Trivia Masterclass: Week 6

Film, Country Subdivisions, Scandi-trivia

We’re back in business folks! Thanks for your patience and forbearance in the recent two-week hiatus. I’m hopeful that the pre-emptive writing that the break enabled me to do will make my publishing schedule a lot more consistent and less frantic in the coming weeks and months, and that surprise interruptions should accordingly become much less likely. I hope you’ll find this week’s quiz to be worth the wait.

And with that, welcome back to week 6! Huge thanks for joining me on this journey of quiz revision — I really hope you enjoy it. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend having a quick read of my introductory post ( https://substack.com/home/post/p-161751014?source=queue) where I say something about the philosophy of these weekly quizzes and why I’ve structured them in the way I have.

As with previous weeks, you’ll find the answers to each round immediately after said round, rather than all together at the end. And if a question begins “[PICTURE]” then it relates in some way to the image included at the beginning of the round: there will be one such question in every round.

Feel free to post your scores in the comments, and especially to share answers you’re proud of, frustrating misses, facts you found interesting, or extra information — I’m keen for this to be an active community so conversation is encouraged, provided you all keep it friendly and respectful.

---

Round 1 — Warm-Up

1. [PICTURE] The famously brutal 1975 boxing match where Muhammad Ali defended his world heavyweight title against former champion Joe Frazier is known as the “Thrilla in” what capital city of the Philippines?

2. A specialised teaspoon with a serrated tip is associated with what thick-skinned, pink-fleshed citrus fruit, which is commonly served cut in half with the skin still on?

3. Native to the Arctic circle, what is the common name of the only species of owl to have predominantly white plumage? Its name evokes both its appearance and its polar habitat.

4. In what absurdist drama by Samuel Beckett do Vladimir and Estragon spend the entire play trying to pass the time until the much anticipated arrival of the title character, who never appears?

5. Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen is predominantly set in what Spanish city, also the home of the titular barber in a well-known opera by Gioachino Rossini?

6. What six-letter word names an important technique in industrial chemistry that involves boiling a mixture over an extended period of time, with the resultant vapours being condensed and returned to the mixture? The same word can follow “acid” to refer to an uncomfortable symptom, linked to heartburn, where gastric juices from the stomach flow upwards into the oesophagus.

7. David Fincher’s Panic Room featured an early star turn by what actor as Jodie Foster’s 12-year-old daughter? This actor gained global stardom as Bella in The Twilight Saga and played Princess Diana in 2021’s Spencer.

8. Ella Fitzgerald is considered the all-time master of what technique of vocal jazz improvisation, which uses nonsense syllables that evoke and complement the sounds of the accompanying instruments?

9. The pragmatic governing philosophy of Realpolitik was most famously exemplified by which nineteenth-century statesman, nicknamed “the Iron Chancellor”, who oversaw the unification of Germany in 1871?

10. What name is given to the left-most of the three pedals in a manual car, not present in an automatic car, which disengages the engine from the wheels and must be applied when switching gears?

11. After a city in the Netherlands, what name did early modern Dutch navigators give to the southern headland of South America, where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet? Rounding this cape remains one of the major challenges for recreational sailors, although the Panama Canal has obviously reduced its importance as a shipping lane.

12. A series of comedic promos for NBC’s coverage of the UK Premier League provided the unlikely genesis for what recent Emmy-winning TV series, in which the titular American college football coach becomes the manager of an English “soccer” team?

13. Displayed at London’s St Pancras station, the neon installation I Want My Time with You was created by what contemporary British artist, whose sculpture My Bed was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999?

14. What astronomical word respectively follows “Champagne” and “Red Wine” in the titles of the closing track from Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory and, more recently, the second track on Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess?

15. The Battle of Agincourt and the Siege of Orléans were key engagements in what major war of the Middle Ages between England and France, whose name refers (imprecisely) to its duration?

16. Jonny Bairstow is the current captain of what first-class county cricket club, who play their home matches at Headingley?

