And we're off...
December 23, 2016 4:31 PM   Subscribe

Not christmas till you see the King William's College Quiz? Then Christmas is here! Take time out to have your mind blown and be reminded how little you know!

Here's last year's, which also links to some previous year's efforts on the blue.
posted by biffa (169 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
I know the answer to 15.4!
posted by hippybear at 4:48 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thank you, thank you, thank you.
posted by rewil at 4:52 PM on December 23, 2016


The theme of set 4 is soup. (4.7 - drawn from Buchan's Hightower - is "broth", 4.9 is "the Mock Turtle," and 4.10 is "cabbage soup.")
posted by Iridic at 5:06 PM on December 23, 2016


ARGH, beaten by Iridic to the soup theme! :)
posted by andraste at 5:08 PM on December 23, 2016


4.5 - Stew (story of Jacob and Esau)
posted by andraste at 5:09 PM on December 23, 2016


I think the theme of 6 could be 'roses'

6.6 is Rosie (Laurie Lee, 'Cider with Rosie')
6.7 is Rosebud
posted by andraste at 5:11 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


7.7 is the Grand Canal (John Cross, George Eliot's husband)
posted by andraste at 5:13 PM on December 23, 2016


In 1916: Woodrow Wilson won 277-254, Nielsen composed his 4th symphony "The Inextinguishable", Mary the elephant was hanged in Erwin Tennessee, Vermouth won the Racecourse Association Steeple Chase.
posted by dilaudid at 5:15 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


12.8! I got 12.8! (it's easy) The rest...
posted by Artful Codger at 5:16 PM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


And I think the theme of 9 is Shakespearean monarchs, maybe? 9.9 is Claudius from Hamlet
posted by andraste at 5:17 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


andraste is right about roses. 6.8 is the Mary Rose
posted by Jakey at 5:20 PM on December 23, 2016


9.5 is Duncan from Macbeth; "I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry" (Act 2, Scene 2)
posted by Earthtopus at 5:23 PM on December 23, 2016


15.4 is 'guests' or possibly 'visitors'
posted by andraste at 5:23 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Made a google spreadsheet for anyone who wants to solve together. (Editing now turned on, sorry!)
posted by waninggibbon at 5:26 PM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


18.8: Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs (Monty Don)
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:27 PM on December 23, 2016


6.5 Is Rose Street in Edinburgh. The two bars thatare endpoints of a famous and epic pubcrawl
posted by Jakey at 5:28 PM on December 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


13 is Norwegians? 5 is Amundsen, 9 is Trygve Lie?
posted by Earthtopus at 5:29 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


18.4: Van Gogh's Seascape at Scheveningen?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:30 PM on December 23, 2016


9.3 could be Alonso from The Tempest.
posted by andraste at 5:31 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


1.8: Erwin, Tenn.
posted by key_of_z at 5:33 PM on December 23, 2016


Set 5 is English football matches, but I'm uncertain which specific matches/years they are referring to:

5.1 Cardiff v Sheffield United
5.2 ? v Nottingham Forest
5.4 ? v Chelsea, probably in a Cup match. (Harold Godwinson won battle of Stamford Bridge, which is also the name of Chelsea's ground).
5.6 Arsenal v Ipswich (the Tractor Boys)
5.7 Probably Brighton (the Seagulls) v their rivals Crystal Palace
5.8 Wolves v ?
5.9 Newcastle v Blackpool (Tangerines)
posted by Pink Frost at 5:34 PM on December 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


17.5: Walter Mitty?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:36 PM on December 23, 2016


1.7 is Sir Roger Casement "hanged by a comma"
posted by Jakey at 5:36 PM on December 23, 2016


5.8 Wolves v ?

Leicester City - the Foxes.
posted by howfar at 5:44 PM on December 23, 2016


Theme of 11 is PG Wodehouse.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:48 PM on December 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


4.3 "Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup..." - Ulysses
posted by howfar at 5:49 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


11.6, then, could be Gussie Fink-Nottle.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:52 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


and 16 is people named Jim.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:53 PM on December 23, 2016


9.2 Leontes (The Winter's Tale)
posted by kyrademon at 5:54 PM on December 23, 2016


9.4 Ferdinand, King of Navarre (Love's Labour's Lost)
posted by kyrademon at 5:55 PM on December 23, 2016


9.9 Claudius (Hamlet)
posted by kyrademon at 5:56 PM on December 23, 2016


9.10 Antiochus (Pericles, Prince of Tyre)
posted by kyrademon at 5:57 PM on December 23, 2016


3 is Kipling
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:58 PM on December 23, 2016


How do you know that 3 has ever Kippled?
posted by hippybear at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2016 [7 favorites]


11.3: Claude and Eustace
11.6: Augustus Fink-Nottle (at the incitement of Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright)
11.7: Two answers for this one. Either Freddie Bullivant (Fixing it for Freddie - Jeeves and Wooster) or Freddie Meadows (Helping Freddie - Reggie Pepper). The former is a rewrite of the latter.
posted by howfar at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2016 [4 favorites]


9.1 Oberon (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

A theatrical life is serving me really well here.
posted by kyrademon at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2016


9.6 King Philip (King John)
posted by kyrademon at 6:01 PM on December 23, 2016


Looks like they've done their best to make them ungoogleable. I wonder how Watson would do with this.
posted by adept256 at 6:01 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


He'd just talk to Sherlock who would go into his memory palace for a few hours.
posted by hippybear at 6:02 PM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


kyrademon, 6.5 is in your neck of the woods, I believe.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:04 PM on December 23, 2016


9.7 King Louis (Henry VI, Part III)
posted by kyrademon at 6:04 PM on December 23, 2016


I *think* 9.10 is King Charles VI (Henry V). Is that all the 9's?
posted by kyrademon at 6:07 PM on December 23, 2016


and 16 is people named Jim.

