In other, surprising, news last week’s episode of After the Fact wasn’t, it turns out, the final show in the series.  In honour of today’s significant anniversary, tonight will see a special Titanic-themed episode of the show being broadcast on Claremorris Community Radio at 7pm.  Visit the website around then and click on the Listen Live link to hear the show.

It should be an interesting show.  For a start, I’m going to be on the receiving end this week and a guest host will be asking the questions!

Food-related film titles:

1. American Pie
2. Ratatouille
3. A fish called Wanda
4. Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
5. Hard Candy
6. Breakfast on Pluto
7. Mystic Pizza
8. Duck Soup
9. Seabiscuit
10. Tea with Mussolini

Identify the drinks brand:

1. Jägermeister
2. Absolut Vodka
3. Groslch
4. Paul Masson
5. Connemara
6. Duvel
7. Jose Cuervo
8. The Dalmore
9. Chartreuse
10. Maker’s Mark

Hope you liked those.

What a great night! Everything worked, the crowd were lovely (and copious – there were 31 tables!) and the questions hit the right standard (the winning score was 88/100). The King’s Head itself is a great venue for a quiz as its large screen is visible from both floors and the front of the bar can be curtained off, so as to allow non-quizzers to revel away without bothering everyone else.

I was only given one brief when asked to create a quiz for a food festival: make it general enough that the chefs aren’t guaranteed to win. Well, I didn’t quite manage that as the winning team, the Bronze Turkeys, was made up of the staff from The Kitchen, the restaurant in the Galway City Museum. They were delighted with their achievement and told me that they intend to display the Galway Crystal trophy* in the restaurant for the coming year!

To decrease the inherent advantage of food experts, I included a music round (where the song titles included a food term), a round featuring the posters from 10 films which have food in their titles and a round featuring 10 uniquely shaped bottles.  You can see the last two at the end of this post.

However, to boost up the foodies, I did include an interactive round in which each team received a plate with five small bun cases.  Within each case was a seed, herb or spice and the teams had five minutes to identify the substances.  Everyone seemed to love that and most teams got all five correct!  Obviously, I won’t be including this round here on the site.

Right, so you probably want to sample some of the rounds.  First up, here are the picture rounds.

Food-related film titles:

Identify the drinks brand:

Finally, here’s an interactive quiz for you to try.  It’s one of the rounds from last night.

Food Quiz round:

While I’m on the topic of communication, this quiz also fell foul of one of my personal bugbears.  The score. To whit, what is it? How are we getting on? They announced the score on just two occasions: half-time and full-time.  At half-time, two teams were way out in front (on 37 and 36 out of 40) and we were leading the peloton on 32.  We continued as we had been, safe in the knowledge that surely we were too far behind to win and we’d hopefully hang on to third.  Yet when the final scores were announced we’d come in second – two points ahead of third and just two points behind the winners. If only we’d known we were in the hunt!

They’re not the worst, mind you.  Last Friday night I attended a quiz in Claremorris Golf Club where the score wasn’t called out for the entire night! My team finished on 84/100 and hadn’t a clue if that was a good, bad or indifferent score.  We came fourth, if you’re interested, with the teams above us finishing on 86, 89 and 91 points.

Still, we’re sticking with movies here.  First off, here’s a movie-related picture round.  This wasn’t actually part of the fun at Kelly’s.  By coincidence, it was the pics round handed out the previous Tuesday night at Gilligan’s.  Use the pictures to identify the titles of 14 winners of the Oscar for Best Picture.

Now, here’s an interactive quiz to test your movie knowledge:

Anyway, back to the post.  Here are the answers to the (quite difficult, I admit) questions posted in yesterday’s Don’t work… too hard.

I wrote a bit about the concept of ‘quiz knowledge’ yesterday.  To flesh this out a little more, my point is that all knowledge is (or should be) valid.  It’s just a case of a situation arising where the more (shall we say) ‘obscure’ bit of your knowledge become useful.  But… shouldn’t the probability of any particular question coming up be identical across all fields? *

It isn’t. I knew almost nothing in the Popular Culture round below but that has never really mattered before.  99% of the time, in Irish table quizzes, questions like these never, ever, come up.  Is that ‘right’?

Consider the flip side: you might know someone who would do very well in the round being discussed but, if you asked them, would tell you that they are “terrible” at table quizzes and never take part in them. Surely there’s a flaw here?