17. What forename is shared by the lead female characters in the musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music?

18. The tattoo art known as tā moko and the ceremonial dance known as the haka are elements of the traditional heritage of what indigenous people of New Zealand?

19. With Philip Glenister reprising his role as boorish Manchester cop Gene Hunt, Ashes to Ashes was the sequel to what other BBC time travel/police procedural show of the 2000s, which was similarly named after a David Bowie song?

20. What word can mean either the small worm-like pouch at the end of the large intestine, which can often become inflamed requiring its surgical removal, or a supplementary text added to the end of a book or article?

---

Round 1 — ANSWERS

1. Manila

2. Grapefruit

3. Snowy owl

4. Waiting for Godot

5. Seville

6. Reflux

7. Kristen Stewart

8. Scat singing

9. Otto von Bismarck

10. Clutch

11. Cape Horn

12. Ted Lasso

13. Tracy Emin

14. Supernova

15. Hundred Years’ War (it actually lasted about 116 years)

16. Yorkshire

17. Maria

18. Māori

19. Life on Mars

20. Appendix

---

Round 2 — The Fundamentals: Film

When I first got involved in competitive quizzing at university, I rapidly established a reputation as a film specialist, although this was largely a reflection of how mediocre-to-hopeless I was at all the other components of the academic quiz syllabus, meaning that it caused more of a stir when I came to life on the occasional question about Billy Wilder or David Lean. I’ve always loved old movies and I got big into film history as a teenager, devouring Mark Cousins’s documentary ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’ and David Thomson’s book ‘The Big Screen’: all of which has served me well in quiz. Accurately interrupting all three parts of a ‘Uni Challenge’ bonus set on Italian Neo-Realism remains, in my own imagination, my number one on-screen moment. While I’ve improved in most other areas of quiz in recent years, I think that my film coverage has slipped a bit, especially with newer releases. I’m very eager to get back into a regular habit of watching films rather than just learning quiz facts about them, and I hope that these questions inspire you to do the same.

1. Providing the subtitle for the film’s long-awaited and hugely successful sequel in 2022, what is the call-sign of Tom Cruise’s fighter-pilot protagonist Pete Mitchell in 1986’s Top Gun?

2. What beloved Japanese cyberpunk anime film, a huge influence on The Matrix, was controversially remade in 2017 with multiple non-Japanese actors cast in the lead roles, including Scarlett Johansson as cyborg protagonist Motoko Kusanagi?

3. The titular role in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown was played by what legendary actor, whom Tarantino described as cinema’s first female action star in reference to her iconic roles in such ’70s “blaxploitation” classics as Coffy and Foxy Brown?

4. Voiced by Albert Brooks, what is the name of the father of the titular clownfish in the Pixar film Finding Nemo?

5. Featuring an acclaimed score by Mark Knopfler and a very early role for Peter Capaldi, what 1983 comedy directed by Bill Forsyth concerns an American oil company’s attempt to purchase a village on the west coast of Scotland?

6. A steel-band cover version of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. plays an important role in what 2023 Palme d’Or-winning courtroom drama, directed by Justine Triet, in which a novelist is accused of murdering her husband at their family chalet in the French Alps?

7. First coined by critic Nathan Rabin to describe Kirsten Dunst’s character in 2005’s Elizabethtown, what term, abbreviated MPDG, describes a one-dimensional female character who, in Rabin’s words, “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life”?

8. The Twin Pines Mall (or the Lone Pine Mall in an alternative timeline where one of the namesake trees gets knocked down) stands on the outskirts of what fictional California town, the primary setting of the Back to the Future trilogy?

9. Who took home the Best Actress award at the 2025 Oscars ceremony for her role in the movie Anora as the eponymous exotic dancer who gets impulsively married to the son of a Russian oligarch?

10. Which director is credited with creating the fight genre of “gun fu” in such Hong Kong action classics as A Better Tomorrow and The Killer? He later directed several Hollywood hits, beginning with 1993’s Hard Target.

