business quis

7/31/2019 Business Quis

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Who wrote: "Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire.." ?William Blake (1757-1827, English poet, painter and mystic.)

What famous slogan was originally devised by Patrick O'Keefe for the Society of American Florists? "Say it with Flowers."

What connects the words sitcom, smog, brunch, muppet and cyborg? They are all'portmanteau' words, ie., combinations of two different words. (Sitcom is derivedfrom situation and comedy; smog from smoke and fog; brunch from breakfast andlunch; muppet from marionette and puppet; cyborg from cybernetic and organism.The term portmanteau as description of word combinations was devised by LewisCarroll when it first appeared in Carroll's book 'Through the Looking Glass, andWhat Alice Found There', dated 1872, appeared in 1871. More about portmanteauwords , and how to use them in creativity and development activities .)

What symbolic item did Lauren Bacall put into the urn containing Humphrey Bogart's

ashes? A whistle (the gold whistle was engraved with the words "If you need anything, just whistle" - reference to Bacall's lines spoken to Bogart in their first film togetherTo Have And Have Not, released in 1944. Bacall was Bogart's fourth wife and theyremained married until Bogart's death in 1957.)

Which one of these is on the coast: Cairo, Johannesburg, Tripoli, Sarajevo, Nairobi,Khartoum? Tripoli (Libya)

Which one of these is not on the coast: Venice, San Diego, Reykjavik, Marrakesh,Helsinki, Lisbon? Marrakesh (Morocco)

What upper case (capital) letter of the English alphabet (in plain sans serif font) requiresthat the pen be lifted from the paper twice (providing no lines are re-traced)? H (There areother letters such as A, F, K, N whose capitals can be drawn in three separate strokes,but H is the only sans serif capital which is impossible to draw without lifting the pentwice unless re-tracing a stroke already made. In serif font the letter I - and a fewothers like S and U - would also require two pen-lifts. Interestingly this font, Tahoma,is sans serif, but contains a serif I. The letters S and U in Tahoma are sans serif. InTimes they would be S and U. Note the additional strokes. Thanks M Portwood forhelping me clarify this puzzle.)

A famous leader's first name of Mohandas is commonly replaced by a first name that

means 'great soul'; who was he? Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,1869-1948, Indian statesman and spiritual leader).

Who was the 'The Wizard of Menlo Park' who said, "Genius is one percent inspiration,ninety-nine percent perspiration."? Thomas Edison (1847-1931, US inventor of the lightbulb, gramophone, electric valve, a megaphone, a storage battery, a system of electricity generation and distribution, and first person to produce talking motionpictures).
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Paul McGann, Peter Davidson and William Hartnell have each played the same famous sci-fi role. What's the character's name? 'The Doctor', or 'Doctor'. (Not Dr Who. Dr Who isthe name of the series. The character is called The Doctor).

What is the largest English town or city never (as of 2005/06) to have been represented in

the top English football division (the old First Division and now the Premier League)? HullCity. Supplementary question: What is also unique about this full club name in the entire professional football league system? All other club names when written in upper orlower case contain at least one letter that includes a complete 'loop' (eg' letters like e,a, b, d, g, p, etc), as could be 'filled in, (if you had such a mind to do so). The words'hull city' and 'HULL CITY' contain no holes or complete loops.

There are four (known to us - perhaps there are more) perfectly recognisable andunderstandable words in the English language having one of each vowel in reversealphabetical order (UOIEA), what are the words? Subcontinental, Unoriental,Uncomplimentary and Unnoticeably. (Ack P Fowler for Subcontinental, and R Murphy

for Uncomplimentary and Unnoticeably. If you know any other UOIEA words please sendthem.) See also the AEIOU word puzzle answers .

Why would the following stand no chance of being approved as official names for Britishracehorses? - Salisbury Cathedral, Wonderful Terminator, Sexy Disciplinarian or Sea Bee.The first three names are all longer than 18 letters including spaces. 18 lettersincluding spaces is the maximum allowed by the Jockey Club, so as to fit onto raceprograms. Sea Bee would not be allowed because words that sound like letters are notpermitted either.

How much time elapses between any Sunday 29 February and (going forward in time) the

next respective Tuesday 29 February? (This is not a trick question and is reasonablystraight-forward to work out if you have that sort of brain...) 24 years. Given that afterevery normal year the days of the week advance by one day, and after leap-years bytwo days, then leap-year days advance by five days each time (every four years).Tuesday is 5 days back from Sunday and therefore one leap year short of a full 28years cycle (28 years because there are seven different days in the cycle, and seven xfour years = 28 years). Anyone not knowing that after every normal year the daysadvance by one day needs only to calculate that 365 days 7 (days per week) =52.142857. The 0.142857 equals one-seventh of a week, ie., a day, which is effectivelyused from the next year's day cycle, which means that each new year starts one-dayforward compared to the previous year (other than after leap-years, when effectivelytwo days are used from the next year's day cycle). A supplementary question is: whatyear was the last Sunday 29 February? (Again this is straight-forward to work out if youknow the current day and date, and have the right sort of brain....) Answer: 1976. The 28February in the 2004 leap-year was a Saturday, which is not so difficult to work out(two days back from Monday 28 Feb 2005, or three days back from Tuesday 28 Feb2006, (depending on what calendar you are looking at). Therefore 29 February in the2004 leap-year was a Sunday. The last time there was a Sunday 29 February was 28
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years before that, ie, 1976, and the next Sunday 29 February will be 28 years after2004, ie, 2032.

how to put your entire body through a business card

This is a very impressive trick; especially because the solution is for real; it's not a trick.

Ideally use a craft knife and a cutting mat or board and a suitable ruler or straight edge. Asimpler quicker variation of the trick is possible with scissors and a larger piece of paper,such as a compliment slip, instead of a business card.

Here are the instructions.

Fold the business card in half, andcut it through both sides of the card,as shown in the diagram, in thefollowing sequence:

Cut 10-12 slits, from the folded edgeup to about 3mm of the open edge,each slit about 5mm apart.

Cut a slit between each of the aboveslits, from the open edge up to about3mm of the folded edge.

Open the card and cut the foldededge, but not the ends marked with

blue circles.

You should then be able, gently, toopen the card into a ring, whichunless you are a very large person,you should be able to put your entire

body through.

Here's one Imade earlier.

This is anormal

business card,measuring85mm x55mm.


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This exampleopens into aring with acircumferance

of 166 cms,almost 5'6",enough for two people, ata squeeze.

You needquite goodcutting skillsfor this trick,and quite a

slender intimatefriend if youwant to gettwo bodiesthrought it atthe same time.The pen isfor scale.

You can use

a bigger sheet of paper to practice andsee how it'sdone.

The trick isequallyimpressiveusingscissors anda sheet of

paper,around A5size. Acomplimentslip also


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works well.

The trick also

provides anamusing basis for variousteam games.

(Thanks toHowardHughes)

the paintings puzzle

An art gallery features a modern work of 'moving art'. The artist stands by a stack of paintings, each featuring a different number. One of the paintings is displayed on the wall.At certain times the artist removes the painting from the wall and replaces it with a paintingfrom the stack. At 11am, the artist hangs a painting of the number 30. At 4pm he hangs a

painting of number 240. At 7.30pm he hangs a painting of number 315. What painting doesthe artist hang at 9.20pm?

