|
|
alt-usage-english.org |
| Home |
| Newsgroup |
| Intro Documents A B C D E F G |
| FAQ |
| FAQ Supplement |
| ASCII IPA |
| Audio Archive |
| Links |
| UCLE Corner |
| What's New? |
| Search |
| Site Map Where am I? |
| Contact |
|
Questions and Answers |
16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 . 28 . 29 . 30 31 . 32 . 33 . 34 . 35 . 36 . 37 . 38 . 39 . 40 . 41 . 42 . 43 . 44 . 45 46 . 47 . 48 . 49 . 50 . 51 . 52 . 53 . 54 . 55 . 56 . 57 . 58 . 59 . 60 61 . 62 . 63 . 64 . 65 . 66 . 67 . 68 . 69 . 70 . 71 . 72 . 73 . 74 . 75 76 . 77 . 78 . 79 . 80 . 81 . 82 . 83 . 84 . 85 . 86 . 87 . 88 . 89 . 90 91 Q-2. June teaser.
 Methanol is to dryad as sake is to what? A. Inari. E. Inari and sake are rice spirits; dryad and methanol are wood spirits. Q-1. July teaser: Safari
SF conventions usually have at least Guest of Hono(u)r, or GoH. What kind of GoH should a Harry Potter convention have? For extra kudos, explain the connection with safaris. Q0.
Q Zero My first is in feet but not in net Second in Avon and Po Third in boat but out of debt Last is in pad Do you know A. Food E. The question was hidden, and existence of its whereabouts was mentioned by the Panel numerous times, but no one found it. It was an acrostic formed from the first letters of the subject (slug) lines of questions 1-90, in order. Q1. Question about neurotics
analog, erotic video, a comedian, a ministrant, most irate, my anger, enemy, acrimonies, bare mud, a garden, spa region, rumba, diners' waltz, tango, safari touch, Englander, lenient ethics, noisy peal, regalia, chain, pure, old animals, I am near, serial, penalties, earlier eons, braise, an ingrate, gnome tenor, bag handles aneurism panel, reign, no radar A. they're all anagrams of countries. E. analog, (Angola) erotic video (Cote D'Ivoire) a comedian, (Macedonia) a ministrant (Saint Martin) most irate (East Timor) my anger, (Germany) enemy (Yemen) acrimonies, (Micronesia) bare mud, (Bermuda) a garden, (Grenada) spa region (Singapore) rumba, (Burma) diners' waltz (Switzerland) tango (Tonga) safari touch (South Africa) Englander, (Greenland) lenient ethics, (Liechtenstein) noisy peal (Polynesia) regalia, (Algeria) chain, (China) pure, (Peru) old animals (Somaliland) I am near (Armenia) serial, (Israel) penalties, (Palestine) earlier eons, (Sierra Leone) braise, (Serbia) an ingrate, (Argentina) gnome tenor (Montenegro) bag handles (Bangladesh) aneurism (Suriname) panel, (Nepal) reign, (Niger) no radar (Andorra) Q2. Zhongwen roots
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/pics/sh1.tif Ten Chinese characters are grouped into two rows. What property do the characters within each row share that is not common between the two rows? A. The characters in the first row all have the 'moon' radical. The characters in the second row all have the 'meat' radical. E. Certain radicals have alternative or abbreviated forms depending on their relative position within characters. In all the characters of the second row, the 'meat' has been abbreviated into a form resembling the 'moon' radical. Although sometimes differentiated, the 'moon' radical and the abbreviated 'meat' radical are identical in most typefaces. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_character) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kangxi_radicals for further explanation. Q3. Especially hard one
I've always been intrigued by the exotic-sounding name of the active ingredient of a medicine I sometimes use. I finally got around to investigating, and a fascinating read it has been, leading me to, inter alia, Dava Sobel's "Longitude" and a famous hapax. What's the stuff? A. guaifenesin E. This comes/came from the tree named Guayacan or Lignum Vitae. The wood was used for Harrison's maritime clocks. The famous hapax is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorificabilitudinitatibus (see the Nashe quote) Q4. Roll reversal
If Carl is female, what's her brother's name? A. Fimble. E. Female hemp plants are called carl hemp (from an obsolete word for "man") and male hemp plants are called fimble hemp (related to "female"). People were mistaken about the sexes of the plants. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=58791 Q5. Ordinary Jeopardy
We have a set of five answers for you, Jeopardy!-style. Supply the category; for added sheep, supply appropriate questions. Hal and Alice's daughter. My eye. Alfre Woodard. Sanders-Little. Rancho Mirage. A. Betty. Who is Betty Cooper? What's the now-two-word phrase that once contained "Betty Martin"? Who played Betty on _Desperate Housewives_? What would Betty Shabazz' real name be if she hyphenated? Where's the Betty Ford Clinic? Q6. Mystery illness
