Tag: literature (Page 2 of 3)

Quiz: Literature Via Amazon.com

24-October-08 / James Callan

Round 5 at the Old Pequliar on October 7, 2008

Amazon identifies key phrases in many of the books it sells — distinctive phrases or proper names that appear in one book but not many others.

Given five key phrases, can you identify the novel they come from? (Additional clue: They were all first published within the last 100 years.)

1) tighter bomb pattern, more combat missions, stupid mouth, Henry Fonda, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf
2) feminist funeral, ball turret gunner, wrestling practice, Under Toad, and sexual suspect
3) threeÂ sÃ©nÃ©chaux, seededÂ womb,Â corporalÂ mortification,Â sacredÂ feminine, and OpusÂ Dei
4) grain barges, cell leader, laser drills, new catapult, and Free Luna
5) invisible doctors, banana company, insomnia plague, story about the capon, and siesta time
6) bun compartment, nucular bum, flannel nightshirt, hunting cap, and Patrolman Mancuso
7) keystreamÂ letters, Bletchley Park, making license plates, Bobby Shaftoe, and substitutionÂ alphabet
8) tennis academy, professional conversationalist, Hal Incandenza, new bong, and howling fantods
9) accused man, fishing gaff, strawberry land, Kabuo Miyamoto, and Island County
10) Las Vegas, rundown bootheels, happy crappy, Captain Trips, and dig your man

Quiz: Spoiler Alert!

3-September-08 / James Callan

Round 2 at the Old Pequliar on Sept. 2, 2008
Average score: 5.95/10 (11 teams)

Given the famous spoiler or plot twist, tell me what work it comes from. (Spoilers ahead, naturally.)

1) (movie) Keaton wasn’t the mastermind after all — it was Verbal all along.
2) (graphic novel) The bad guy destroys New York City to avert nuclear war. But as one of the heroes reminds him, “Nothing ever ends.”
3) (movie) Katherine is her sister and her daughter. And her father-slash-babydaddy gets custody.
4) (TV) Number 1 is a chimpanzee. Or Number 6. Or maybe the screenwriter. It’s open to interpretation.
5) (book) He finds himself back in the desert where it all began, but this time he’s carrying the Horn of Eld.
6) (TV) She moves to New York, becomes a photographer, and dies in 2085 at age 101.
7) (novel) Each of the 12 suspects stabbed Mr. Ratchett once.
8) (play) Technically, he says he could have asked for the moment to go on forever — so he gets to go to heaven after all.
9) (movie) When Diane — or maybe she’s Betty — finds a blue key, she shoots herself. No one agrees what it all means, though.
10) (web series) Captain Hammer gets hurt, Penny gets killed, and the main character gets his wish: joining Bad Horse in the Evil League of Evil.

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Quiz: Pop Shakespeare

9-May-08 / James Callan

1) A speech in Henry V supplied the title for what nonfiction book and the HBO miniseries based on it?
2) At the climax of “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” the South Park episode inspired by Titus Andronicus, Cartman tricks his enemy into doing what?
3) In 2006, the best-selling album in the United States was the soundtrack to what TV movie, a loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet?
4) Spurred by a joke in a 1991 movie, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing have been translated into what artificial language?
5) Two Gentlemen of Verona inspired “Two Gentlemen of Capeside,” an episode of what TV drama?
6) In 2000, what novelist and New Yorker contributor published a prequel to Hamlet called Gertrude & Claudius?
7) One clue that Paul is dead: Lines from King Lear, including “O untimely death!”, can be heard in the background of what trippy Beatles song?
8) In Neil Gaiman’s comic series The Sandman, Morpheus, the king of dreams, commissions Shakespeare to write two fantastical plays. Name one of them.
9) The 1992 hit “Stay” was the biggest hit for what band, which took its name from a 1985 song by the Smiths, which was inspired by a section of Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own?
10) Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas play comical variations on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in what movie loosely based on Hamlet?
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Book quiz on Mental Floss

21-March-08 / James Callan

David Israel’s “Who Am I?” quiz on Mental Floss asks you to identify 10 books based on 10 clues written in the first person.

I scored 70%, though I think I’ve only read 35%. Thank you, general knowledge!

One peeve (with spoilers):

Quiz: Nonsense

30-May-07 / James Callan

I’ll quote you a bit of nonsense. You tell me the name of the work it comes from.

