Extremely difficult quiz questions

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. ?

That oftenwrong is a step ahead of most people, to be sure.

And well over my horizon...

Just don't mention boots, please.  Of whatever colour!

 © pinterest.com

“The principal productions of these towns appears to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers and dockyard men…….Nothing can exceed the good humour of the military. It was but the day before my arrival that one of them had been most grossly insulted in the house of a publican. The barmaid had positively refused to draw him any more liquor; in return for which he had (merely in playfulness) drawn his bayonet and wounded the girl in the shoulder. And yet this fine fellow was the very first to go down to the house next morning, and express his readiness to overlook the matter, and forget what had occurred.”

Who is speaking? Name the towns that he’s talking about.

I try to spend at least a week or so each year in Broadstairs, where much is made of a prominent British literary figure.

It's Mr D's chum , Mr. P

Chatham and Rochester would be two of the places he highlights.

Always good to hear from someone who's actually "followed the trail".

http://www.iknow-uk.com/article/1873-charles_dickens_trail_in_kent

Coincidentally, I have a daughter who lives many miles from Kent, but in a road called ' Micawber Way'...

Chatham and Rochester would be two of the places he highlights.

Well done, sir! Stroud (now called Strood) and Brompton (which became part of Gillingham) were the other two.

Next.....

A 1975 novel, loosely based on the exploits of a 16th century navigator, was made into a TV mini-series in which the principal actor was someone best known for playing a medical role in the 1960s.

What was the novel?
Who was the navigator?
Who was the principal actor in the TV mini-series?

Is this good old Dr Kildare , driving his Mitsubishi 4x4...?  

But the publicity material made it look more like "La Boheme".

 © imdb.com

Very good, but you haven’t said why Gillingham is twinned with Yokosuka in Japan.

I am sure the Sage will explain about Mr A...

While we wait for the sage, here’s another teaser…..

This Grade 1 listed bridge over the River Arun in West Sussex was built in 1423 to replace a wooden one dating from 1309.


http://www.transportheritage.com/

Which royal personage is known to have ridden over this bridge in the 17th century?
Where had he come from, where was he going, and why?

Another for the Sage - I certainly don't know, but I would happily wait in the pub closeby to hear the answer...

Phil Hornby wrote:I am sure the Sage will explain about Mr A...

Town twinning is a legal device to procure jollies for town councillors at ratepayers' expense. The burghers of Gillingham managed to persuade some Japanese counterparts that the fictional hero of Shogun was modelled on a real Kent boat-builder who somehow became shipwrecked in Japan and became founder of their Royal Navy. Not difficult when we round-eyes all look the same to them.

PS.  My sources reveal that it wasn't actually the Stopham Bridge in the picture wot the future Charles 2 crossed in 1651 when fleeing Parliamentary forces after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. After fording the river Arun at Houghton lower down he eventually reached Shoreham-by-Sea and crossed over to France into exile.

But the Pub there does indeed look worth interrupting a journey for.

You do the answers and I'll get the drinks... 

This photo was taken on 4 December 2011. Why was there no traffic on this usually busy European road?


Source: 'Daily Telegraph'

This must be Koblenz on the occasion of the defusing of a massive second world war bomb.

Either that, or Pease Pottage by-pass, as the town readied itself for a visit from Mr Cameron ...

"One of ours", apparently. A 4,000 pound blockbuster bomb dropped by the RAF during World War II.



On 12/11/2015 Builders found an unexploded WW2 bomb near Spitalfields Market in London.

Suppose that seems only fair, really.

Who thought that it would be “positive relief” to dig up the remains of a certain writer and “throw stones at him”? Who was he talking about?

This is the same man who, having been to an especially boring gathering, was asked by his wife upon arriving home : " Did you enjoy yourself?" and replied : " Yes - there was nothing else to enjoy...".

I have lost count how many times I have quoted him when speaking to groups of managers as I expressed the hope they would enjoy the session which they were about to suffer at my hands.

 I'll leave the Sage to confirm his name for us...but it was The Bard to whom he referred...

That's the man >>>>>>>>>>>>  

Only Martin Amis has been ruder about fellow writers.

What do the following countries have in common?

Afghanistan; Iceland; New Guinea ;  Mauritius ; Honduras.

Tough question. Let me guess - the citizens of all those countries need a visa if they want to visit Denmark? No, I thought not.

An ingenious answer - but incorrect.

Can The Sage - or others - make some headway on this before any clue is offered, I wonder...?

Ah, yes. No idea to be honest, but if it's a football question ....

None of them has ever tried to bribe Mr Blatter?

Can there be a nation which has not offered a bung to the Swiss Big Cheese?!

It is a travel question- of sorts- to pick up on Ivan's first theme...

Travel, you say? You can't walk to any of them from where I live.
Not what you were looking for, Mr Questionmaster?

None has a railway, not even a Virgin Train, poor things.

A brilliant spot!

None of the countries listed suffers with leaves on the line or the wrong type of snow on its rails!

I am told that Haiti has a railway. but no trains...

"Travel" may be a quiz topic that draws a response from the wider Cutting Edge readership, so let's examine air travel - revolutionised by the advent of low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and Easyjet, causing British Airways to drop 19 of its former scheduled European destinations.

All you have to do is name them. The first and last letters of their names are already shown below, so anyone with access to a map of Europe can decide whether the question is difficult (or not).

A..p;
B..e;
B..n;
B..o;
C..a;
D..n;
G..k;
J..z;
L..g;
L..a;
L..s;
M..r;
P..o;
R..m;
S..g;
S..r;
T..i;
V..s;
Z..b

All places that British Airways no longer flies to in Europe.

What is it that interrupts normal activity? "Events, Dear Boy!"
So to lighten the load, here are the first nine answers, if anyone would like to try the remainder in an idle moment (just joking):

Antwerp; Basle; Bergen; Bergamo; Catania; Dresden; Gdansk; Jerez; Leipzig.

Only ten to go!!

So that OW hasn't laboured in vain, I will have a go at some of them.

Ljubjana
Le Mans ?
Montpelier
Porto
?
Salzburg
Shkoder
Tiblisi
Vilnius
Zagreb

Not quite The Labours of Hercules for me, redfordray, but many thanks for the assist.

Ljubjljana TICK
Salzburg TICK
Vilnius TICK and
Zagreb also a tick, so 40% scored, which is about my average for The Independent quiz on Saturdays, and far better than my answers shouted to a TV screen during University Challenge.

The rest of the locations no longer favoured by British Airways are (for the record) Lourdes; Munster; Palermo; Rotterdam; Stavanger; and Thessaloniki.

The answer is 289 + 20736 = 21025.

What's the question?

Nothing like a taste of Pythagoras  of a morning...   

It's all Greek to me, but I suspected that m'learned friend would have an angle on it.

"...have an angle on it."

That's right...

( In case anyone should suppose that I have any idea what I am talking about, the less said about my A-level Maths, the better...    )

The question was: "If the legs of a right-angled triangle measure 17 and 144, how can we calculate the length of the hypotenuse?"

17 x 17 = 289, 144 x 144 = 20736, 145 x 145 = 21025.

Courtesy of Pythagoras and Danny Kaye:-


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEavDTtH1-w

Yeah, well, but Euclid doesn't get full credit is what I always say.