BCQC March Open QuizElims

24 March 2012

_______ is a comic strip created by Johnny Hart. The strip is generally criticised for running jokes and storylines that are unrelated to its theme and setting, which is treated as an afterthought. The strip is also controversial because of the right-wing and Christian fundamentalist viewpoint of Hart, which he frequently pushes on the strip. Pictured is an example of the strip, which was slammed by Islamic groups as containing an anti-Muslim message. Name the strip.

Answer: BC

Mirza Abu Taleb was a Mughal noble of Persian descent who backed the winning side in the succession struggle after Shah Jehan’s death and as a reward was given an important viceroyalty. Although he began his viceroyalty successfully, it ended with his defeat, retreat and a small but very significant injury. The Emperor transferred him to the East, where he was more succesful, winning a great victory over the Burmese Kingdom, capturing Chittagong and greatly enlarging the regional capital of Dhaka. However, his first viceroyalty cast a long shadow over his legacy and it is that for which he is best remembered. How do we better know Mirza Abu Taleb?

Answer: Shaista Khan

What commonly used word in English means “somewhere else” in Latin?

Answer: Alibi

In 1978, members of the Jonestown based People’s Temple committed mass suicide by imbibing cyanide mixed with a food grade product. This gave rise to a phrase referring to a person or group’s unquestioning belief in an idea (although, unfortunately, the exact brand referred to in the phrase was not the one used by the Jonestown suicides). What is the phrase?

Answer: Drinking the Kool-Aid

________, which literally means “standing dialect” was the original language of Delhi and the Ganga-Yamuna doab. As such, it is the ancestor of the modern languages Hindi and Urdu, which are grammatically identical to it. What is the name of this language, which is also known as Kauravi?

Answer: Khariboli

It is located in Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey and contains among other, Gambon, Wilson, Chicago, Hammerhead and Bentley. What am I talking about?

Answer: Top Gear Test Track

What is the Tamil name for the island of Sri Lanka?

Answer: Eelam

*Julius _____ founded this company in Switzerland in 1872 where the company’s most eponymous product is a seasoning sauce that tastes close to soy sauce without containing soy. It is known in the Baltic states for its instant soups and in the USA for its bouillon cubes. Indians know it primarily for its take on an instant food invented in 1958 by Momofuku Ando in Japan. Which company?

Answer: Maggi

Matthew Paul Miller is an American Jewish musician, who converted to Hasidic Judaism in 2001. Upon adopting the stricter form of the Jewish faith, he decided to change his act’s name from MC Truth to his Hebrew name. Unfortunately, records from his circumcision ceremony were lost, and he took the Hebrew version of his secular first name as the name of his act. This proved to be fortunate, as his actual Hebrew name was later discovered to be Feivish Hershel. How do we better know Matthew Paul Miller?

Answer: Matisyahu

James, Charles and Vyner Brooke ruled the state of Sarawak in north Borneo from 1841 to 1946. By what colloquial name was this dynasty of monarchs known?

Answer: Rajah

One of this US politician's grandfathers was named Abraham Shippe ______ and the other was named Solomon Young. Because his parents did not want to offend either grandfather by naming the boy after the other, they gave him the middle name "S", which makes him one of the few people whose middle initial is commonly written without a full-stop following it. Who?

Answer: Harry S Truman

In 1988, a Cabinet Office civil servant found a stray cat, and decided to have the Cabinet adopt him as a rat-catcher. The cat was named after a character from Margaret Thatcher’s favorite TV show who was also an iconic Cabinet Office figure. The cat served as the Cabinet Office’s chief mouser until Tony Blair became Prime Minister when he retired, allegedly forced out by cat-hater Cherie Blair. What was the name of this cat?

Answer: Humphrey

In House Season 4, episode 8 (You don’t want to know), House and his team investigate a magician who loses consciousness in the middle of a magic trick. At the end of the episode, an event occurs which the character Gregory House has repeatedly stated never happens. What event?

Answer: Lupus

________ is a genre of fan fiction that originated within the Star Trek fan community. The genre takes its name from the punctuation mark used to separate the names of the two characters involved in any particular story. While many creators of the original media sources disapprove of this type of fanfic, many of these franchises are friendly towards the genre and series such as Angel and Supernatural have dealt with the genre on-screen. Name this genre, which perhaps strangely given its content, is made an consumed primarily by heterosexual women.