The answer is 200. The explanation is that the painting number equates to thenumber of degrees between a clock's hour-hand and minute-hand (measured in aclockwise direction). The first three examples are easy if you sketch the clock handson a clock face and plot the hours around the clock face (bear in mind there are 360degrees around a circle; the 12 on the clock-face equates to 360 (or zero) degrees, andeach hour equates to 30 degrees, being one-twelfth of 360). The puzzle question(9.20pm) is more difficult to calculate than the first three time examples. Here are mytwo attempts to explain it:

method 1- Each hour on the clock face equates to 30 degrees (12 x 30 = 360). From 9to 4 on the clockface moving clockwise is 210 degrees (7 hours x 30 degrees = 210degrees). But the hour hand is not on the 9, it's one-third of the way to 10 (the timebeing 9.20, not 9.00). This one-third (being 20 minutes of a 60 minute hour) equates to10 degrees (10 is a third of 30 degrees). Therefore the angle in degrees between thehour hand and the minute hand at 9.20 is 200 degrees (210 - 10).

method 2 - At 9:20 the minute hand is at the number 4 which is 120 degrees from zero(4 is a third of 12, hence a third of 360 degrees is 120 degrees). The hour hand is at aposition equating to 560/720 minutes (there being 720 minutes in 12 hours, and 9hrs20mins being 560 minutes). 560/720 equates to 280/360 (360 is half of 720, and half of 560 is 280), so the hour hand is at 280 degrees from zero (remember zero is 12 on theclock face). Measured in a clockwise direction, the number of degrees (or angle)


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between the hour hand and the minute hand is 80 degrees around to to the 12 (at zerodegrees), plus 120 degrees from the 12 to the 4 (which we previously established).Then simply add: 80 + 120 = 200 .

(If you know the origins of this puzzle please contact us )

the spotlight puzzle

A conference room contains three separate wall-mounted spotlights - right, left and front of stage. Each is controlled by its own on-off switch. These three switches are numbered 1, 2and 3, but they are in a back-room which has no sight of the the spotlights or theconference room (and there are no reflections or shadows or mirrors, and you are alone).How do you identify each switch correctly - right, left, front - if you can only enter the

back-room once?

Switch on number 1 and leave it on for 30 seconds, then switch it off. Switch onnumber 2 and leave it on. Enter the conference room. The spotlight that is on isobviously number 2. The spotlight that is warm is switch 1, and the other spotlight isnumber 3. (Adapted from a suggestion by D Thomasson)

What famous UK business institution has the postal code CF14 3UZ? Companies House(Crown Way, Cardiff, South Wales), a division of the UK Department of Trade andIndustry, responsible for keeping company records and accounts of firms registeredin England and Wales.

Months of the year that begin on a Sunday (other than February in non-leap-years) alwayshave five Sundays. What other notable feature do they (including all Februarys) contain?Friday the 13th.

What connects these words?... Dram, Colon, Won, Dong, Kip. They are currencies (as atMay 2005), specifically: Dram (Armenia), Colon (Costa Rica, El Salvadore), Won(North Korea, South Korea), Dong (Vietnam), Kip (Lao People's DemocraticRepublic, formerly Laos).

Hedy Lamarr achieved what notable cinematic 'first' in 1933? (If you can state any of her other interesting claims to fame, then award yourself a bonus point for each...) HedyLamarr was the first woman to appear completely nude on the big screen in a majorproduction in the 1933 Czech film 'Extase' ('Ecstasy'). Born Hedwig Eva MariaKiesler in Vienna on 9 November 1913, Hedy Lamarr's other claims to fame werefascinating: her first husband was a wealthy Austrian armaments magnate FritzMandl. They lived in Salzburg Castle where they hosted parties for Hitler andMussolini. The castle was later used as a principle location in the film The Sound Of Music. After escaping to London in 1937, and then moving to the US, with her secondhusband George Antheil, Lamarr designed and patented missile guidance anti-
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jamming technology in 1942, which the US military used for development work afterLamarr's patent expired, prompting Lamarr to sue (unsuccessfully) the USgovernment. Lamarr's radio-frequency-based concepts contributed to thedevelopment of various modern-day communications technology, and Lamarr wasfinally recognised for her invention by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in

March 1997. She died in January 2000.

With what papers do you associate Sam Weller? Sam Weller is a character in the book The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens.

What do these Shakespeare plays have in common?... Julius Caesar, Richard III, Hamlet,Macbeth. Each features a ghost.

Where was Britain's first escalator installed? Harrods department store, KnightsbridgeLondon, around 1900.

'Dieu Et Mon Droit' appears on which daily header? The Times Newspaper (of England).'Dieu Et Mon Droit' is now commonly and wrongly translated as 'God and my right',but the original meaning was based on medieval French: 'God and my duty', which inaddition to The Times' more recent usage, was much longer ago adopted by pastmonarchs, and various other families and institutions, appearing on crests, coinageand other symbols of grand authority.

What do these items have in common?... Arrow, Ladder, Spanner, Hockey-Stick, T-Square,Crutch. They all feature as objects to be picked up in the table game 'Jack Straws'.

The drummer with little known 1960's high school rock group the Iguanas became which

music and style icon? Iggy Pop. The nickname Iggy came from his days with theIguanas.

Christopher Leyland's discovery on his brother-in-law's estate near Powys, Wales in 1888,was what? The Leylandii conifer, source of so many disputes between next-door-neighbours. Interestingly and probably very fortunately, this plant is a hybrid (of themacrocarpa and the nootka cypress) and so does not not reproduce naturally - it canonly be grown from a cutting; which also means that all Leylandii are in fact directlydescended from Leyland's original six seedlings.

Scientist Dr Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, had what well known unit

of measurement was named after him? The bel, from which: the decibel (a decibel is onetenth of a bel). The bel or decibel is actually a measurement of relationship betweentwo values of power - it is not a constant unit like a metre or a pound or a volt. Whenwe see noise levels shown in decibels, the noise (power) is normally shown relative to anominal zero (0dB) which is based on the quietest sound perceivable by the humanear - the threshold of hearing. A bel is a power ratio (relationship measurement) of ten times. The decibel is more widely used simply because it enables measurements insmaller increments. In decibels, here are some values of different noises: normal


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breathing 10dB, toilet flushing 80dB, chain saw or rock concert 120dB, shotgun170dB. Amazingly a baby crying is 110dB.

What is the connection between Ben Corson and Roger Stoughton and riot control? Theywere two chemists who in 1927 invented CS gas, which takes its name from the initials

of their surnames.

What was Pall Mall before it was a famous London street and brand of cigarettes? PallMall was game similar to croquet, featuring an iron ball, a mallet, and a ring or hoop,which was positioned at the end of an alley as a target. Pall Mall and The Mall inLondon both owe their names to the game, whose name was adopted into Englishfrom the French Paillemaille, in turn from the original Italian Pallamaglio, derivedfrom the root Italian words palla, meaning ball, and maglio, meaning mallet. Thegame was a favourite of Charles II (1630-1685) and was played in an alley whichstood on St James's Park on the site the present Mall, which now connects TrafalgarSquare with Buckingham Palace. Pall Mall incidentally runs parallel to The Mall, and

connects St James's Street to Trafalgar Square. Brewer's dictionary of 1870 (revised1894) lists Pall Mall as 'A game in which a palle or iron ball is struck through an ironring with a mall or mallet' which indicates that the game and the name were still inuse at the end of the 19th century. According to Chambers, the word mall was firstused to describe a promenade (from which we get today's shopping mall term) in1737, derived from from The Mall (the London street name), which seems to havebeen named in 1674, happily coinciding with the later years of Charles II's reign.

The bacillus-based invention of French bacteriologists Albert Calmette and CamilleGurin, and the reason for their invention gave rise to two well-known abbreviations, whatare they? BCG and TB (the BCG vaccine, named after Bacillus-Calmette-Gurin, and

the disease it was invented to counter - TB, or Tuberculosis.A maritime poser: Homo-Sapien Rent = ? Man overboard.

What do these words have in common, and what does each word mean in that commoncontext? They are collective nouns for living creatures:

string of ponies ostentation of peacocks smack of jellyfish pitying of doves

crash of rhinosceroses unkindness of ravens murmuration of starlings drove of cattle pod of seals murder of crows knot of toads colony of ants


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grist of flies brood of hens shrewdness of apes school of fish siege of herons

What 15-letter word contains the letter 'E' five times and no other vowels?Defencelessness.