I checked the etymology of what seems to be wrong with my mother-in-law, but she swears that it's other parts of her anatomy that are troubling her. What do I think is the matter with her? A. hypochondria Q7. Years of our lives
I'm in Napeague State Park. I have no flashlight. Whither am I headed? H. Or I'm in Highland Park. H. A round trip is possible. H. And don't forget the one red rose A. Babylon(, New York). E. The state park is seventy miles from Bablyon. So is Highland Park, NJ. http://www.zelo.com/Family/Nursery/babylon.asp Q8. Four other Hondas
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/theprof.jpg Because of a quintessential property he possesses, one might get the mistaken assumption that this Ivy League professor was the subject of what popular sci-fi action movie? A. _The Fifth Element_ E. The man pictured is Walter Boron, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, and editor of _News in Physiological Sciences_. Boron is the element with atomic number five. Q9. Incompatibility
How might alcohol have helped? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/ab-incompatibility.jpeg A. This is an old advert for Listerine. Q10. Record broadcast
We're not sure whether it was included in the episode shown on the BBC on 9 February 2005, but can you tell you tell us what its first word is? H. 13955 A. "But" E. First transmission of "The Rotters' Club", BBC dramatisation of Jonathan Coe's novel of the same name, which contains a 13,955-word sentence, supposedly the longest in the English language. Q11. Switch off your mobile (cell) phones, please
In which city on which date was a ringing telephone during a musical performance greeted with amusement? Name the composer, the conductor, the piece and, if you can, the number -- opus, not phone. A. Vienna, 1 Jan 2006, "The Telephone Polka" op.165 Eduard Strauss, Mariss Jansons Q12. Train of thought
A recent posting by Arcadian Rises about sex with plants led a panelist to think about sex between humans and organisms of other kingdoms, naturally, and then to wonder about the love life of a former sports champion. Who was the champion? H. tennis H. protist A. Rod Laver. E. Laver is a seaweed. Q13. I wasn't very well
Which ailment connects Raynerius, December, tellurium, oysters and six gentlemen? A. salty phlegm Q14. Somewhere with an E
The following towns have something in common: Abingdon; Barrow; Bilston; Bishop Auckland; Burton; Camborne; Deal; Dollar; Farnborough; Goole; Hyde; Malvern; Port Glasgow; Rhosllanerchrugog; Stowmarket; Teignmouth; Thurso; Trowbridge; Uttoxeter; Workington Name a part of London that could be added to the list. H. Stations of the Cross A. Possible answers: Poplar (E14), New Cross (SE14), Southgate (N14), Mortlake (SW14), West Kensington (W14), Hatton (TW14), Cudham (TN14), Upminster (RM14), Sidcup (DA14) E. "14" postcodes (eg. Bilston is WV14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_postcode_areas_in_the_United_Kingdom The title refers to 14 being E in hexadecimal. Q15. Inclusion
Paraphrase these sentences to show what they have in common. (As usual, once you get the answer, you'll feel sure it's right.) "Wrangell Island is rightfully American territory--could you open a little wider, please?--and we should be demanding it back instead of trying to turn it over to the Russians." "As the leader of the people, I present this protest." "That cell is where we put sailors who get too smart." H. Another title we considered was "In conclusion". A. The dentist is an irredentist. The demarch made a demarche. The brig is for the bright. Q16. Non-idiot
What AUE personality shares a special bond with the people pictured? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/threeoffour.jpg H. The person sought is a non-participant in this year's SDC except as the answer to this question. A. The late Graeme Thomas. E. Graeme, like Elvis Presley, actress Linda Hamilton and the disciple St Thomas, was a twin. Q17. First off
What is the first word in this sequence? ..., He, Grabbing, As, The, Far, The, I, He, A, Do, On, Only, He, His, The, You, His, Now, ... A. Renowned E. First words of the first sentences of the Da Vinci Code E. Made infamous by Geoffrey Pullum at language Log http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html Q18. Etymologically winging it
Name a word (not a name) with a silent letter that was added without justification in any ancestor of the word. Please explain. A. 'Ptarmigan'. M-W says "modification of Scottish Gaelic tarmachan". Nothing to do with Greek or words with a p. C. There are probably other answers. --Jerry Q19. End result
