This quiz is over and it is a joint victory for Mark Brader and
Stephen W Perry, congratulations! (There is however, one semi-open
issue which may change this, but we'll see.)
I am happy to see that the quiz attracted eight entrants which is
quite good these days.
Here is the scoreboard:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
Mark B 1 - 1 1 - 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 9
swp 1 1 1 1 - - 1 1 1 1 1 - 9
Calvin 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 1 1 - 7
Dan T 1 - - 1 1 - 1 - - 1 1 1 7
Dan B 1 1 1 1 - - 1 - - 1 - - 6
Bruce B - - - - 1 - 1 1 1 1 - - 5
Joshua K 1 - - 1 - - 1 - - 1 - - 4
Pete G - - 1 1 - 1 - - - 1 - - 4
Below are the answers. For each question I first give the answer I had
intended and in some cases with comments to my own answer. Then follows
remarks on alternate answers with motivations, and my explanation why
or why not I did not accept that answer. Keep in mind that if you gave
an answer different from the intended one you had to give a motivation
for it to be considered. It does not help you, if someone else gave a
motivation for your answer, even if you had the same reason in mind.
> 1. Math.
> 1998, 306, 625, 729, 81.
625 - the only number not divisble by 9.
> 2. Music:
> Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ozzy Osbourne,
> Robert Plant,
Robert Plant - all the others have been lead singers of Black
Sabbath on at least one album. Wikipedia suggests, though, that
Plant was on the shortlist after the departure of Dio, but Ian
Gillan was picked instead.
A case could also be made for Glenn Hughes, since he is the only
one of the five who also plays an instrument, and had someone made
this point, I would have accepted it.
Four of the men above are alive, but sadly Ronnie James Dio is
not. I had however decided not to accept that as a motivation, had
someone raised it.
"Ozzy Osbourne - only one whose first name is a nickanme based
on his surname?
Obviously incorrect - because what is a "nickanme"? Now, if we,
despite the particular entrant in question, interpret this as
"nickname", the answer is correct. However, my intention was that
the four would have something interesting in common, and not having
such a nickname is not particularly noteworthy. Thus, not accepted.
> 3. Business:
> Bang & Olufsen, BoConcept, Carlsberg, IKEA, Lego,
IKEA - all other brands are Danish.
Mark had not heard of BoConcept. I don't know big they are
internationally, but they have a store in Bellevue, WA, and I find
it difficult to believe that it would be a one-of-a-kind.
"BoConcept. The others are all named, at least in part, after people"
Incorrect. LEGO is derived from "Leg godt", Danish for "Play well".
>4. Language:
> Czech, German, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak.
Hungarian - not an Indo-European language.
"Slovak uses a different alphabet"
No, Slovak uses Latin script.
>5. Science:
> candela, kelvin, metre, second, volt.
Volt - not a base unit in the SI system.
"Metre - only misspelled one. :-)"
Nope. No Toronto pub rules on this side of the Atlantic. :-)
>6. City travel:
> Charle de Gaulle Étoile, Montmatre, Oberkampf, Odéon,
> Porte de Glignancourt.
Montmartre - not a métro station in Paris.
I also accepted Porte de Glignancourt, despite no comment was given.
There is after all no station with that name - the correct spelling
is Clignancourt, and I could not tell if that spelling error trapped
the entrant who gave it. My apologies for no less than three spelling
errors in this list.
On the other hand, Oberkampf is a very much metro station - it is one
stop from (Place de) Répulique. It was an intentional trap, so I
happy to see some people swallowing the bait. :-)
>7. Food:
> farfalle, gnocchi, linguine, margherita, penne.
Margherita is a pizza, not a type of pasta.
>8. Science and language:
> azote, ilt, oxygen, Sauerstoff, syre.
azote, that's French for nitrogen. All the others are words for
oxygen. (Danish, English, German and Swedish in that order.)
>9. Current sport events:
> Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, USA.
Sweden for two reasons:
1) Have never won the FIFA Women's World Cup. (But who knows, maybe
this time?)