So 16.10 is Jim Rockford, right?
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:07 PM on December 23, 2016


> "kyrademon, 6.5 is in your neck of the woods, I believe."

So it is. I should do that sometime ...
posted by kyrademon at 6:08 PM on December 23, 2016


I think 10.6 is Kangchenjunga.
posted by kyrademon at 6:10 PM on December 23, 2016


And as has been pointed out, 12.8 is an easy one, Eleanor Rigby. Looks like 12 is a window theme.
posted by kyrademon at 6:15 PM on December 23, 2016


(Y'all should come to the spreadsheet, if you're keen)
posted by waninggibbon at 6:16 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


13.8 is King Olaf
posted by kyrademon at 6:19 PM on December 23, 2016


13 is Norwegians?

The first question is about a couple of nazis, one of which shot himself just before another blew himself up with dynamite in the same Norwegian location, but the rest are actual Norwegians.

(well, Týr, if that's the guy, kind of predates that concept and was also an actual God, but close enough).
posted by effbot at 6:19 PM on December 23, 2016


The spreadsheet is filling up fast! This is fun, thanks guys!
posted by andraste at 6:21 PM on December 23, 2016


15.6 Rembrandt
posted by kyrademon at 6:22 PM on December 23, 2016


Sincomorphic has to be a pun on something.
posted by dilaudid at 6:23 PM on December 23, 2016


I think 8 ("Locate Ellan Vannin" = Isle of Man) is "things with man in their name".
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:24 PM on December 23, 2016


17.7 Philip Marlowe (from Farewell, My Lovely)
posted by kyrademon at 6:24 PM on December 23, 2016


13.8 is King Olaf

Killed by the Hound? Didn't he die in Battle of Svolder? (if he died)
posted by effbot at 6:25 PM on December 23, 2016


You realize you're all just helping all these students cheat, right? {/}
posted by hippybear at 6:32 PM on December 23, 2016


> "Killed by the Hound? Didn't he die in Battle of Svolder? (if he died)"

That's King Olaf Tryggvason. I meant Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf II), who was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad by (among others) Thorir the Hound (according to Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla).
posted by kyrademon at 6:36 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


7.8 is the Teatro La Fenice ("The Phoenix") opera house
posted by kyrademon at 6:41 PM on December 23, 2016


I think 10.6 is Kangchenjunga

I thought so too, but the theme is Brazil, so it's Pico da Bandeira.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:45 PM on December 23, 2016


18.6: At a guess, Margot Honecker, known as the Purple Witch, widow of Erich Honecker (E. Germany), died on May 6, 2016.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:47 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


I meant Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf II), who was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad

Ah, mixing everyone up. And "Then Thorer Hund struck at him with his spear, and the stroke went in under his mail-coat and into his belly." definitely matches the question better than the "they'll kill each other later on" bit from the other text :-)
posted by effbot at 6:49 PM on December 23, 2016


That James 1 question was quite irksome!
But I finally got it. Brazil is now complete!
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 6:51 PM on December 23, 2016


Someone help me with the libraries!
posted by waninggibbon at 6:52 PM on December 23, 2016


1.6: "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"
posted by tetsuo at 6:54 PM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm working on the libraries too, waninggibbon, but it's bloody difficult!
posted by andraste at 6:56 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


12.5 is North Oxford
posted by kyrademon at 7:00 PM on December 23, 2016


(Or arguably Belbroughton Road, North Oxford)
posted by kyrademon at 7:01 PM on December 23, 2016


3.5 - Hedgehog and Tortoise from Just-So Stories
3.6 - Must be something to do with Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
posted by bunderful at 7:04 PM on December 23, 2016


I suspect 17.6 is Winston Churchill.
posted by kyrademon at 7:09 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


What is the GOM in 14.7?
posted by waninggibbon at 7:10 PM on December 23, 2016


AAHHH I GOT ONE!

The first one was window tax- searched the thread then was disappointed to see it in the spreadsheet. Then my childhood and Arthur Ransome stories came flooding back- it's Jim Brading- owner of the Goblin. (Section- Jim)
posted by freethefeet at 7:11 PM on December 23, 2016


Is it considered poor form to be solving these by google?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:13 PM on December 23, 2016


No- like the motto says, "to know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition".
posted by dilaudid at 7:14 PM on December 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


7.1 - The Venice Glass Museum or the Museum of Antique Glass
posted by tetsuo at 7:16 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


waninggibbon - so far my best GOM candidate is William Ewart Gladstone
posted by andraste at 7:18 PM on December 23, 2016


Yay, I got a library!
posted by andraste at 7:22 PM on December 23, 2016


Can anyone help on football. 5.7 is gotta be Bury (The shakers) but they played two games in Crystal Palace, against either derby county or southampton. Neither known as "the flock" as far as I know.