If it's a slaughter, Slaughter is joined by Taylor and even Black. What is this about? A. Skat or schafkopf, or any card game that counts "matadors" in the score and has bonuses for "schneider" (a lopsided win) or "schwarz" (a shutout). Q20. Tangled verbs
A,B and C are verbs (in the infinitive) with past participles D, E and F respectively. A and B have the same spelling; C and D likewise have the same spelling. B and C are spelt differently; D and E are also spelt differently. Find a set of English verbs A, B and C satisfying these criteria. A. wind (wound), wind (winded) and wound (wounded), for example Q21. Bend around
What two items are found in the grocery store and in a well-known opera? Please explain the connection to the slug line. H. The number is a trio. H. The slug could have been "Benz around". A. Melons! Coupons! E. With a circumflex over the e and one over the u, that's the title of the fortune-telling scene in /Carmen/. ("Let's shuffle! Let's cut!") "Bending around" is a translation of "circumflex". E. Benz for Mercedes, one of the characters who sings the number. Q22. Useful in many circumstances
What links the following: Ichneutae peasant after 1861 leaderless warrior smallpox scar never been to sea brigand overlong speech tropical storm e4 Arlecchino monotreme ghostly substance "If you take my advice--oh, then do it your own way." lie detector rollmop Dick Turpin cave dweller A. All swear-words used by Captain Haddock in the Tintin books. E. Ichneutae = acting the goat. peasant after 1861 = Moujik. leaderless warrior = Bashi-basouk. smallpox scar = pockmark. never been to sea = landlubber. brigand = pirate. obstructive speech = filibuster. tropical storm e4 = 10,000 thundering typhoons. Arlecchino = harlequin. monotreme = duck-billed platypus. ghostly substance = ectoplasm. "If you take my advice--oh, then do it your own way." = anacoluthon. lie detector = polygraph. rollmops = pickled herrings. Dick Turpin = Highwayman. cave dweller = troglodyte. Q23. There beats a heart
A. Pecs, Hungary E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9cs The gentleman is Victor Vasarely. I got the title here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pecs (AHD4) Q24. Not that they were all that successful
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/pics/8folks.html These eight people did something rather unusual this year. What was it? A. They stood as candidates in the French Presidential Election http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_presidential_election,_2007 Q25. Odd one out
See http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/pics/x.html . One of the six fours' seconds is odd. What is it? A. H. E. The pictures represent, in order, jump boot, Jumpluff, jump page, jump ring, jumpseat, and jump shot. Of the six four-letter counterparts' respective second letters, o, u, a, i, e, and h, one, h, is odd, in that it's a consonant. Q26. The hobgoblin
Complete the sequence: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, ____. A. 30. E. Possible scores per frame of a consistent bowler: one who bowls the same frame every time. Q27. It will be a Thursday, because...
What do A. C. Swinburne, Tom Bombadil, and Prince Rupert of the Rhine have in common? Please explain the connection with the slug line. H. The people are mentioned in chronological order. A. They all produced verse printed as prose: Swinburne in his limerick on Clough, Bombadil all the time, a fictional Prince Rupert of the Rhine in Poul Anderson's novel /A Midsummer Tempest/. E. The first hit on the slug line takes you to Cesar Vallejo's magnificent sonnet "Piedra Negra Sobre una Piedra Blanca", which contains the phrase "que proso estos versos". Q28. Nippy
A. Barbara Blackburn E. The question is "Who is this?" typed with Qwerty key positions on a Dvorak keyboard. BB is the world speed-typing champion. Q29. Not in good taste
If A can say "parsley" and B can say "bread and butter", what else must B say? A. "Green cheese" (or "young cheese") E. Both "parsley" and "butter and bread and green cheese" have been shibboleths--"perejil" to identify Haitians in the Dominican Republic <http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/shibboleth.html> and "B??ter, brea en griene tsiis: wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries" to identify non-Frisians in Friesland, according to legend <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Gerlofs_Donia>. Q30. Enemy of a radio comedian?
