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!!