To circus people, what is a 'First of May Joey'? A new clown that has just joined a circus- the expression was used by circus folk: 'Joey' after Joseph Grimaldi, 'The Father Of Clowns', 1779-1837, the famous pantomime clown who never actually appeared in acircus ring, but who provided the blueprint for circus clowns by his costume, make-up and performances in English pantomimes in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.And 'May', because the 1st of May was traditionally the start of the circus season.

What is deoxyribonucleic acid? DNA.

What is the only US state which borders with just one other US state? Maine.

JCB is the name of the famous earth-moving machines; what does JCB stand for? JosephCyril Bamford, the company's founder (1916-2001).

What word ends with an S in its plural masculine form, but changes to singular femininewhen another S is added to the end? There are now two examples of this known to me.Princes/Princess (Ack D Robinson) and Ogres/Ogress (ack M Trollope).

Many flags of European countries have three stripes, vertical or horizontal - how many of the following do you know?

(vertical stripes left to right - technically first colour is the one at the 'hoist', i.e., nearest theflagpole)

black/yellow/red - Belgium blue/white/red - Francegreen/white/red - Italygreen/white/orange - Ireland

(horizontal stripes top to bottom)

red/white/green - Hungary black/red/yellow - Germanywhite/green/red - Bulgariared/yellow/red - Spainyellow/green/red - Lithuania

blue/black/white - Estonia red/white/blue - Luxembourg, Netherlands (Holland)


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(Thanks for corrections Anna and Ned.)

What is the capacity of a 'barrel' as commonly referenced for crude oil production? Also,what does OPEC stand for, and what are the eleven member countries (as at October

2004)? The capacity of a 'barrel' of crude oil is 35 UK gallons or 42 US gallons, or 159litres. The OPEC abbreviation stands for the Organisation of Petroleum ExpoirtingCountries. Current members (as at October 2004) are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates andVenezuela. OPEC was officially formed on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq, bythe five founder member countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela,and the OPEC organisation was registered with the United Nations Secretariat on 6November 1962 (United Nations resolution number 6363). (Thanks for US/UK gallonscorrection JDQ)

Whose dogs? -

Albie - The Beverly Hillbillies (Albie was Ellie Mae's mongrel. Duke was Jed'sbloodhound. The Drysdale's had a poodle called Claude)

Argos - Odysseus Bagel - Barry Manilow Bimbo - Betty Boop Blondi - Adolph Hitler Boatswain - Lord Byron Checkers, Vicky and King Timahoe - Richard Nixon Gnasher - Dennis the Menace Gromit - Wallace

Kasbec - Pablo Picasso Krypto - Superman Mafia - Marylin Monroe Muttley - Dick Dastardly (in Wacky Races) Nana - the Darling Family (in Peter Pan) Nipper - RCA (the dog with the gramophone in the 'His Master's Voice'

corporate image) Peritas - Alexander the Great Precious Pup - Granny Sweet (in The Atom Ant Show) Rambler - Grizzly Adams Snert - Hagar The Horrible Snoopy - Charlie Brown Snowy - Tintin Susan, Emma, Linnet, Holly and Willow - Queen Elizabeth II Turk - Swiss Family Robinson

What are these cities? There is more than one answer for some (I've attempted to reflect themost common globally recognised associations; if you have local interpretations that you


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feel are more appropriate then that's fine - no need to let me know unless you feelespecially strongly):-

City of Dreaming Spires - Oxford, UK. City of Magnificent Distances - Washington DC, USA.

City of the Angels - Los Angeles, USA. City of Churches - Adelaide, Australia. City of Love - Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Calcutta, India. City of Peace and Justice - The Hague, The Netherlands. City of the Tribes/the Eternal City/City of Love - Rome, Italy. City of the Violated Treaty/Stab City - Limerick, Ireland. City of the Violet Crown - Athens, Greece. Crescent City - New Orleans, USA. Empire City - New York, USA. Fair City - Dublin, Ireland. (Also Perth, Scotland) Forbidden City - Beijing and Lhasa, China.

Granite City - Aberdeen, Scotland. The Harbour City/Emerald City - Sydney, Australia; (Wichita, USA is alsoknown as Emerald City).

Monumental City/Charm City - Baltimore, USA. Mormon City - Salt Lake City, USA. Orchid City - Shah Alam, Malaysia. Quaker City - Philadelphia, USA. Soul City - Harlem, New York, USA. The Stampede City - Calgary, Canada. Windy City - Chicago, USA. Motor City - Detroit, USA.

Music City - Nashville, USA. The River City - Brisbane, Australia; Edmonton, Canada; Wanganui, NZ. The Steel City - Sheffield, England. The White City of the North - Helsinki, Finland.

Where would you find stags and kites (along with a couple of other creatures that wouldsurely give the game away)? The London Stock Exchange - a stag is a speculator whobuys initial allotments of shares in the hope of selling them immediately for apremium upon listing while risking a loss if they fail to meet initial allotment price; akite is a cheque, or originally a dud cheque drawn on a fraudulently established bank balance; and the other two creatures more commonly associated with financialmarkets are bulls and bears .

What was 'Sphairistike'? (The word is Greek, loosely meaning 'ball-game', and an earlier version was known by the French as 'Jeu de Paume'). 'Sphairistike' was the name of theportable outdoor game, and particularly the set of equipment, devised by MajorWalter Clopton Wingfield and patented in 1874, now known as Lawn Tennis. Hisbrand name never caught on, soon being shortened to 'Sticky' (from thepronunciation sfer-is-ti-kee) before the name quickly reverted to its historical roots.
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The word tennis had been used to describe other versions of the game since about1500, and even earlier as 'tenyes' (1300's) possibly from the French 'tenez', from tenir,to hold or receive (the serve). Interestingly, the language and history writer BillBryson maintains that Arthur Balfour, prior to becoming British Prime Minister,suggested the name Lawn Tennis. Arguably it was the 'portability' of the Sphairistike

equipment set that was responsible for the game's speedy introduction (by MaryOuterbridge) to the USA, also in 1874. She obtained a 'Sphairistike' set while onholiday in Bermuda and took it back to her Staten Island home. Meanwhile, theWimbledon Club adopted Lawn Tennis after hosting a tennis event ostensibly to raisemoney for a pony-drawn roller for its croquet lawns in 1877.

What icon of 20th century design was the Chapman Root Glass Company of Indianaresponsible for introducing in 1915? The Coca-Cola bottle; also known variously as the'hobble skirt', the 'Mae West', the 'Thanksgiving' and the 'Christmas' bottle. By the1990's it had become almost certainly the most recognizable corporate identitysymbol on Earth, known to 90% of the world's population. The bottle itself was

trademarked by Coca-Cola in 1960.

Who were the famous riders of these horses? - Bucephalos - Alexander the Great; Black Bess - Dick Turpin; Arion - Hurcules; Copenhagen - The Duke of Wellington;Marengo - Napoleon Bonaparte; Babieca - El Cid; Dapple (an ass) - Sancho Panza(friend of Don Quixote); Incitatus - Caligula; Pegasus - Perseus, Bellerophon, Apollo;Trigger - Roy Rogers; White Surrey - Richard III; Midnight - Clint Eastwood asRowdy Yates (in Rawhide).

What twelve animals feature in Chinese astrology? horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog,boar, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake.

These seemingly unpronouncable sounds actually appear in common English words; whatare the three words? - sthm, tchphr, tchst. asthma, catchphrase, matchstick. The lesscommon alternative word with the 'sthm' letter set is isthmus, which is narrowconnecting-piece between two larger pieces, normally land (as in the geographicalterm), but the word also can apply in an anatomical or botanical context. (Ack JP)

These very old iconic symbols were responsible for what modern system? - the moon, thesun, the planet Saturn, and the Anglo-Saxon gods: Thor, Tiw, Woden, and his wife Frig.The days of the week.