11. [PICTURE] Inspiring the similar metafictional conceit of Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, in what 1924 silent comedy does Buster Keaton play a projectionist who dozes off during a showing and dreams about stepping into the screen to become a character in the film?

12. In the beloved Paddington films, the bear protagonist is voiced by what actor, also known for playing Q in the Daniel Craig-era Bond films?

13. Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia wrote the Oscar-winning song It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp for what 2005 film about a small-time criminal, played by Terrence Howard, whose mid-life crisis prompts him to pursue a new career in hip-hop?

14. What is the name of the spaceship whose crew is terrorised by an extraterrestrial in Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror film Alien? It was named after a 1904 novel by the same author whose short story ‘The Duel’ formed the basis for Scott’s debut film, The Duellists.

15. What name is usually given to the aspect ratio of 1.375 to 1 which was standard for Hollywood films between the 1930s and the advent of the widescreen format in the 1950s? Although far less common today, the popularity of this boxy ratio has been revived in recent years by directors including Andrea Arnold and Wes Anderson.

16. Which actor appeared in several of the greatest Hollywood films of the 1970s, including The French Connection, Marathon Man, and All That Jazz, in addition to his best-known role as police chief Martin Brody in Jaws?

17. Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, and Irene Papas were among the ensemble cast of what 1961 World War II film about an Allied saboteur unit attempting to infiltrate a heavily defended German artillery fortress on an island in the Aegean Sea?

18. One of a host of genre-blending horror movies released by studio A24 in the last few years, what 2022 satirical comedy-horror depicts a group of Gen-Z bright young things riding out a hurricane at one of their mansions by playing a “murder-in-the-dark” style parlour game which goes violently off the rails?

19. Regarded as one of the greatest documentary films of all time, what 1975 film by Albert and David Maysles profiled two former socialites, a mother and daughter related to Jackie Kennedy, who were now living as recluses in their derelict, raccoon-infested mansion on Long Island?

20. Spoken by Gloria Swanson in the role of Norma Desmond, the immortal final line of the film Sunset Boulevard mentions the name of what real-life film director who, like Swanson and Desmond, made his name in the silent movie era?

---

Round 2 — ANSWERS

1. Maverick

2. Ghost in the Shell

3. Pam Grier

4. Marlin

5. Local Hero

6. Anatomy of a Fall

7. Manic Pixie Dream Girl

8. Hill Valley

9. Mikey Madison

10. John Woo (also directed Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2)

11. Sherlock Jr.

12. Ben Whishaw

13. Hustle and Flow

14. Nostromo (the author being Joseph Conrad)

15. Academy ratio

16. Roy Scheider

17. The Guns of Navarone

18. Bodies Bodies Bodies

19. Grey Gardens

20. Cecil B. DeMille (as in “All right, Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”)

---

Round 3 — A Deeper Dive: Country Subdivisions

Learning lists is, in my experience, a pretty joyless method of quiz revision and in general it’s not a method I’d recommend unless you find it positively comes naturally to you. The countries of the world and their capital cities is a list that I suspect most top quizzers have just sat down and learned, and it’s probably worth it if you can be bothered — although even with those, I’d recommend doing it slowly and incrementally, breaking the list down by area and keeping your eyes peeled for fun facts as you go. But when you get down to the level of provinces, states, counties, departments, prefectures, cantons, oblasts, voivodeships, etc., my philosophy is very much that life’s too short. In this area as with pretty much all others in quiz, the mode of revision that works for me and which I’m trying to model with this Substack is geared towards building a holistic understanding of and interest in the world at large: e.g. rather than spend an hour trying to learn twenty Chinese provinces and their capital cities by rote, I’d rather pick five of them and learn four facts about each which genuinely resonate with me for whatever reason. While this round might play quite hard for many of you, my hope is that you learn at least one new fact that makes you feel you understand a tiny bit of the world a tiny bit better.

