Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Wednesday Quiz Scatters All Before It

It's:


The new weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!

Ready?  Here goes!  Answers come out on Friday!

1. Who was the first Vice-President -- and perhaps more memorably, the second President -- of the United States of America?

2. Whose compositions include "On the Transmigration of Souls," "Short Ride in a Fast Machine," and "Nixon in China"?

3. What is this language?


4. What novel, published in serial form from 1873 to 1877, begins with the famous line "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"?

5. An Ethiopian princess is enslaved in Egypt. A military commander falls in love with her, thus spurning the Pharaoh's daughter. Princess and commander end up getting buried alive as a result, but, hey, that's the price you pay for true love. What opera are we talking about?

6.
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood...
The poet?


7. What is this city?



8. What is the best known work of the immortal Virgil?

9. Here's a definition:

1. Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification.
3. An exalted or glorified example.
What's the word?


10. This painting, made in 1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger, is famous for the trippy distorted skull at the feet of the two guys pictured. What is the painting's name?



----

The tie-breaker: Eight chemical elements have a symbol (you know, the letters) that begin with this week's letter. List as many as you can.


Give it a try, or you will have seven years of bad luck!  Put your answers in the comments!  

9 comments:

Elaine said...

1. Adams (John, not John Quincy)
2. A-somebody, obviously, but other than Aaron (Copland) I'm blank on composers' names
3. Aramaic?
4. Anna Karenina
5. Aida
6. Auden
7. Adelaide
8. Aeneid
9. ascendancy? not right, but it starts with A...as do acme, ACCLAIM, acclamation...I'll think of this later, dang it...
10. Astronomers, Astronomy Class, no idea really but trying...

AU-gold; AR-arsenic; A?N?-antimony (Damn, we just had that;) A-argon;
AM for Amnesium?

Nichim said...

1. John Adams
2.
3. Amharic
4. The only novel I've read fitting that general description is Vanity Fair, which I hated.
5.
6. I look forward to finding out
7.
8. The Aeneid
9. Assumption
10. Oh, is that why there are so many posters of this painting in dorm rooms? Is it called The Alchemists?
11. AU, AN, AT

mrs.5000 said...

1 John Adams
2 John Adams
3 John Adams--oh, I mean, um, Amharic
4 Anna Karenina
5 Aida
6 W.H. Auden
7 Adelaide
8 The Aeneid
9 ascendancy? or ascension, maybe
10 The Ambassadors
Ar Argon
Ag Gold
Al Aluminum
As Arsenic?
At Antimony
Am Americanium?
Ad Adamantum
At Atomite

Elizabeth said...

1. Adams
2. Adams
3. Abyssinian
4. Okay, maybe not the A theme after all, because this is Chekov. But which one, dammit? I'll go with "The Cherry Orchard."
5. Okay, wait, back to A: it's "Aida".
6. Aarrrgh.
7. If it's A, it must be Adelaide. Which is not nearly as much fun to say as Toowoomba.
8. The Aenid.
9. Adulation?
10. Ye Acid Trippe.

4 reconsidered, since it's obviously A - I can't think of anything by Chekov that begins with an A. But I'm sure it's Russian.

AL, AN, AT, AU

Ben said...

1. John Adams
2. John Adams
3. Arabic
4. All in the Family
5. Aida
6. John Adams
7. Adellaide (sp?)
8. The Aeneid
9. Adoration
10. Artistry

Not that this will be needed for any tie-breakers:
1. A - Gold
2. Al - Aluminum
3. Ar - Argon

Anonymous said...

1. John Adams
3. Amharic
4. Anna Karenina
5. Aida
6. WH Auden
7. Adelaide
8. The Aeneid
9. Apotheosis

Michael5000 said...

1. John Adams
2. John Adams
3. Amharic
4. Anna Karenina, by Lieutenant Sulu. Urm, I mean, Leo Tolstoy
5. Aida
6. Auden
7. Adelaide
8. The Aeneid
9. Among other reasonable approximations, "apotheosis."
10. The Ambassadors

Ac = Actinium
Ag = Silver
Al = Aluminum, or "Aluminium" if that's the way you roll
Am = Americium
Ar = Argon
As = Arsenic
At = Astatine. Astatine? Yes, Astatine.
Au = Gold

Well done, all. Much props to eavenmoore for "apotheosis."

UnwiseOwl said...

7 years! Oh no!

1. Mr. J. Adams.
2. Mr. J. Adams.
3. Aramaic? No clue.
4. Ms. Anna K.
5. Ms. Aida
6. Mr. W.H. Auden
7. Ooh, ooh, I can't think of the name! ;)
8. Aenid? Technically isn't the dipthongy thing is a letter in it's own right and not an A? I dunno?
9. Mr. J. Adams.
10. Self-Portrait Alfons III of Hungary (dec.)

Arsenic, Antimony, Gold, Aluminium, Argon, Silver.

Michael5000 said...

He lives! w00t!