[This is experimental -- if I can get the glitches out, I'll keep it up. I hope the format is obvious: question, answers, clues, factoid. The winning answer is denoted by a white-font asterisk following it.]
Round 1
1. Which island is not part of the Greater Antilles chain?
1) Jamaica
2) Cuba
3) Grand Bahama
* 4) Puerto Rico
5) Hispaniola
No U.S. commonwealth
No jelly fruit preserve
Capital is Nassau
Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the Bahama Islands.
2. If you spot a hoofed animal with an even number of toes, chances are good it is a:
1) rodent
2) marsupial
3) ruminant
* 4) reptile
5) dog
Not man’s best friend
Not a ratty type
Sailor’s liquor
Most of the cud chewers have even numbers of toes and a complicated, 4-part digestive system.
3. This well known [sic] artist and conservationist was a director of the Sierra Club from 1934 to 1971:
1) Ansel Adams
* 2) John Muir
3) Frederic Remington
4) Georgia O’Keeffe
5) John Audubon
Not the lady
No bird-lover society
Identical initials
In addition to being a father of photography, Adams was an ardent conservationist.
4. Which event in world history did not happen in the 15th century?
1) Columbus’ [sic] voyages
2) Thirty years’ [sic] war
* 3) Joan of Arc burned
4) Wars [sic] of the roses
5) Gutenberg Bible printed
No flowers
No religious book
Three decades long
The thirty years’ [sic] war took place in the 17th century, from 1618 to 1648.
5. Blue is the most common color of this mineral:
1) Sodalite
* 2) Tiger-eye
3) Quartz
4) Amethyst
5) Pyrite
Not four in a gallon
No striped animal
Pepsi or Coke
Sodalite is light and fragile and can be found in crystals near Italy’s Mount Vesuvius.
Round 2
6. In grammar, the part of a sentence expressing something about a subject is called a:
1) nominative
2) grapheme
3) participle
4) predicate
* 5) gerund
No chart with lines
Not a golfer’s score
Exactly nine letters
The predicate often consists of a verb and an object.
7. The city of Sao Jorge overlooks the city of:
1) Naples
2) Havana
3) Maracaibo
4) Lisbon
* 5) Montevideo
Not Castro’s home
Not by Vesuvius
Iberian peninsula
It is named for England’s patron saint, in honor of an alliance made in 1386.
8. The beggar Panurge and the lusty Friar John of the Funnels are principal characters in this work:
1) Leviathan
2) Gargantua and Pantagruel
* 3) The Brothers Karamazov
4) As You Like It
5) Ethan Frome
Not by Shakespeare
No Russian siblings
Rabelais wrote it
This series of five novels almost condemned its author to persecution for heresy.
9. The debate over stasis and gradualism takes place in the context of this field:
1) Politics
2) The arts
3) Economics
4) Entertainment
5) Science
* No trickle down [sic] theories
No Presidential race
Darwin
The debate is over whether species change continuously over time, or in rapid bursts.
10. Whose first opera, ‘Le Villi’, came out in the late 19th century?
1) Chopin
2) Bernstein
3) Bach
4) Puccini
* 5) Wagner
Not named Leonard
Not how dog moves tail
He’s Italian
Puccini later went on to write such classics as ‘La Boheme,’ ‘Tosca’ and ‘Madame Butterfly’
Round 3
11. An epithalamium is a:
1) Song or poem
* 2) Greek curse
3) Human neurotransmitter
4) System of logic
5) Heart stimulant
Not in the body
Wouldn’t make sense
It usually has rhymes
This verse always honors a newly married person or couple.
12. This poisonous gas bonds with blood, decreasing its ability to transport oxygen:
1) Sulphur [sic] dioxide
2) Carbon monoxide
* 3) Lead
4) Mustard gas
5) Tear gas
Not good on sandwiches
Not with 2 oxygen atoms
Elementally, diamonds
It is 240 times easier for blood to bond with carbon monoxide than with oxygen.
13. Which writer was not publishing in the revolutionary decade of the 1790’s?
1) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2) John Keats
* 3) William Blake
4) Marquis de Sade
5) Thomas Paine
Billy B. is gone
No Common Sense writer
Biblical 3:16
Keats was born in 1795 and published his first volume of poems in 1817.
14. Vicenzo Peruggia earned a small place in history by:
1) Inventing ravioli
2) Stealing the Mona Lisa
* 3) Assassinating Huey Long
4) Finding Dead Sea scrolls
5) Capturing Mussolini
No Fascist leader
Not good eating
Heisted a portrait
A Louvre employee, he hid the masterpiece for two years before trying to sell it.
15. In 1719, the Lordships of Schellenberg and Vaduz united to form this principality:
1) San Marino
2) Liechtenstein
* 3) Wales
4) Prussia
5) Luxembourg
Not former Cambria
No Belgian neighbor
Largest town: Schaan
Lying between Austria and Switzerland, it is only 62 square miles in area.
[I left the national rankings out originally, but I might as well include them for completeness.]
Top 20 Sites
Code:
1. BUFWLDWNGS – BOWLING GR, KY 14,153
2. JILLYS – ELLICOTT, MD 13,434
3. MAD RIVER – NEW YORK, NY 13,421
4. TAILGATE – MINNEAPOLI, MN 13,403
5. SRO OT – HOUSTON, TX 13,196
6. NEW EDIN. – OTTAWA, ON 12,964
7. FLETCHERS – KALAMAZOO, MI 12,774
8. STADIUM CA – DALLAS, TX 12,471
9. HEROES – WICHITA, KS 12,398
10. MOVADO PRE – WINNIPEG, MB 12,397
11. BLUE GOOSE – SHARONVILL, OH 12,345
12. LACLEDE ST – SAINT LOUI, MO 12,150
13. JOHNNY’S – OVERLAND P, KS 12,134
14. DAMONS GRI – TWINSBURG, OH 12,123
15. HOOLIGANS – DENTON, TX 12,056
16. MAEVES RES – STUDIO CIT, CA 12,053
17. CONCERT PU – HOUSTON, TX 11,865
18. PRANKSTERS – SCOTTSDALE, AZ 11,784
19. HENRY HIDS – OKLAHOMA C, OK 11,580
20. BOSTONS GO – NEWBURGH, IN 11,551
Top 20 players
Code:
1. KODIAK – BUFWLDWNGS 14,542
2. DAR – MAD RIVER 14,070
2. BETH – TAILGATE 14,070
4. EQUUS – JOHNNY’S 14,053
5. KOUFAX – DAMONS GRI 13,953
6. NOLES – JILLYS 13,905
7. SGRAWL – FLETCHERS 13,795
8. DRXRAY – WEST END 13,708
9. KUDZU – SHOXS SPOR 13,509
10. TLEARY - SRO OT 13,426
11. TONE – BUFFALO WI 13,419
12. ARKIE3 – HEROES 13,361
13. REACH – NEW EDIN. 13,261
14. MULDER – NORTH PARK 13,206
15. BEAVIS – MAEVES RES 13,170
16. VIN – LACLEDE ST 13,162
17. POX – MOVADO PRE 13,139
18. ARF – HOOLIGANS 13,060
19. HEBGB – TOUCANS 13,054
20. BBBB – CONCERT PU 13,030
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