1. Containing around half of the state’s total population, what city is the capital of Australia’s island state of Tasmania?

2. Although the ancient Roman province of Lusitania is now more-or-less synonymous with modern-day Portugal, it also included what landlocked autonomous community of modern-day Spain, whose capital city of Mérida grew out of Lusitania’s capital of Emerita Augusta?

3. The most populous sub-national administrative unit in Africa is what country’s region of Oromia? As its name implies, this is the homeland of the Oromo people, who constitute this country’s largest ethnic group.

4. Greece is divided into thirteen regions plus what small autonomous area which exercises its own sovereignty within both Greece and the European Union? Its monastic community is thus able to impose restrictions on the free movement of people, notably banning the entry of women, and indeed most female animals.

5. 48 of the 50 states of the USA are divided into “counties”, with the two exceptions being Alaska, whose administrative subdivisions are called “boroughs”, and Louisiana, which uses what other classification? This is also the name given to the fourteen local government units of Jamaica.

6. The name of what neighbouring country follows West and East in the names of two provinces of Iran, with their capitals at Urmia and Tabriz?

7. Which smallest Irish county by area occupies the southern shore of the sea inlet of Carlingford Lough, with Northern Ireland’s County Down on the north shore?

8. The current geological age, beginning around 4,200 years ago, is named for what state of northeastern India, whose highland landscape inspired the former British authorities to nickname it “the Scotland of the East”?

9. Which state of Germany is only one since the fall of the Berlin Wall to have had a state government led by Die Linke, the descendants of the old East German Communist party? Historically, this state was a centre of the German Enlightenment which flourished in its cities of Jena and Weimar.

10. Which province of Canada is the easternmost of the three so-called Prairie provinces, along with Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the only one of the three with a coastline on Hudson Bay?

11. The northern French department of Somme, the location of the famous battlefield of the same name, has its administrative headquarters at what city, previously the centre of the historic region of Picardy? This city’s namesake Gothic cathedral is France’s largest, at more than double the volume of Paris’s Notre-Dame.

12. What southern province of Argentina, within the wider geographical region of Patagonia, is famously home to a substantial Welsh-speaking community descended from nineteenth-century settlers, as reflected in the names of several of its major cities like Trelew and Puerto Madryn?

13. The South African province of Eastern Cape is the only province to have what as its majority language? The largest city in this province officially changed its name in 2021 from an English name to one in this language.

14. Which Indonesian province, at the northwestern tip of Sumatra, is the only place in the country where Sharia law is officially practiced? It became tragically famous around the world after being devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

15. Which state of Mexico, with is capital at Guadalajara, is considered the point of origin for many key components of Mexican culture including tequila, birria, and mariachi: hence the state motto, “[BLANK] Is Mexico”?

16. Located near the geographical midpoint of continental Asia, what constituent republic of Russia existed as an independent People’s Republic from 1921 until its annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944? The final leader of that People’s Republic, Khertek Anchimaa, has a claim to be considered the first non-royal female head of state in history.

17. The terrorist group Boko Haram was founded in, and remains closely associated with, what state of northeastern Nigeria? With Kanem, this region co-names a former empire, based around Lake Chad, which lasted for well over a thousand years until its dissolution in 1902.

18. Essentially the “instep” of the Italian “boot”, which administrative region of southern Italy includes the stunning ancient city of Matera, once infamous throughout Italy for its poverty and civic decline but now a prestige holiday destination and cultural hotspot?

19. [PICTURE] The largest Brazilian state by area, Amazonas contains the confluence of the two major branches of the Amazon, the dark-coloured Rio Negro and the sandy-coloured Solimões. What city, the state capital, was established at this confluence and experienced a famous economic boom in the nineteenth century fuelled by the rubber industry?

20. Quiz questions about Chinese provinces offer plentiful opportunities for extremely near misses. With this in mind, name both the province in central China whose city of Wuhan saw the first COVID-19 outbreak in 2019 and the province in northeastern China whose city of Tangshan was flattened in 1976 by the deadliest earthquake of the twentieth century?

