Extremely difficult quiz questions

by witchfinder Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:21 pm

First topic message reminder :

This extremely difficult quiz question is possible to answer using the internet, lets see who gets the correct answer first.

What is the name of the cottage next door to The Crown & Anchor pub, near Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. ?

by ROB Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:45 pm

Maybe we should stipulate that Google is forbidden!

According to the biography I read in 1979, William Ernest Henley was a Scot. Nelson Mandela posted Invictus on his Robbins Island cell wall.

This might be more challenging:

"Blacker than a hundred midnights"
"Down in a cypress swamp"

by **Ivan** Thu Feb 02, 2012 12:29 am

"Everyone who knows the meaning of poverty, everyone who has a genuine hatred of tyranny and war, is on the Socialist side, potentially…..
It is fatal to let the ordinary enquirer get away with the idea that being a Socialist means wearing sandals and burbling about dialectical materialism. You have got to make it clear that there is room in the Socialist movement for human beings, or the game is up.
For the moment the only possible course for any decent person, however much of a Tory or an anarchist by temperament, is to work for the establishment of Socialism. Nothing else can save us from the misery of the present or the nightmare of the future."

That was written in 1937 (long before the year with which the author is more usually associated), but the last paragraph could easily have been written today.

1. Who was the author?
2. What connects the author to a former UK Prime Minister?
3. What is the connection between the above extract and a town in Lancashire?

by oftenwrong Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:59 am

Subject to a recount,
1. George Orwell was the pen-name of 2. Eric Blair
3. Without recourse to either Google or necromancy I guess from the question that the book-title is "The Road to Wigan Pier". (Still very much worth a read, and for sheer horror read his essay: The Spike which was written when Orwell was living intentionally as a tramp in London. It is about the unfairness that such people endure.)

The Spike: http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/the-spike.htm

by **Ivan** Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:35 am

Grrh… is there anything that OW doesn’t know? He could win £1 million on ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ without having a friend in the audience coughing him the answers.

Let’s see if this will stump him!

With ganial foire
Thransfuse me loyre,
Ye sacred nymphs of Pindus,
The whoile I sing
That wondthrous thing,
The Palace made o’ windows!

Say, Paxton, truth,
Thou wondthrous youth,
What sthroke of art celistial,
What power was lint
You to invint
This combineetion cristial.

1. Who was Paxton?
2. Who wrote the poem?

by oftenwrong Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:37 pm

Title: The Crystal Palace (Paxton BUILT the bloody thing, assisted by Charles Fox and William Cubitt)
Author: William Makepeace Thackeray

..... and so to bed

by **Ivan** Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:11 pm

1. Name the fictitious Tory politician who said:-
"You see, the trouble with politics today is that no one has any backbone. No one has any bottom, and no one is willing to put a bit of stick about."
(Clue: His catchphrase was: "You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.")

2. Who created the character?

by oftenwrong Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:39 pm

If it wasn't "Catweazle" then it must have come from "A House of Cards", whose protagonist Francis Urquhart was so wickedly portrayed on TV by the late Ian Richardson.
David Fincher's screenplay is being re-made for American TV. Obviously with a different star.

by **Phil Hornby** Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:37 am

Ivan -v- oftenwrong - a bit like playing tennis against Federer. No matter which angle of return one achieves, the ball keeps coming back over the net.

What say we break ow's legs...? Twisted Evil

by oftenwrong Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:06 am

I don't know why you should say that - I've always liked all of YOU, and besides I carry personal insurance by La Compagnia Internazionale Assicurazione di Sicilia (Omerta division). Thought I'd better mention that as they may not be particularly well represented in Pease Pottage.
Yet.

by **Phil Hornby** Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:24 pm

I regard all that as a thinly-veiled threat to my safety and shall, therefore, respond in the only way a man of my standing can .