Cryptic anagram puzzles answers (the clues are in the questions): dirty room =dormitory; here come dots = the morse code; lost cash in, me = slot machines; alas, nomore z's = snooze alarms; I'm a dot in place = decimal point; eleven plus two = twelveplus one.

A father took his son to hospital for emergency treatment after an accident. The doctor greeted them, but on seeing the boy, exclaimed, "I can't operate on him - he's my son!"


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How can this be? (The son was not adopted, nor a step-son.) The doctor was the boy'smother.

The 'Frying Pan' was a 1931 prototype and early production nickname for what item of electro-magnetic equipment? The electric guitar. The prototype's body was made of

maple wood; production models were of cast aluminium.

Hartnell and Troughton did it on TV. Who did it in a movie film in the same decade? PeterCushing (played the Doctor in the 1965 film 'Dr Who and the Daleks', and in 1966'Daleks - invasion of Earth 2150AD'. William Hartnell was the Doctor in the TVseries Dr Who from 1963-66, and Patrick Troughton took the role from 1966-69. JonPertwee was the Doctor from 1970-74; Tom Baker 1974-81; Peter Davidson 1981-84;Colin Baker 1984-86; Sylvester McCoy 1987-89 and in the 1996 TV movie; PaulMcGann also played the Doctor in the 1996 Dr Who TV movie; ChristopherEcclestone 2005; David Tennant 2005. Thanks M Portwood for you help with this.Thanks also P Threadgall for an additional typo correction.)

What do these British people have in common? J S Lowry, David Bowie, French andSaunders, Nigella Lawson, Vanessa Redgrave, Albert Finney, Jon Snow, John le Carre,Aldous Huxley, Roald Dahl, Evelyn Waugh and George Melly. They have all refused toaccept honours (such as OBE, MBE, Knighthood, etc) offered by the state. Otherswho have turned down awards include poet Benjamin Zaphania, novelist J G Ballard,playwrights Michael Frayn and J B Priestley, artist David Hockney, actors JimBroadbent, Honor Blackman, Alistair Sim, and Trevor Howard. (It is not normal forrefused nominations to be announced, and the people concerned certainly didn'tpublicise their refusals - the information was contained in honours committee notes,leaked to the British press in December 2003.)

Lincoln's stunning 1955 Futura convertible concept car appeared in motor shows to wideacclaim until 1959, when it achieved even greater notoriety, featuring the 1959 film 'ItStarted With A Kiss' starring Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds. The car later became evenmore famous for what reason? It became the Batmobile. The Futura had been acquiredby Hollywood car builder George Barris from the studio after its apprearance in 'ItStarted With A Kiss', and Barris decided to use it as the donor vehicle for the famousBatmobile when he was given the project in 1965 for the Batman TV series launchedin 1966. Barris was too busy to build the car himself (he was given just three weeks todo it), so he specified the adaptations and the work was carried out by Barris'scompetitor Bill Cushenberry. Incredibly, Barris retained the rights to the car andleased it to the Batman studios on a week to week basis.

What is remarkable about this phrase? - Anger? 'Tis safe never. Bar it. Use Love. Whenreversed, supposedly, it translates into Latin with the same meaning: Evoles ut irabreve nefas sit; regna. (Ack Richard Lederer)


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Name a common word with five consecutive vowels. Queueing. Less common ismiaoued (pertaining to a cat's cry, found in some dictionaries). Words with fourconsecutive vowels include sequoia (giant redwood tree) and aqueous.

What morbid coincidence occured at 12 Curzon Place, Mayfair, London? Singer 'Mama'

Cass Elliot died there in 1974, age 33; she suffered a heart attack caused by obesity(not from choking on a ham sandwich as reported at the time and now a popularurban myth - thanks A Taubman). Keith Moon, drummer of 'The Who' rock band,also died there in 1978 from a drugs overdose, age 32 - in the same upstairs room, flatnumber 9, 12 Curzon Place. An interesting footnote was sent to me by Dale Newton:"... regarding 12 Curzon Place, and the deaths of Mamma Cass and Keith Moon -what is not widely known about that address is that it belonged to the singer HarryNilsson. Cass and Keith were both house guests of his. I know because I was a goodfriend of his and actually brought the place for him from keyboard player GaryWright ..." (with thanks to Dale Newton, 14 Oct 2004)

Catholic bishops are allowed seven of them, priests five, and ordinary people one; what arethey? Crosses on a tomb.

Why do we say 'Bless you' to someone who has sneezed? While there are variationsaround the theme, the main origin is that sneezing was believed in medieval times tobe associated with vulnerability to evil, notably that sneezing expelled a person's soul,thus enabling an evil spirit - or specifically the devil - to steal the soul or to enter thebody and take possession of it. Another contributory factor was the association of sneezing with the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) which ravaged England andparticularly London in the 14th and 17th centuries.

Whose secret ingredient is code-named 7X? Coca-cola.Why did so many sailors have a crucifix tattooed on their backs in the 1700's? In the hopethat the ship's captain would be merciful in the event of having to administerpunishment by whipping.

What unique feature do the words PRECEPTOR and DILLYDALLY have in common? Byconverting letters into numbers, on the basis that A=1, B=2, etc., these two wordsproduce the same numerical answer when the values of the letters are multipliedtogether: 1,866,240,000. This is the highest number found on this basis between anypair of two relatively normal words in the English language, and incidentally these

words have not one letter the same.What's the longest word in the English language with only one vowel (which appears onceonly in the word)? Strengths. (I had until recently believed that latchstrings is thelongest word with two vowels and also the word with the most consecutive consonants,however (ack A Anderson 5 Jan 2007) I'm informed that, clearly, the worddisrhythmic beats this on both counts.)


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What do the words ALMOST and BIOPSY have in common? Their letters are inalphabetical order.

What's the only word in the English language having four consecutive double letters?Subbookkeeper. (bookkeeper, bookkeeping and tattooee are the only words having

three consecutive double letters.)

Draw a capital T over a capital C so that the down-stroke of the T ends in the centre of theC. What historial event does this represent? The Boston Tea Party, of 16 December 1773,when a group of US colonial political activists disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped342 chests of Darjeeling tea, then worth about 10,000, into Boston harbour in protestagainst the British tax policies, introduced by the British government to save theailing British East India Tea Company, who were thus enabled to export m of teato the American colonies free of duty, undercutting Amercian traders. Incidentally,the tea was shipped by an exporter in London, still in existence, which today sells a teacalled "Boston Harbour." This type of puzzle is called a rebus.

What five odd figures when added together make fourteen? 11, 1, 1, 1. (Five figure ones.)

The time displayed usually on watches and clocks in adverts is what?, and why? Tenminutes past ten, because it looks like a smiling face.

What are the only four commonly used words in the English language ending in 'dous'?(There is a fourth not-so-common word, and a fifth very uncommon one, which also hasone of each vowel in the correct order) Tremendous, horrendous, stupendous andhazardous. The not-so-common word is jeopardous. The uncommon word with all thevowels in the correct order is Annelidous (pertaining to annelid, which is a segmented

worm).

What is the only word in the English language that ends in 'mt'? Dreamt.

