - without any sour grapes whatsoever:
Oasis - Heathen Chemistry was this album cover on left.

and......



...this is the cover for John Lennon - Imagine.

York York York

"So important did York become in Roman Britain that a royal palace was built in the city, and the emperor Septimus Severus stayed here with his imperial court in the years 209-211. By the 4th century Eboracum was the capitol of southern Britannia.

The Emperor Constantius I visited here in 306 - and promptly died. His son, Constantine the Great, founder of Constantinople and the first Christian Emperor of Rome, was proclaimed emperor in York. The traditional site of his crowning is preserved under York Minster." Source: Peety's sponge brain of useless triv.

What a good way to start - fantastic team work and deduction on the Anne of Cleeves question. I have a desire to now visit Cleeves. 20 points to start and we neevr looked back until the now obligatory crash in the connexions round.

peterandlouise.net