A. Antwerp Q31. The Novice
What's the missing word? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/ab-novice.jpeg A. "French" E. Jack Dempsey in "So This Is Paris" (1924) Q32. Soup (condensed)
Reduce this recipe to as few words as possible while keeping the meaning clear enough: Soup of mustard ( 8 persons) Ingredients: 120 gr. of carrots 120 gr. of mushrooms 40 gr. of margarine 50 gr. flour 10 dl. of broth 120 gr. of green peas 5 dl. milk 4 spoonful of mustard 100 gr. of grated cheese bread sticks 1. Peel the carrots and cut them "en julienne" (= small strips.) 2. Clean the mushroom en cut them to slices. 3. Melt the margarine in a cooking pot, add the flour stir it and cool it down (roux). 4. Add half of the hot broth, make it boil while stirring it, make sure that there are no lumps in it, add the rest of the broth. 5. Add the cut carrots, the green peas, and the mushrooms, let it boil for ten minutes on a low fire. 6. Add the milk to the soup, stir the mustard and the cheese through the soup, taste the soup, add pepper and salt if you like. 7. Serve the soup, with a bread stick. A. [No TO answer.] Q33. Every picture tells a story
What's unusual about these people's respective names and occupations? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/headshots.png A. They change weekly. E. These are the men on the street interviewed weekly in The Onion, each week with a different name and occupation. Q34. Coy
Buren is to clean as Beauvoir is to shiny as Ashan is to what? A. Knowledgeable. E. Martin (van Buren): martinizing makes something clean. Simone (de Beauvoir): simonizing makes something shiny. Eddie (McAshan): edifying makes something knowledgeable. And in the slug line, Real (McCoy). Q35. Opposition and baking
The grandfather--one of the most important figures in prewar British politics; the granddaughter--an okay postwar actress. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she gets 750,000 ghits to his 55,000. Name them. A. George and Angela Lansbury Q36. New International
Seven successive entries in the W3NID have the following definitions. Which entries? 1st. complicated. 2d. dis. 3d. gammate. 4th. army. 5th. fit. 6th. accented. 7th. A. Fykie, fyle, fylfot, fyrd, fytte, fz, g. Q37. Did I change in days of old?
What do the words SET, DRENCH, WEND, FELL, REAR and LAY have in common? A. They are all from Class I weak verbs in Old English derived regularly as the causative of a corresponding strong verb. E. The corresponding strong verbs in Modern English are of course SIT, DRINK, WIND, FALL, RISE AND LIE. The rule governing this derivation is addition of the infinitival ending -jan to the preterite (sing.) of the strong verb. The /j/ of the ending then gave rise to i-mutation of the root vowel and was subsequently lost. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mutation ). For example, 'settan' was derived from 'sittan' (the OE forerunners of 'set' and 'sit' resp.) thus: sittan (pret. s??t) -> s??tjan -> settan. Q38. It's a food word
This word looks like a translation from German or a Hobson-Jobson from French. What word is it and what is its etymology? A. Cutlet, from French /côtelette/, ultimately from Latin /costa/, rib. AHD mentions no connection to German /Schnitzel/. Q39. Not hockey
0 40 20 60 20 25 50 25 ? A. 3 E. scores on a dartboard, starting at the top and moving vertically down the board Q40. All of them are like that
Who might have been mistaken for Superman, owned many cows, and found the closet too dark? H. STS warning A. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart E. Mnemonics for beginnings of movements from his fortieth symphony: "It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Mozart!" "Oh, Mo-zaart had a herd of cattle." "Mozart's in the closet--let him out, let him out, let him out! Mozart's in the closet--let him out, let him out, let him out! It's dark, it's dark in here! It's dark, it's dark in here!" E. Cosi fan tutte Q41. Victorian hero
Where will you find this statue? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/hall.jpg A. National Railway Museum, York, England E. The statue of George Stephenson is shown in its earlier location in the hall of Euston Station, London, which was demolished in 1962. Q42. Over and under
A. mm (or any other abbreviation for millimeter). E. The ratio reads: "Fifth is to fluid ounce as inch is to what?" Then just do the (almost exact) arithmetic. Q43. New vocable
I walked into the bank today with some things, including a paper, and walked out with the same things, except that the paper now had more writing on it. While I was in there, I added a word to my vocabulary. The word starts with 'j'; what is it? A. 'Jurat'. E. I had had something notarized. Q44. AUE crossword (toughie)