1) Klaatu barada nikto
2) Oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang
3) They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon
4) All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. (Specifically, the title of the poem.)
5) riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
6) Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess, Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your Knickers down.
7) Solakadoola menchicka boola, Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
8) There’s a letter called YEKK. And the YEKK is for Yekko
Who howls in an underground grotto in Gekko.
These Yekkos love echoes, and this is their motto:
“For best Yekko echoes, try Gekko, our grotto!”
9) Sha na na na, sha na na na na,
Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
Mum mum mum mum mum mum
10) Toora loora toora loo rye aye
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Quiz: Sequelitis

11-April-07 / James Callan

I’ll name a sequel, you tell me the name of the work that immediately preceded it.

1) Casino Royale (2006 film)
2) Prince Caspian (book — in publication order)
3) Hannibal (book and movie)
4) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (novel or movie)
5) Terminator III: Rise of the Machines (movie)
6) Through the Looking Glass (book)
7) Rambo (movie)
8) A Shot in the Dark (movie)
9) The Edge of Human (novel)
10) Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (movie)
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Quiz: The Devil

4-April-07 / James Callan

1) What band had a top 10 hit in the US with the song “Devil Inside”?
2) Devil’s Tower National Monument, the famous landmark from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is located in what state?
3) What 2006 film was based on a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisburger?
4) The Vertigo comics series Lucifer was a spinoff of what earlier series created by Neil Gaiman?
5) What’s the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world?
6) The Rolling Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil” debuted on what album?
7) In the story “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” what name does the devil use?
8) What’s the name of the devil who makes a deal with the title character in Goethe’s Faust?
9) What household gadget was introduced by Royal Appliance Manufacturing in 1984?
10) Who referred to George W. Bush as “the devil” in a speech before the UN General Assembly?
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Quiz: Five-by-Five Time Travel

4-April-07 / James Callan

1) On March 21, 2002, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with the kidnapping and murder of who?
2) On March 22, 1997, what 14-year-old became the youngest women’s world figure skating champion?
3) On March 18, 2002, who announced on Larry King Live that he would run for president as an independent?
4) On March 19, 1987, “cancer and a scab on the face of Christianity” Jim Bakker resigned from what religious group?
5) What country occupied South Georgia island on March 19, 1982?
6) A&M Records signed what band on March 10, 1977, but dropped their contract six days later after a band member vomited on a bigwig’s desk?
7) In 1972, the short British novels If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet were published in the US as one book. What was it called?
8) Alice B. Toklas died on March 7, 1967. Who wrote her 1933 autobiography?
9) What country artist, sometimes known as Chris Gaines, was born on February 7, 1962?
10) The European Economic Community was founded on March 25, 1957, with the signing of the Treaty of what city?

Quiz: Science Fiction Authors

12-February-07 / James Callan

Team-requested round topic!

1) L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics laid the foundations for what religion he went on to create?
2) Before writing the post-apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban wrote several childrens books about Frances, who was what kind of animal?
3) Which of these authors had the highest-grossing movie, adjusted for inflation, adapted from one of his novels: Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Crichton, Philip K. Dick, or H.G. Wells?
4) Which of these words was coined by Isaac Asimov in 1941: android, doohickey, positron, or robotics?
5) What novel, sometimes called the first science fiction novel, did Mary Shelley write in an effort to scare the bejeezus out of Lord Byron?
6) In the movie Back to the Future Part III, Doc Brown and Clara share the same favorite author. Who is he?
7) Ray Bradbury has appeared in one television commercial, a funny take on “the food of the future.” What food was it?
8) In Back to School, what author does Rodney Dangerfield’s character hire to write a paper on his own novels?
9) Aldous Huxley took the title of Brave New World from what Shakespeare play?
10) What competitive reality show takes its name from a phrase in one of George Orwell’s novels?

Average score, out of 16 teams: 5.81.

Quiz: I, Anonymous

29-January-07 / James Callan

1) Using a secret identity, Val Valentino hosted four specials on FOX revealing secrets of what profession?
2) Norma McCorvey is the real name of the plaintiff in what famous legal case?
3) What well-known Christmas poem, first published anonymously in 1823, begins with the line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”?
4) Comedian Murray Langston appeared on The Gong Show more than 150 times wearing a paper bag over his head and using what alias?
5) What book claiming to be the autobiography of a teenage drug addict took its name from the lyrics of a Jefferson Airplane song?
6) What is the most recent conflict represented by a soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns?
7) When he wrote the novel Primary Colors, Joe Klein was a political columnist for what magazine?
8) One Victorian erotic novel published by Anonymous in 1901 claimed to be the autobiography of what kind of insect?
9) Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay used the pseudonym Publius when they published what series of articles?
10) Anonymous Michigan band ? and the Mysterians had a #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit with what song?

Average score, out of 22 teams: 5.77.