The Brackets!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Wednesday quiz has sailed the seas and come to the holy city of Byzantium

It's:


The Wednesday Quiz, in its second incarnation, has been a weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!  I hope you've enjoyed it.  A new incarnation is in the works, and will be coming your way soon.

Answers come out Fridayish.

1. Name the poet:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
2. Where's this?



3. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, as the rules of American football were evolving into something resembling their current form, one team dominated all others. Who ran up a 67-2 record from 1888-1892?

4. Russia has rubles, China has ________.

5. Nestled in the shadow of Mount Ararat, the capital of Armenia is the home to a third of that country's population. Twenty-eight centuries of continuous habitation put it on the short list of the world's oldest cities. What's its name, again?

6. This poor little airplane is experiencing _________.


7. A long 1500 kilometer drive north from Edmonton, this city of 20,000 on the north shore of the Great Slave Lake is capital of a huge chunk of Canada.

8. This pretty plant can pose problems for a calvaryman in a couple different ways. One is, it's poisonous to horses. What's it called?



9. It's the setting of Wuthering Heights, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

10. Bos grunniens or Bos mutus is a Central Asian critter. Although it is basically a domesticated species, there is a small wild population as well. What's the common name?

----

There is no tie-breaker this week.  However, I would like you to identify yourself if you (a) realized that this would be the 26th and necessarily final edition of the alphabet-based quizzes, (b) considered that it would be possible to go back and figure out in advance what this week's letter would be, or even (c) actually did so.

--

Put your answers in the comments, in an attempt to show a total mastery analogous to that of the dominant football team of the early days of the sport.  

21 comments:

  1. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale
    4. yuan
    5. dunno
    6. sitting in a cake pan waiting for the batter to be poured over it
    7. Yellowknife
    8. yew
    9. Yorkshire
    10. yak

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale
    4. Yuan
    5. Yerevan
    6. Yaw
    7. Yellowhorse
    8. Yew
    9. Yorkshire
    10. Yak

    (a) Doesn't seem that many; maybe I missed some.
    (b) I suppose so, but
    (c) You must be kidding!!

    What's next? By numbers?

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1. Yeats, I expect.
    2. Yemen?
    3. I'll say the Yankees.
    4. Yuan.
    5. Ya got me there.
    6. Yaw?
    7. Yellowknife.
    8. Yew.
    9. Yorkshire.
    19. Yak.

    You have GOT to be kidding me on any of (a), (b), or particularly (c). I eagerly await the next cycle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Yeats!
    2. Yemen!
    3. Yikes, no clue! Yankees? No, wait, didn't it start as college rugby? Yale then!
    4. Yen is Japanese. Chinese too perhaps?
    5. Yerevan (Thank you Orson Scott Card for making Petra Arkanian Armenian)!
    6. Yaw!
    7. Yukon City is probably not the answer. I'll guess Youngstown.
    8. Yew! (also used for making longbows!) I believe the flesh of the berries (but not the seeds) are the only part that's safe to eat.
    9. Yorkshire? (I had York but changed it.)
    10. Yak!

    TB: haven't been around that long.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3. Yankees
    4. Yuen?
    5.
    6. Yaw
    7.
    8. yew
    9 Yorkshire, England
    10. Yak

    Still wondering what happened to last weeks answers. =/

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1 Yeats
    2 Yemen
    3 Yale
    4 yen
    5 oh, I can't think of it. Oh, the deep, deep shame.
    6 yaw
    7 Yellowknife
    8 yew. It would be bad to have to fight your way through a dense yew forest with your horse crippled by yew poisoning, while merry archers with yew bows shot at you from behind the yew boughs.
    9 Beautiful Yorkshire. Home of the Ribblehead Viaduct!
    10 yak

    I was told of this solemn occasion the other day, and quickly realized my memory was not up the task of positive identification. Yet I did have a vague sense that it must be at the end of the alphabet.

    Long live the Wednesday quiz!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yates
    Yemen
    Yale
    Yuan
    Yerevan
    Yaw - or is it Yurbulence?
    Yellowknife
    Yerbena?
    Yorkshire
    Yak

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale
    4. Yen
    5. Yever
    6. Yaw
    7. Yellowknife
    8. Yellowroot
    9. Yorkshire
    10. Yak

    Didn't even think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 1. Yeats, William Butler
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale?
    4. Yen? I thought that was Japanese. Maybe spelled slightly differently, like "yuen"?
    5. Ye Olde Towne
    6. Yaw
    7. Yukon? (damn capital Y cities...)
    8. Yew. As in, "I'm cutting yew down, sucka!"
    9. Yorkshire (for some reason, I was thinking ATB&B was set in Devonshire...)
    10. Yak?

