Quz 1

Since I've now started compiling and delivering a pub quz (that's not a typo, it's college tradition) once a month, I figured it might be nice to reproduce the questions here, and let you have a pop at them. Unsurprisingly, no Googling or other research is allowed.

I'm not sure how to work this so that whomever shows up first doesn't get all the glory, but I'll post the whole thing up this time round and consider whether it needs any fine-tuning for next time.

Edit: How about this. Anyone who wishes can leave answers in comments, and I'll provide answers and marks next week. Probably Tuesday, so that it's out of the way before I'm banished to Granada.

Round 1: Word Round.

Every answer to this round is two words, one of which is a colour (eg: Charlton Heston film set in 2022: Soylent Green).

1 An acute viral hemorrhagic disease, with symptoms including nausea and fever, which is spread by female mosquitoes, and originated in Africa but reached other areas due to the 16th Century slave trade. (Yellow fever)

2 An Irving Berlin-penned song first publicly performed in 1941, and which ultimately became the greatest selling single of all time. ("White Christmas")

3 A powerful and toxic defoliant used by US forces to deny cover to their enemies in the late 60s and early 70s. (Agent Orange)

4 The name given to the second lunar opposition to the sun occurring within the same calendar month. (Blue moon)

5 An American punk band probably known for their 1982 single, and who chose their name based on their belief that it represented the opposite of surrender. (Black Flag)

Round 2: Red

1 Which Texan fire-fighter specialised in dealing with oil-well fires, and achieved international notoriety in 1962 after tackling an one such fire in the Sahara nicknamed “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter”? (Red Adaire)

2 The Suez canal connects the Gulf of Suez at the northernmost end of the Red Sea with which other body of water? (The Mediterranean)

3. Which was the first of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s four Sherlock Holmes novels? (A Study In Scarlet)

4 In which Caribbean country was Mick Hucknall, lead singer of Simply Red, attacked by an irate young fan, whom he unceremoniously pushed into an orchestra pit before leaving the stage? (Cuba)

5 What was the name and number of the British landing craft that the ESA intended to explore the surface of the Red Planet, only for all contact to be lost with the vehicle six days before it was due to reach the Martian atmosphere? (Beagle 2)

Round 3: Cars

1 In which decade was the first Model T Ford built? (1900's)

2 Which 1983 Steven King story, adapted into a film that same year, involves a supernaturally malevolent ’58 Plymouth Fury killing those who tormented its owner? (Christine)

3 Who in 1979 reached #1 in the UK charts with the song “Cars”, taken from the album “The Pleasure Principle”? (Gary Numan)

4 Who had abandoned a planned assassination attempt and was eating a sandwich in a Sarejevo cafe when he saw the car carrying his target stall just outside, allowing him to complete his mission by shooting his victim in the neck? (Gavrilo Princip)

5 For which 1992 film did Marissa Tomei win an Oscar for portraying a Brooklyn hairdresser whose intimate knowledge of cars saves to innocent men from the electric chair? (My Cousin Vinny)

Round 4: Song Synonyms (Each of these is a Michael Jackson song written as something between a collection of synonyms and a cryptic crossword puzzle. “Atrocious” = “Bad“)

1. Go second in chess, or first ("Black Or White")

2. Male goat, marker of inheritance ("Billy Jean")

3. Frictionless gangster ("Smooth Criminal")

4. Merely a further aspect of my person ("Just Another Part Of Me")

5. Shaking winter bird ("Rockin' Robin")

Round 5: Canada

1 Quebec, the largest Canadian province, was formerly part of the area known as New France before it was handed to the British following the treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the 7 Years War. Which three European countries were the principal signatories to the treaty of Paris, along with Portugal, who abided by the treaty but did not sign? (England, France, Spain)

2 Canada’s land area stretches over more than 9 million square kilometres, excluding internal bodies of water, making it one of the largest countries in the world. Where exactly on the list does it lie, with Russia first, and the Vatican City last? (4th, behind Russia, China, and the USA)

3 The phrase “Hollywood North” has become a blanket term for the entire Canadian film industry, but what Canadian city was the term originally applied to? (Vancouver)

4 Which 30’s born Canadian Singer won a Juno award in 1993, commentating that only in Canada could a voice like his earn Vocalist of the Year? (Leonard Cohen)

5 Which game, which has is origins amongst the Native Americans of the United States and Canada, and particularly the Huron and Iroquois Tribes, has become one of Canada’s two national sports, alongside ice hockey? (Lacrosse)

Round 6: Dinosaurs

1 In which geological time period is it believed that most dinosaur species existed? (Cretaceous)

2 Which actor and director narrated the 1999 BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs? (Kenneth Brannagh)

3 To what purpose did Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins put a hollow life-size replica of an iguanodon in 1853? (He held a banquet inside)

4 Which Dickens novel allegedly features the first mention of a dinosaur in English literature in its third line, which reads: “As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.”? ("Bleak House")

5 Which English football team has a mascot named Gunnersaurus Rex? (Arsenal)

General Knowledge

1 Whose gun did George use to kill Lennie in Of Mice And Men? (Carlson)

2 The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner horse breed takes its name from the Kras village of Lipica, which pronounced Lipizza in Italian, near which an early stud farm was located. In which modern-day European country does Lipica lie? (Slovenia)

3 Which celestial body is nicknamed the “Dog Star”, from which the phrase “dog days of the summer” is taken? (Sirius (A))

4 What chemical is mixed with hydrogen peroxide to make hair bleach? (Ammonia was indeed what I was looking for, though I am reliably informed this isn't/is no longer true)

5 Whose failure to chase the German fleet following the the Battle of Jutland was judged too timid to allow him to remain on active duty, despite former First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill praising his prudence, calling him “the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon.”? (Admiral Jellicoe)

6 Who fought Muhammad Ali in the “Rumble in the Jungle”? (George Foreman)

7 “The Butterfly That Stamped,” “How The Rhino Got Its Horn”, and “The Cat That Walked By Himself” are all stories from which Kipling collection? ("Just So Stories")

8 Which businessman, now often termed “The Sultan of Bling” referred to the products of his jewellery company as “total crap” in a 1991 speech at the Institute of Directors, which led to the company’s near-total collapse once the line was reported by the press? (Gerald Ratner)

9 In 1992 George H W Bush announced his desire to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like who? (The Simpsons. Apparently Bart hit back in a TV advert not long after in which he said "We're just like the Waltons. We're waiting for the end of the depression too.")

10 Which musical features the songs “I Know Him So Well” and “One Night in Bangkok”? (Chess)