By which I mean: is there a flaw in the way most Irish table quizzes are created? Do question setters, perhaps, consider their potential crowd and then design a quiz to suit them more than to really test them? Probably not consciously but almost certainly.  To take it further, is there a vernacular in the Irish table quiz world? Could the spectrum of knowledge tested at table quizzes be considered a ‘specialist subject‘ in-and-of itself?

This is a disquieting notion.

Answer: When the winning table scores 49/100.

That’s right, just 49%. And there was a playoff.

The night before its students decided to abandon Rag Week, NUI Galway played host to yours truly on the microphone, calling out questions in the back room of the College Bar.  I created three of the rounds used on the night (one of which you can see below).  The others were created by the members of my regular team so it was a rare occasion in that all four of us were at the top table, with the others collecting and correcting at various times.

Knowledge, or what one could consider ‘useful (quiz) knowledge’, is subjective and differs from person to person.  Even with my own abilities, this quiz featured a round I would have scored 2/10 in.  Of course, I’ve also included that for you to have a go.

All that being said, it turned out to be an exciting quiz, with two teams finishing on the aforementioned 49 points.  If we’d had one strong team amongst the competitors, who were able to handle these questions, they’d have had a bit of a Rory McIlroy in the US Open stroll to victory, and what fun would that have been for the room in general?

Popular culture round *:

1. What is the name of the act that was eliminated from last weekend’s (October 16th) X-Factor?
2. PS, I Love You was the debut novel by Cecilia Ahern. What was the title of her second?
3. Which of the following is not a hair-removal technique: Threading, casting or sugaring?
4. What does the ‘A’ stand for in MAC Cosmetics?
5. What are the names of the 2 main characters in the movie The Notebook?
6. Who is the father of Jordan/Katie Price’s first child Harvey?
7. In Sex and the City, what is Mr. Big’s actual first name?
8. Which shoe designer is known by the trademark red soles on their shoes?
9. How many calories are there in a can of diet coke: 0, 7 or 70?
10. A baby born today (October 17) would have which star sign?

All kinds of everything:

1. In the novel Around the World in Eighty Days by French writer Jules Verne, which character sets off to circumnavigate the globe?
2. Name the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, known for her distinctive hair braid,  who was sentenced to seven years in jail last week.
3. Which common Irish bird is officially known by the Latin name ‘Troglodytes troglodytes’?
4. The Quinn Group was formed in 1973 by Sean Quinn. By 2008 they produced cement and glass, provided insurance and owned hotels but in what business was the group first involved?
5. The ‘All Whites’ is the nickname for which national football team?
6. If someone was to call you by a hypocorism, what type of name would they be using?
7. Which famous actor was presented with a Special Tony Award in 1985, honoring his 4,525th performance in The King and I on stage?
8. The Pomengranate gets its name from two Latin words, which mean “seeded [what]“?
9. Rod Stewart blamed what hobby, which takes up an area 23 foot by 124 foot in his LA home, for contributing to the end of his second marriage?
10. The world’s first recorded currency dates from around 3,000 BC in Mesoptamia.  Its name is still used today by one country as its currency.  Name either the currency or the country that uses it.

Picture round – Where were they born? **:

What the heck, here’s one more.

Sport round:

1. Who is the captain of the Connacht Rugby team for the 2011/12 season?
2. Paul Cook is the manager of which league of Ireland team?
3. In GAA, which county won The Irish Press Cup in September 2011?
4. What game is played on a court with a protruding buttress at one end and is fully enclosed by walls, three of which have sloping roofs known as penthouses, under which are openings for spectators? ***
5. Which famous Australian horse race is billed as The Race That Stops A Nation?
6. The 1995 Rugby World Cup Final was played in Ellis Park – in which city?
7. What was unusual (physically) about George Eyser, who won six medals in Gymnastics in one day at the 1904 Olympics?
8. Founded in 1869 the the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first fully professional team in which sport?
9. Ireland has won (and kept) Olympic medals in four sports.  Athletics and Boxing are two; name the other two.
10. Who are the current Galway Senior Hurling Champions?

Give those four a go.  If you score more than 20, well then last Monday night was probably a missed opportunity for you as you’d almost certainly have defeated every one else in the NUI Galway College Bar!

Update:

Here’s the audio round from the quiz.

Answers tomorrow – along with a post on a quiz I took part in last Friday night.

Footnotes:

* This is the one.  Almost every weak spot I have – in one round of quizzing.

** Just answer these 1-A, 2-B and so on.

*** After calling out this epic question on Monday night I added: “… and a net in the middle”. Consider yourself clued.

So come one, come all.   First prize is €200 and the night will also feature a raffle and, as the poster proudly proclaims, free food!  Admission is €20 for a table of four.

