AUE: SDC 2006: Questions and Answers, 1-30

Note 2: Hints, answers, and explanations are initially concealed. To reveal a single hint, answer, or explanation, click and drag over the area to the right of the "H" or "A" or "E". To reveal all answers and explanations, click here (and to reconceal, click again) (JavaScript required).

1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15
16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 . 28 . 29 . 30

Adrian

Q1. But not wang

Why might you chung a pregnant woman?

A. to correct f(o)etal presentation

E. http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/position.html#Chunging

Jerry

Q2. Sneaky Question

What in this article
http://www.newbridgerfc.co.uk/Youth/youthandjuniors.htm
might nonplus a Belizean?

H. What>Who

A. The name Thomas Goff.

E. "Tommygoff" http://www.belizefirst.com/10watch.html

Adrian

Q3. Home and away

What kind of house is also a kind of road?

H. double meaning

A. duplex

Jerry

Q4. Go logo

The logo of this international company appropriately suggests forward
motion, yet you may have seen it dozens or hundreds of times before
noticing the suggestion. What company is it and what makes the
suggestion?

A. FedEx.

E. The "negative space" between the E and the x forms a
right-pointing arrow:
http://www.seattleu.edu/services/repro/RMS%20Pics/fedex.gif

Adrian

Q5. Pre-quartz

What was the reply to Lt Columbo when he suggested that Big Ben was a
minute slow?
"We must tell them to put another _____ on the _______."

A. penny, governor

E. fwiw, here's another guy using the same expression...
http://www.fireenginered.ca/fotoblog/index.php?2006/08/26/87-big-ben

Paul Wolff

Q6. Local advice

What is Popeye thinking?
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/popeye_thought.jpg

A. "Smoking is habit-forming; don't start." or similar.

E. The language is Maltese. (Popeye was filmed in Malta.)
http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/legalnotices/2003/09/LN243.pdf

Garry

Q7. Not friends

Two blonde characters, who?
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/cartwho.jpg

A. Wilbur and Gloria, from Little Lulu

E. http://www.stevestiles.com/lulu.htm

Jerry

Q8. Gut feeling

Can you tell the vocation of an individual who likes this clue?
Although it's nothing you see every day, you undoubtedly know it."

A. Ventriloquist.

E. The clue doesn't contain any b, m, p, or w sounds.

Adrian

Q9. Successlessest.

Wer ist tot?

H. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/k.jpg

A. Karl Ranseier
W http://compadre.de/ranseier.shtml

Adrian

Q10. Language players

Who initially suggested a merger between the Open Learning Partnership and
the University of Oslo?

H. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/q.jpg

A. Queneau and Le Lionnais

E. OLP+UIO=OULIPO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo

Adrian

Q11. Zoom

What do these letters have in common?
COSUVWXZ

A. Small and capital letters are written the same.

Jerry

Q12. Contronym?

Fill in both blanks in this line of dialogue with the same word or phrase:
I can't __. I have to __.

A. help myself

Jerry

Q13. Don't be afraid

What can't you serve with cod?

A. gammon (or, possibly, salmon)

E. 'You cannot serve cod and gammon.' --Noel Coward

Paul Wolff

Q14. Dog & Duck

Question 41 of the 2005 SDC showed a photo of the King's Arms in Sandwich,
Kent, with two words to be guessed in a sign by the door. I came upon a pub
menu board recently which seemed to cry out for the same question. (OK,
three words in this case.) So, what was the now unavailable £1 dish?
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/pub_menu.jpg

A. marmite on toast

Adrian

Q15. Around and about.

What do these things have in common?
The arrondissements of Paris
'pataphysics
Hurricane Katrina
The Golden Section
Newgrange
soixante-neuf

A. spirals

E. And there's more...
http://www.efn.org/~ecozma/sunergy/chiether/ABCs%20of%20spirals.html

dadoctah

Q16. Turning, Japanese.

I own both of these albums:
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/pics/covers.html
Why does either one always remind me of the other?

A. Both Kirsty MacColl's "Desperate Character" and Sun Yanzi's "My Desired
Happiness" were followed by albums simply entitled "Kite".

E. Explanation of the subject line: a bit of a reach; "kite" (pronounced /kI
te/, not /kaIt/) is the gerund form of the Japanese verb "kuru" meaning "to
come" or "to arrive".

Adrian

Q17. Not Dewey or LOC

(snip)
942 Weather Forecasting
943 Scientology
944 Real Estate Agency
945 Car Dealing
946 Law
947 ?