Answer: Slash Fiction

The 1985 release of Iron Maiden’s live album Live After Death featured one track that was not recorded live and not voiced by frontman Bruce Dickinson. The person who voiced this track (who was also its writer), was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, among other things. Name the track.

Answer: Churchill’s speech

In the Age of Sail, Royal Navy squadrons had three flag officers: a commander who led the ships in the center of the squadron, a second-in-command who led the vanguard of the squadron and the junior most flag officer who led the ships that came last. The position of the junior-most flag officer led to his being given a particular rank, which survives today even today in the Royal Navy and navies influenced by it. Name the rank.

Answer: Rear Admiral

_____ is the southernmost of the Scottish Inner Hebrides, and is also the smallest Scottish Whiskey region. There are eight distilleries currently functioning on the island, with a ninth scheduled to open shortly. What is name of this island, also known as the Queen of the Hebrides?

Answer: Islay

**The word X was first used by the Greeks to mean Anatolia. When the Roman Republic first acquired a province in Western Anatolia after the kingdom of Pergamum was willed to them, they named it X Province. The word Y comes from a tribe of people living in modern Tunisia, and when Rome finally conquered Carthage in 146 BC, they organized the newly conquered territories into Y Province. X and Y now refer to something else. What are they?

Answer: X – Asia, Y – Africa

The US entertainment industry uses the concept of the “Studio Zone”, or a zone of thirty miles radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles to determine work rates for union workers. This area has given its name to a tabloid website and TV show owned by Time Warner. What is the name of the tabloid?

Answer: TMZ

X is a military cantonment in India that was founded as a rest station for British troops in India. Local legend suggests that it was named when a British regiment destined for another city named X was temporarily diverted to the cantonment. A series of delays in arranging their transport by ships heading East failed, however, and the regiment ended up staying for several years. In response, the British army brass are said to have named the cantonment X. In reality, the cantonment is likely to have been named after a British general and later Prime Minister who served in the area in the 18th Century, commanding the Siege of Srirangapatnam, among other actions.

Answer: Wellington

*This course originally consisted of a salad or a small dish that preceded a main course. However, as the concept of a roast or other large communal main course faded away in American dining, this course became the main course in modern American meals, despite its now outdated name. What course?

Answer: Entrée

*This group of people, descended mainly from the from the Yousufzai tribe, form the major portion of the Pashtun Diaspora in India. They originally formed a large state in northeastern Uttar Pradesh, although constant warfare against the Marathas (who sought revenge for these people opposing them in the Battle of Panipat), the Nawab of Oudh and the East India Company left it a small rump state ruled by the Nawab of Rampur. What is the name of this group, which literally means mountain person in Pashto?

Answer: Rohilla

She was born in London in 1975, and worked as an investment banker between 1996 and 2000 with Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. In 2000, she moved to another country to get married and she and her husband, a former eye surgeon have three children. In March 2011, she was the subject of a widely criticized profile in Vogue magazine that described her as “a rare combination: a thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind who dresses with cunning understatement.” Name this very controversial lady.

Answer: Asma al-Assad

In 1972, Bob Seger was touring with Teegarden and Van Winkle in the Midwestern US. On an overnight drive through a snowstorm to the Dakotas, the band stopped at a truck stop to refuel the tour bus. When Seger walked into the truck stop’s restaurant, he was confronted by a group of truckers who commented loudly on the band members’ long hair, one of them asking whether the person he saw was a man or a woman. Seger was spurred by this experience to write a song about his touring experiences, which was covered by many musicians including Metallica. Name the song.

Answer: Turn the Page

**X is a speculative fiction novel published in 2008,set on a fictional planet. The novel contains many made-up words and phrases, which are only infrequently explained in the text. The title of the novel itself is a made up word, explained in an explanatory note as either (a) a poetic or musical invocation or (b) a ceremony by which incorrigible scholars are ejected from their scholarly communities and their work sequestered. The explanatory note also points out that the two meanings of the word have given rise to two words in the speech of people who are not scholars, the first of which means a song of great emotional significance, while the second means an intolerable statement or idea. These later two words echo English words with similar meanings, of which X can be understood to be a portmanteau. What is X?

Answer: Anathem

What iconic retail company uses the tagline “Screw Yourself” in advertising?

Answer: IKEA