We’re back in the hotseat for our first quiz of 2009. The number of people who come to the pub each week varies according to factors that no man understands, and this week it’s absolutely rammed. We mark furiously between rounds and somehow manage to avoid over-running as much as we usually do.

Here’s our questions:

Round One (Pete)

1. Which celebrity was convicted in December 2008 of falsely imprisoning a Norwegian male prostitute?
2. The Who’s Valentines day 1970 concert at Leeds University, recorded for the ‘Live at Leeds’ Album, featured a complete live performance of which of their studio albums?
3. Which incumbent Head of State is the first democratically elected woman to succeed another democratically elected woman as head of a modern Western country? Who did she replace?
4. Which film of 1996 chronicles the 1974 boxing match between Ali and Foreman in Zaire (DR Congo), and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature that year?
5. Which British rock band of the 1970s was fronted by Paul Rodgers and had hits with ‘All Right Now’ and ‘My Brother Jake’?
6. “It is not a service station, neither is it a political society, nor is it a meeting place for political societies. With all its limitations and failures… it is the best and most benign side of our society, insofar as that society aims to cherish the human mind” What institution was described thus by historian Richard Hofstadter?
7. The Knowledge requires would-be taxi drivers to memorise some 25,000 streets in Central London. This is defined as a 6 mile radius from what point?
8. Malcolm Rifkind was probably the most senior cabinet minister to lose his seat in the 1997 general election. Which seat was he representing, and which seat did he go on to win in 2005?
9. Who once responded to a quip from George Bush (senior) saying, ‘We’re just like the Waltons. We’re praying for an end to the Depression, too.’?
10. Three extracts from poems / songs with the same title. What is the title? (bonus points for identifying the poets/ singers who wrote them)
    

    a. But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot’s curse / Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
    b. Looking for hard work Or credit card fraud / What do you expect from us? We come from abroad
    c. Smoke lingers ’round your fingers / Train, heave on to Euston / Do you think you’ve made the right decision this time?

Round Two (Stu)

1. Which 1 of the following jurisdictions no longer retains a right of appeal to the Privy Council? New Zealand, The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, The Sultanate of Brunei, Montserrat.
2. Which 1986 brat pack film, directed by John Hughes, notoriously had its ending re-shot after test audiences indicated they wanted the female protagonist to end up with the rich kid who had dumped her (like a bastard), rather than with her faithful best friend.
3. Excepting Larry Mullen, what do the other three members of U2 have in common with only about 5% of the population of the Irish Republic, somewhat surprising as they grew up in salt-of-the-earth North Dublin.
4. Match the quote to the Ghostbuster (Ray, Peter, Egon, Winston)
   

   - I’ve seen shit that would turn you white.
   - I collect spores, mould and fungus.
   - Mr. Sta-Puft’s okay. He’s a sailor, he’s in New York, we get him laid, there’s no trouble.
   - Listen! Do you smell something?

5. The adult movie actress Aylar Dianati Lei, has recently appeared in a number of mainstream music videos for the Swedish Eurodance DJ, Basshunter. In 2004 she was selected to represent which Nordic country at the Miss World competition (before having her title taken from her when her day job came to light)?
6. What country currently holds the mens Olympics gold medals in all of the following sports: Rugby, Real Tennis and Golf (for the team event)?
7. What is unusual about travelling between Kings Cross and Euston on the Victoria Line, and the same journey on the Northern Line?
8. Complete the original lyric: “Is this the MPLA? Or is this the UDA? Or is this the IRA? And I thought it was the” WHAT?
9. Who is the famous milliner co-curating the V&A’s Hats: An Anthology Exhibition that opened at the V&A last week?
10. How many points are awarded for each of the following in (i) Rugby Union, and (ii) Rugby League: A) A Try; B) A Conversion; C) A Drop Goal; D) A Penalty Kick

Beer round (Pete)

Tie break: in a paper published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Chemical Communications, a Chinese team, Yang et al, published a paper entitled “Electrochemical Synthesis of Metal and Semimetal Nanotube-Nanowire Heterojunctions and their Electronic Transport Properties.“. In it, they discussed how they made nanotubes (abbreviated NT) from copper (chemical symbol Cu), and thus derived a very unfortunate abbreviation. How many times, in three pages of dense academic text, did this unfortunate abbreviation appear?

Round Three (Oli)

1. Which European country’s local government units are called “castles”?
2. “Independent travel will most likely lead to your death. When being escorted, it is best to be in an armored car or, even better, a Tank. Infantry are highly likely to get engaged in street battles, and an armored vehicle can provide far better protection. At the market you can buy essentials including rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), mortars (80mm and 120mm), 23mm and 30mm antiaircraft guns, and ammunition of all types.” This is an extract from the WikiTravel guide to which capital city?
3. Britain is the world’s third most populated island. What is a) the first, b) the second?
4. Apart from the Home Nations, which is the only national football team of a non-independent state to be a member of UEFA?
5. Was a) the hundred years war a hundred years long? b) the thirty years war thirty years long? c) the eighty years war eighty years long?
6. Only two countries in the world still have a currency which is divided into subunits that are not a multiple of ten. Which two? Bonus points for naming either currency or its subunit.
7. The elections in which years brought the a) biggest, b) second biggest, c) third biggest and d) fourth biggest post-war parliamentary majorities in Britain?
8. What did Sunderland South do first in 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2005?
9. What do the following occasionaly heard latin phrases mean?

1. Decus et tutamen
2. Tempus fugit
3. Primus inter pares
4. Habemus papam

10. A question about sad bastards:
    

    a) What are numismatists fans of?
    b) What are vexillologists fans of?
    c) What are philatelists fans of?
    d) What are oologists fans of?

Round Four (me)

1. According to a recent study by medics at the University of Illinois college of medicine, which appropriately titled 1977 disco hit has, at 103 beats per minute, an ideal rhythm at which to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation?
2. Which three letter acronym, in common use since the mid-1990s, contains three times as many syllables as the words it stands for?
3. What links King John, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Juan Peron and Fidel Castro, but not, despite common belief, Galileo?
4. The towns of Mdina and Rabat can be found in which EU member state?
5. What classic novels have the following subtitles? a) To say nothing of the dog; b) The modern prometheus; c) A tale of the seaboard
6. The three tallest statues in the world, each over 100m tall, are in China, Burma and Japan, and they all depict the same person. Who?
7. What film genre is the Tabernas Desert in Andalucia associated with?
8. What lasting contribution to financial terminology originated in Sankt Joachimsthal in present day czech republic?
9. The Hapsburgs were famously and horrifically inbred. How many of Charles II of Spain’s great-grandparents were also his great-great-grandparents?
10. Put the following religions in ascending order of their popularity, according to the 2001 census: Scientology, rastafarianism, mormon, pagan and jedi.

Answers on request…