---

Round 3 — ANSWERS

1. Hobart

2. Extremadura (also famous as the home of a disproportionate number of the conquistadors who colonised the New World, including Cortés, Pizarro, and Pedro de Valdivia who founded the city of Santiago in Chile, originally naming it Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura)

3. Ethiopia

4. Mount Athos (the monks apparently turn a blind eye to female cats, as they are useful for catching mice)

5. Parishes

6. Azerbaijan

7. Louth

8. Meghalaya (as in the Meghalayan age)

9. Thuringia

10. Manitoba

11. Amiens (the birthplace of President Emmanuel Macron)

12. Chubut

13. Xhosa (the largest city was formerly known as Port Elizabeth but is now called Gqeberha, pronounced with a distinctive Xhosa “click” consonant)

14. Aceh

15. Jalisco

16. Tuva (formerly the Tuvan People’s Republic — also famous for its tradition of throat-singing)

17. Borno State (accept Bornu, as in the Kanem-Bornu Empire)

18. Basilicata

19. Manaus (known to classical music fans as the site of a stunningly beautiful opera house, and to cinema fans for the appearance of that opera house in an early scene of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo)

20. Hubei and Hebei (you do need them the right way round for the point I’m afraid, so mark yourself honestly)

---

Round 4 — Themes and Trends: Scandi-trivia

Not much to say about this round, beyond that the more facts I learn about the history and culture of the Nordic countries, the more tempted I am to move to one of them. One of my former PhD supervisors is currently based in Stockholm (shout out to Steve and the rest of the Quaich Clan) and my visit there last year is up there with my all-time favourite city-break experiences. To my Nordic readers, if there any of you, I hope you have fun with the following round, and I can only apologise for its title being both an extremely lame pun and technically incorrect due to the inclusion of questions about the non-Scandinavian countries of Iceland and Finland.

1. Founded by Markus “Notch” Persson, what Swedish game studio is best known for developing Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time? Their name is a colloquial Swedish word with a similar meaning to “gizmo”.

2. Before her acclaimed film scores for Tár and Joker, Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir won an Emmy and Grammy for her music for what 2019 HBO miniseries, set in the 1980s?

3. Two elements on the periodic table have names derived from Nordic capital cities, namely holmium (from Stockholm) and what other element, after the Latin name of Copenhagen?

4. [PICTURE] An iconic 1963 photograph by Lewis Morley depicted Christine Keeler straddling a chair by what Danish architect and furniture designer? His architectural works include the distinctive striped lifeguard towers at Copenhagen’s Bellevue Beach and the campus of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, including the UK’s only Grade I listed bike shed.

5. Which Danish model and actor made her film debut as the titular sword-wielding heroine of 1985’s sword-and-sorcery epic Red Sonja? Later that year, she played the wife of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, a role she would reprise in 2018’s Creed II.

6. In the cosmic scheme of Norse mythology, what name is given to the squirrel who perpetually scampers up and down the World Tree, Yggdrasil, delivering gossip and abusive messages between the eagle who lives at the top of the tree and the dragon who gnaws at its roots?

7. Effectively untranslatable into any other language, but somewhat analogous to “grit” or “tenacity”, what four-letter Finnish word is often described as the ultimate expression of the Finnish national character.

8. What 2014 black comedy by Swedish director Ruben Östlund follows a family on a skiing holiday dealing with the extreme awkwardness that ensues after a harmless controlled avalanche from which the father flees in terror leaving his wife and children directly it its (apparent) path?

9. Formerly governed by the Danish East India Company, what island group in the Bay of Bengal now forms part of a union territory of India along with the nearby Andaman Islands? It also gives its name to a local species of pigeon with metallic green plumage.

10. Nidaros was the medieval name for what city in Norway, whose Nidaros Cathedral is the burial place of Norway’s patron saint, King Olaf II, and remains the standard location for the coronation of Norwegian monarchs?

