Questions and Answers, 91-120

 
SDC 2002: Contents 0-30 31-60 61-90 91-120 Scores Bottom

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Q91 What happened in life

Q: Who said this? What happened in life,
Only memory remains;
Once dead, I'll take with me
Only a handful of earth.
A: Carlos Coral.

Q92 Chromatic Progression

Q: I entered through the Red Gate and continued east. I passed the Lime Kiln on my left, then Michael's Mead on my right. I reached the Police and Fire Headquarters and turned south. After some time, I crossed Yeoman's Bridge and continued south. To my right, I heard the sounds of Accidental President. I continued south until I encountered a perimeter fence. There, I spied an ancient monument, revered by many as having both spiritual and mythological significance.

Where was I? Please be specific, we'll need more than the name of the town.

A: Ben Zimmer posted at 14 Aug 2002 19:33:37 -0700

At the Glastonbury Festival, looking at Stonehenge, listening to Bush.

and he followed up later with

King's Meadow.

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/INFO/siteplaps1.html

Q93 Cow orker or an orak in alternative English usage?

Q: Whether anorak or not, he doesn't mind being called that. (Any further hint would telegraph the answer.) And maybe the reward for answering this question should be five live entire sheep--okay, maybe not entire.
A: Richard Maurer posted at 15 Aug 2002 07:53:03 GMT

Philip Eden

Q94 Revolution Instigator

Q: This one-time member of the Hitler youth movement started a new revolution with an idea that he published in 1936. What was his name?
A: mickwick posted at 16 Aug 2002 00:14:43 BST

Felix Wankel.

Q95 A staged question

Q: Where wasn't Snoopy allowed to go?
A: Richard Ragan posted at 15 Aug 2002 23:55:29 EDT

Snoopy was not allowed to go back to Earth or back to the moon but had to go into solar orbit.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1969-043A

Snoopy was the name of the Lunar Module on the Apollo 10 mission.

Q96 Summer Songster

Q: Who was the first to sing all summer while someone else worked?
A: Richard Ragan posted at 15 Aug 2002 11:14:02 CDT

It might not have been the grasshopper after all. There appear to be variants of the translation that suggest a cricket did the singing (more likely than a grasshopper) and this reference suggests a cicada which are clearly known for their singing.

http://www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/news/archives/98/Aug/08-14/OSL%20-%20The%20Sons%20of%20the%20Cicadas

Q97 Wise Orrie

Q: "O, Orrie most wise, tell me...".

Who is being addressed, and what does it have to do with Scooter?

A: "Orrie" is the Internet Oracle(TM) who lurks at the newsgroup rec.humor.oracle. The longest-standing in-joke of the Oracle concerns woodchucks (specifically, the w**dch*ck question - how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?). A woodchuck is also known as a groundhog, and the groundhog "Scooter" was the star of that famous movie "Groundhog Day".
Caution: Note the capital "S" in scooter - not just any old scooter!

Q98 A country less full

Q: Whose [or which] country is not as full as it was?
A: Jonathan Jordan posted at 16 Aug 2002 12:03:25 +0100

This looks like it's referring to somebody who complained that their country was "full". I'm sure that plenty of people have claimed this over the years, but one who claimed it in 2002 was Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands. I don't see why the Netherlands are less full, though.

Q99 Bumbershoot tip

Q: In which country should you beware of men with umbrellas?
A: Frances Kemmish posted at 15 Aug 2002 07:25:57 -0400

Bulgaria

Q100 Micturating Windward

Q: The wise, of course, don't piss into the wind. But in which capital city can you find this observation prominently displayed?
A: Skitt posted on 16 Aug 2002 19:46:01 -0700

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

http://pix.paip.net/Travels/20020430/dscn7771.jpg

Q101 Nice pussy

Q: A familiarity with feline anatomy might assist one in dealing with whom?
A: British bureaucrats - as the expression has it: "they want to know the ins and outs of a cat's arse".
Status: Herdwick-enabled!

Q102 Buffoonery as music

Q: A celebrated cartoonist and musical parodist sadly died at the age of 34. Not before he had had time, however, to deliver a speech which inspired a comic song which has become a classic. Name both the song and its inspirer.
A: Skitt posted at 15 Aug 2002 10:44:26 -0700

Gerard Hoffnung. The Bricklayer's Song.

Q103 Philosophical question

Q: "The secret to happiness is learning to appreciate the moment. I, for example, take great pleasure in being right here, right now, doing what we're doing". Who was the philosopher, and where was he supposed to be?
A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 15:56:44 -0700

Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes).