I'd guess it's 1903 derby because that was 6-0 making them "thoroughly" shaken.
But would like to confirm what the flock is.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:24 PM on December 23, 2016


14.4 - The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester.
posted by tetsuo at 7:25 PM on December 23, 2016


Oh man, the Gladstone Library has a b&b https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/accommodation/sleeping-with-books
posted by waninggibbon at 7:26 PM on December 23, 2016


Never mind.
Flock of sheep.. i.e rams.

therefore derby
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:26 PM on December 23, 2016


13.1 is a really macabre one—they're probably looking for Wilhelm Rediess, whose corpse was destroyed in Reichskommissar Josef Terboven's suicide by dynamite in 1945.
posted by fifthrider at 7:28 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


7.9 Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy
posted by Quizzical Hamster at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2016


10.7—Getúlio Vargas
posted by fifthrider at 7:40 PM on December 23, 2016


Flock of sheep.. i.e rams.

Of course. I was going flock of seagulls = Brighton.
posted by Pink Frost at 7:43 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


12.1 is the window tax. Not sure how I got that off the top of my head.
posted by fifthrider at 7:45 PM on December 23, 2016


I've only got 1 left on football.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:45 PM on December 23, 2016


And the Cleveland Browns only have 2 left! #joke #notfunny #notrelated
posted by hippybear at 7:47 PM on December 23, 2016


Further confirming that 13's theme is Norway, 13.5 is Roald Amundsen.
posted by fifthrider at 7:52 PM on December 23, 2016


Ahhhh got it.
I've finished section 5.
FA cup final years.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:53 PM on December 23, 2016


And 13.6 is Heyerdahl.
posted by SandCounty at 8:43 PM on December 23, 2016


7.3 Ospedale della Pieta, Venice. (Il Prete Rosso, the Red Priest, is Vivaldi.)
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:57 PM on December 23, 2016


17.9 is Yellow Dog Dingo from Kipling's "Just So Stories" (How the kangaroo got his legs).

"Never getting nearer, never getting farther, grinning like a rat trap"
posted by bert2368 at 8:57 PM on December 23, 2016


17.2 the Snark, from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:09 PM on December 23, 2016


You don't know how entertaining this thread was before permission to Google was found. Somehow nothing I know about is here. Seriously, wtf is section 8? Dicks.
posted by rhizome at 1:44 AM on December 24, 2016


14.9 is the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (the time-eater is the Corpus Clock, or Chronophage
posted by Omission at 2:47 AM on December 24, 2016


Is it considered poor form to be solving these by google?

Depends on what you're aiming for, I guess. Back when the test was mandatory, the average score was two. To get beyond that, some level of assistance is probably needed :-)

(however, repeating an answer here hours after it was added to the spreadsheet is cheating :-D)

Seriously, wtf is section 8? Dicks.

To be fair, people on Isle of Man might be a bit more likely to know what Ellan Vannin is than an average MeFi audience.
posted by effbot at 5:11 AM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


I knew exactly one. I am a dumbass.
posted by jonmc at 6:10 AM on December 24, 2016


That's one more than me.
posted by octothorpe at 6:59 AM on December 24, 2016


18.7 certainly looks like the Linnean Society of London. I suspect they mean the Linnean Medal, with 2016 recipients Sandra Knapp and Georgina Mace, but I don't see how you derive "the 14th"
posted by blob at 7:31 AM on December 24, 2016


16.7 is Jim Hawkins, narrator of Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stephenson.
The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: ‘Pieces of eight! pieces of eight!’
posted by blob at 8:00 AM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


18.4 is Van Gogh's "Seascape at Scheveningen", recovered with another painting from the infamous drug baron Raffaele Imperiale
posted by blob at 8:06 AM on December 24, 2016


The existence of this quiz, heretofore unknown to me, only serves to confirm my previous suspicion (initiated by exposure to cryptic crosswords) that all British people are wizards.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:10 AM on December 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


20.4 Is fuck it I am not ever going to get any of these things.
posted by srboisvert at 9:12 AM on December 24, 2016


18.3 of whom is there not a lot left apart from illusionary memories?

Wild guess: David Bowie was cremated. Ziggy Stardust memories...
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:46 AM on December 24, 2016


all British people are wizards

10-15 seconds on British Twitter should fix that misconception :-)
posted by effbot at 10:38 AM on December 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


14.5: Thomas Bodley and the Bodleian Library?

That name that jumped out at me from this list of diplomats.

ETA: "Bodley's greatest achievement was the re-founding of the library at Oxford." from his wiki page.
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:59 AM on December 24, 2016


Seems like the last one (Jove) could be related to the NASA Juno mission to orbit Jupiter.
posted by Miko at 11:42 AM on December 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


3.3: Perhaps Kipling's poem, "Ubique"? ("Ubique ("everywhere" in Latin) is the motto of the Royal Artillery...")

