This quiz is over, and the winner is STEPHEN W PERRY! Congratulations!
Here is the full scoreboard:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
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Swp 1 1 1 1 - - 1 1 - 1 1 1 9
Dan B - - 1 1 1 1 - - - - 1 1 6
Mark B - - - 1 - 1 - - 1 - 1 1 5
Dan T - - - 1 - - - - - 1 1 - 3
Pete G - - - 1 - - - - 1 - - 1 3
Answers:
> 1. When was Moscow first established as a principality. Answer by giving
> a half-century. For instance, if you think it happened this year, you
> would answer "First half of 21st century."
Second half of 13th century.
The exact year may be 1263, but the sources are somewhat conflicting. What
is clear is that the first prince was Alexander Nevsky's youngest son
Danil, and Nevsky died in 1263 when Danil was two years old. It is likely
that Nevsky gave Moscow to Danil as an appanage in his will. But according
to a footnote in the book I read about Russian in the 13th century, one
source says "Danil ruled there for eleven years", and Danil died in 1303,
which suggests that the principality was established later. But maybe that
scribe made a counting error.
> 2. The Italian film "Il Postino" ("The Postman") from 1994 tells a
> fictive story, but one of the characters is a real-life Nobel
> laureate in literature. Who?
Pablo Neruda. The film is set in the 1950s, so in the film he is not a Nobel
laureate. But he is very popular and get so much mail, that the title person
of the film gets the job of being his private postman,
> 3. Explain the Japanese term "karoshi".
Die from overwork.
> 4. What would you use Roundup for?
Kill weeds.
> 5. The Khazars, a Turkic people, dominated the land north of Caucasus
> during a couple of centuries up around 950 AD. There is one thing which
> is noticeable with them in terms of religion. What?
The embraced Judaism. As Dan suggests, it seems to have mainly been the
ruling class. From what I've heard, this was due to that they had the
Muslim Central Asia to the east and the Christian Byzantium to the
south-west, so they kept both at bay this way. But in the end, it didn't
help. They were sacked by the upcoming Kievan Rus - still pagans at the
time.
> 6. In linguistics, what sound change does "metathesis" refer to?
When two sounds in a word change placed with each other. Not necessarily
consonants, but I approved that anyway.
Dan Blum had a good example with "iron". Another example is "cross", which
is "croix" in French, "Kreuz" in German, but in the North-Germanic
languages it is "kors".
> 7. This band had already released three albums when they recruited a new
> singer and released an album with the name of an European capital. This
> album and the title track is probably their most well-known work. Name
> the band.
Ultravox.
The capital in question is Vienna.
> 8. Explain the term "Drowning on dry land".
You fall into the water, but you are saved and taken up from the water still
alive. But you have so much water in your lungs that you die by drowning
anyway.
Or at least this is what I found when I googled the term. I was listening
to a song with this name, and I got curious if there was an allegorical
meaning, and I was a little surprised that the explanation was very
literate. Being curious if there was something more to it, I decided to
ask this smart group, being prepared to accept about anything. But that
did not really work out.
I did not accept "The result of drinking a potentially lethal excess of
water", since in that case you don't die because of water in the lungs or
anything else resemblant of drowning. This is more like poisoning.
> 9. If you are at the Roland Garros stadium, which sport are you likely
> to be watching?
Tennis.
This is where French Open is played. I did not accept "Lawn tennis", since
the surface on Roland Garrod is red clay, not grass.
> 10, A logical consequence of the election results is that Donald T will
> come back as a state leader. In which country?
Poland.
T is for Tusk. And, no, Donald Tusk does not sound Polish. He was PM of
Poland 2007-2014. He was also President of the European Council 2014-2019.
> 11. Tata Group has business in a wide range of products and services.
> Their origin and headquarters are in which country?
India.
Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker.
This is from East-Side Gallery which is a collection of grafiti paintings on
piece of the Berlin Wall that still stands. While this is a painting, I
believe that there is a photo with the same seen. The text at the bottom
reads "My God! Help me to survive this deadly love".
Thanks everyone for playing!