Few other things:

• After the Fact, my new quiz show on Claremorris Community Radio, is now three weeks old.  You can listen back to all the episodes by using the big button on the right of the page or by visiting www.mixcloud.com/claremorrisfm/playlists/atf/
• I was quizzing on Friday night.  Yet another one point defeat. As I was preparing for tonight’s quiz, I haven’t written up a report yet but you can check out this little Audioboo I recorded on the night.

It’s a good job I typed up yesterday’s post when I did as I have since lost the piece of paper on which the featured questions reside.  Thus, I will have to do the round all over again.  That said, it is a lot easier when you’ve heard the answers within the past week!

The final round:

1. Who played the part of the vampire Jerry Dandridge in the original Fright Night? A> Chris Sarandon
2. Who has, in his career, been killed on-screen by a terminator, a predator and an alien? A> Bill Paxton
3. Who played the part of the “last American hero” in the 1971 film Vanishing Point? A> Barry Newman
4. What cover company does James Bond and his fellow 00 agents purport to work for? A> Universal Exports
5. What phrase stops the robot Gort in the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still? A> “Klaatu barada nikto“
6. What was the name of the superhero alter-ego of Dom DeLuise’s character in Cannonball Run? A> Captain Chaos
7. Peter O’Toole was nominated for an Academy Award for which 1980 film? A> The Stunt Man
8. What film was directed by Wim Wenders, starred Mel Gibson and was written by Bono? A> Million Dollar Hotel
9. The character of Lili von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles was based on which actress? A> Marlene Dietrich
10. What engraving is on the lighter George Smiley lost to a Russian agent in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? A> “From Ann, with all my love” *

Some other questions:

1. What was the name of the criminal gang in the 1991 film Point Break? A> The Ex-Presidents **
2. What 1945 film featured the first ever scene of human actors interacting with animated characters? A> Anchors Aweigh
3. In what year does the film Super 8 take place? A> 1979
4. On what date do the characters in One Day meet every year? A> St Swithin’s Day (July 15)

Identify the film from its tagline:

1. In Space, no-one can hear you scream. A> Alien
2. Eigth legs, two fangs and an attitude. A> Arachnaphobia
3. Crime is a disease. Meet the cure. A> Cobra
4. Neo-Tokyo is about to explode. A> Akira
5. Mischief. Mayhem. Soap. A> Fight Club
6. He was dead but he got better. A> Crank: High Voltage
7. Love means never having to say you’re sorry. A> Love Story
8. Resistance is futile. A> Star Trek: First Contact
9. Trust me. A> Liar Liar
10. He spies, he flies, he death-defies. A> Condorman

Picture round (five actors, five films):

1. Charles Grodin
2. John Belushi
3. Michael Fassbender
4. Shirley MacLaine
5. Zhang Ziyi
6. 30 Minutes or Less
7. The Duchess
8. The Maltese Falcon
9. Thor
10. Vicky Christina Barcelona

That’s a whole lot of movie trivia for just one post.  I hope you enjoyed it.

If so, note that this quiz happens on the first Monday of every month in Kelly’s Bar, Bridge St., Galway.

That’s all folks.

Footnotes:

* Not the most succint answer is it?

** Don’t fall into the trap we did of thinking they were the Dead Presidents.

Normally we do ‘ok’ in this round – by which I mean 6 points, or thereabouts. However, if you’ve read my post from last week, you won’t be surprised when I reveal that we scored a miserable 3 points this time out.  I’m going to include the whole round below, as a separate set of questions to let you have a go.

We had been joint-leaders at half-time on 35 points but, after that final round, we ended up third on 64 points.  That being said, we only lost by 3 points.  Everyone else must also have found the final round to be a bit of a b*st*rd…

The final round:

1. Who played the part of the vampire Jerry Dandridge in the original Fright Night?
2. Who has, in his career, been killed on-screen by a terminator, a predator and an alien?
3. Who played the part of the “last American hero” in the 1971 film Vanishing Point?
4. What cover company does James Bond and his fellow 00 agents purport to work for?
5. What phrase stops the robot Gort in the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still?
6. What was the name of the superhero alter-ego of Dom DeLuise’s character in Cannonball Run?
7. Peter O’Toole was nominated for an Academy Award for which 1980 film?
8. What film was directed by Wim Wenders, starred Mel Gibson and was written by Bono?
9. The character of Lili von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles was based on which actress?
10. What engraving is on the lighter George Smiley lost to a Russian agent in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?