What are the longest one-syllable words in the English language? Longest single-syllablewords questions often appear in quizzes and trivia pages. The most commonlyreferenced single-syllable, ten-letter word, that appears in dictionaries and is actuallyused in speech sometimes, is scraunched (ack C Bullard) referring to a crunchingnoise having been made, such as walking on gravel. Other ten letter single-syllablewords which can be found in dictionaries but are much less used (in fact virtuallynever), are for example: schmaltzed (imparted sentimentality), scroonched

(squeezed), schrootched (crouched), and strengthed (old variant of strengthened).There are others because language is continually expanding and dictionaries with it.There are several commonly used single-syllable words with nine letters, strangelymost beginning with the letter 'S', notably: screeched, strengths, straights, scratched,stretched, scrounged, scrunched, and the less commonly-known: scraughed,scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed and thrutched. As at2009 Wikipedia contained these somewhat dubious suggestions, which for one reasonor another probably fail to qualify: schtroumpfed, twelve letters (a non-dictionary


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word, based apparently on a reference to the French word for a Smurf and how aSmurf's behaviour might be described); squirrelled, eleven letters (which appears in adictionary but only in very lazy pronunciation has less than two syllables), andbroughammed (a contrived non-dictionary double-m spelling for a similarly contrivednon-dictionary word, made up in its single-m version, apparently by George Bernard

Shaw, referring to being transported by a Brougham, which is a horse drawn carriagenamed after its inventor Lord Brougham, although neither broughammed orbroughamed appear in a dictionary, and anyway the OED gives a pronunciation forBrougham equating to 'broo-em' which is two sylllables even before the contrivance isadded). (Thanks also PT)

Words that sound exactly the same and have opposite meanings. (They are spelt differently but phonetically - they sound - the same): There are several examples:

Raise (build up) and Raze (destroy to the ground). Wave (dismiss) and waive (allow).

Sent and Scent (as in 'dispatch to' and 'receive from' - not quite so clear-cut asthe first two pairings, and not the same tense, but opposites nevertheless -thanks Rachel Sharkey).

Pair and Pare (to increase by doubling-up, and to reduce by cutting ortrimming away - thanks Kari Caron).

Words which without changing the spelling or sound have two opposite meanings - Thereare a surprising number examples of words spelled the same which have two oppositemeanings. These words are called autoantonyms, or contranyms or antagonyms, (lesscorrectly contronyms and antaganyms). English language expert and writer MichaelSheehan in his wonderful book Words to the Wise credits Richard Lederer (language and

word-play expert and writer) and Charles Ellis (university professor, dermatologist andantagonyms expert) respectively for coining the terms contranym and antagonym. Here aresome very common autoantonym (or contranym or antagonym) words:

Cap (limit or stop) and Cap (add to or increase) Outstanding (satisfactory - standard exceeded) and Outstanding

(unsatisfactory - standard not met). (Thanks J Molloy) Oversight (check, monitor) and Oversight (neglect, forget) Weather (endure - stand test of time or resist storm or pressure) and Weather

(erode - wear down or denude). (Thanks L Bell - thanks also for pointing metowards the antagonym term)

Clip (join two or more things together as with a paper-clip) and Clip (dividesomething into two or more pieces, as in clip an article from the paper or clipsomeone's hair).

Dust (remove a layer of powdery substance) and Dust (apply a layer of powdery substance, as in dusting crops or dusting for finger-prints).

Trim (add to or embellish, as in trim the Christmas tree) and Trim (cut awaysomething, as in trim someone's hear or a hedge).


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Cleave (split apart or break) and Cleave (stick or adhere). (See the explanationunder cliches origins for more detail.)

Ravish (to violently abuse) and Ravish (to delight) Fast (quick) and Fast (stuck tight) Sanction (a permission) and Sanction (a preventative penalty)

Sanguine (cheerful) and Sanguine (bloodthirsty) Bolt (secure in place) and Bolt (run away). Garnish (add to - embellish or decorate) Garnish (remove from - as in legally

serving notice to seize money or assets). (Acknowledgements to P Merison, GComstock, C Klahn, and Bill Bryson's book Mother Tongue.)

Bound (fixed) and Bound (moving, as in travelling). Left (gone) and Left (remaining). Mad (angry about) and Mad (attracted to). Livid (angry) and Livid (pallid - lacking colour and spirit). (Thanks L Prinos) Wind-up (start something, like a clock or an argument) and Wind-up (finish

something, like proceedings or a talk). (Arguably not a single word and so

technically not a proper contranym) Blow up (inflate - create - a balloon) and Blow up (destroy with explosives)(Definitely not a single word and so technically not a proper contranym, but aninteresting one nevertheless.)

My acknowledgements to the work of Michael Sheehan, Richard Lederer, Charles Ellis,Bill Bryson and the various contributors to this growing section. An extensive and morespecialised list of contranyms is maintained on Charles Ellis's excellent antagonymswebpage . I welcome any new suggestions that are new to both collections.

What trades or occupations are associated with these surnames? (easy ones first) Turner

(lathe operator), Joiner (carpenter), Glazier (Glass fitter), Draper (cloth seller),Cartwright (cart maker), Bowyer (archery bow maker or seller), Fletcher (maker of arrows), Wainwright (cart maker - a wain is a cart), Tanner (converter of hides andskins into leather), Wakeman/Waite (watchman - wake and waite referred to a'watch' in that sense), Scrivener (writer of legal documents), Sexton (churchmaintenance worker), Cooper (barrel maker), Horner (maker of animal-horn items,such as spoons and combs), Chandler (candle seller or grocer), Mercer (textiledealer), Hayward (protector of land or woodland), Franklin (substantial landowner),Fuller/Tucker/Walker (dresser of cloth - to 'full' cloth was to trample or beat it forcleaning and thickening), Hine (servant), Bicker (beekeeper). (Thanks K Lord forFuller addition)

The sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 incorporates another sequence: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1,1, 2. Why? Normally this is the number of times the pen is placed on the paper to formeach number.

What connects Wedgwood pottery and The Origin Of Species? Josiah Wedgwood(Wedgwood pottery founder) was grandfather to Charles Darwin (author of TheOrigin Of Species).
http://www.businessballs.com/clichesorigins.htmhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.htmlhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.htmlhttp://www.businessballs.com/contactus.htmhttp://www.businessballs.com/contactus.htmhttp://www.businessballs.com/clichesorigins.htmhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.htmlhttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.htmlhttp://www.businessballs.com/contactus.htm


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What do these letters mean? ABZ, BGO, HAJ, MEL, ORD, SPK. They are all airportcodes, respectively for Aberdeen (Scotland), Bergen (Norway), Hanover (Germany),Melbourne (Australia), O'Hare (Chicago USA) and Sapporo (Japan). (Thanks ADSfor Melbourne correction)

How did the TVR sports car firm get its name? It's an abbreviation of the founder's firstname, Trevor (Wilkinson).

What is 'trichlorophenylmethyliodisalicyl' more commonly known as? TCP antiseptic.

Name the Wacky Races cars and drivers: Car 1 - Boulder Mobile, driven by Rock andGravel Slag. Car 2 - Creepy Coup, Big and Little Gruesome. Car 3 - Ring-a-ding-convert-a-car, Professor Pat Pending. Car 4 - Crimson Haybailer, Red Max. Car 5 -Compact Pussycat, Penelope Pitstop. Car 6 - Army Surplus Special, General Sergeantand Private Pinkley. Car 7 - Bulletproof Bomb, Clyde and the Anthill Mob. Car 8 -Arkansas, Luke and Blubber Bear. Car 9 - Turbo Terrific, All-American Peter

Perfect. Car 10 - Buzz Wagon, Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth. Car 00 - Mean Machine,Dick Dastardly and Muttley.

What order is denoted by the following prefixes? First, Middle, Morning, Forenoon,Afternoon, First Dog, Last Dog. Watches at sea.

Complete the sequence (three more needed): S, H, S, M, C, D, P, R, O, ... T, R, D. Snake,Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pig, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon - theChinese years (Dragon was 2000 - the cycle repeats every 12 years).

In 1860 Frederick Walton named his new product after the latin words for its two main

constituents, flax and oil. What was it? Linoleum (Lino floor covering) - from latin'linum' (flax) and 'oleum' (oil).

Why was Dr Who's 'Tardis' so called? It's an acronym - Time And Relative DimensionsIn Space.

Shepherd and Turpin invented something that derived its name from theirs, and the nameof the factory where it was first produced in 1941. What was it? The Sten gun, namedafter the combined first letters of the names of the designers, R. V. Shepherd and H.J. Turpin, and the Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory.

BUNCH was an acronym at one time representing the big names in the computer industry,can you name them? Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data and Honeywell.