Here's the grid: http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/alfiesp2.gif Here are the clues: Across 6 6d: May 21, 2005 and 20d: August 19, 2003 10 James Follett: January 21, 1999 11 One of them goes right through La Chambre (2 words) 12 Evan Kirshenbaum: February 7, 2002 13 R H Draney: February 12, 2004 17 Chris Malcolm: May 31, 2001 19 Bob Lieblich: January 8, 2002 20 Tinwhistler: June 8, 2006 21 Dick VandeVelde: May 10, 1997 29 Richard Fontana: January 21, 2000 (2 words) 30 Henry Tickner: November 7, 1998 31 Two acronyms found in Intro B Down 2 Pat Durkin: October 2, 2002 3 Moberg's "Child", originally (not) 4 Its president sits on it (with the correct article) in Enschede 5 Ivan le Terrible, par exemple 7 Justin B Rye: passim 14 How drunks look in Birmingham and Bournemouth, or so I've googled 15 26: September 6, 2005 18 Richard Chambers: February 3, 2005 (3 words) 22 Comme les organes facials 14 24 Yusuf B Gursey: January 13, 2005 25 Ben Zimmer: May 29, 2003 Unclued answers are/were AUE contributors. "Name: date" clues give an instance of the answer-word having been used by an AUE contributor in a post. Q45. Now are you sitting comfortably?
Which 24 could've been 120? A. The Canterbury Tales E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales "The work is incomplete, as it was originally intended that each character would tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. This would have meant a possible one hundred and twenty tales which would have dwarfed the twenty-four tales actually written." Q46. Double Jeopardy
We have a set of five answers for you, Jeopardy!-style. Supply the category; for added sheep, supply appropriate questions. Anthrocon. Life. Plas Newydd. Slow Hand. Wampus Cats. A. Conway. What does Samuel Conway head up? What did J.H. Conway invent? Where's the HMS Conway, a stone frigate? What did Conway Twitty famously cover? What's the Conway (Arkansas) High School sports team? Q47. print(print(print(...)))
I'm reading a book that has every letter of the alphabet on its cover except R, V, W, X, Y, and Z. What book? A. _Quiddities_, by Quine. E. As to the slug line, note that, if infinite programs were allowed, then print(print(...)) would be a quine. Q48. Obscure in nature
A panelist on a recent foreign trip had occasion to use a word--some might call it a proper noun--that is found on the Web and in books but is not in the OED or Webster's Third. It was apparently used in French earlier but is not in any French dictionary he could find. What is the word? A Cormo is available for a documented etymology (including documentation of "origin unknown"). H. In English this word always collocates with a common word, but that's not true in French. H. This question is not Google-proof. A. Baglafecht (as in baglafecht weaver, /Ploceus baglafecht/, an African bird called "le baglafecht" by Daudin and Buffon). Q49. Translation, please
The 3059 was 4658 because the 3037 was 4673. The 4420 asked what had happened. "After the 4135 3072 3075, who had 4271, 4576 4779 with a 4726 4767." "So what did you do, 3277?" "Kept it as a 3049!" A. The crown prince was boiling because the queen was blackeyed. The king royal asked what had happened. "After the gala, large Lady Baldwin, who had champagne, sticks sweet mama with a long, white golden nugget." "So what did you do, baby?" "Kept it as a fine!" E. Product descriptions attached to PLU codes: http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/plucodes_123.htm Q50. Hot stuff
What color is the door of my oven? H. grandma's bread A. Tan. E. Tandoor. E. nan Q51. In English usage
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/SDC.jpg What's the connection with the SDC? A. It's the Aue coat of arms. Q52. Rabbiting on
Identify each animal: http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/collage.png A sheep is available for the first competitor to list twenty correct answers (and match them to the correct pictures). An additional sheep for whoever gets the balance. A. Reading across the rows from left to right: Top row: the bunnies from _The Runaway Bunny_; Thumper from Disney's _Bambi_, the hare statue in Copley Square, Boston; the Stanford bunny; the Duplo (Lego) logo, Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare from _Guess How Much I Love You_; Oolong. 2nd row: a Faroese hare on a Faroese postage stamp; the logo for Vysm'at'y Zaj'ic, a restaurant in Prague; tile in Louvre from Zakariya al-Qazwini's book; Trix cereal mascot; picture on wall from the 1998 film _Bunny_; _Nature morte aux troph'ees de chasse, au li`evre et au perdreau_ by Jan Weenix. 3rd row: from _Goodnight Moon_; the velveteen rabbit; _Thinker on Rock_; Rabbit from Disney's _Winnie the Pooh_; Quik mascot (Quicky, except stateside); Roger Rabbit; statue of Brer Rabbit in Eatonton, Georgia, USA; Bunny Rabbit from _Captain Kangaroo_; Peter Rabbit from the 1965 book; _Playboy_ logo. Last row: South Dakota State University Jackrabbits logo; Bugs Bunny; Energizer Bunny; Duracell Bunny; White Rabbit from _Alice_; Hip Hop, the Philadelphia 76ers' mascot. Q53. Don't worry
