The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

[Sharpeset]

Staying in Oxford, and sort of sticking with the geographical theme: which area of Oxford shares its name with a biblical city? 

 

[+mellers]

I don't know the city personally, but I seem to remember a reference from an Inspector Morse novel so my guess is 

Jericho,

[Sharpeset]

That's a very quick Ding!

[+mellers]

Thinking about Oxford... The word "Oxbridge" is a combination of the words, "Oxford" and "Cambridge" and refers to anyone who attended either university of the sort of culture which surrounds such institutions. What is the name for this type of word, which is a combination of two other words.

 

Other examples include "Chillax" (chill and relax) or "Brexit" (Britain and exit).

[+MartyBartfast]

Portmanteau.

 

[+mellers]

Ding! All yours, Marty.

[+MartyBartfast]

Oops, forgot about this.

 

Complete either of these well known  phrases:

"It's Friday, it's five to five. . . It's"

 

"It's Friday, it's five o'clock. . . It's"

 

(which one you go for may depend on your age).

[+mellers]

(Feeling my age by this point)

 

"Crackerjack"

[+MartyBartfast]

Ding to Mellers, who doesn't look nearly old enough to remember ?

[+mellers]

Thanks Marty.
Topical, now. What is the two word name of the groundhog used in America (specifically today), to predict the weather for the rest of the winter. Extra geocaching kudos to anyone who can spell the first part of his name correctly, although I'm not going to go all strict on you to insist on correct spelling for a ding!

[+tyzack4]

6 hours ago, mellers said:

Thanks Marty.
Topical, now. What is the two word name of the groundhog used in America (specifically today), to predict the weather for the rest of the winter. Extra geocaching kudos to anyone who can spell the first part of his name correctly, although I'm not going to go all strict on you to insist on correct spelling for a ding!

Punxsutawney Phil

 

or at least that was the name in the movie.

[+mellers]

tyzack4 gets a Ding AND kudos for a correct spelling. Over to you.

[+tyzack4]

Okay, here’s a chemistry based question.

T is the symbol for what element?

[+tyzack4]

18 hours ago, tyzack4 said:

Okay, here’s a chemistry based question.

T is the symbol for what element?

Another clue..... D is also the symbol for the same element.

[+me N u]

As far as we are aware, there are no chemical elements whose symbol is solely T or D - plenty of T+ eg Ti = Titanium or Ds = Darmstdtium (thanks to pointless for the latter).

[+searcherdog]

T didn't ring a bell, Deuterium shot into my mind when I saw the clue. I can see a google session approaching.

[+tyzack4]

7 minutes ago, searcherdog said:

T didn't ring a bell, Deuterium shot into my mind when I saw the clue. I can see a google session approaching.

Getting closer. One element has two other isotopes, each of which has their own symbol. So that’s three symbols for one element. I have given the isotope symbols: D and T. 

[+me N u]

The element is Hydrogen, symbol H - with T and D being the isotopes Tritium and Deuterium.

[+tyzack4]

6 hours ago, me N u said:

The element is Hydrogen, symbol H - with T and D being the isotopes Tritium and Deuterium.

Ding, over to you.

good answer.

[+me N u]

Thank you for the ding - our school days were not totally wasted

Next up, and a simple one

 

As I was going to St Ives,

 

I met a man with seven wives,

 

each wife had seven sacks,

 

each sack had seven cats,

 

each cat had seven kittens,

 

How many were going to St Ives?

[+MartyBartfast]

we only know 1 for sure - you.

 

Though Jonh Finnemore did a very funny sketch about it on his Souvenir Programme, where they met on a train going to St. Ives so in that case there were 2,753.

[+me N u]

And a  quick ding to MartyBartfast !

[+MartyBartfast]

Ta.

 

Name the largest moon orbiting a planet in our solar system.

[+mellers]

Titan?

[+MartyBartfast]

Nope, Titan comes in a close second.

[+mellers]

At this point someone's going to have to remind me of the rules...