What was the origin of the 3M company name? It was originally the Minnesota Miningand Manufacturing Co.

Who was Lady Creighton-Ward? Lady Penelope from TV's 'Thunderbirds'.


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What's special about these four men? Reinhard Goerdeler, Piet Kynveld, James Marwick,William Barclay Peat. They were the founders of the KPMG accountants firm.

What did Mikoyan and Gurevich design? The Russian MiG jet fighter aircraft.

What's the difference between a rhombus and a rhomboid? (They are both four sidedparallelograms, ie having parallel sides especially with oblique angles) - a rhombushas equilateral sides (all four sides of the same length); a rhomboid has unequaladjacent sides.

The first Englishman to be killed in a plane crash had another claim to fame, what was it?He was Charles Stewart Rolls, who with Henry Royce founded the Rolls Royce motorcar company in 1906. (Rolls also made the first non-stop return flight across theEnglish Channel in 1910 shortly before his fatal plane crash in July of that year. HisFrench-built Wright biplane broke up mid-air, and while he only came down from 20feet, he cracked his skull and was killed, becoming Britain`s first aircraft fatality.)

What's special about the words 'reverberated' and 'stewardesses' in relation to typing? Theyare the longest words that can be typed with the left hand (left side of the keyboard)on a UK qwerty keyboard. (I am grateful to David Montgomery for pointing out thatLollipop is not the only 9 letter word that can be typed with the right hand, assumingthe right hand types the letter Y, which mostly is the case. Other 9 letter right-handwords include Monopoly, Polyonomy and Polyphony, and no doubt there are others.If anyone can suggest a reasonably useable ten letter word which can be typed withthe right hand please let me know.)

Name a fifteen letter word containing fifteen different letters. Uncopyrightable, or more

unusually (thanks R Andaya), Dermatoglyphics (the study of skin ridges on fingersand hands, ie., fingerprints and handprints; the word is from the Greek words'derma' meaning skin and 'glyph' meaning carving).

Complete the sequence (five more required): deca, hecto, kilo,.... They are the metricprefixes: deca, hecto, kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa, respectively ten to the power of 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18. The minus scale is deci, centi, milli, micro, nano, pico,femto, atto.

What do these pairings have in common and what is the odd pair in the sequence? - AA,AI, IO, OU, OX, BO, KI. They're all two letter words: AA is the odd one because it's

not a living thing (it's a rough light basaltic volcanic lava, pronounced ah-ah, from theoriginal Hawaiian word 'a-'a.) An ai is a sloth, an io is a moth, an ou is a bird, an ox isa cow or bull, a bo is a fig tree, and a ki is a plant of the lily family.

What is it?: the people who make it don't want it, the people who buy it don't use it and the people who use it don't know. A coffin.


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What do these items have in common? - Vivien Leigh's 1939 Oscar for her performance inGone With The Wind; Marylin Monroe's dress that she wore when she sang HappyBirthday to President John Kennedy at Madison Square Gardens in 1962; Leonardo daVinci's 16th century Codex Hammer notebook. They are respectively the most expensivefilm memorabilia, dress and book ever sold at auction: Vivien Leigh's Oscar was sold

for 380,700 at Sotheby's in 1993, Marylin Monroe's dress went for 900,000 atChristie's in 1999, and Leonardo da Vinci's notebook was bought for 19.25m atChristie's in 1994 (by Bill Gates incidentally).

What is assessed by the international grading system known as the Four C's, and what doeseach of the C's represent? Diamonds - American Richard Liddicoat designed theInternational Diamond Grading System for evaluating finished stones in 1953 - theFour C's are Cut, Colour, Clarity, and Carat-weight.

What's special about these sets of letters: SA - DK - XLNC - NV - NME - FND - XPDNC?Spoken aloud they all make words: essay, decay, excellency, envy, enemy, effendi

(effendi is a man of education or standing in the Arab world), and expediency, whichis the longest word that can be represented in this way.

To ensure a fair division between two people (for dividing chocolate bars between childrenfor instance) you might use the 'one cuts, the other chooses' method. How do you ensure afair division between three people? (Thanks David Grech) The first cuts into three, thesecond selects a portion for the cutter, the third person selects a portion forhim/herself, and the second person left with the remaining portion.

Who were 'Too Much' and Norville Rogers? 'Too Much' was the original script namefor Scooby-Doo; Norville Rogers was the character Shaggy's real name in the series.

There are lots of countries and continents that begin with the letter 'A'. Two of them differ from the rest; which two and why? Afghanistan and Azerbaijan - all the others end with'A'. Here's the full list, amazingly: Angola, Algeria, Armenia, Albania, Andorra,Austria, Antigua, Australia, Argentina, Aruba (Aruba is a small island (193 sq km)off the the coast of Venezuela, discovered and claimed for Spain in 1499, acquired bythe Dutch in 1636, and becoming an autonomous member of the Kingdom of theNetherlands in 1986. Movement toward full independence was halted at Aruba'srequest in 1990 - thanks DC), Africa, Asia, Antarctica, and arguably America andAustralasia.

Who has appeared more often than any other woman on the cover of Time magazine? TheVirgin Mary.

What do these pairs have in common? Lenny Henry and Michael Jackson - Peter Gabrieland Stevie Wonder - John Motson and Virginia Wade - Stanley Kubrick and Danny La Rue- Charles Dance and Chris Tarrant. Their dates of birth, ie, each pair was born on thesame day.


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What oversized onomatopoeically-named mechanism was put on display for people to useat the British Empire Wembley Exhibition in 1924, in order to reassure the public as to itssafety and reliability? The zip fastener. ('Onomatopoeic' describes a word whichsounds like what it is.)

A pair of red shoes were sold at auction in 1988 for 90,000. What made them special?They were worn by Judy Garland in the film 'The Wizard of Oz'.

What is unusual and probably unique about British postage stamps? They don't have thenation's name on them.

A man is walking home with his dog at a steady 4mph. With 6 miles to go the dog is let off the leash and runs all the way home at 6 mph. The dog immediately turns and runs back tothe man at the same speed, and upon meeting him it turns and runs home again. Itcontinues to run back and forth at the same speed until the man reaches home. Whatdistance has the dog run since being let off the leash? 9 miles (the man takes one and a

half hours to walk 6 miles at 4mph, and a dog running at 6mph for one and a half hours would cover 9 miles in that time.)

What word (in the English language) has six vowels, and every one is 'A'? Taramasalata -it's in the English dictionary - (it's a Greek food dip made of cod roe).

Each of these people is related (not by marriage) to one other in the list. How manyrelationships can you identify? Warren Beatty = Shirley Maclaine's brother; CrystalGayle = Loretta Lynn's sister; Eden Kane = Peter Sarstedt's brother; Angelina Jolie =Jon Voigt's daughter; Francis Ford Coppola = Nicolas Cage's uncle; Ginger Rogers =Rita Hayworth's cousin; Ingrid Bergman = Isabella Rossellini's mother; Debbie

Reynolds = Carrie Fisher's mother; Christopher Lee = Ian Fleming's cousin; StanleyBaldwin = Rudyard Kipling's cousin; Tippi Hedren = Melanie Griffith's mother;Shimon Peres = Lauren Bacall's cousin; Richard Briers = Terry Thomas's cousin.

What year when written in Roman numerals uniquely contains one each of the Romannumber symbols in descending order? MDCLXVI = 1666 (M = 1000, D = 500, C = 100,L = 50, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1.)

