Spoilt For Choice

So what's it to be? We're faced with something of a wine, women or song dilemma when it comes to selecting the subject of today's highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post. That's because both International Women's Day and pre-Lent Carnival, in it's many guises, each light up so much of the world today. Each is clearly deserving of today's post, hence the dilemma - celebrate the women of the former, the song of the latter or make a politicians choice by choosing something else entirely, the figurative Wine Option. What to do? Well, let's take a quick look at various of the 'Wine Options' that suggest themselves. 

Money Man

 'Wine Option' One  
There's the news of the five British bankers who have just received from their employer Barklays £110 million worth of bonuses just two years after the 'greed is good' mentality of bankers almost brought the entire western capitalist system down.  Verdict  aside from the sheer venality of the Gekko hedge fund jugglers, they're too easy a target and a boring subject for a quiz to boot.

Song Remains The Same

 'Wine Option' Two  
How about the continuing winds of change howling across the Arab world? In the last couple of days alone we've seen the new authorities in Tunisia abolish the country's hated secret police and their equivalents in Egypt, the feared and despised Amn Al-Dawla, have many of their secret files ransacked from their headquarters by the very Egyptian citizen's they spied on and tortured.  Verdict  while there are truly seismic shifts going on across the Arab world we've chosen to see how these pan out before jumping in with our comments and quizzes. Nevertheless, we wish genuinely pro-democracy elements well.

Dividing Line :
Kindergardens In Kiryal Hayoval
 area of Jerusalem 

 'Wine Option' Three  What about the newly erected fence separating the children from two kindergartens in Jerusalem that share the same building and garden? The two to four year olds now can't even see each other because of the barrier, but it's not a tale of young Jews kept from young Palestinians. Rather the barrier is to segregate ultra-orthodox and secular Jewish toddlers.  Verdict  just too insane for words.
Of course there are almost endless possibilities - China sealing off Tibet to outside tourists - where is the Panchen Lama, last seen 1995, Beijing? Then of course there's the Barcelona v Arsenal football match tonight in the European Champions League tournament - that could be the subject of so many beautiful game questions, but perhaps they are best left until the London side compete in the final of the competition in May which takes place at Wembley this year.

Arsenal's Samir Nasri

All in all there are so many contenders for today's theme, but in the end we've decided to break with tradition and gone for two quizzes today so we can do both the International Women's Day and pre-Lent feasting things. The latter quiz takes pancakes as their theme in line with the way Shrove Tuesday is celebrated in countries that are quirky enough to name an entire twenty-four hour period 'Pancake Day' (we haven't forgotten the sheer joy of today's more flamboyant carnivals and will publish a gallery of images from a cross section of them tomorrow). The second of today's quizzes takes remarkable women as it's theme.
By the way, any reader of Highly Questionable who feels we're neglecting those subjects dearest to their hearts is welcome to send in any themed five set of questions quiz (and answers) - the email address is in the gold highlighted bar below - and we'll be delighted to post the best guest quizzes from time to time along with our own daily offerings.            

 Pancakes Quiz 

 1  Crepes, the popular French style of pancake, originated in which region of France?

 2  What is the name of the type of pan in which pancakes are traditionally cooked?

 3  By what name are Russian pancakes known?

 4  How many days separate the celebration variously known as Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Easter?   

 5  In which Shakespeare play does the fool Touchstone deliver the pancake related lines 'Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes and swore by his honour the mustard was naught: now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught and the mustard was good, and yet was not the knight forsworn'?
Answers will be published tomorrow along with the next Highly Questionable quiz.
 Remarkable Women Quiz 
Please identify each of the following five remarkable women whose identities will be confirmed along with tomorrow's Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

 Mercury Quiz Answers 

The answers to yesterday's mercury themed quiz are:-

 1  Hg is the chemical symbol for the element mercury in the periodic table.

 2  Queen was the British rock band fronted by the singer Freddie Mercury.

 3  Hermes is the equivalent deity in Greek mythology to the Roman god Mercury.

 4  The xx won the 2010 Mercury Music Prize.

 5  Bruce Willis stared in the 1998 Hollywood action movie 'Mercury Rising'.

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com.