Mark Brader:
> These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 2012-07-23,
> and should be interpreted accordingly. If any answers have
> changed due to newer news, you are still expected to give the
> answers that were correct on those dates... For further information
> see my companion posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition
> (QFTCI*)".
Congratulations to GARETH OWEN, who wins the current events game!
> * Final, Round 1 - Current Events
> 1. Name the Hollywood producer who died this week. He was the
> son of a famous movie mogul, but achieved success on his
> own as producer of films such as "The Sound of Music",
> "Patton", "The French Connection", "The Sting", and "Jaws".
> The surname is sufficient.
Richard Zanuck. 4 for Joshua, Marc, Gareth, Pete, and Stephen.
> 2. Name the long-time writer for "Saturday Night Live" who died
> this week at age 59. He was Senator Al Franken's long-time
> writing partner.
Tom Davis. 4 for Joshua, Marc, Pete, and Stephen.
> 3. Name the American actress who died last week at age 95.
> A star of Broadway, Hollywood, and TV, she achieved fame
> in as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!" and was nominated for Best
> Supporting Actress in "All About Eve".
Celeste Holm. 4 for Joachim, Pete, and Stephen.
She was also nominated for "Come to the Stable" and won the Oscar for
"Gentleman's Agreement".
> 4. Two Seattle men returning from a trip to Vancouver were
> detained by US Customs when they tried to take six of these
> products across the border. In fact, the US has seized more
> than 60,000 of them due to concerns over of a "non-nutritive
> object" embedded in each one. What is this tasty treat?
Kinder Surprise "eggs" (chocolate eggs each containing a toy).
4 for Peter, Gareth, and Stephen.
Wikipedia says they are sold "all over the world excluding the
United States".
> 5. It's the 25th anniversary of the domain .ca. A Canadian
> university had the first web address to end with .ca.
> Name that university.
University of Prince Edward Island. 4 for Stephen.
> 6. According to an Angus Reid poll released this week, drivers
> in what province have been identified as the worst in Canada?
> Offenses include driving while multitasking, littering,
> and running red lights.
Alberta.
11 entrants guessed a total of 6 of the 9 wrong provinces and part
of another.
> 7. Name the street in Scarborough where a shooting rampage
> Monday left 2 dead and 23 injured.
Danzig St. 4 for Stephen.
> 8. Name the town in Colorado where a shooting rampage Saturday
> left 12 dead and anywhere between 59 and 70 injured.
Aurora. 4 for Joshua, Marc, Calvin, Joachim, Erland, Dan, Gareth,
Jeff, Pete, Rob, and Stephen.
> 9. Name Syria's largest city, the scene of fierce fighting last
> week between rebels and supporters of President Assad.
Aleppo. 4 for Marc, Erland, Dan, Gareth, Pete, and Stephen.
> 10. At age 86, comedian Jerry Lewis is directing a live stage
> production for the first time. It's a musical with a score
> by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Rupert Holmes. Which one
> of his classic movies is it based on?
"The Nutty Professor". 4 for Joshua, Marc, Calvin, Pete, Rob,
and Stephen. 3 for Gareth.
> 11. British tourists caught and released a monster fish in
> the Fraser River: at nearly 4 m long and almost half a tonne
> in weight, it is the largest fish ever caught for sport in
> North America. What kind of fish is it?
White sturgeon. 4 for Dan and Stephen.
> 12. Royal Envelope of Concord, Ontario, will cover 50% of
> the costs of adopting a cat or dog from the Toronto Humane
> Society -- if the animal meets a certain criterion. What is
> the requirement?
It must be black. (Black animals aren't adopted as quickly as
others.)
> 13. Name the company that announced it will spend an additional
> $500,000,000 on safety features for a proposed project.
Enbridge. (The Northern Gateway pipeline.) 4 for Stephen.
> 14. This week Yahoo appointed Melissa Mayer as its new CEO --
> the fifth in 6 years. What aspect of her personal life
> made this appointment especially newsworthy, and might have
> prevented her from winning such a high-profile position in
> the past?
She's 6 months pregnant. 4 for Joshua, Marc, Calvin, Joachim,
Erland, Peter, Pete, and Stephen. 2 for Gareth.
As noted by one or more entrants, it's Marissa, not Melissa.
> 15. What company cancelled its IPO this week, blaming economic
> strife in Europe? Its products have been used by Bob Dylan,
> Bruce Springsteen, and Jimi Hendrix.
Fender. 4 for Joshua, Marc, Calvin, Dan, Gareth, Jeff, Pete, Rob,
and Stephen.
Scores, if there are no errors:
GAMES-> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 F BEST NINE
Gareth Owen 0 20 20 12 10 12 31 12 16 4 25 158
Joshua Kreitzer 4 14 20 8 12 15 16 27 20 2 24 156
Pete Gayde 12 12 28 12 -- -- 28 20 -- -- 32 144
Marc Dashevsky 8 12 20 8 12 8 20 16 19 0 28 143
Dan Blum 8 16 16 6 19 8 16 18 16 6 -- 123
Stephen Perry -- -- -- -- -- -- 32 35 -- -- 52 119
Peter Smyth -- -- 12 12 8 12 23 16 12 6 8 109
Dan Tilque 0 4 4 16 4 8 16 16 12 4 16 96
Joachim Parsch 4 4 16 12 -- -- 11 16 12 3 12 90
"Calvin" 0 4 8 4 6 11 8 19 12 1 16 88
Erland Sommarskog 0 4 8 8 4 12 8 16 11 4 12 83
Jeff Turner -- -- 20 4 8 8 4 12 12 2 8 78
Rob Parker 0 10 3 14 0 11 8 8 -- -- 12 66
Bruce Bowler 0 8 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 8
In the original games, the *four* easiest rounds in all categories
in the entire season (not including the Final) were all current
events rounds. The two easiest ones (tied) were the ones from
Games 5 and 7, followed by the ones from Games 2 and 3 in that order.
Thank you all for playing. We will now continue with non-current-events
rounds from Game 4 from the preceding season.
--
Mark Brader Twas unix and the C++
Toronto Did compile and load upon the vax:
m...@vex.net All Ritchie was the Kernighan,
And Lisp ran in GNU EMACS.
--Larry Colen (after Lewis Carroll)