Irrespective of sheet size, what is the most number of times a square piece of normal stock paper can be folded in half? (And not by repeatedly folding and unfolding it which would be cheating...). Seven. Eight folds are apparently possible with extremely light-gauge

specialist stock paper. And as a supplementary question, what's the most number of foldsin half achieved for a piece of normal stock paper irrespective of length and shape?(achieved in 2004) The record for folding in half a piece of non-square shape (verylong in other words) is twelve times, achieved by high-school student Britney Gallivanin Pomona, California, in 2004. She used 4,000 feet of toilet paper and it took her andher parents seven hours to achieve the twelve folds (ack P Fowler). More about thetwelve folds and the maths behind it at the fascinating pomona historical webpage .
http://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htmhttp://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htmhttp://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm


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What did each of these brand names originally represent? Athena, Nike, Vesta, Mercury,Vulcan, Flora, Mars. Athena was Greek goddess of wisdom; Nike was Greek goddess of victory; Vesta was Roman goddess of the hearth; Mercury was Roman messenger of the gods; Vulcan was Roman god of fire; Flora was Roman goddess of flowers; Marswas Roman god of war.

With no pre-selection, and excluding February 29th, what's the smallest number of peoplein a group required to ensure a better than even chance of at least two having the same

birthday? That's birthDAY, not birthDATE. Just 23. Each person has a 343 in 365chance of no other person having the same birthday. When you multiply togethereach of the 23 person's chances of having a different birthday, you arrive at value of 0.493, ie 49.3%. Therefore there is a 50.7% likelihood of two birthdays being thesame.

Does a bullet fired straight up into the air take longer to go up or to come down, or thesame time, and why? The bullet takes a lot longer to come down because its return

speed is limited to the force of gravity against air resistance, ie., 'terminal velocity', of just 300 feet per second, which is substantially below the muzzle velocity of any gun.For example the muzzle velocity of a 2nd World War Lee Enfield rifle is 2,350ft/second.

How many different batting orders are possible in a team of eleven cricketers? Nearly 40million: the calculation is 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 39,916,800.

What famous confrontational sporting ritual traditionally began (until changed in 2005)with the words, "Ka Mate Ka Mate..." (mate is pronounced 'mattay') The 'Haka', asperformed by the New Zealand 'All Blacks' rugby union players when they confront

their opposition before kick-off. The Haka words and body movements are based on aMaori war chant, said to derive from the exploits of Maori Ngati Toa tribal chief TeRauparaha who apparently hid in a hole and was rescued by a fellow with hairy legs.Until altered in 2005 the full All Blacks traditional Haka wording was (with looseEnglish translation):

Ka mate, ka mate (It is death, it is death)Ka ora, ka ora (It is life, it is life)Tenei te tangata puhuruhuru (This is the hairy man)Nana i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra (Who caused the sun to shine again for me)Upane, upane (Up the ladder, up the ladder)Upane kaupane (Up to the top) Whiti te ra. (The sun shines.)

How many of the novels can you name in which these characters appear? (they getharder...) Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), d'Artagnan (The ThreeMusketeers), Scarlet O'Hara (Gone With The Wind) , Phineas Fogg (Around TheWorld In Eighty Days), Jim Hawkins (Treasure Island), Yossarian (Catch-22),Lemuel Gulliver (Gulliver's Travels), Randall McMurphy (One Flew Over The


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Cuckoo's Nest), Philip Pirrip (Great Expectations), Jude Fawley (Jude The Obscure),Captain Ahab (Moby Dick), Eliza Doolittle (Pygmalion), Blanche Dubois (A StreetcarNamed Desire), Edmund Dantes (The Count Of Monte Christo), Holly Golightly(Breakfast At Tiffany's), Percy Blakeney (The Scarlet Pimpernel), Nick Carraway(The Great Gatsby), Leopold Bloom (Ulysees), David Balfour Kidnapped), Charles

Ryder (Brideshead Revisited), Holden Caulfield (Catcher In The Rye), RichardHannay (The Thirty-Nine Steps), Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice), Tom Joad(The Grapes Of Wrath), Maggie Pollitt (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof), Becky Sharp(Vanity Fair), Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch), Josephine March (Little Women),Rupert Birkin (Women In Love), Maggie Tulliver (The Mill On The Floss), JimmyPorter (Look Back In Anger), Arthur Seaton (Saturday Night, Sunday Morning).

Can you put these British aristocratic titles in the correct order of seniority?... Marquess,Earl, Viscount, Prince, Duchess, Lord, Baron, King, Marchioness, Duke, Prince,Queen, Lady, Earl, Princess, Baroness, Viscountess, Countess. In descending order;King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Duke, Duchess, Marquess, Marchioness, Earl,

Countess, Viscount, Viscountess, Baron, Baroness, Lord, Lady. (In certain situations,eg baroness, where title is conferred on a women rather than her husband, she wouldassume the women's title but hold the same seniority as the male counterpart. Auseful mnemonic to help remember the male titles in order is 'Did Mary Ever VisitBrighton Beach?' = Duke Marquess Earl Viscount Baron Baronet.)

What do these names have in common?..... Winnebago - Tobacco - Chinook - Laguna -Mobile - Mono - Yazoo. They were/are all native American Indian tribes.

A game-show contestant reaches the final challenge: Two security guards are each holdingidentical closed brief cases. In one there is $1m of banknotes; in the other a few of last

week's newspapers. The guards know what is in each case. The contestant is told that oneguard will lie and the other will tell the truth - but not which guard is which. He is then toldthat he can ask one guard just one question, and then he must choose one case or the other.What question should he ask? He should ask either guard: Does the guard who has themoney tell the truth? If the guard replies 'yes' he should choose that guard's case. If the answer is 'no' he should choose the other guard's case. (The enjoyment of thispuzzle is often more in the analysis after the answer is given than before!)Alternatively (suggested by John Fisher - thanks), he should ask either guard: Whichbag will the other guard say contains the money? Then choose the opposite one. (Tryit, it works).

A man took the bus every weekend to go fishing either to the lake or the river. Initially hetried to guess which would offer the best conditions, but frequently guessed wrong. So hedecided that as the buses to each place ran every ten minutes, and from the same bus-stop,he'd simply leave it to fate, and jump on the first bus that came along. After several weekshe was puzzled that he hardly ever got to go to the lake - in fact it was only about one week in ten - despite the fact that he got to the bus-stop at all different times, and that all the

buses to both places ran on time (this is only a story...). So why was this? Both busservices did indeed run every ten minutes, but the buses to the lake ran on the hour,


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then ten past, twenty past etc., whereas the buses to the river ran at one minute to thehour, then nine past the hour, then twenty-nine past, etc., so the chances of the manarriving at the bus stop in the one minute gap after the river bus and before the lakebus were pretty small - one in ten to be exact.

How many times would a football rotate if rolled around the middle circumference of another football of the same size? Twice exactly - try it with a couple of the same sizedcoins.

Numerically, what's the difference between a hind and a hart? A hind is a three year-olddeer, and a hart is a five year-old deer, so the difference is 2.

Why do buses come in twos and threes? Despite good time-tabling and buses leavingdepots on time, bunching is unavoidable because of the following effect: Whenever alarge group of passengers gather at a stop, the first bus along will be delayed whilepeople board, allowing the bus following to catch up a little. When this second bus

arrives, passengers will have had less time to gather, which allows it to pick up and goquickly. When the first bus reaches the next stop another large group will havegathered due to its late arrival, allowing the following bus to catch up further. Thiscontinues until the two buses are together, at which point it behaves like a single latebig bus, which then allows a third bus to catch up.

Why do we clink glasses when we say 'cheers' (or 'skol' or 'good health' etc)? In ancientGreece, poisoning was a common method of dealing with one's enemies, so theprecautionary practice developed for both guest and host to pour a little of their wineinto each other's glasses. As a sign of trust, glasses were merely clinked, as if to saythat the precaution was not needed.

It is said to be bad grammar to finish a sentence with a preposition (ie., a word thatexpresses the relation from one noun or pronoun to another, 'of', 'with', 'to', 'over' etc). Canyou think of a sentence which makes sense and finishes with seven consecutiveprepositions? A mother goes downstairs to find a book for her son's bed-time story;when she returns with a book about Australia, her son says, "Why did you get a book to read out of about down under up for?" (even without the 'down under' cheat -because in this context 'down under' is arguably a noun - this would be a viablesentence ending with five consecutive pronouns, which not many people could beat).

