Mark Brader:
> These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 1998-03-09,
> and should be interpreted accordingly... For further information...
> see my 2020-06-23 companion posting on "Reposted Questions from the
> Canadian Inquisition (RQFTCI*)".
> ** Game 7, Round 6 - Canadiana Current Events (excerpt)
> Answer these 1998 questions, too, if you like for fun, but for
> no points.
> 1. Normally we wouldn't dare ask you the name of Canada's Prospector
> of the Year. But this guy made it to the front page -- probably
> because of his better-known son, a Canadian Olympic athlete.
> Name him -- their last name is enough.
Mark Rebagliati, father of Ross.
> 2. What did Cineplex Odeon decide this week to stop showing in
> its cinemas?
A trailer, aimed at getting people to turn off cellphones and pagers,
that showed an execution about to take place.
> I wrote one of these rounds.
That was the entertainment round. Incidentally, I noted when posting
these answers in 2009, the March 2009 issue of "Games" had a quiz
on Hitchcock movies, consisting of stills from 21 of his movies and
a list of the titles to be matched with them. I got 19 right.
> ** Game 7, Round 7 - Science - Plastics
> Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you...
> just one word.
> Ben Braddock: Yes, sir.
> Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
> Ben Braddock: Yes, sir, I am.
> Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
> -- "The Graduate" (1967)
The movie was written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based on
the original novel by Charles Webb.
> * Rubber
> 1. Rubber is naturally elastic but has the serious disadvantages
> that it becomes too soft and sticky when warm, and too hard when
> cold. These disadvantages were partially overcome in 1839 when
> the American inventor Charles Goodyear discovered what process?
Vulcanization. 4 for everyone -- Erland, Dan Blum, Joshua,
Dan Tilque, and Bruce.
> 2. I.G. Farben created a synthetic rubber in the late 1920s that
> assumed a great deal of strategic importance for Germany in
> World War II. This new material was a copolymer of butadiene
> and styrene catalyzed by sodium -- its name derives from two
> of these materials, and is one of the """current""" trade names
> for synthetic rubber in Germany. What is it?
Buna. (Still true as far as I know.)
Sodium is "Natrium" in German, as in Latin.
> * Early Plastics
> 3. In the late 1860s, two brothers named Hyatt created the first
> thermoplastic -- a moldable mass formed by heat and pressure into
> a shape that it retains. They intended it to be a replacement
> for ivory (for example, in billiard balls), but it proved to have
> far greater application -- including film and fashion. Name it.
Celluloid. (Not cellulose, a natural substance found in plants.
Not nitrocellulose either.) 4 for Erland.
Although celluloid is the best-known movie film base, celluloid film
is dangerously flammable and was replaced by safer plastics in the
mid-20th century.
> 4. The first "true" synthetic material was invented in 1907 by
> a Belgian immigrant to the US. It had immediate applications
> in everything from lacquer to electrical insulation to billiard
> balls; indeed, this material may be said to define the Art
> Deco style.
Bakelite. 4 for Dan Blum, Dan Tilque, and Bruce.
It's named after its inventor, Leo Baekeland.
> * Terminology
> 5. Some common plastics are polyethylene, polypropylene,
> polystyrene... in fact, the whole class of plastics goes by
> the name "polymers". What does the prefix "poly-" mean?
Many (referring to many repeated units of a chained molecule).
4 for everyone.
> 6. What process is this? A melted polymer is forced through
> an opening with a particular cross-section (the die), and
> a continuous shape is formed with a constant cross-section
> similar to that of the orifice.
Extrusion. 4 for Dan Blum, Dan Tilque, and Bruce.
Of course, it's also used with metals, typically the softer ones.
> * Nomenclature
> 7. Polytetrafluoroethylene, used in cookware and clothing, is
> better known by what trade name?
Teflon. 4 for Dan Blum, Joshua, Dan Tilque, and Bruce.
> 8. PVC is a common hard, inflexible plastic whose industrial use
> is ubiquitous -- it appears in everything from tubing to
> ski boots. What does PVC stand for?
Polyvinyl chloride. 4 for everyone.
> 9. Polymethyl methacrylate is a transparent, extremely hard
> substance better known by what trade name?
Plexiglas (or Perspex). Okay, and also Lucite. 4 for Dan Blum
(the hard way).
"Acrylic" is not a trade name. Lexan is a different plastic.
> 10. Polystyrene with air injected is better known by what trade
> name?
Styrofoam. Okay, and also Frigolit. 4 for Dan Blum, Joshua,
Dan Tilque, and Bruce.
> ** Game 7, Round 8 - Entertainment - The Master: The Films of
> Alfred Hitchcock
> 1. In the kinds of stories that Hitchcock told, the major characters
> are often contending for control or possession of a particular
> item of value to them -- an item that Hitchcock generically
> called the McGuffin. In "Notorious" (1946), starring Ingrid
> Bergman, the McGuffin proved to be hidden in a wine bottle --
> but *what* it was caused Hitchcock to attract attention from
> the FBI. What was it?
Uranium ore. I did not require "ore", and scored other references
to nuclear weaponry as almost correct. 4 for Dan Blum. 3 for Joshua
and Dan Tilque.