And he was supposed to be at school.

Q104 Nonconformist civil servant

Q: Shana called her bad. She sang at El Morocco and worked in a city whose name ultimately comes from a city on the east coast of England. Her first name suffices to identify her. Please identify this person.
A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 16:34:23 -0700

Sukhreet Gabel.

Q105 The Fist

Q: Have a look at

http://freespace.virgin.net/wv8.mark/images/thefist.jpg

Where is this sculpture and who does it commemorate?

A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 16:31:09 -0700

Detroit, Joe Louis.

Q106 Rank has its privileges

Q: I sailed west from this massive island, once visited by Marco Polo, until I saw the coastline of a small island named for its indigenous swine. I turned due south and sailed until I reached a cluster of islands first charted by the Portuguese, one prominent island being named for a fortuitous event that occurred there in the 18th century. I then sailed due west for six days and then due south for twelve days. Finally, I made landfall on an island whose legal system was based upon reward rather than punishment. At that last stop, where was I?
A: mickwick posted at 17 Aug 2002 12:33:57 BST

>Lilliput and Blefescu were roughly in the right place if the starting-
>point was Sumatra or Java but I can't believe that people who went to
>war over the proper way to open an egg had justice systems based on
>reward rather than punishment.
Aha! From Chapter 6:
===
It is upon this account that the image of Justice, in their courts of
judicature, is formed with six eyes, two before, as many behind, and on
each side one, to signify circumspection; with a bag of gold open in her
right hand, and a sword sheathed in her left, to show she is more
disposed to reward than to punish.
===
So the first island is Sumatra, the second Babi (just southeast of
Simuelue), the group is the Cocos or Keelings (or, if the navigator
didn't allow enough for the current when pricking his chart, Christmas
Island) and the last one is Lilliput.

Q107 Barely B'rer

Q: This Canadian black bear, a resident of the zoo, provided the inspiration for a story that took place in a county whose etymology comes from "Saxons of the South". What was the bear's name, and when was the story first published?
A: Mark Brader posted at 16 Aug 2002 00:19:58 GMT

*Winnie*, 1925. Winnie the Pooh was the fictional bear.

Q108 Dead Ringer

Q: Whilst saving the universe from evil wizards, dark elves, and various shadow lords of one sort or another, you find a strange, jeweled ring with the inscription, "Ring of the Troll". What would the wearer of this ring expect to happen?
A: Richard Ragan posted at 15 Aug 2002 18:48:42 CDT

Ring of the Troll

This ring acts in all ways as a ring of regeneration or rapid regeneration, but are in fact faulty versions of those rings, created through errors in the making process. This is due the use of to much trollish blood in the enchantment of the ring, these rings work normally, regenerating missing parts and wounds, but replacing them with thair trollish equivalents. When the wearer has regenerated as many Hps as hes miximum total, he is turned into a troll (standard or your choice, it is up to DM as to what kind of troll the ring was made from). This may not become immediately apparent as the transformed parts may be hiddin under clothes, armor and so on. It can be suppressed before it is completed, by a dispel magic, but afterwards only by a wish or reincarnate spell.

makes you a troll.

Q109 Let x = Points of light

Q: In 1656, he modified the Roman numeral for 1,000 to create a symbol to represent a very small number. After several centuries, however, it came to represent a very large number.

What was his name?

A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 21:41:11 -0700

John Wallis
(infinity symbol)

http://members.aol.com/jeff570/calculus.html

Q110 Walls of Bronze

Q: I sailed into the harbour, past the imposing guard towers, and into the Great Port. I unloaded my cargo at the warehouse and sailed north to the Internal Port. There, I disembarked and found myself in a city with bronze walls! Within this city, I found a massive military fortress, the Royal Palace, and a sacred grove. In the sacred grove, there was a temple (described by a Greek philosopher as having silver walls and gold ornamentation) to a god of the sea. Had I continued north for another mile, I would have come to two very large structures dedicated to entertainment.

Where was I? Who was the philosopher? And what was the chief form of entertainment there?

A: Feckless posted at 16 Aug 2002 00:00:51 -0500

Atlantis, Plato, horse racing.

Q111 Sledded?

Q: Considering the Earth as a magnet, where would you find its north pole?
A: Mike Oliver posted at 15 Aug 2002 21:33:31 -0700

Looks like about 140 deg E, 65 deg S. I was wrong about it being inside the Antarctic Circle; it's just outside, and it's in the ocean.