"By what I’ve ’eard the others tell an’ I in spots ’ave seen,
There’s nothin’ this side ’Eaven or ’Ell Ubique does n’t mean!"
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:40 PM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


So we're down to ten questions that don't have any answers (plus some that have weak answers, but let's ignore them for now):
  • Islands: 2.1 what started off as a fluke? (if I had to guess I'd say Surtsey, but not sure about the fluke aspect there)
  • Kipling: 3.8 what warn maritime traffic of Weser, Forth and Humber? (these are major North Sea inlets, a suggestion is Kipling's North Sea Patrol poem)
  • Soup: 4.1 what, confusingly, is not sincomorphic? (the word "sincomorphic", would it exist, doesn't have 5 morphems, but surely the answer must be more clever than that. also, soup?)
  • Library: 14.2 owes its foundation to Tam O’Shanter? (so some connection to Robert Burns, directly or indirectly)
  • Library: 14.3 is a Royal foundation now dedicated to Divinity?
  • Library: 14.10 is named after a Blue Funnel partner? (Blue Funnel was a major UK shipping company, their archives are at the Maritime Archives & Library in Liverpool)
  • Smell: 15.7 what fragrance did the lovers inhale within Prince Eugen’s collection? (Prince Eugen was a Swedish artist and collector, his huge art collection and home is now known as the Waldemarsudde art museum. any fictional characters that has visited that museum lately? like, some nordic noir or something?)
  • During 2016: 18.2 who has described perfection on both sides of the shell?
  • During 2016: 18.3 of whom is there not a lot left apart from illusionary memories?
  • During 2016: 18.5 whose observations regarding spectators’ cleanliness and temper were counterproductive?
posted by effbot at 1:39 PM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Library: 14.2 owes its foundation to Tam O’Shanter? (so some connection to Robert Burns, directly or indirectly)

Hmmm: "The Tam O’Shanter is credited with conveying the beginnings of South Australia’s public library system to the new colony in 1836. In 1834 the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association was established in London with the aim of cultivating and diffusing knowledge throughout the proposed new colony. Amongst its founding members were Robert Gouger, Osmond Giles, John Morphett, Robert Torrens and John Hindmarsh. The Institute collected and shipped 117 books to the new colony aboard the Tam O’Shanter, forming the nucleus of the Adelaide Institute’s ‘circulating library’ and what was to become the state’s public library network."

History of the State Library of South Australia: Adelaide Circulating Library


I don't know; what do you all think?
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:56 PM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Soup: 4.1 what, confusingly, is not sincomorphic? (the word "sincomorphic", would it exist, doesn't have 5 morphems, but surely the answer must be more clever than that. also, soup?)

Kitchen Sink Soup?
posted by Daily Alice at 2:22 PM on December 24, 2016


Library: 14.3 is a Royal foundation now dedicated to Divinity?

"The King James Library...is named after King James VI & I (left) who provided initial funding for the construction project. His mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, had written a will bequeathing her Greek and Latin books to the university for the founding of a common library...Eventually the stock outgrew the site and a new University Library building was opened on North Street in 1976. The King James Library then became a dedicated Divinity library."

King James Library, The School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:59 PM on December 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


4.1 is Cullen skink. Skinks are sincomorphs.
posted by CCBC at 3:18 PM on December 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


OH! Thank you, CCBC! How to cook perfect cullen skink. And there's the soup link!
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:22 PM on December 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


18.5 has to do with Wimbledon and the relaxed dress code but I can't recall who made the comment about spectators.
posted by CCBC at 3:25 PM on December 24, 2016


3.8 The Coastwise Lights ("Bremen, Leith, and Hull")
posted by CCBC at 3:27 PM on December 24, 2016


RE 18.5--could it have to do with this? Darren Clarke’s fury as Willett’s brother blasts US Ryder Cup fans: "Willett has stirred controversy with an article saying that Europe “need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hot dog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red”.

"He continued: “They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin.

"“They need to smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children. Squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.”"

I don't know what happened next, but yeesh.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:38 PM on December 24, 2016


10.10 is the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), named after the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:45 PM on December 24, 2016


(found after mistakenly trying to chase down an avocado - Avogadro connection, despite avocados being native to Mexico, half a world away from Brazil)
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:50 PM on December 24, 2016


Oh! what could be more culture-specific?

Listen, you Brits keep that up, we colony folk also have a few odd queries we could thump you with!

1916: From which state was the first woman elected to the US Congress? Who opened the first US birth control clinic? What's the real name of blind musician 'Moondog' (born this year)?
posted by Twang at 6:27 PM on December 24, 2016


18.10 is definitely the Juno mission to Jupiter. Miko got here before me, but I wanted to put the number down for people like me who search to see if their answers have been posted.
posted by Hactar at 7:09 PM on December 24, 2016


14.4: was founded by the Cuban widow of a captain of industry?

