Painshill's Bumper Christmas Quiz!

[painshill]

Welcome to PAINSHILL’S BUMPER CHRISTMAS QUIZ!




These are the rules:

1. Each question has multiple parts and you score one point for each correctly answered part, up to the maximum indicated for each question. There are no penalties for incorrect answers. The use of Google or other reference sources is freely permitted… but don’t fall into the trap of blindly believing everything you read.
2. You can have a maximum of TWO entries, sending your answers to ‘painshill’ via the forum’s private messaging system. Entries reaching painshill by midnight on 15^th December Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) will be marked and a ‘leader-board’ of scores published here so you can see how you’re doing against your competitors. You can then (if you wish) have a SECOND (and final) attempt to improve your score up until midnight on 22^nd December GMT.
3. Entries received after the closing date, or which exceed the limit of 'two entries per contestant' will be disqualified.
4. The winner will be the person who scores the most points, irrespective of how many questions they have attempted to answer.
5. Painshill’s decision with respect to accuracy of answers and all other aspects of the competition is final.
6. In the event of a tie, the names of those contestants with highest equal scores will go into Painshill’s fedora and the winner drawn at random from those names by my beautiful assistant (the wife), wearing a blindfold. Not just a blindfold, you understand.
7. The winner will be notified by private message, and announced here together with the answers, a week or so after the competition closes.
8. In the event of any dispute, please refer to rule number 5.
9. The prize will be posted to the winner early in the New Year. I will need the winner's email and postal address. I am required to put a value on postal consignments, and any consequent local charges are the responsibility of the recipient.

Feel free to make any comments on this thread, but be cautious of posting anything which may give clues to your competitors. You can ask for clarification of the rules or any of the questions, but I will NOT be providing additional clues to help you.

Don’t be deterred if some of the questions defeat you. They’re intentionally difficult to help ensure we get a winner, and it may be the case that no-one gets them all right. The answers aren’t always as straightforward as they may seem! You don’t necessarily need to answer all of the questions to win, and you might be able to pick up a few extra points by guessing some of the multiple choice questions even if you don't know the reason why.

THE PRIZE
There is one prize only (but I may add a consolation prize if the end result is a close-run thing)... and it's this rather nice cordiform "mode 2" Acheulean biface handaxe from the Calvados region of France, and probably around 130,000-140,000 years old:



If you tot them up, there are 100 points in total up for grabs from the 15 questions, so that’s your ultimate target. You can keep your answers short. I won’t be too strict on exactitudes, as long as the answers are broadly, but unmistakably, correct.

[painshill]

QUESTION 1 – ANAGRAM LABELS (8 points)
Someone muddled up the letters on the labels for my Native American lithic point collection. What did I have (1 point for each)?

A) CAR PANTIES
B) DOUBLE FAIRGROUNDS
C) LEVER RIFLE KINK
D) LURE A KITTY
E) TICKS BANQUETING ROLE
F) TREKKER RAIDS
G) WARDROBE ENTREE
H) WARM MOTOR UNION

[Hoss]

in the above question can I assume the answers are like this? If the anagram is two words like " Double fairgrounds" can we assume it is a two word answer or is it one word once soved?

[painshill]

Number of words for the puzzle is not related to number of words for the solution. The answers are two words, apart from D which is a single word, and B which is three words.

[sheila Talakoub]

Lever rifle kink

[painshill]

QUESTION 2 – ODD ONE OUT (7 points)
There’s an odd one out here (1 point) and it will be obvious which one, if you can name them all (1 point for each):

[painshill]

QUESTION 3 – SHERLOCK HOLMES’ CRYPTIC AMERICAN STATES (8 points)
Sherlock would have triumphantly told Watson he’d figured out the principle on which these two American states are coded. What are they (1 point for each)?

NOTE (see below): in error, the first of these is not a State, but the capital city of a State. Either answer will be accepted.



There are only two other states that can be coded like this. What are they (1 point for each)?



There’s one Final Problem though. Holmes would have struggled with two of these four states. Which ones (1 point each) and why (1 point each)?