Some other questions:

1. What was the name of the criminal gang in the 1991 film Point Break?
2. What 1945 film featured the first ever scene of human actors interacting with animated characters?
3. In what year does the film Super-8 take place? *
4. On what date do the characters in One Day meet every year? *

Identify the film from its tagline:

1. In Space, no-one can hear you scream.
2. Eigth legs, two fangs and an attitude.
3. Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.
4. Neo-Tokyo is about to explode.
5. Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.
6. He was dead but he got better.
7. Love means never having to say you’re sorry.
8. Resistance is futile.
9. Trust me.
10. He spies, he flies, he death-defies.

Picture round (five actors, five films):

The quiz also included the usual film score extracts and movie posters with the titles removed.  However, I didn’t get around to recreating those.  Sorry.

Answers to all that of the above though, will follow tomorrow.

Footnote:

* We got these but I like them.

Lost on the cutting room floor from the original post was the news that we actually won the quiz! Whilst we were an amazing eight points clear of second place, there was a bit of confusion surrounding third prize.

The quizmaster announced that they had a result but a play-off was in the works.  Two teams were in “joint third” and they needed to play off.  They did and, a slight controversy over the original name of Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope aside *, one of these teams defeated the other.  Well done, here’s third prize.

Except, this play-off was immediately followed up by another play-off, this time featuring the two teams who were tied in “joint second”. The team that lost this one were a bit confused afterwards.  Shouldn’t they be getting third prize, they no doubt wondered.  To be fair to the organisers, this was resolved quite quickly and they were given some Star Wars merchandise – in honour of the ‘second-and-a-half’ place they’d just finished in…

Questions we missed:

1. In the recent film The Inbetweeners Movie, the protagonists holiday in which resort? A> Malia
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays which character in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises? A> Det. John Blake
3. David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader, was famous in the UK for what role? A> The Green Cross Code man
4. What film links Mark Hamill, Lee Marvin and David Carradene? A> The Big Red One
5. In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in what year does judgement day take place? A> 1997
6. Which actress, director and screenwriter appeared in The Phantom Menace as one of Queen Amidala’s hand-maidens? A> Sofia Coppola
7. Which Star Wars actor last year released a heavy metal concept album? A> Christopher Lee
8. Who composed the soundtrack to the movie The Thing? A> Ennio Morricone

Pictures:

1. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Mark Hamill)
2. Darkman (Liam Neeson)

We got Darkman, mainly though a team discussion that started with “That looks a bit like Liam Neeson….” and ended with Mike decided that, if it is Liam Neeson, then the only film that makes sense… is Darkman.

That’s all folks!

* ‘The adventures of Luke Starkiller’ was the answer given by the contestant.  The quiz master actually wanted ‘Blue Harvest’.  The crowd cried foul, the organisers backed down and asked a different question. **

** The answer to this playoff question was: Keira Knightly.  I’ll let you work it out for yourselves.

The night wasn’t the only change – the quiz is now being sponsored by HMV.  This week, in honour of the fact that you can now buy all the Star Wars films on Blu-Ray, the quiz was called ‘Movie Wars’ and featured a lot of (although thankfully not entirely) questions about George Lucas’s cash cow creation.

It was quite an enjoyable quiz.  Its eight rounds included a picture round (on the big screen – no paper here) and two audio rounds.  One of these audio rounds was most entertaining.  It featured 10 samples of dialogue from famous movies. Nothing too novel there, you say, but these were all linked by the fact that they were almost entirely made up of expletives. Yes, I know, it’s a bit childish but it certainly made me laugh!

The Star Wars connection was kept light for the most part. For example, the picture round featured 10 stills of actors, who have appeared in Star Wars movies, in some other film – and that’s what you had to identify.  There was also a round where a Star Wars actor was named, along with two others, and you had to say in which film all three of them appeared.  You can sample some questions after the ‘Continue…’

Questions we missed:

1. In the recent film The Inbetweeners Movie, the protagonists holiday in which resort?
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays which character in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises?
3. David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader, was famous in the UK for what role? *
4. What film links Mark Hamill, Lee Marvin and David Carradene?
5. In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in what year does judgement day take place?
6. Which actress, director and screenwriter appeared in The Phantom Menace as one of Queen Amidala’s hand-maidens?
7. Which Star Wars actor last year released a heavy metal concept album?
8. Who composed the soundtrack to the movie The Thing?

Pictures (one we got, one we missed):

Update: answers here.

* We did get this one.  I just think it’s a cool question.