I changed my surname when I was naturalized, translating it from an eighteen-letter German name to an eleven-letter English name. What is the English name? A. "Strangelove". E. The slug line refers to the subtitle of the book. Q54. Inca problem
Phonetically speaking, where is five usually replaced by a capital? A. Indonesia E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet In Indonesia, the word "Lima" for letter L is seldom used since the word "lima" means number five (5) in Indonesian. Instead, "London" is most often used for letter L. Q55. Non-colonial problem
Phonetically speaking, where is "five" usually replaced by a blunder? A. Spain (other than Andalusia) E. "cinco" -> "thinko" C. Maybe "Spain" should be accepted, with a Herdwick or two for excepting Andalusia. -JF Q56. Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.
BEATUS QUARE DOMINE CUM VERBA ... What comes next? A. DOMINE E. They are the first word of the incipit of the first five psalms in Latin: 1. Beatus vir, qui non abiit, &c. 2. Quare fremuerunt gentes? 3. Domine, quid multiplicati? 4. Cum invocarem 5. Verba mea auribus The incipit of the sixth psalm is 6. Domine, ne in furore Q57. Ohioans
Two university teachers in Columbus share a surname that seems quite appropriate, given the opinion of Dave Gorman (and others) about the cityfolk. Sum their phone numbers (excluding area codes). A. 9815693 E. http://medicine.osu.edu/pharmacology/1210.cfm (292-7026); http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/people/mullet/view (688-8667) E. In "Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure" http://www.davegorman.com/googlewhack.htm DG visits Columbus, where everyone seems to have a mullet. This is backed up: http://www.columbuswired.net/Columns/Sirk/MulletHunting_091402.htm Q58. America's Fourth-Largest City?
How would you understand "Brooklyn (LOODAVPSB)"? A. Brooklyn Beckham, largest offspring of David and Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham Q59. The next shape
What's the next shape in this sequence? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/asequence.png (You can describe it well rather than draw it.) A. A solid shape that looks like one-sixth or so of a disk, like a slice of pizza, with the point (center of the disk) downward. E. The shapes are then symbols for, respectively, do, re, me, fa, sol, la, and ti in Jesse Aiken's shape-note system. See http://fasola.org/introduction/note_shapes.html (especially the seven-shape-notations picture there) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note. (The latter shows a picture with the symbol for fa the inverse of what I drew, but that's because it's at the bottom of the stem; at the top, it's as I drew it.) Q60. Bottle-reading contest
I'm thinking of a three-letter word. I notice that on some items in the bathroom it means one thing, and on others it has quite the opposite meaning. What is it? A. for E. e.g. 1. "for soft, thin nails"; "for dull, tired hair" 2. "for gorgeous smelling skin"; "for healthy looking skin" (sic) Q61. Unusual story
What is unusual about this story? He won a spelling bee, and was extremely proud of himself. In salute, he shot his pistol into the air, not realizing the bullet could hit something or somebody. It went extremely high and hit a propeller plane. That caused the plane to wave its wings, which the shooter took as friendly. But when the plane starting coming down, he felt lower than a worm. He saw the plane arch through the air; the pilot was trying to land it safely. He said, "I'd better hide -- go underground -- bar the door -- they're going to come and arrest me." H. abracadabra, alakazam, hocus pocus, hey presto A. Each sentence contains the name of one of the tetrahexes (respectively, bee, pistol, propeller, wave, worm, arch, bar). Q62. Tough pictures
Where in the USA are these? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/pics/pretty.html A. map1, Forest Park in St. Louis, MO; map2, Green Bay, WI; map3, Boulder, CO; map4, Williamsburg and Newport News [accept either], VA; map5, Matagorda Bay and Matagorda Peninsula [accept either], TX; map6, Cincinnati, OH Q63. Off the wall
