The Rail Thing

A fire this weekend at Istambul's Haydarpasa train station, prompted us to adopt a railway theme for today's quiz. The blaze broke out while restoration work was being conducted at the station, which until 1977 had acted as a terminus for the iconic Orient Express.

Trains  & Railways Quiz

1 Who wrote the book 'Murder On The Orient Express'?

2 High speed Bullet trains run in which country?

3 In which city was the first underground train system constructed?

4 The Trans Siberian Railway runs from Moscow to which other Russian city?

5 What is the name of the fictional island on which the Thomas the Tank Engine children's stories are set? 

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

Illustrated Characters Quiz Answers

The answers to yesterday's quiz on illustrated characters were:-

1 Snowy.

2 The Roamns.

3 Peanuts.

4 Neil Diamond.

5 The Saharan desert.

Graphic Truth

To mark the publication in English of a graphic novel version of the classic book 'The Little Prince', today's quiz takes illustrated characters as our theme.  First published in 1943,  the original has gone on to sell over 80 million copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest selling books of all time. The central figure is one of a number of illustrated characters whose adventures provide enduring  psychological and spiritual observations while enchanting generations of readers.  

1 What was the name of Belgian boy detective Tintin's faithful dog? 

2 Asterix and his fellow villagers resisted the rule of which invading army?

3 Charlie Brown appeared in what internationally acclaimed comic strip?

4 Who recorded the soundtrack to the film version of 'Jonathan Llivingston Seagull'?

5 Where does the narrator of 'The Little Prince' meet the book's main character?

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

The answers to yesterday's Scotland quiz were:-

1 John Rebus.

2 Bee Gees.

3 Saltyre.
4 River Clyde.

5 Aberdeen.

Take Your Pict

With Scotland toasting their patron saint on their national day celebrating St Andrew this week (Tuesday November 30th), we've opted to take all things Scottish as the theme of today's quiz.   

1 What is the name of the detective made famous in Ian Rankin's series of crime books set in Edinburgh?
2 Scottish singer Lulu was married to a member of which successful pop group?
3 The St Andrew's cross formed by white diagonal lines on a blue background that appears on the Scottish flag is also known by what other name?
4 Glasgow stands on what Scottish river?  
5 Which of Scotland's main centres of population is known as The Granite City?
Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

The answers to yesterday's moon themed quiz were:-
1 Ryan & Tatum O'Neal
2 Chinese
3 The Who
4 Twilight
5 Roman

Bright Side Of The Moon

News that oxygen has been found on one of Saturn's moons has inspired us to take a lunar theme for today's Highly Questionable? quiz. The oxygen in question was detected by NASA's Cassini probe while passing Rhea, the second largest of the 62 moons orbiting Saturn. Mind you, given that Rhea is made totally of ice, combined with its distance from earth and the fact that despite the traces of oxygen the atmosphere there isn't breathable by humans, rules the satellite out as a holiday destination.

      

1 Which father and daughter pairing starred in the US film 'Paper Moon'?
2 Moon cakes are a culinary feature at festivals of which culture?
3 Keith Moon was the flamboyant drummer in which British rock band?
4 'New Moon' is the second book in which series loved by many teenagers?
5 Diana was a moon goddess in the mythology of which civilisation?

The answers will be publishied along with tomorrow's quiz.

The answers to yesterday's All American quiz were:-
1 American Football.
2 Bruce Springsteen.
3 Eleven.
4 Sioux.
5 Sam Mendes

Yanks For The Memories

Citizens in the United States celebrated their annual Thanksgiving holiday yesterday, unlike the country's turkey population many of whose number found themselves served up as the centrepiece of the holiday's traditional meal. To mark their passing, we've dedicated today's All American quiz to them.

1 The annual Super Bowl game is the climax of the season in which American sport? 

2 Who recorded the successful 1984 album 'Born In The USA'?

3 How many States formed the Confederate or Southern side in the American civil war?

4 In the nineteenth century Sitting Bull was a leader of which native American people?

5 Who was the director of the 1999 film 'American Beauty' which stared Kevin Spacey?

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz.