A wild guess, but this may be promising: Olga Goizueta Dies: Philanthropist and Widow of Former Coca-Cola Chairman;" Yale University Library has received a $3 million award from The Goizueta Foundation to inaugurate a comprehensive initiative in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education at Yale by launching a Digital Humanities Laboratory to be located in Sterling Memorial Library (SML)."

Checks for Cuban-born widow of a captain of industry, although the laboratory isn't a library.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:44 PM on December 24, 2016


2.1, What started out as a fluke?
I suspect: Flounder Island, largest of the Fish Islands, named after the summer flounder (a.k.a. a fluke)
posted by not the fingers, not the fingers at 8:00 PM on December 24, 2016


Miko got here before me, but I wanted to put the number down for people like me who search to see if their answers have been posted.

It was added to the spreadsheet long before anyone posted it here :-)

Skinks are sincomorphs.

Skinks are scincomorphs, even. Typo in the question, or some wordplay I'm still not getting?
posted by effbot at 2:52 AM on December 25, 2016


Typo in the question. King William's College FAILS their own quiz.
posted by kyrademon at 5:34 AM on December 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


You misspelled "there."
posted by rhizome at 10:50 AM on December 25, 2016


I am probably the only one who finds it amusing that the following would be a legit and correct set of answers to this little run of questions:

9.6 The King of France
9.7 The King of France
9.8 The King of France
posted by kyrademon at 2:22 PM on December 25, 2016


15.7: what fragrance did the lovers inhale within Prince Eugen’s collection?

The scent of fresh-cut flowers. Prince Eugen was an avid gardener, and had flowers grown for use in his home (now a museum, the Waldemarsudde estate): "The flowers grown in the garden and in the estate hothouses are used indoors in magnificent floral displays that are still assembled in accordance with the instructions of the Prince."

(A guess only; I still like effbot's suggestion of a specific scene from Nordic noir.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:40 PM on December 25, 2016


And now I see that a portion of Mari Jungstedt’s The Killer’s Art takes place at Waldemarsudde.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:55 PM on December 25, 2016


I actually have one to add!

4.8 is Bird's Nest Soup (made of nests that certain swifts make with their dried saliva)
posted by Fritzle at 8:01 AM on December 26, 2016


Johnny Carson is suggested for 12.6, which doesn't feel right. Billy Crystal is a big baseball fan, and was on SNL from 30 Rock. Maybe a guest of David Letterman during the NBC years?
posted by billm at 12:16 PM on December 26, 2016


12.6 I think this is George Plimpton, but can't find the quote. Sports Illustrated was located at Rockefeller Plaza when Plimpton wrote Out of My League.
posted by CCBC at 5:47 PM on December 26, 2016


12.6 James Thurber!
posted by CCBC at 6:06 PM on December 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


It was added to the spreadsheet long before anyone posted it here :-)

It was blank when I posted that. Though I sure am glad we're keeping track!
posted by Miko at 6:43 PM on December 26, 2016


Revision history says I'm wrong about that. Sorry.

Don't like chit counting, though. It's collective work or it's not.
posted by Miko at 6:52 PM on December 26, 2016


Sincomorphic has to be a pun on something.

Sincomorphic : 5 :: Isomorphic : 1 or 2?
posted by iffthen at 6:39 AM on December 27, 2016


(The sections with text beside the number - e.g. "During 2016" - have no theme apart from that do they? Or is there a theme beyond the text there? I can't figure out any connection between Woodrow Wilson, "there seems to be a problem with our bloody ships," and Vermouth winning a horse race.)
posted by iffthen at 7:24 AM on December 27, 2016


(Except maybe victory/defeat?)
posted by iffthen at 7:26 AM on December 27, 2016


That's the only theme -- there's always a "this year" section and an "100 years ago" section.
posted by kyrademon at 8:15 AM on December 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


1.3 John Buchan. The book is Greenmantle. From the end of chapter one:
He handed me the half-sheet of note-paper. On it were written three words—'Kasredin', 'cancer', and 'v. I.'
I had this on the spreadsheet but it's been shifted now.

The Buchan family is a major benefactor of KWC and there are always Buchan questions on the quiz.
posted by CCBC at 5:47 PM on December 27, 2016


All my answers have been removed from the spreadsheet. Why?
posted by CCBC at 5:49 PM on December 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Some of mine have gone as well. Kind of takes the fun out of it. I'd much prefer to be convinced of a better answer here than discover empty cells on the spreadsheet.

Thank you to all who have been playing along. I learned things I didn't know (the Buchan connection, for one!) and enjoyed the hunt. I really appreciated answers that took time to offer supporting links.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:48 PM on December 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


I really like doing the KWC quiz and don't want to see this year's end on a sour note here. So, let's list all the answers as posts, rather than on the spreadsheet. I'll put the first four categories in my next post.
Just this guy: It would be really cool if you could list all of section 5. I know sweet FA about that stuff.
posted by CCBC at 5:24 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


These are answers from a bunch of MeFites. All are open for discussion, of course.