Using South Park Studio, available at http://www.sp-studio.de/sp-studio.swf , create an image of a world-famous person, fictional character, or member of the panel. To submit your entry, e-mail it as an attachment to [email protected] with "SDC" in the subject line; it will be published on the Web. Sheep available for the best entries, as judged by the panel. A. The winner was Lieblich by Ray Musika. Q64. Unmined
What does this map show? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/world.bmp A. Olympic boycotts E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_boycott_of_the_1980_Summer_Olympics Q65. This one's for Laura
What is the next item on this list? Airlines, Broadcasting, City, data, European, fibered, Generale, hash, Intelligence, Johnson, karabin, ljudska, message, nervous, our, Partei, sonar and underwater sound, River, Service, ____, .... A. Tune. E. The items are the expanded versions of abbreviations 'A', 'B', etc., where the letters appear in acronyms 'SAS', 'SBS', etc; the next item is then the expanded version of 'T' in 'STS'. E. For the curious, 'SQS' is a designation on sonar systems. What the letters stand for is defined by the JETDS, which you can look up online: it turns out the 'Q' stands for 'sonar and underwater sound'. Q66. Only if
There's a common phrase that appears in "if" clauses, but what you would expect to be its declarative and interrogative equivalents don't exist. What is it? H. It also only appears in negative form. A. "If it weren't (or wasn't) for" Q67. Fashion
What became less fashionable a few years later? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/ab-prohibition.jpeg A. The floor had a swastika-mosaic pattern. E. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/ab-solns-prohibition-soln.jpeg Q68. Double mistaken identity
When they arrived at the big house, he correctly assumed that the name he saw was the name of the owner, rather than the name of the house, though it could conceivably have been either. What was the "owner's" real name? A. Phillip Vandamm E. A scene in Hitchcock's "North By Northwest" Q69. Electric "Friends"?
Discussion of a certain phrase in an a.u.e. thread this year touched on which noble family who did much to bring Baghdad into the eighth century? A. the Barmakids (Barmecides) E. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmakids http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.usage.english/browse_frm/thread/df14a12d2d8c2c46/903bcd78d76a042a Q70. By!
Mae is to Eliot as Aald is to what? A. Sand. E. George Eliot's initials were MAE; George Sand's, AALD. (And, of course, both were authoresses.) E. The slug line is reminiscent of "By George!". Q71. The missing.
Put these words in order. Which is the odd one out? blood deal dog doll fire letter money note opposite race show wife A. deal 2/9, note 3/1, dog 3/4, letter 3/21, wife 5/17, fire 5/20, opposite 5/22, race 6/10, doll 7/17, money 8/12, blood 9/4 A. Odd one out: show E. They're Seinfeld episode titles. I've added the series/episode numbers, but they aren't needed for the answer. Q72. Loyal address
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/pics/shh2.tif What language was this epistle penned in? (Bonus: In which year was it sent?) A. Malay (Bonus: 1953) E. Although uncommon these days, Malay was traditionally written in the Arabic script, called Jawi in Malay. (Bonus: This letter is in fact the loyal address of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Malaya on behalf of the Malayan people to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of Her coronation. Although neither the name of the queen nor the date is actually mentioned therein, the context is sufficient to uniquely identify the monarch being crowned.) Q73. Art
Name the title and creator of this famous and influential work of art. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/mysterypic.jpg A. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Julian Lennon. Q74. Sandtrap
Name the golf course. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/golf1.bmp H. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/golf3.bmp A. Mena House Oberoi Hotel, Cairo Q75. Triple Jeopardy
We have a set of five answers for you, Jeopardy!-style. Supply the category; for added sheep, supply appropriate questions. 1476. 3 and 7. Bob Woodward. Converted. Baseboard. A. Relatives. When was the Battle of Grandson? What's the smallest pair of cousin primes? Who wrote _The Brethren_? What is Uncle Ben's rice? What's another name for a motherboard? Q76. I'll say nothing
What's this guy doing? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/ab-310.jpeg H. (3, 10) A. The Charleston. E. http://home.att.net/~bobhope/Conley_Silverman_Photo.html Q77. Smack dab in the middle