The answers to yesterdays quiz on cheeses were::-

1 Wensleydale.

2 Charles de Gaulle

3 Roquefort.

4 Mozzarella.

5 Double Gloucester.

The Big Cheese

2,600 cheeses from 26 countries this week vied to win the top prize at the World Cheese Awards where a fourteen strong panel of judges choose Cornish Blue as the em, Big Cheese. This inspired today's quiz on the theme of fromage.

1 Wallace, the human half of the famous animated duo Wallace & Gromit, has a particular liking for which cheese?
2 Who said of France 'how can you govern a country that produces 246 varieties of cheese'?
3 Which famous French cheese is made from sheep's milk and then traditionally matured in caves?
4 Which Italian cheese was originally made from the milk of water buffalos?
5 Which variety of cheese is used at the annual cheese-rolling event at Cooper's Hill in the English county of Gloucestershire?

The answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz.

The answers to our previous sleep themed quiz were:-
1 Somnambulism.
2 Raymond Chandler.
3 Train or railway.
4 David Beckham.
5 Wee Willie Winkie.

Lewd Nude?



Sleep is the theme of today's quiz to mark an Irish court's judgement in a truly bizarre case involving the sleepwalking 67 year old David Kansella, who, after being adjudged to have been libeled, was this week awarded ten million euros. Having been discovered sleepwalking naked around a hotel in Mozambique during a business trip, his mining company employers had publicly stated they would be seeking his resignation after he had been found outside the room of a female colleague. The court upheld Mr Kinsella's assertion that he had been made a laughing stock as despite the suggestion that was placed in the public domain that something lewd had occurred, it had not.

1 What is the medical term for sleep walking?

2 The film 'The Big Sleep' starring Humphrey Bogart was based on a book by which writer?

3 Sleepers are an essential component of what form of transport?

4 Which English football player was videoed asleep as the centre piece of an unusual art installation?  

5 Which nursery rhyme character lent their name to a type of hat associated with sleeping? 

Answers will be published along with tomorrows quiz questions.

The answers to our last quiz were:-

1 Abbey Road.

2 Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey).

3 Wilfrid Bramble.

4 On top of the Apple building in London's St John's Wood (captured during the shooting of their film 'Let It Be').

5 'Penny Lane' & 'Strawberry Fields Forever'.

Her Majesty's A Pretty Nice Girl

With two British institutions making global headlines, we had to choose whether to select the newly announced upcoming Royal wedding or the Beatles' catalogue finally becomming available to download from iTunes as the inspiration for today's quiz

As you'll see, we opted for the Fabs. 

1 Which Beatles' album includes a song that has the opening line 'her majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say'?
2 Who was the only one of the four Beatles to have achieved fame under an assumed name?
3 Which British actor played Paul McCartney's grandfather in the film 'Hard Days Night'?
4 Where did the Beatles last play together live as a band?   
5 What were the titles of the two songs on the 1967 Beatles' double A side single each of which commemorated real places in the band's native Liverpool?

The answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz.

The answers to yesterday's quiz were:-
1 A Sad Clown.
2 Science.
3 Three.
4 Danny Abse.
5 Count.

Lions' Share

This month marks the centenary of the death of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. To celebrate the life and work of the brilliant author, whose works include 'War And Peace' and 'Anna Karenina', today's quiz takes the theme of people whose first name is or was Leo.

1 English singer Leo Sayer appeared in what persona at the start of his career when singing songs such as 'One Man Band'?

2 Pope Leo XIII, who headed up the Roman Catholic Church for 25 years during a period spanning the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries, became famous for asserting that religion could co-exist with what? 

3 Belgium remains one of the modern European nation states with a monarchy, how many Kings called Leopold has the country had?

4 Welsh social reformer and longserving Labour MP in the UK parliament Leo Abse had a famous poet as his brother, what was he called?   

5 Despite the humanist egalitarian lifestyle Leo Tolstoy adopted later in his life, what Russian aristocratic title was he entitled to adopt?  

The answers to yesterday's quiz on prisons and prisoners were:-
1 A candle & barbed wire.
2 Nelson Mandela.
3 Patrick McGoohan.
4 Elba & St. Helina.
5 Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz.

