Put on your thinking cap. Mark Mason has written Question Time – A Journey Round Britain’s Quizzes. I know this because he has an article about it in the October edition of The Oldie.
Sprinkled in his piece are examples of quiz questions, all but one of which he thinks good examples of the genre. I hope you enjoy the challenge.
1 Who was Henry VIII’s third wife?
2 What is the capital of Albania?
3 Which is the only letter of the alphabet not to appear in the name of any US state?
4 Does the Queen face to the left or the right on stamps?
5 There are six of them. One is longer than the other five. They were invented in 1924 by Sir Frank Dyson, who was then Astronomer Royal. They are still in regular – very regular – use today. What are they?
6 This 1962 film was named after one of its main characters. It has, at the latest count, spawned 23 sequels, though the character in question hasn’t appeared in any of them. Which film?
7 Where would you find a stock character from the Italian theatre form known as commedia dell’arte, a Spanish dance, a famous astronomer, the central character in “The Barber of Seville”, and an Arabic word meaning “in the name of Allah”?
8 What’s the capital of Australia?
9 The Queen and Prince Philip – in the morning, one of them prefers a bath, the other a shower. Which way round is it?
10 In February 2017, a Nottinghamshire man found what is believed to be the largest Kellogg’s Bran Flake ever. How large was it, in square inches?
11 The clock on the front of Edinburgh’s Balmoral Hotel is deliberately kept three minutes fast. This is because of the building next door. What is that building?
I didn’t do well – only four right answers. Answers tomorrow.
If I am right about the six, which a am certain I am. When he devised it they were all the same length. The longer sixth was an alteration made when we were young men. I remember being mildly outraged.
Well done. I was completely mystified.
Woke up this morning to a lurid hangover (after a brilliant SFO La Traviata last night with Ruchinski as senior Clermont stealing the show from a Brazilian Alfredo…Aurelia Florian sublime), with the prospect of being a lector at the 10 o’clock Church parade (Paul lecturing Euodia and Syntyche to keep the peace in a rather shambolic infant Christian Church…dames) and Christopher,s quiz. Got 5 that I,m pretty sure off and fascinated to see answers to several others. Reading in the end went well…gravelly rather than dulcet tones work with Pauline injunctions. Now on to the answers.
It is a curious medical fact that opera is a catalyst for hangovers. I don’t know about SFO but the NY Met have 30 minute intervals which may be a factor. I am going to Tosca next week.