What do Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee have that no other state of the Union has? A. United States District Court for the Middle District of (the state). Q78. In star
What very popular book for small children is not written in rhyme, but has its dedications page written in rhyme? H. My copy of the book is full of holes. A. _The Very Hungry Caterpillar_(, by Eric Carle). Q79. Name and time
Where? When? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/connections.gif http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/connexions.gif Q80. Provenance
Which linguistic fruit is apparently commoner in China than in Finland or Turkey? A. eggcorn E. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001390.html "Things are different in languages with other sorts of writing systems. Mandarin eggcorns will be even easier to detect than English ones. Finnish or Turkish eggcorns will almost all be hidden. An eggcorn hunt in Helsinki or Istanbul will be a tough undertaking indeed, while one in Beijing will be a breeze." Q81. Anthropometric
Who? Where? When? http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/whowherewhen.jpg A. Yves Klein, Paris, 1960 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein Q82. Directly to clap 'em
http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/odd.bmp Spot the odd one out. A. Gareth Hunt E. Ava Gardner, Seaforth Highlanders, Eva Peron, Ivor The Enine and Arthur Daley all may be found in the Cockney Alphabet. Gareth Hunt is rhyming slang. Q83. Doubler
Please add another appropriate word to each of these three lists. Speck hat die wart... Bail son chat pour... Hay red sauce tender... No sheep till all three are answered. A. Any word that has different meanings in German and English, French and English, and Spanish and English, respectively, such as "den", "met", and "ton". Q84. Ouliposer
What connects Raymond Queneau with the Oakland Raiders? or: What six-letter verb connects Raymond Queneau with the Oakland Raiders? A. Madden E. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ways-Tell-Story-Matt-Madden/dp/0224079255/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Madden_(football) Q85. Yet another
::::::::? A. . E. Four-dot symbol is to colon as colon is to period: halve each. Q86. Officially more or less
What's so famous, metaphorically, etymologically and US-historically speaking, about one of the least significant of the Quantock Hills? A. Buncombe (Hill) gave its name to a family, one of the descendents of which was the war hero for whom Buncombe County, North Carolina, was named. And the rest, as they say, is history. E. The question and the title allude to Henry Ford's famous remark. Q87. Unrelated
Some time ago, a panelist asked in sci.lang for two words that have similar meanings and appear to be cognates (according to the rules of historical linguistics) but are unrelated. One example requires relaxation of the requirement that they be words but gives us the possibility of a third element. We present this question without malicious trickery in the hope that you will answer it without error. What are the two (or three) "words"? A. mis- from Teutonic (related to "miss") and from French (related to "minus"). The third "word" is "miso-", from Greek, meaning "hate(r)". E. "malicious trickery" is supposed to suggest "mischief"; "error" is supposed to suggest "mistake". Q88. Knotty problem
What links Ballantine's beer and Lake Maggiore? H. http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2007/../sdc2007/pics/behavior.jpg A. Borromean. Q89. Number question
The first time, this plural-seeming noun takes a plural verb, but the second and third times it takes a singular verb. Elsewhere, it occurs attributively, so it's naturally singular in form. What is it? A. Castles E. And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually.... And so castles made of sand melts into the sea, eventually.... And so castles made of sand slips into the sea, eventually.... --Jimi Hendrix, "Castles Made of Sand". The "elsewhere" is "Spanish Castle Magic" Q90. One is missing
What genus is named for its description but sounds like it's named for the Holy Family? A. Chrysanthemum. E. Chris' and the mum. Q91. What (but not who)
If you're not Annie Sullivan, a man who stayed home from work today, Sigmund Freud, Paul Carrack, David Copperfield or Sissy Spacek's father, and you've never been hoist by a petar, what exactly are you? A. a doctor E. Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a: Miracle worker (Annie Sullivan); bricklayer (man who stayed home from work today, as in the joke); Psychiatrist (Sigmund Freud); Mechanic (Paul Carrack); Magician (David Copperfield); coal miner (Sissy Spacek's father); engineer (hoist by a petar)
|
|