Cell By Date

Following the release this weekend of both Ang San Sou Kyi from house arrest in Burma and Paul & Rachel Chandler, the British sailors held captive by Somali pirates in primitive conditions for thirteen long months, today's quiz takes the theme of prisons and prisoners. 

1 Which two items combine to form the logo of Amnesty International, the world wide organisation that campaigns on behalf of prisoners of conscience?

2 Prior to becoming president of his country, who was detained as prisoner 19476/62?

3 Which actor played the central character in the UK cult TV series ''The Prisoner'?

4 On which two island was Napoleon held prisoner?

5  Who wrote 'The Gulag Archipelagoo' & 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich', two books which drew attention to the brutal gulag forced labour camps in Soviet Russia?

Answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz.

The answer to the previous Highly Questionable quiz were:-

1 The UK.

2 80%.

3 1991.

4 Naypyidaw.

5 Any 3 of Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Thailand and Tibet.

My Oh Myanmar

With fevered speculation that the military junta in Burma are on the verge of releasing Aung San Sou Kyi from her long running house arrest, today's quiz is dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and her people.

1 In 1947 Burma became independent from the colonial rule of which country?

2 The result of the 1990 general election gave the political party led by Aung San Sou Kyi what percentage of the seats in the Burmese parliament? 

3 In what year did Aung San Sou Kyi win the Nobel Peace Prize?  

4 In 2006, the military dictatorship declared that Burma's most populous city Rangoon was no longer the country's capital and designated where as the replacement?

5 Name any three of the six countries that share a border with Burma.

The answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

The answers to yesterday's Harry Potter quiz questions were:-
1 Seven books have been written by J K Rowling to form the Harry Potter series.
2 Joanne is the forename by which J K Rowling is known.
3 Richard Harris and Michael Gambon played Dumbledore in the film adaptations of the first six Harry Potter books - Harris in the first two films and then, following the actors death, Gambon, until the character's death in film 6. (Note that in addition, Tony Regbo portrays the master wizard as a young man in flashback scenes in the final two films covering the events of the seventh book).
4 Muggle is the name given to non-magical people in the Harry Potter universe.
5 Galleon, sickle and gnut are respectively the names for the gold, silver and bronze coins that constitute the currency in the Harry Potter universe.

The Horcrux Of The Matter

With the last but one Harry Potter film premiering in London last night, today's Highly Questionable? quiz celebrates the wand wielding wizarding world (which we will return to when the final installment is screened in July 2011).

1 How many books has J K Rowling written to form the Harry Potter series?

2 By what forename is Harry Potter author J K Rowling known?

3 The supremely accomplished wizard and head master of Hogwarts school Albus Dumbledore has been played by which two actors over the course of the sequence of film adaptations of the Harry Potter books?

4 By what name are non-magical people known in the Harry Potter universe?

5 What are the respective names of the gold, silver and bronze coins that make up the currency in the wizarding world? 

The answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

The answers to yesterday's Dick Van Dyke quiz were:-

1 A chimney sweep was the occupation of the character Van Dyke played in the 1964 film 'Mary Poppins'.

2 'Chim Chim Cheree' was the name of the song that Van Dyke's character famously sang in the 'Mary Poppins' film.

3 Cockney was the accent that Van Dyke attempted to give to his character Bert in the 'Mary Poppins' film.

4 P L Travers was the author who created Mary Poppins.

5 A pod is the collective noun for a group of porpoises.

The Porpoise Of Life



Smiles All Round



84 year old actor Dick Van Dyke revealed in a recent interview how, having fallen asleep on a surfboard, he woke up out of sight of land. Fortunately for the veteran film star a group of porpoises took it upon themselves to help push him back to shore. Today's quiz is dedicated to him and them.

1 What was the occupation of Van Dyke's character in the 1964 film 'Mary Poppins'?

2 What was the name of the song that his character Bert sang in this film?

3 What sort of accent did Van Dyke's character in that film attempt?

4 Who wrote the book 'Mary Poppins' on which the film was based?

5 What is the collective noun for a group of porpoises?

The answers will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.