11. Which Danish footballer won the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award twice during her time at VfL Wolfsburg before being signed by Chelsea in September 2020, in what was then the most expensive transfer in women’s football history?

12. After a Norwegian mathematician, what name is given in maths to a group — a set together with an operation that combines two members of the set to produce a third member of the set — where the result of applying that operation on any two members does not depend on the order in which they are written (i.e. where the operation is commutative)?

13. Titled in Finland after its protagonist’s surname, what is the English title of the Finnish crime drama series about police detective Kari Sorjonen, who employs a “memory palace” technique similar to that of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes?

14. Based in the small city of Vimmerby, also famous as the hometown of children’s author Astrid Lindgren, what popular Swedish cider brand, with a name meaning “reliable”, is known for its range of unusual fruit ciders, including Passionfruit and Strawberry-Lime?

15. Inspiring a famous poem by Seamus Heaney, what name was given to the body of an Iron Age man which was discovered in a Danish peat bog in 1950, with the noose that hanged him still around his neck and a strikingly serene expression on his phenomenally well-preserved face?

16. The ice hockey-playing Swedish brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who were top point-scorers in the NHL in consecutive seasons (2009-10 and 2010-11), spent their entire careers with what British Columbia-based team? This team joined the NHL in 1970 but has yet to win a Stanley Cup.

17. Featuring a prominent early example of a “millennial whoop” (which became ubiquitous in pop music around 2009), what Finnish rock band’s 2003 song In the Shadows charted at number 3 in the UK? More recently, they finished a disappointing 21st in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

18. A partial allegory for the moral panic that had greeted his previous play Ghosts, what 1882 play by Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen concerns a public health officer who tries in vain to sound the alarm that his town’s lucrative spa waters are polluted?

19. Which third-most populous city in Finland is notably the most populous city in any of the Nordic countries to be located inland? As a centre of cotton weaving in the nineteenth century, it drew comparisons with Manchester, hence its common Finnish nickname of “Manse”.

20. The songs My Favourite Game and Erase/Rewind both appeared on what best-selling 1998 album by Swedish band The Cardigans, whose title is also that of a hugely successful video game franchise?

---

Round 4 — ANSWERS

1. Mojang

2. Chernobyl

3. Hafnium

4. Arne Jacobsen

5. Brigitte Nielsen

6. Ratatoskr

7. Sisu

8. Force Majeure

9. Nicobar islands

10. Trondheim

11. Pernille Harder

12. Abelian group (after Niels Henrik Abel)

13. Bordertown

14. Rekorderlig

15. Tollund man

16. Vancouver Canucks

17. The Rasmus

18. An Enemy of the People

19. Tampere

20. Gran Turismo

---

Round 5 — No Pain, No Gain

1. Born Simone Gooden, what London-born rapper moved to New York in 1988 and became a leading member of the Native Tongues collective, along with De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Queen Latifah? She contributed a guest verse to Latifah’s Ladies First and had a transatlantic chart hit with her 1990 single It’s a Shame (My Sister).

2. Which mountain in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush, and the highest in the world outside of the Himalayas-Karakoram range?

3. Also known as frittage, what manufacturing process involves fusing a material into a solid mass by applying heat and compression but without melting it to the point of liquefaction? This process is especially useful for shaping metals with an unusually high melting point, e.g. tungsten.

4. Named after the family of Derbyshire immigrants who established the company in the 1890s in Hobart (remember round 3), what Tasmanian footwear brand is famous worldwide for their elastic-sided ankle boots, which have become extremely chic in the 2020s as a component of what an Esquire stylist dubbed the “allotment-core” aesthetic?

5. Also believed to have created the earliest portrait miniature, what 15th-century French court painter is probably best known for depicting King Charles VII’s mistress Agnès Sorel as a nursing Madonna, with perfectly spherical breasts, in the Melun Diptych?