H. a devil of a question

A. palmistry

E. "Mimbleshaw's classification" in The Devil's Dictionary
http://www.quote-db.com/index.php/quote/2672

Adrian

Q18. Handles

? : Ronan :: Dylan : Malone

A. Satchel

E. Two of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's children have changed their names.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Farrow

Garry

Q19. Benoised

Where is (was) this?
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/../sdc2006/pics/where.jpg

A. Oxford, 1250

E. (map is upside-down)

Jerry

Q20. Don't get mad

When my name is translated into my supposed native language, God has to
be added, but the suggestion of forbidding works fine. What's less
clear is what I meant by the title of my famous work. Who am I?

A. Abdul Alhazred

E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Alhazred

Adrian

Q21. Fat Club

What is the name and colour of the missing person?
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2006/pics/bb.html

H. SP203470

A. Simon Shelton; purple or blue

E. Photos of the actors who played the Teletubbies. Simon Shelton (one of the
three actors who played Tinky Winky) is missing.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142055/
Grid reference SP203470 is the site of Teletubby-land.

Jerry

Q22. Double cross

Devise a cryptic crossword clue with two answers. An anagram for at
least one answer or its exact text (as "can swerve" concealing
"answer") must appear in the clue. For the benefit of solvers, please
indicate the numbers of letters in the two answers in parentheses and
post the answer in a reply to yourself. Extra sheep if the answers
have the same number of letters in each word. The answers should not
be very similar to each other, in the judgement of the Panel.

A. Many answers are possible - see the thread in Google Groups.

Adrian

Q23. Two diamonds

According to William Stadiem, "No two cities in the world are more
frequently compared than ? and ?."

A. San Francisco and Sydney

E. quoted in the Telegraph Magazine 16/3/02
The question title refers to bridge.

Paul Wolff

Q24. Cyphergram

TBE ZMGQY LSCAH WCF XMNOP CDES TBE JRUK VCI
What is the question? For a bonus, answer it.

A. Who vexingly bumps car?
Bonus: Franke (or CyberCypher or Taiwan Bill, etc.)

E. This is ciphertext (no imagination needed). It has very few duplications
of letters. In fact, it uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. Assume it is
a substitution cipher. Then we are looking for a plaintext which uses all
26 letters in a total of 35. The best known short pangram in English is
'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. It doesn't take much
insight to see the match, as word breaks are (helpfully for the
cryptanalyst) shown.
Now draw up two lines of letters, plain alphabet above cipher equivalents.
Make the plain alphabet the one in conventional order, and nothing much
appears:
Plaintext abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cyphertext RLOVEWIBGXYJNHCOZSPTMDAFKU
But if it is written as the cryptographer wrote it, where the plaintext
alphabet spells out its key word or phrase before the remainder of the
letters of the alphabet in their usual order, starting with the next missing
letter after the last letter of the key, and the cipher alphabet is (of
course) in conventional order, something happens:
Plain whovexinglybumpscartzdfjkq
Cyphertext ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Interestingly, T and E are unchanged upon encryption. It doesn't help
solvers to work from 'TBE' to 'the', as far as I can tell.
The key phrase is the requested question "Who vexingly bumps car?". Hitch
this up with the slug line and if memories are good enough and attention has
been paid to the flying of Franke, any variant on Franke, Taiwan Bill, or
even CyberCypher is acceptable.

Adrian

Q25. Oulipo a la Carte (1)

Create a piece of poetry or prose consisting entirely of anagrams of AUE
regulars' names. Minimum ten names.
eg. Bob Cunningham Maria Conlon Charles Riggs
Nabob munching macaroon charges girls nil.

A. Many answers are possible - see the thread in Google Groups.

Adrian

Q26. Oulipo a la Carte (2)

Create a themed piece of poetry or prose using only the 98
letters from a Scrabble set (12 Es, etc.)
If you want to use the two blanks, you can use them as two letters or two
symbols.

A. Many answers are possible - see the thread in Google Groups.

Adrian

Q27. Oulipo a la Carte (3)

Create a piece of poetry or prose where every word begins with J, Q, X or
Z.
Minimum 30 words.

A. Many answers are possible - see the thread in Google Groups.

Adrian

Q28. Bottom dollar

Who first announced that YCDBSOYA?

A. Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco.
Bonus: what do the first two letters of "Tesco" stand for?

E. It wasn't Stockwell.

Adrian

Q29. good drug, bad drug