IMPORTANT NOTE:
I constantly tinkered around with these questions as I was putting the quiz together and thought I had double-checked for possible errors, but one has slipped through here. The first ‘State’ I encoded is NOT a State, but the capital city of a State. The State itself cannot be encoded in the same way. My error, for which I apologise. Anyone who figures out the way the coding works will realise the error and I will accept either the city or the state in which it is located as correct answers.
The error does not have any bearing on the other parts to the question. There are only a limited number of States for which the coding works and Holmes would still have struggled with two of the answers… for particular reasons.

[painshill]

QUESTION 4 – MINERALS (3 points)
If I had a chunk of glowing green crystalline rock and said it was composed of the mineral “sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine”, what would I be claiming to have (1 point)?

What name was given to this white nodular mineral of similar composition, discovered in a 2006 drill-core in Serbia (1 point)?



What specific property would have been claimed for the white material if it had actually been part of the same family as the green material (1 point)?

[sheila Talakoub]

marble ,Calsadonie

[painshill]

Sheila, from this and you comment on post #2, I think you haven't quite grasped the concept of this competition!

[painshill]

QUESTION 5 – ODD MAN OUT (10 points)
There’s an odd man out (or woman) in each case. Which ones are they (1 point for each) and why (1 point for each)?

A) Ahuitzotl, Axayacatl, Itzcoatl, Nanacacipactzin, Tizoc.
B) Four Robes, Light Hair, Pretty Owl, Scarlet Woman, Snow-on-Her
C) Bill Andrews, Jim Gardley, Luke Hartman, Allen King, John Reid
D) Curly, Hairy Moccasin, Half Yellow Face, Nannasaddie, White Swan
E) Errol Flynn, Francis Ford, Josh Lucas, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger

[painshill]

QUESTION 6 – WAR HERO (3 points)
What was the name of the US Army war hero, only discovered to be a female after her death in 1919, who survived being shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and left with a leg hanging only by a tendon but went on to save many lives in a battalion of the 77^th Division? (1 point). What medal did she receive? (1 point). Where is her final resting place? (1 point)

[painshill]

QUESTION 7 – FLIGHT CONNECTION (5 points)
These people all have a connection to a particular airplane. Who are they (1 point for each picture), what was the flight number of the plane (1 point) and what was the christening name given to the aircraft (1 point)?

[painshill]

QUESTION 8 – AT THIS SPOT (6 points)
Who were the people unfortunate enough to be standing or sitting in these locations (1 point for each person)? Where is the location that might be considered the luckiest (1 point)?

[painshill]

QUESTION 9 – IT’S A DOG’S LIFE (6 points)
Two Pomeranians, and a Pekingese (Pekinese) at the right. These three dogs hold a special place in history but only two of their names are known for sure. What makes them special (1 point), who were their owners (3 points, one for each dog owner) and what were the two known dog names (1 point each)?

[painshill]

QUESTION 10 – FAMOUS LAST WORDS (12 points)
Whose famous last words were these, or at least the near-to-final words with which they are popularly associated (1 point for each) and on what date did they die (1 point for each)?

A) Why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!
B) I’m bored with it all.
C) Well boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourselves.
D) I am just going outside and may be some time.
E) I'm going to the bathroom to read.
F) My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.

[painshill]

QUESTION 11 – IN THE DRIVING SEAT (4 points)
Who were these car people (1 point each)?



A) The person behind the wheel, wearing a top hat.
B) The person about to get into the car (although it’s not his car).
C) The person behind the wheel at the time of this incident.
D) The bearded person behind the wheel.

[painshill]

QUESTION 12 – WHOSE FEET? (10 points)
Whose feet are these (1 point each)?



Two of these pictures have spawned urban myths. Which two (1 point each) and why (1 point each)?

[painshill]

For picture F, I need a name for the maker of the huge footprint in the foreground. Not the guy laying next to it.

[painshill]

QUESTION 13 – ANOTHER ODD ONE OUT (7 points)
One of these pictures doesn’t belong. Which one (1 point)? Can you name them all (1 point each)?

[painshill]

QUESTION 14 – AT THE MOVIES (7 points)
My Native American friend was delighted to find his local cinema was going to show a season of films subtitled using an alphabet with which he was familiar. They're transliterated below (although not necessarily as proper translations). What tribal affiliation did he have (1 point) and what were the movies being shown (1 point for each)?



He felt a bit of a connection to these films in particular. Why was that (1 point) and why was he disappointed when he learned the truth (1 point).