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1. Letter of the week says that this is Yeats.
    2. Yemen
    3. Maybe...Yorktown or Yale...Yale.
    4. Yuan
    5. Yerevan is ringing bells, but it's possible that it's hilariously wrong.
    6. Yaw? Thanks Aviatrix.
    7. Y...ellowknife? Need to brush up on my Canadian geography, methinks.
    8. Yeah, I don't know this.
    The only trees I know that start with y are Yew and Yukon Pine, and I doubt that Yukon pine was ever a huge problem for Cavalry. Ah, a problem from Cavalrymen, as in a 'Battle of Agincourt' problem for cavalrymen, nice. Yew.
    9. Yorkshire.
    10. Again, not many choices, I'll say Yak.

    Touchdown!

    (a) yes
    (b) yes
    (c) didn't have to, I've been ticking them off on a napkin on my desk.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. I don't know; oh, Y? Yeats?
    2. Yemen
    3. You gotta be kidding
    4. yuan
    5. hrm
    6. yaw
    7. Yellowknife--good place to see the aurora borealis.
    8. um... yew? Two, yew wood makes good bows?
    9. hrm
    10. yak!
    a b & c: no, aw.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow - I misspelled Yeats, didn't I? Now I feel dumb. Thing is we have a politician in town named Yates and I'm always having to listen to him yammer at meetings so that's my excuse. That and my illiteracy.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale
    4. Yen
    5. Ypsilanti? Just kidding.
    6. Yaw?
    7. Yellowknife is the only Y city in Canada that I know.
    8. YEW! This is how I got the Letter of the Day.
    9. Yorkshire
    10. Y....can't be yaks, can't be yellowhammers, can't be youse,

    Alas, not knowing very many of these, and no, I had no idea this was The End.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 1. Yeats
    2. Yemen?
    3. No clue
    4. Yen
    5. Why don't I know this? I blame my public education. Weak in geography.
    6. Yaw
    7. Yukon City?
    8.
    9. Yorkshire
    10. Yak

    ReplyDelete
  15. 1. Yates? Yeats?
    2. Yemen
    3. Yale
    4. yuan!
    5. Yassar
    6. yurbulence
    7. Yottawa
    8. Yew?
    9. Yorkshire, sir!
    10. yippy dog

    a. no
    b. that'd be too clever
    c. ditto

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh, god. I read 'Central ASIA' as 'Central America.' Just wait til YOU are 64, and you'll see why this is happening. God. Old Age is much worse than advertised. I just thought you got OLD, not stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Looks like there's still time:

    1. Yates?
    2. Yemen. (Also pictured, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Eritrea and Djibouti. Unless you mean more general and "Arabian Peninsula". ;) )
    3.
    4. yuan
    5. Yerevan
    6. yaw?
    7. Northwest Territories (and not as much of a "huge chunk" now that Nunavut is separated.)
    8.
    9. Yorkshire
    10. yak

    a) haven't been here that long, so no.
    b) would be fun ...
    c) why didn't I?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh well, guess I'll stick my answers in:

    1. Yeats
    2. Yemen
    3.Yale
    4.yuan
    5. Yerevan
    6. I got a copilot, he can figure it out.
    7. Yellowknife
    8. Yarrow
    9. Yorkshire
    10. Yak

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh. Yeah, I was thinking of yew. Oops.

    Congratulations, Aviatrix! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh hey, answers. UnWise Owl got 'em all, above.

    Eavan: "thinking of yew." Heh. But why are we congratulating Aviatrix? The implied shout-out of an aviation-related question next to a Canada-related question?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Looks like I missed a quiz, but that won't stop me.

    1. Shelley, because I think he liked ancient lands, but it has to be Yeats who is close enough to Shelley for someone of my literary shortcomings.

    2. East Yemen, because I think there's more than one of them, and that looks eastish. But I'll knock it down to just Yemen for letter compliance.

    3. Boston, because I think they existed. No, Yale, because it begins with Y.

    4. Renmibi. No, yuan. (So what are the other things beginning with R?)

    5. Yerevan

    6. Confinement in a zoetrope. Oh wait, today is Y! Yaw.

    7. Yellowknife, not to be confused with Slave Lake, which is on the shore of the Lesser Slave Lake and isn't the capital of anything, plus it burned down last month.

    8. I'm going for yew, and the other problem is that if your horse gallops under its low branches it whacks you in the face.

    9. Yorkshire. Got it from the Herriot, not the Jane Austen.

    10. Yak, and I can't remember if it actually has pink milk or if that's just a widely propagated false fact.

    (a) I usually forget that there's a letter at all, until I get two answers witht he same letter in a row, then I go back and change all my other guesses to match, so no.

    (b) I had indeed realized that it would be possible to narrow down the choices as the weeks progressed and had considered keeping a tally, but preferred to be surprised each week. I did not know that this was the 26th week, but knew with sadness that the final week would soon arrive.

    I very much enjoy the quizzes, and find the letter cue a brilliant way to make participation more enjoyable even when I don't know the subject matter.

    ReplyDelete

Voting in the Infinite Art Tournament? Awesome. And, please be aware that purely anonymous votes are not counted. You don't need to log in or use your real name, but you must identify yourself in some fashion for your vote to count.