Heeellllp....!

by astra Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:30 pm

Haven't looked at this thread for a while

To digress

Orwell/Blair Am I right in thinking his first wife is buried in Jesmond cemetary Newcastle upon Tyne?

by **Ivan** Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:48 pm

Orwell/Blair - am I right in thinking his first wife is buried in Jesmond cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne?

Good question, astra. I haven't a clue and perhaps that will even stump the sage! Crying or Very sad

by **Ivan** Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:02 pm

Michael Dobbs created the character of Francis Urquhart.

In another televised novel, Ian Richardson played a politician who ventured into academia. The story may help to explain how university "scholars" such as Cameron and Osborne obtained their degrees (they're both so thick, it does make you wonder!). Still who can blame them, when only fools and horses work?

1. What is the novel, and who wrote it?

2. What's the name of the head porter of the college, and who played the character in the television series?

by oftenwrong Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:24 pm

Ivan wrote:
Orwell/Blair - am I right in thinking his first wife is buried in Jesmond cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne?
Good question, astra. I haven't a clue and perhaps that will even stump the sage!

Sage stumped, though if Blair's first wife wasn't buried somewhere, we'd have heard about it by now.

by **Ivan** Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:13 pm

George Orwell's first wife was called Eileen Maud O'Shaughnessy. She is indeed buried in Jesmond Cemetery, West Jesmond, Newcastle, but I had to cheat to find that out:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_O%27Shaughnessy

by astra Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:18 pm

Thanks Ivan, I can sleep easy tonight

I hate it when something like that keeps gnawing away at the back of your mind.

by oftenwrong Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:24 pm

Ivan wrote:Michael Dobbs created the character of Francis Urquhart.

In another televised novel, Ian Richardson played a politician who ventured into academia. The story may help to explain how university "scholars" such as Cameron and Osborne obtained their degrees (they're both so thick, it does make you wonder!). Still who can blame them, when only fools and horses work?

1. What is the novel, and who wrote it?

2. What's the name of the head porter of the college, and who played the character in the television series?

Oh well, if everyone's going to sulk: Porterhouse Blue is a novel written by Tom Sharpe, first published in 1974. The Channel 4 TV series in 1987 based on the novel, was adapted by Malcolm Bradbury. The novel itself has a sequel, Grantchester Grind, but Porterhouse Blue has a stand-alone plot.

Even now, you may see the four TV episodes on 4oD .... http://www.channel4.com/programmes/porterhouse-blue/episode-guide/series-1

by **Ivan** Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:50 pm

TV interviews

1. Who asked Tony Blair whether he and George W. Bush prayed together?

2. Who said to Jeffrey Archer "there is no beginning to your talents"?

3. Who said to Thatcher "you're off your trolley"?

by oftenwrong Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:28 pm

Ivan:-
TV interviews

1. Who asked Tony Blair whether he and George W. Bush prayed together?

2. Who said to Jeffrey Archer "there is no beginning to your talents"?

3. Who said to Thatcher "you're off your trolley"?

1. Jeremy (not the driver, the University challenger).

2. Clive Anderson (Loose ends)

3. Most of us

by **Ivan** Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:02 pm

1/3 Clive Anderson is correct.

Most of us do think Thatcher was "off her trolley", but most of us don't conduct TV interviews.

by trevorw2539 Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:17 pm

No. 1 David Frost? Going back a bit but used to like his interviews

by **Ivan** Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:44 am

Yes, trevor, it was David Frost.

Number 3 was a Labour MP from 1964 until 1977 before becoming a TV presenter. He will be 80 in July. That will probably be enough for the resident sage to identify him.....

by oftenwrong Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:00 am

Is Brian Walden that old?
Maybe Woodrow Wyatt then?

by **Ivan** Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:02 am

Brian Walden is the correct answer. (Woodrow Wyatt died in 1997.)

by **Ivan** Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:33 pm

Who wrote this?