2) Never hosted the Winter Olympics.
The reason the latter counts as current is that on June 24th, the IOC
selected the host for the games in 2026. And for the seventh(!) time,
Sweden's bid was not accepted. Some of the Swedish bids in the past
were probably fairly reasonable, but this one was just ridiculous.
Just picture this: Stockholm was said to be the main host city,
but the City Council declined to sign the bid, so Åre - where the
alpine events were supposed to be held - signed instead. An internal
report to the IOC presented on the day before the vote labelled the
Swedish bid as a "high-risk project". And, yes, knowing some of the
details, I can fully agree.
"japan - did not win in round of 16 at FWWC in france"
"Japan is out of the world cup"
"Japan have not made the quarter finals of the women's world cup."
Correct and absolutely significant enough to qualify, so there is no
reason for me not to accept it. There is a twist though: it was not
correct when I posted the quiz - the game between Japan and Netherlands
was still going on.
"Norway (only one not in the Women's World Cup)"
They are (well, "were" by now), so this is incorrect.
>10. Entertainment:
> Pierre Brosnan, Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Roger Moore, Bruce Willis.
Bruce Willis - have never played James Bond.
The only question that all entrants got.
>11. Politics:
> Jair Bolsonaro, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin,
> Donald Trump,
Narendra Modi - The others are Presidents, while Modi is Prime Minister.
"Trump. The only world leader with no prior political experience."
I did not accept this on the same grounds I did not accept Ozzy Osbourne.
That is, having prior political experience is what you can expect from
a politician.
"Emmanuel Macron (only one not a right wing/nationalist politician)"
I accepted this. I realised that this was a possibility when I composed
the question, but at that point vaguely thought I would not accept this.
But having it thrown in the face, I find it difficult not to accept it.
In my original idea, I had Angela Merkel instead of Modi, but then I
realised that she stood out for a different reason, and I could not
think of any current female President that is well-known enough. As
substitutes I also considered Shinzo Abe and Justin Trudeau, but I
found Modi, being a PM in a republic a little more subtle. I was
thinking of replacing Macron with Erdogan, but that did not happen.
>12. Transport:
> Air Canada, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Lufthansa,
> Singapore Airlines.
British Airways - not a Star Alliance member.
The selection of airlines are based on a trip that I did last year.
I first flew to Frankfurt with Lufthansa to get on a flight to
Singapore with Singapore Airlines. I stayed in Singapore for a few
days before continuing to Christchurch, again with Singapore Airlines.
I was in New Zealand for 5½ weeks and eventually few out of Auckland
with Air New Zealand to Vancouver. I had a ticket with Air Canada to
get to Victoria, but I got a ride with a friend. I flew home from SeaTac
with Icelandair. However, I felt that Icelandair was too obscure for
people to spot, so I replaced that with British Airlines - but it did
not really help, as no one spotted the connection. (Mark got BA right,
but gave a different motivation, which I have not verified., but appears
to be correct.)
"lufthansa - not a flag carrier airline"
I am not too familiar with the concept of "flag carriers". I've been
reading articles on Wikipedia. The article "Flag carrier" includes a
list of flag-carrier airlines. This list includes Lufthansa, but the
reference given is not particularly convincing. But nor is the reference
for British Airways. I get the impression that these days the term
itself is not used in a well-defined way, but it was more applicable
in older days when about every country with self-respect had a
nationally owned airline. For these reasons, I decided not to accept
the answer. But if Stephen or someone else have more authoritative
information, I can be persuaded.
"Lufthansa (only one representing a country that does not have
English as a major/national language)"
A bit far-fetched, and on the margin of what I am prepared to accept,
but since languages often plays a role in my quizzes, I thought that
it was not entirely unreasonable to suspect that it could be involved
here as well. I could have picked AIr France instead. Oh well. Accepted.
"Lufty was never government owned?"
From what I can tell, it was until 1994. (Today, Lufthansa is privately
owned as are BA and Air Canada.) Thus, not accepted.