> 2. This 1955 movie was Shirley MacLaine's debut and is generally
> considered Hitchcock's funniest. Its McGuffin is the body of
> the title character. What was the title?
"The Trouble with Harry". 4 for Joshua.
> 3. In 1948, Hitchcock made the experiment of a movie intended to
> look like one continuous shot -- though the joints required
> every 10 minutes or so when the camera was about to run out
> of film are actually quite obvious. It starred James Stewart
> and was inspired by the real-life murderers Leopold and Loeb.
> What was its title?
"Rope". 4 for Dan Blum, Joshua, and Bruce.
I left the question the way I wrote it in 1998, but the description
of the movie is not actually correct: every second one of the
"joints", every 20 minutes or so, is not a badly concealed cut but
a conventional, unconcealed one. Because you're used to seeing
a lot more of those, they *aren't* obvious -- you'll only notice
them if you're looking for them. See the IMDB or even Wikipedia.
> 4. Hitchcock made three movies based on the writings of Daphne
> du Maurier. The first was a 1939 film with Charles Laughton,
> much of its dialogue in the impenetrable dialect of the west
> of England. The second, a 1940 film with Laurence Olivier,
> was his first American-made movie but was again set in England.
> The third was "The Birds" (1963). Name *either one of the
> first two*.
"Jamaica Inn", "Rebecca". 4 for Dan Blum and Joshua.
Again, I've left the question the way I wrote it in 1998, but years
later when I watched "Jamaica Inn" for the second time, I didn't
find the dialect so impenetrable after all.
> 5. Robert Cummings appeared in two Hitchcock movies. He starred
> in a 1942 film which included real-life footage of a ship that
> had been destroyed in New York harbor allegedly by criminals,
> and which ended with a chase to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
> Cummings was also in a 1954 movie starring Ray Milland that was
> filmed in 3-D, although not released that way until years later.
> Name *either movie*.
"Saboteur" (not "Sabotage", a different Hitchcock movie); "Dial M
for Murder". 4 for Joshua.
The ship, unnamed in "Saboteur", was the "Normandie". See:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-normandie-catches-fire
The use of 3-D for "Dial M for Murder" explains why certain shots
were taken from an unusual perspective: for example, one shot with
a pair of scissors very close to the camera.
> 6. Name either of Hitchcock's last two movies. For one, released
> in 1972, he returned to Britain for the first time in 20 years
> and cast Barry Foster as a serial killer whose weapon was
> the necktie. The other appeared in 1976, starred Bruce Dern,
> and included a humorous scene of a runaway car on a California
> mountain road. Name either one.
"Frenzy", "Family Plot". 4 for Joshua and Bruce.
> 7. Since the story of "Lifeboat" (1944) takes place entirely
> in the boat, Hitchcock could not play his usual walk-on role.
> How did he manage to get himself into the movie?
In a newspaper ad. (Before-and-after photos for a fictional product,
"Reduco -- the obesity slayer".) 4 for Dan Blum, Joshua, and Bruce.
He actually had been making an effort to lose weight, and the
before-and-after photos were real. See:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GUiwCi+HL._CR10,0,602,602_UX175.jpg
> 8. This actress was Hitchcock's favorite, starring opposite Ray
> Milland, James Stewart, and Cary Grant in different movies;
> and in various later movies, Hitchcock was considered to have
> had her in mind when casting Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak, and Eva
> Marie Saint. Name her.
Grace Kelly ("Dial M for Murder", "Rear Window", "To Catch a Thief").
4 for Dan Blum.
"To Catch a Thief" was not her last movie, but it led to the end of
her movie career -- because it was filmed in Monaco and that's how
she met Prince Rainier.
> 9. Several Hitchcock movies include memorable scenes on trains,
> but only one, from 1938, is set almost entirely on a train
> from start to finish. It takes place in an unnamed European
> country and the title character is played by Dame May Whitty.
> Name the film.
"The Lady Vanishes". 4 for Dan Blum and Joshua.
> 10. Name the 1935 Hitchcock movie, based on a story whose author
> was also a governor-general of Canada, that features Robert
> Donat and Madeleine Carroll and for part of the story has them
> handcuffed together.
"The 39 Steps". 4 for Dan Blum and Joshua.
The novel was by John Buchan, who became Lord Tweedsmuir after he
was named G-G.
If you're a fan of this movie, I recommend the comedy play of the same
title, written by 1995 by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon and rewritten
in 2005 by Patrick Barlow. It is a parody of this specific version
of the story.
Scores, if there are no errors:
GAME 7 ROUNDS-> 2 3 4 7 8 BEST
TOPICS-> His Art Geo Sci Ent THREE
Dan Blum 16 12 20 32 28 80
Joshua Kreitzer 8 0 22 20 35 77
Erland Sommarskog 16 0 24 16 0 56
Dan Tilque 0 0 24 28 3 55
Bruce Bowler -- -- -- 28 12 40
--
Mark Brader | "I thought at first that you had done something clever,
Toronto | but I see that there was nothing in it, after all."
m...@vex.net | "I begin to think, Watson, that I make a mistake
| in explaining." --Doyle