1: 1916
1- Woodrow Wilson (electoral college votes)
2- Karl von Stürgkh, assassinated by Adler.
3- Buchan (Greenmantle)
4- Carl Nielsen
5- Roald Dahl
6- “There is something wrong with our [bloody] ships. And something wrong with our [bloody] system.” David Beatty
7- Roger Casement, “hanged on a comma”
8- Kingsport, Tennessee, Mary hanged
9- Vermouth won the (unofficial) Grand National. Was trained in Sussex.
10- As Chu Chin Chow

2: Channel Islands
1- Jersey Royal potato
2- Alderney
3- Armorel. Fictitious version of Sark and the evacuation of a Guernsey cow, Venus, in Appointment With Venus by Jerrard Tickell
4- Guernsey and St. Malo Hugo, Les Miserables
5- Sark
6- Moses Corbet after Battle of Jersey
7- Euston and Henry Sartorius, memorialized in plaques at Victoria College, Jersey. where both were educated.
8- “Les Casquets” Swinburne “Seven rocks rear heads that the midnight masks”
9-the Minquiers (1850)
10- George Carteret, seigneur of Jersey

3: Kipling
1- Danny Deever
2- “She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male”
3- Ubique
4- the Bolivar
5- Hedgehog and Tortoise “The Beginning of the Armadillos” [This one bothers me. All the rest are poems, this is from Just So Stories.]
6- T.B. “A Child’s Garden”
7- Delilah Aberyswith “Delilah”
8- The Coastwise Lights (Bremen, Leith, and Hull)
9- Bill ‘Awkins
10- Eddi

4: Soups
1- Cullen skink [If “sincomorphic” is the only typo this year, I will be surprised.]
2- Chowder, clam or cod Moby Dick
3- “Thick giblet soup” Ulysses
4- portable soup O’Brien, “The Thirteen-Gun Salute”
5- pottage Genesis 25
6- cock-a-leekie
7- “a plate of broth” Buchan, Huntingtower
8- bird’s nest soup
9- the Mock Turtle Alice
10- cabbage soup Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
posted by CCBC at 5:39 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Section 5:

These are all FA cup match years.

1: 1925: Sheffield United Beat Cardiff City (Bluebirds = Cardiff, Blades = Sheffield)

2: 1959: Nottingham Forest beat Luton Town (Miliners = Luton)

3: 1935: Sheffield Wednesday Beat West Brom (A trickier one, Sheffield Wednesday = The Owls, West Brom are called the Throstles, which is a type of thrush also known as a mavis)

4: 1922: The Godwinson reference is to King Harold who won the Battle of Stamford Bridge just before the big day in hastings. This is one of only three finals held at Stamford Bridge (which isn't the same place as the battle) and the second to feature Huddersfield Town (The Terriers)

5: 1973: Sunderland very unexpectedly beat Leeds (Sunderland = Black Cats, Leeds = Peacocks) I don't know what the "by then out of season" means. Sunderland beat Preston North End in 1937, so it could be that, but I can't fit a Game Bird to Preston so it's no better.

6: 1978: Arsenal vs Ipswich (Nice and straightforward, Ipswitch = The tractor Boys)

7: 1903: Derby County = The Rams (i.e. flock of sheep) and they lost very badly. This is the only FA Cup final that Derby played at Crystal Palace

8: 1949: Leicester are the Foxes, They were beaten by Wolves (aka Wolverhampton Wanderers).

9: 1951: Tons of teams are called the Magpies but it's usually Newcastle. They played The Tangerines (aka Blackpool)

10: 1982: QPR are the Spiders hence Web. In 1982 They played spurs and drew, and the match was replayed. Spurs won. Hence the web being escaped twice. (They changed the rules in 1999 replacing a replay with penalty shootouts)

I actually know very little about football, but I was procrastinating, and basically assembled all of these from here and here .
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 6:53 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


6: Roses
1- Rose of Tralee
2- Rosy starling
3- Clifford Rose
4- Golden Rose (to Henrietta Maria. Barberini = Urban VIII)
5- Rose Street, Edinburgh The Rose Street Challenge is to have a pint at every bar along the “Amber Mile”.
6- Rosie Burdock (=Rosalind Buckland) Laurie Lee, Cider With Rosie
7- Rosebud
8- Mary Rose
9- Mateus Rose
10- Roseola

7: Venice
1- Venice glassworks Moonraker
2- Harry’s Bar Hemingway, Across the River and into the Trees
3- Ospedale della Pietà Vivaldi = il Prete Rosso
4- Campanile of San Marco
5- Scuola di San Rocco Tintoretto= Little Dyer
6- the Rialto (by Mrs. General in Little Dorrit)
7- the Grand Canal (honeymoon with George Eliot)
8- la Fenice
9- Gallerie dell Accademia [? The Vitruvian Man is there, but the Vitruvian Horse? I can’t believe that KWC’s Dr. Cullen meant the Man was a quadruped, but I’ve been fooled before.]
10- the Florian coffeehouse (now) originally "Alla Venezia Trionfante" (Venice the Triumphant)