6. Most closely associated with the city of Leipzig, what style of German wheat beer is known for its unique flavour derived from its lactic fermentation and the inclusion of coriander and, most distinctively, salt?

7. [PICTURE] So named because of its richly patterned facade of glazed earthenware tiles, Vienna’s Majolica House was designed by what leading architect of the Vienna Secession, whose other prominent buildings in Vienna include the former Karlsplatz station and the Steintof Church?

8. In support of her grandson Elagabalus, Julia Maesa engineered the coup of 218 AD that toppled which Roman emperor, who had usurped the title two years earlier after arranging the murder of Caracalla? Of Berber descent, this was the first emperor not to hail from the senatorial class.

9. Adapted into an acclaimed 1995 documentary of the same name, what influential 1981 book by film historian and activist Vito Russo examines the various coded and overt depictions of homosexuality in Hollywood cinema through the decades?

10. One of the best-selling perfumes of all time, and famously referenced by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, L’Air du Temps was created in 1948 by which French fashion house?

11. Known for its iconic cover artwork referencing the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement and its wordless vocals by singer Abbey Lincoln, which jazz drummer and composer recorded the 1960 album We Insist!, subtitled as his Freedom Now Suite?

12. Winning 26 medals (11 golds) at the UCI World Championships between 2003 and 2015, which Australian cyclist is the most decorated female track cyclist of all time? A velodrome in Brisbane named in her honour will be one of the venues for the 2032 Summer Olympics.

13. The 1896 coronation of Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II was overshadowed by tragedy when almost 1,300 people were killed in a stampede towards the buffets during a celebration in what public meadow in Moscow?

14. Which British actor, probably best known for his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, first gained fame as Geoffrey, the ne’er-do-well teenage lodger and sidekick of Patricia Routledge’s protagonist, in the 1990s detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates?

15. Named after an eighteenth-century Swiss mathematician although it was probably first devised by Scotsman Colin Maclaurin, what eponymous “rule” in linear algebra allows you to solve systems of linear equations which have the same number of unknowns as equations, by expressing the unknowns as the ratio of two matrix determinants?

16. What four-letter name is given to only diacritic mark used in the Irish language? It takes the form of an acute accent and denotes a lengthened vowel sound, as in the names Seán or Sinéad.

17. When Team USA won their first, and so far only, Olympic gold medal in baseball at Sydney 2000, they were coached by what man, best known for managing the Los Angeles Dodgers for twenty seasons from 1976 to 1996?

18. Created in 2011 by French designer Antoine Bauza, in what charming strategy board game do players take the role of farmers in the Japanese emperor’s bamboo garden, trying to preserve the bamboo plants, represented by physical stacks of tokens, while also maintaining the health of the garden’s resident giant panda?

19. Which British-Indian author was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for her 2023 debut novel Western Lane, about an eleven-year-old girl mourning the loss of her mother while training to become an elite squash player?

20. Released on YouTube in 2020 as his first new song in eight years, and widely considered one of his all-time masterpieces, what 17-minute song by Bob Dylan told an elliptical, apocalyptic history of American popular and political culture, beginning with the assassination of John F Kennedy?

---

Round 5 — ANSWERS

1. Monie Love

2. Tirich Mir

3. Sintering

4. Blundstone (“Blunnies” as their Australian fans know them)

5. Jean Fouquet

6. Gose

7. Otto Wagner

8. Macrinus

9. The Celluloid Closet

10. Nina Ricci

11. Max Roach

12. Anna Meares

13. Khodynka Field (known as the Khodynka Tragedy)

14. Dominic Monaghan

15. Cramer’s rule

16. Fada (or síneadh fada)

17. Tommy Lasorda

18. Takenoko

19. Chetna Maroo

20. Murder Most Foul

---

And that’s your lot. Hope you had fun. Feel free to share your best gets and most annoying misses in the comments. I’ll see you next weekend, but for now, I’ll leave you Mika Häkkinen and James May talking about “sisu”.