"As I dug deeper into the history of how this market model had swept the globe, I discovered that the idea of exploiting crisis and disaster has been the modus operandi of Milton Friedman’s movement from the very beginning – this fundamentalist form of capitalism has always needed disasters to advance. It was certainly the case that the facilitating disasters were getting bigger and more shocking, but what was happening in Iraq and New Orleans was not a new, post-September 11 invention. Rather, these bold experiments in crisis exploitation were the culmination of three decades of strict adherence to the shock doctrine."

by Blamhappy Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:10 pm

May we cheat in this section of the forum?

Very Happy

by **Ivan** Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:20 pm

LOL. The questions are hopefully designed to make it difficult to cheat. For example, typing 'Milton Friedman' into 'Google' won't immediately give you the answer, but there is a big clue in the quotation......
Shocked

No doubt our resident sage will appear soon with the answer!

by oftenwrong Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:14 pm

(Sage stumbles reluctantly to the keyboard, whistling tunelessly)

Sounds like something Chancellor Lawson might have mumbled?

I'm too old for this.

by **Ivan** Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:36 pm

OW. I'm truly shocked if you don't know the answer! Shocked

by oftenwrong Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:14 pm

Ivan wrote:OW. I'm truly shocked if you don't know the answer!

Oh, THAT Naomi Klein. Why didn't you say so?

Friedman was just paraphrasing John Maynard Keynes anyway.

by trevorw2539 Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:46 pm

Can I guess?

Would it be Moses and Joshua in their book 'The Wilderness Experience and the mountains we had to climb'. Published and Printed by the Jericho Press, 1400BC.

by **Ivan** Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:46 pm

The sage wins again..... Crying or Very sad

Extremely difficult quiz questions - Page 5 Jacket_ca

'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism':-
Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

by **Phil Hornby** Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:56 pm

This thread becomes increasingly like so many evenings of my youth with my late father. There appeared to be very little he didn't know, or about which he could not make an very intelligent guess. Despite never going to church or being seen picking up the Good Book he could quote the Bible with uncanny accuracy. Ditto Shakespeare. Added to all this he was also a qualified mechanical and electrical engineer. Finally, he was very witty.

We really miss him now he doesn't show us all up.... Very Happy

by oftenwrong Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:29 am

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,"

Alexander Pope

by oftenwrong Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:35 am

QUOTE: "The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

You often see commentary on this message-board complaining about British "Aid" given to foreign countries in this, our moment of fiscal torment.
American, British, Chinese or from wherever, it is usually a sprat to catch a mackerel.
There is no free lunch.

by ROB Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:48 am

Regulating the Poor:

Without googling or binging,

Who wrote it?
When was it written?
What is its subtitle?
What is its primary message (summary)?

by **Phil Hornby** Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:26 am

Which FA Cup Final resulted in all its four goals being scored by separate players, each of whom had surnames commencing with the letter 'H'?

by oftenwrong Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:35 pm

Where's Leslie Welch when you need him?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Welch

by **Phil Hornby** Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:39 pm

Finding the answer would prove valuable, as the prize is free tickets to a lecture to be given by a leading Premier League footballer entitled: "How I Learned to String Five Words Together...Know Wot I Mean, Like.."

Unmissable... Shocked

by oftenwrong Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:22 pm

Academics are expected to use grammatical English, but not expected to score goals against Manchester United, whereas of course the reverse is true of a man with the number 10 on his shirt. Horses for courses.

God evidently tried to make an even distribution of the talents among the Humans, but clearly didn't get everything right. For example he had to give rhythm to the dark-skinned races after it was pointed out to him what a mistake he'd made with the hair.

by **Ivan** Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:36 pm

Name the author and the title of the story from which this extract is taken:-

“Malabar came in all right. If I ride my horse till I’m sure, then I tell you, Bassett, you can go as high as you like. Did you go for all you were worth, Bassett?”
“I went a thousand on it, Master Paul.”
“I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I’m absolutely sure – oh, absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you, I am lucky!”
“No, you never did” said his mother.
But the boy died in the night.
And even as he lay dead, his mother heard her brother’s voice saying to her: “My God, Hester, you’re eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner.”

by Sponsored content