A new street is built with one hundred new houses, numbered 1 to 100. How many number

9's are required to number all the houses? Not 10 (people forget the 90), not 11 (peopleforget the 90's): The answer is 20:9,19,29,39,49,59,69,79,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99(99's 1st digit),99(99's 2nddigit).

Can you be mathematically certain that at least 100 people in the UK with a full head of hair have exactly the same number of hairs on their head and why? Yes you can be sure,simply because there are around 500 times more people in the UK than the number of


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hairs on a human head (100,000 hairs against nearly 60m people), which ensures thatonly a tiny fraction of the population would account for every possible differentnumber of hairs.

There are several fascinating similarities between the assassinations of American

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy - what ones can you name? Both wereshot on a Friday while with their wives. Both were shot in the head from behind.Lincoln became president in 1860; Kennedy in 1960. Both lost children while at theWhite House. Both successors were named Johnson, both Southerners and both in theSenate. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808; Lyndon Johnson in 1908. Both assassinswere themselves assassinated, and both before trial. Both assassins were knownunusually by three rather than two names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee HarveyOswald. Both assassins were southerners, by birth or sympathy (Oswald was born inNew Orleans; Booth indentified himself as a 'southerner' although technically wasfrom Maryland, part of the Union - thanks P Pappas). Both Presidents' names haveseven letters. Both assassins' names have fifteen letters. Booth was born in 1838 or

1839 (sources vary) and Oswald in 1939. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. (Itis said also that Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy, but this seemingly is nottrue - apparently Lincoln's secretaries were John G Nicolay and John Hay - thanks PPappas). Both secretaries advised their boss not to go to the places where they wereshot. Booth killed Lincoln in a theatre and ran away to a warehouse; Oswald shotKennedy from a warehouse and ran away to a theatre. Also (ack BG) Lincoln wasassassinated at Fords Theater, Kennedy was assassinated in a (Ford) Lincolnlimousine. And finally, an amazing fact about Lincoln: a few months before Boothkilled Lincoln, Booth's younger brother, Edwin, saved a young man's life when he'dfallen in front of a train at Jersey City. The young man was Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, the President.

What politician, noted for his wit, when told that his trouser fly was open said, "Dead birdsdon't fall out of their nests..." ? British 2nd Word War Prime Minister, WinstonChurchill.

There are four fairly common ten-letter English words (unless you know more, in whichcase tell me) that can be made from the top row of letters on a normal QWERTY keyboard,what are they? (a clue for one of them is in the question) Typewriter, Repertoire,Perpetuity, and Proprietor (Thanks B Thompson, A Breck-Paterson and R Murphyfor the second, third and fourth answers to this puzzle. Incidentally, the layout of theQWERTY keyboard was originally designed to reduce jamming of the typewriterhammers, by limiting typing speed.)

Why are buttons on women's and men's clothing such as jackets and shirts on differentsides (and for the same reason, why do bras fasten at the back?) Because when garmentsof these types were first worn, men traditionally dressed themselves, so buttons wereplaced on the right side, (for the right-handed majority). Women were often dressedby maids, so the buttons were put on the opposite side to make it easier for the maid.Bras were made rear-fastening to preserve the dignity of both maid and mistress.


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A part of a wheel is a SPOKE, another word for people is FOLK, so how do you spell theword for the white of an egg? Not yoke or yolk - the white of an egg is called thealbumen.

What do these words have in common: pint, skeleton, limited, restaurant and oblige? None

has a word that exactly rhymes with it. Incidentally the words orange, silver andpurple are commonly cited (including here until recently) as words for which thereare no rhyming alternatives, however rhyming words do seem to exist for these:sporange (a receptacle for spores used in botany), chilver (a type of lamp or asheep/goat-type animal depending on source), and curple (a rump or a person'sbackside, or part of a horse's harness - connected with mouth, saddle or tail,depending on the source), hurple and hirple (apparently Scottish words for walk witha hobble or limp). Sources are various, including Michael Sheehan's 'Words To TheWise' for sporange, chilver lamp and curple rump.

A man knew he was bankrupt the moment he stopped his car outside a railway station.

How? He was playing Monopoly. A stamp collector paid $100,000 for a stamp and then deliberately destroyed it. Why? Tomake the other one unique and therefore dramatically increase its value. (There wereonly two in the world and he owned the other one.)

Two chess masters played fifteen consecutive games of chess. No games were drawn,every game was finished, yet both players won and lost the same number of games as eachother. How could this happen? They were each playing other people.

There are five 'f's in the next sentance, and they're two errors in this one. - "It's often easy

for folk to miss the finer points of life." - How many errors are there in the first sentence?There are four mistakes in the first sentence - they are: there are six 'f's not five;'sentence' is spelt wrong; 'they're' should be 'there are'; and the statement that thereare two mistakes is wrong, which makes four mistakes in all.

Can a man marry his widow's half-sister? No - if he had a widow he'd be dead.

A bucket and spade together cost 25.50. The spade costs 20 more than the bucket. Whatis the price of each? Spade 22.75, Bucket 2.75.

A brick weighs 1kg plus half a brick. How much does it weigh? 2kg.

George Bernard Shaw's FISH - GHOTI: F as in 'enough' I as in 'women' SH as in'station'.

Why is 88.88 special? (And for those with knowledge of Scotttish and Channel Islandscurrency, 190.38?) This question is based on UK currency as at May 2005 (no doubt therewill be changes in the future). 88.88 is the sum of money made by one of each of theEnglish banknotes and coins (50, 20, 10, 5, 2, 1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, 1p - as at


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May 2005). I am indebted to Phillip Williams for pointing out that this answer waspreviously incorrect because it referred to 'British' banknotes and coins, in whichcase the sum would be 190.38, arrived at by adding the Scottish 100 and 1 notes,plus the Jersey 50p note (again as at May 2005).

Complete the sequence: O, T, T, F, F, S, S, ... Eight Nine Ten . . .

Sentence with five consecutive Ands: The owner of the 'Hare and Hounds' barcomplained to the artist who had just painted a new sign: "There should be morespace between the Hare and 'and' and 'and' and Hounds..."

Eleven hads: (Scenario is an English Language test, when John and David answerdifferently on the question of whether to use "had" or "had had"): John, whereDavid had had "had had", had had "had"; "had had" had had the better effect (onthe examiner).

What do these words have in common? CALMNESS INOPERABLE DEFER BURSTLAUGHING STUPID - Each word contains three letters in the correct alphabeticalorder.

Odd letter out: ABCMNOTUV - N has no line of symmetry. The others do. And analternative recently suggested by a visitor Max Bracher: "v" is the only letter withouta curve when written in "Lower Case".

AEIOU word puzzle: Words in the English language, each having one of each of thevowels (aeiou) in the right alphabetical order: The most common known are probablyfacetious (meaning sarcastic), abstemious (meaning sparing or moderate), arterious

(pertaining to artery) and annelidous (pertaining to annelid, which is a segmentedworm). There's also anemious, abstentious, acheilous, acherious, acleistous, affectious,aerious, arsenious, bacterious, caesious, caespitosum, caespitosus, fracedinous,gareisoun, gravedinous, majestious, materious, parecious, placentious, tragedious,and vaceious. Certain medical dictionaries would also yield the even more obscurearsenicosum, arteriosum, arteriosus, and catechicorum. For variation, the wordsunoriental, subcontinental, uncomplimentary, unnoticeably and quodliteral allcontain each vowel in reverse alphabetical order. (From a variety of sources includingMaking The Alphabet Dance, the wonderful wordplay book by Ross Eckler, and alsofrom Thomas Mhire, who pointed out a couple of additional AEIOU words for thelist. 'Adventitous' appears in some lists of AEIOU words, including here previously -

thanks for the correction J Lerner - however this is a misspelling; properly spelt theword is adventitious, which means, incidentally: happening by chance.)

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