8: Locate Ellen Vannin
1- Murmansk
2- Coromandel (Edward Lear)
3- Assmannhausen (or Heinrich Mannle?)
4- Fermanagh
5- Salamanca Royal Scots College
6- Normandy (June 6 is St. Norbert’s Feast Day.)
7- Godmanchester
8- Tasmania
9- Kilimanjaro
10- Kalimantan
posted by CCBC at 10:36 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


9: Shakespeare Kings
1- Oberon (musk rose and eglantine) Midsummer Night’s Dream
2- Leontes The Winter’s Tale
3- Alonso, The Tempest
4- Ferdinand Love’s Labour’s Lost
5- Duncan Macbeth
6- Philip King John
7- Louis Henry VI, pt.III
8- King of France (Charles VI), Henry V
9- Claudius Hamlet
10- Antiochus Pericles, Prince of Tyre

10: Brazil
1- Tiradentes
2- Cathedral of Brasilia
3- Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira
4- Manaos (sic) Jules Verne, The Cryptogram
5- Congonhas
6- Pico da Bandeira
7- Getulio Vargas
8- Trinidad(e). James I = James Harden Hickey
9- Para
10- Brazil nut (Berthollia)

11: P.G.Wodehouse
1- Percy Gorringe
2- Bobbie Wickham
3- Claude and Eustace Wooster “The Inimitable Jeeves”
4- Simla
5- Butterfield
6- Gussie Fink-Nottle
7- Freddie Meadowes
8- Claude “Catsmeat” Potter-Pirbright
9- Clementina “Jeeves and the Kid Clementina”
10- Gussie Mannering-Phipps
posted by CCBC at 11:01 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


12: Windows
1- the Window tax Houses with more than eight windows paid tax after 1825, before that it was more than seven. Or ten. Or whatever depending on when.)
2- [I’m going to read “Pippa Passes” carefully and figure this out. I swear.]
3- A blonde: Velma/Helen Grayle Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely Chapter 13. cited twice in this quiz.
4- Judas window
5-North Oxford Betjeman, “May-Day Song for North Oxford”
6- James Thurber
7- Sisera’s mother
8- “Eleanor Rigby”, Paul McCartney
9- Jean Brodie Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
10- an honest bob George Formby, “When I’m Cleaning Windows”

13: Norwegians
1- Vidkun Quisling
2- Thor Bjorklund
3- Tor Sørnes
4- Christian Kielland
5- Roald Amundsen
6- Thor Heyerdahl
7- Gerhard Hansen
8- Olaf II of Norway, killed by Thorir Hund
9- Trygve Lie
10- Kirsten Flagstad
posted by CCBC at 11:15 PM on December 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


14: Which Library, Where [this one is tough!]
1- Boole Library, University College, Cork
2- State Library of South Australia, Adelaide [this sounds right, but is the only non-Brit library in this section, so…]
3- King James Library, St, Mary’s College, University of St.Andrews, Fife
4- John Rylands Library, Manchester
5- Bodleian Library, Oxford Thomas Bodley
6- Lincoln Cathedral Library, Lincolnshire
7- St. Deiniol’s (now Gladstone Library), Hawarden, Flintshire
8- Percival Library, Clifton College, Bristol
9- Taylor Library, Corpus Christi, Cambridge
10- [one of the Holt libraries? Liverpool, or possibly Norfolk?]

posted by CCBC at 5:53 PM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


15: Odors
1- April and May Merry Wives of Windsor
2- odour of sanctity Ingoldsby Legends
3-
4- Guests (Ben Franklin)
5- Feelings Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago chapter1
6- Rembrandt
7-
8-
9- “mushroomy, pine-woody, evergreen smells” John Betjeman, “A Subaltern’s Love Song”
10- carbon dioxide?

16: Jim
1- “Jim, Who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion”, Belloc, Cautionary Tales for Children
2- Jim Dixon (delivers the Merrie England lecture while drunk) Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
3- Jim Dale (Mrs. Dale’s Diary)
4- Jim Davis, Masefield
5- Jim Brading Arthur Ransome, We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea
6- Jim Hacker (Yes, Minister)
7- Jim Hawkins (Treasure Island)
8- James, who is now “cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig”. William Gilbert, Bab Ballads ??? [This answer is unsatisfying because it is "James" not "Jim". Possibly Cannibal Jim? He appears in Lucy Maude Montgomery's Pat of Silver Bush series but I don't have the books handy.
9- Nigger Jim (Huckleberry Finn)
10- Jim Rockford (played by James Garner, The Rockford Files)

17: Smiles
1- “still worthwhile”
2- the Snark Carroll, “The Hunting of the Snark”
3- “breastless creatures” T.S.Eliot, “Whispers of Immortality”
4- ‘”a fascist frown” Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means
5- Walter Mitty James Thurber, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
6-
7- Philip Marlowe Chandler, Farewell My Lovely chapter 18. Same book, same blonde as 12.3 – unusual for Dr. Cullen to do that.
8-
9- Yellow Dog Dingo Kipling, Just-So Stories
10- “rarely” Rupert Brooke, “ The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”
posted by CCBC at 2:45 PM on January 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


15.3: what inaccurate name is applied to the ursine foot?