Q112 Folk-dancing with blue bonnets

Q: What do you say?
A: Bullshit! (The singer's call and the dancers' response in the Texas folk-dance "Cotton-Eyed Joe".)

Q113 There are countrymen and there are country men...

Q: Think Covington. Sometimes, there was cement in the trunk (boot). There's a connection to a well-known college football coach, to a former Congressman, and to a drama/dance/music school. What oeuvre does this bring to mind?
A: Ben Zimmer posted at 17 Aug 2002 19:35:42 -0700

"The Dukes of Hazzard".

Fimed in Covington, Georgia.
In order to control how far the cars would jump during a stunt, they put different amounts of cement in the trunks.
Ben Jones (Cooter) became a Congressman.
Sonny Shroyer (Enos) played Coach Bear Bryant in "Forrest Gump".
James Best (Roscoe) trained at Juilliard.

http://www.geocities.com/rickstvshows/dukesofhazzard.html

Q114 Variegated Athlete

Q: Sixteen years after winning his first medal in world-class athletic competition, he won a second one! After that, he starred in a memorable motion picture. All together, in the picture, the first medal, and the second medal, a number of colors are represented. What are they and who was he?
A: Gwen Lenker posted at 18 Aug 2002 14:20:43 GMT

Silver, gold, and Gold -- Harold "Odd Job" Sakata.

Comment: Worth 7 Herdwicks by the time it was answered

Q115 Fractured Analogies

Q: "Ivanhoe" is to a Russian farm implement as "Sense and Sensibility" is to Pennies and smells, an invoice, a drink as ? is to three dice in a Yahtzee game.
A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 23:18:58 -0700 Paradise Lost.
Comment: Paradise Lost = "pair o' dice lost"

Q116 Belly Up

Q: Please consider the following list: Blue Messiah, Monster Holiday, Slippery Nipple, Purple Haze, and Jack Hammer. Eliminating one list item will make this list meaningful and consistent. Please identify which item should be removed and explain your rationale.
A: Ben Zimmer posted at 15 Aug 2002 23:12:31 -0700

Monster Holiday is not a mixed drink.

Q117 Dear John

Q: Which statement below is the most critical of John's laziness?
  1. John approached his homework assignment with a listless indifference.
  2. John approached his homework assignment with a languid indifference.
  3. John approached his homework assignment with a lethargic indifference.
  4. John approached his homework assignment with a lackadaisical indifference.
A: Rafael Block posted at 16 Aug 2002 07:00:45 GMT

Number three: lethargic is more lazy than the others which are more spiritless. I'd say it's worse to be lazy than uncaring.

Why: Because we said so

Q118 Quickly!

Q: Tom went to an auction in Lanton. What did he buy?
A: Richard Ragan posted at 16 Aug 2002 13:20:48 CDT

From "Tom Swift and his Motor Boat"

"Two hundred---two hundred!" droned on Mr. Wood. "I am offered two hundred. Will any of you go any higher?" He paused a moment, and Tom's heart beat harder than ever. "If not," resumed the speaker, "I will declare the bidding closed. Are you all done? Once---twice---three times. Two hundred dollars. Going---going-- -gone!" He clapped his hands. "The boatt is sold to Thomas Swift for two hundred dollars. If he'll step up I'll take his money."

Q119 Down by the old mill stream

Q: I was born in the Southern Hemisphere in a city whose name means something like "flower stream", but my parents were English. When I was three, my mother returned to England with me. My father (a banker) was supposed to follow us in the next year, but he contracted rheumatic fever and died. I grew up near a city whose name is thought to come from the Old English 'residence of Beorma'. My fondest memory here was an old, rustic watermill which fell into ruin. Later, I paid to have it restored, and it is now a museum. What is the name of this watermill/museum?
A: Richard Ragan posted at 16 Aug 2002 13:33:09 CDT
followed 45 seconds later by
Laura Spira who posted at 16 Aug 2002 18:33:54 GMT

Sarehole Mill in Cole Bank Road, Hall Green
J.R.R.Tolkien

Note: These responses arrived essentially as a dead heat - well within our time resolving abilities. Thus Cormos to both!

Q120 Final question

Q: Which of the following statements is the most severe?
  1. The family was poverty-stricken.
  2. The family was destitute.
  3. The family was indigent.
  4. The family was needy.
A: Richard Ragan posted at 16 Aug 2002 13:33:42 CDT

#2 is most severe


SDC 2002: Contents 0-30 31-60 61-90 91-120 Scores Top