2009_08_01_Pub_Quiz

General Knowledge 1

• What Russian composer's 1885 Manfred symphony is the only one of his seven symphonies not to have a numeric designation? [ANSWER]
  Peter Tchaikovsky
• What NBC show's final 1988 episode implied that the entire series was the dream of an autistic child named Tommy Westphall? [ANSWER]
  St. Elsewhere
• In 962 what German was crowned as the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by John XII? [ANSWER]
  Otto I (the great)
• A 1970 paper by George Akerlof that was the foundation for his 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, describes the market for what kind of used car, thus popularizing the concept of asymmetric information? [ANSWER]
  Lemons
• The brother-in-law of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and poet laureate popularized "The Story of the Tree Bears" as part of his 1837 book The Doctor? [ANSWER]
  Robert Southey
• What is the value of Euler's totient function evaluated at 3937? [ANSWER]
  3780 = phi(126) * phi(30)
• What New Brunswick-born Redskins quarterback saw his career end with a tackle by NY Giant Lawrence Taylor in a 1985 Monday Night Football game? [ANSWER]
  Joe Theismann
• In March 1847, US Forces under Winfield Scott took what Mexican port city, allowing them to march inland against Mexico City? [ANSWER]
  Veracruz
• What Steinbeck novel describes the westward journey of the Joad family during the Great Depression? [ANSWER]
  The Grapes of Wrath
• In 1932, republican Herbert Hoover nominated what democratic New York appeals justice of Portuguese descent to replace Oliver Wendell Holmes? [ANSWER]
  Benjamin Cardozo

Handout Round

• See handout [ANSWER]
  Tie Fighter
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Sim City 2000
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Full Throttle
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Railroad Tycoon
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Myst
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Leisure Suite Larry 7: Love for Sail
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Final Fantasy VII
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Fallout
• See handout [ANSWER]
  Unreal

Theme Round

• "On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter," a short story published in the April 1936 issue of Esquire was the basis for what novel published sixteen years later? [ANSWER]
  The Old Man and the Sea
• Which St. Louis Cardinal became the only player in major league history to hit two grand slams in a single inning during a 1999 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers? [ANSWER]
  Fernando Tatis (currently, he's a Met!)
• Which musician, who earned his first Grammy for his 2008 album Troubador, was recently named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music? [ANSWER]
  George Strait
• What 17 minute long Francis Ford Coppola film features Anjelica Huston as the Supreme Leader and additional characters named Fuzzball, Minor Domo, and Hooter? [ANSWER]
  Captain EO
• What is the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island? [ANSWER]
  Charlottetown
• A former apprentice of Ghiberti, which Renaissance artist gave up sculpture to pursue painting as seen in such works as The Hunt in the Forest and a triptych portraying The Battle of San Romano? [ANSWER]
  Paolo Uccello
• Which actress played the U.S. first lady in Independence Day before being promoted to play the president of the Twelve Colonies on Battlestar Galactica? [ANSWER]
  Mary McDonnell
• The British victory in what 1898 battle marked the end of the Mahdi revolt in the Sudan? [ANSWER]
  Omdurman
• Which television pitchman, known for selling such products as Oxiclean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom! was found dead in his Tampa home last Sunday? [ANSWER]
  Billy Mays
• In solid state physics, what term, represented by the Greek letter phi, refers to the amount of energy required to liberate an electron from the surface of a substance? [ANSWER]
  work function

General Knowledge 2

• Who was the father of Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene? [ANSWER]
  Oedipus
• The dirham, slug, and dram are units used to measure what? [ANSWER]
  Mass (Oedipa Maas)
• What name did the chieftain born as Temujin take after being declared the leader of his people at a 1206 kurultai? [ANSWER]
  Genghis Kahn (Genghis Cohen)
• What Scottish physicist developed, independently of Boltzmann, an equation describing the distribution of energy levels in a gas? [ANSWER]
  Narcissus (University of San Narciso)
• What Garbage song from their album Version 2.0 declares "Bend me / Break me / Anyway you need me / all I want is you." [ANSWER]
  I think I'm Paranoid (The Paranoids)
• According to Ovid, what youth falls in love with his own reflection and kills himself when he realizes he could never consummate his love? [ANSWER]
  Maxwell (Maxwell's Demon)
• In Buckaroo Banzai, what company is used as a front by a group of aliens who coincidentally landed during the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938? [ANSWER]
  Yoyodyne (Company)
• What president signed the Kansas Nebraska act, authorized the Gasdsen Purchase, and bungled the Ostend Manifesto? [ANSWER]
  Pierce (Pierce inverarity)
• What structures, named after an Italian physician, connect the ovaries to the uterus? [ANSWER]
  Fallopian tubes (Mike Fallopian)
• What central American's tree's resin was traditionally used to make gum until replaced by butadiene-based synthetic rubber? [ANSWER]
  Chicle (Clayton "Bloody" Chiclitz, president of Yoyodyne)

Mystery Round

• Which British natural philosopher used a torsion balance to calculate values for the gravitational constant and earth's mass? [ANSWER]
  Henry Cavendish
• The prophet Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to a contest to see whose god was more powerful in which book of the Old Testament? [ANSWER]
  The Book of Kings (1 Kings Chapter 18, to be precise)
• In what city might one find the law offices of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, the law firm frequently mentioned on NPR's Car Talk? [ANSWER]
  Cambridge (our fair city!)
• Who commanded the Confederate army during both the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga campaign? [ANSWER]
  Braxton Bragg
• Which NBA small forward earned the nickname "the Human Highlight Reel" during his twelve year stint with the Atlanta Hawks due to incredible dunking abilities? [ANSWER]
  (Jacques) Dominique Wilkins
• Who holds the record for winning the most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Grammy awards? [ANSWER]
  Aretha Franklin
• In the film "Stranger than Fiction," what is the name of the accountant, played by Will Ferrell, who wakes up one morning to discover his life being narrated by Emma Thompson? [ANSWER]
  Harold Crick
• Which literary character served as an assistant surgeon in the British army in Afghanistan until a wound received during the Battle of Maiwand forced him to return to London? [ANSWER]
  Dr. John Watson
• What kind of three-dimensional curve is characterized by the fact that the tangent line taken at any point makes a constant angle with a fixed line? [ANSWER]
  Helix
• THEME? [ANSWER]
  The discovery of DNA