Acanthus, or brank-ursine, is called both bear's foot and bear's breeches. Scent? YES. The flower emits an offensive smell.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:42 PM on January 2, 2017


15.7: what fragrance did the lovers inhale within Prince Eugen’s collection?

I think it's from Mari Jungstedt’s The Killer’s Art, and refers to this passage (copied from a sketchy-looking site, so not linking):

"[Sommer and Jacobsson] entered the bright, beautiful areas that were the former living quarters of the prince. They immediately noticed a strong floral scent. The rooms were furnished in a style typical of Sweden in the early 1900s. Fresh flowers filled all the rooms, in accordance with the prince’s wishes. There were scarlet amaryllis, shimmering blue hyacinths, and great bouquets of tulips in assorted colours."
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:53 PM on January 2, 2017


18: 2016
1- David Cameron
2-
3- David Bowie (Stardust Memories ?)
4- “View of the Sea at Scheveningen”, Van Gogh
5- Pete Willett Ryder Cup
6- Margot Honecker
7-
8- Monty Don, Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs, from Gerald Durrell’s My Family and other Beasts
9- Hilton Hotel lift
10- Spacecraft Juno enters Jupiter orbit
posted by CCBC at 5:09 PM on January 2, 2017


Okay, for 15.3 we have bear's-foot Acanthus and Bear Paw (Stinking) Hellebore.
posted by CCBC at 5:21 PM on January 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


So, for 15.7 we have "a strong floral scent"?
posted by CCBC at 5:30 PM on January 2, 2017


18.3 Paul Daniels
posted by CCBC at 5:45 PM on January 2, 2017


17.8 Dean Acheson "He smiled with the spontaneity of a mechanical tiger."
posted by CCBC at 5:46 PM on January 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


18.2 Tim Birkhead
posted by CCBC at 10:37 PM on January 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


So, for 15.7 we have "a strong floral scent"?

I'm going with the scent of "scarlet amaryllis, shimmering blue hyacinths, and great bouquets of tulips," but I can live with "a strong floral scent."
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:20 AM on January 3, 2017


14.10 Sydney Jones Library, U. of Liverpool named after Charles Sydney Jones
posted by CCBC at 3:33 PM on January 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


15.8 “a smell of Burning” Belloc (under a pseudonym), “The Benefits of Electricity”
posted by CCBC at 11:59 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


12.2 Andrea del Sarto

What? Yes! Someone early on suggested this and finally, in desperation, I googled "andrea del sarto" with Pippa Passes and got this. That's right, an essay on Browning and Nabokov (which is interesting all by itself). So then to the mentioned story "Savanarola Brown" by Max Beerbohm, the final story in Seven Men. Apparently the story is a satire on contemporary works set in the Italian Renaissance. (Browning has a lot of that and after struggling through "Pippa Passes" a half-dozen times, I think he deserves all the snark that can be heaped upon his grave.) Here's the quote, stage directions from a dramatic script authored by Mister Brown:

[SAV. throws ring in LUC.'s face. Enter POPE JULIUS II, with Papal
army.]
POPE
Arrest that man and woman!
[Re-enter Guelfs and Ghibellines fighting. SAV. and LUC. are arrested
by Papal officers. Enter MICHAEL ANGELO. ANDREA DEL SARTO appears for a
moment at a window. PIPPA passes. Brothers of the Misericordia go by,
singing a Requiem for Francesca da Rimini. Enter BOCCACCIO, BENVENUTO
CELLINI, and many others, making remarks highly characteristic of
themselves but scarcely audible through the terrific thunderstorm
which now bursts over Florence and is at its loudest and darkest
crisis as the Curtain falls.]
posted by CCBC at 12:24 AM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


17.8 "malevolent" and "aged" Ted Hughes, "Pike"

(I thought this had gone up before but see now it was missing.)
posted by CCBC at 3:21 AM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


17.6 Dean Acheson "He smiled with the spontaneity of a mechanical tiger."

(Mistakenly noted as 17.8 above.)
posted by CCBC at 3:26 AM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Still out there:
18.7
And with unsatisfactory answers:
15.10
16.8
posted by CCBC at 3:30 AM on January 14, 2017


15.10--perhaps methane? An additive gives it a smell when used as in-home natural gas.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:21 PM on January 14, 2017


18.7: whose shared award was the 14th for the unique binomial foundation?

Gene Luen Yang and Lauren Redniss won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's MacArthur genius grant in September, 2016. How 14th applies, though...
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:03 PM on January 14, 2017


16.8: who, in a maritime emergency, ungrammatically recommended
cannibalism?


Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous
Little Billee
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)

THERE were three sailors of Bristol City
Who took a boat and went to sea,
But first with beef and captain’s biscuits
And pickled pork they loaded she.

There was gorging Jack, and guzzling Jimmy,
And the youngster he was little Billee;
Now when they ’d got as far as the Equator,
They ’d nothing left but one split pea.

Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
“I am extremely hungaree.”
To gorging Jack says guzzling Jimmy,
“We ’ve nothing left, us must eat we.”


Guzzling Jimmy!
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:10 PM on January 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Good one, Monkeytoes!
posted by CCBC at 12:08 AM on January 17, 2017


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