I know there's no Googling, but how many goes am I allowed on each question? Do I have to wait until someone else has had a go before I chip in again (if more than one try is allowed)?

[+speakers-corner]

ganimede, or something like that. It is one of Jupiters moons.

[+MartyBartfast]

2 hours ago, mellers said:

I know there's no Googling, but how many goes am I allowed on each question? Do I have to wait until someone else has had a go before I chip in again (if more than one try is allowed)?

As many goes as you like, not sure whether it's etiquette to jump straight in with another guess before someone else has had a go, but I wouldn't complain.

 

 

However it's moot at this point 'cos speakers-corner beat you to it:

1 hour ago, speakers-corner said:

ganimede, or something like that. It is one of Jupiters moons.

 

that's a Dyng for Ganymede.

 

While checking where Titan came in the rankings I was a little surprised to find that our very own Moon (does it have another name?) is 4th largest!

 

[+DerDiedler]

 

....misshapen

 

Edited February 7, 2019 by DerDiedler

[+speakers-corner]

Thanks for the Ding and the correct spelling of the name.

Complete change of theme.

There are two red lines in the Palace of Westminster. Where are they and why are they there?

[+Optimist on the run]

Are they they ones in the Commons, to keep the two sides a sword's length apart?

 

[+speakers-corner]

And the Ding goes to Ootr. Yes they are the ones. They have a name but I have forgotten what they are called. Over to you.

[+Optimist on the run]

As far as I can tell, they're just known as red lines.

 

Next question - where is the smallest house in Britain?

[+speakers-corner]

In Conwy, North Wales. I went there in 1977 when I was with the Royal Engineers staying at the Adventure Training Camp in Betws-y-Coed.

[+Optimist on the run]

A quick ding to speakers-corner.

[+speakers-corner]

Thanks for the ding on that.

This should also be a quich easy question.

 

What is the BFBS?

[+me N u]

Mr me N u being ex RAF thinks it is the British forces broadcasting serce

 

[+speakers-corner]

 Which means you might have known the "Poison Dwarf" ( I have forgotten his real Name), Richard Astbury, Dave Lee Travis Tommy Vance to mention a few.

DING

[+me N u]

6 hours ago, speakers-corner said:

 Which means you might have known the "Poison Dwarf" ( I have forgotten his real Name), Richard Astbury, Dave Lee Travis Tommy Vance to mention a few.

DING

 

Some long forgotten names there and no we don't know the Poison Dwarfs real name either -and we won't use that as the next question

 

Staying with names, what is the name - we'll accept forename or surname - of the cgi meerkat whose catchphrase is "simples"?

[+searcherdog]

Aleksandr Orlov ?

[+me N u]

And a quick DING to searcherdog who got both forename and surname.

[+searcherdog]

And for another quick question ....

Two popular claymation characters refer to a particular type of cheese in their films. Name that cheese.

 

[+MartyBartfast]

Is it t Wensleydale Grommit?

 

[+searcherdog]

"Gromit, that's it! Cheese!" and over to MartyBartfast

[+MartyBartfast]

In about 240BC  a man performed an experiment involving a stick in  Alexandria and a well in Syene (both in Egypt), who was that man and what was the purpose of the experiment?

[+tyzack4]

7 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

In about 240BC  a man performed an experiment involving a stick in  Alexandria and a well in Syene (both in Egypt), who was that man and what was the purpose of the experiment?

I know the answer, but I will let someone else claim it, however he used a tower in Alexandria and not a stick.

[+MartyBartfast]

2 hours ago, tyzack4 said:

however he used a tower in Alexandria and not a stick.

If you read various sources on the subject you will find it described variously as a stick, pole, rod, gnomon (part of a sundial) and a tower; I went with the one I "was brough up on" but unless we have a reference from someone who was there then I guess it's all speculation.

[+colleda]

Bugger, I was in Alexandria less than a week ago. Could have asked my tour guide. It's also possible he said something about it and I've promptly forgotten what - becoming more common as the years go by.

[+Optimist on the run]

The purpose was to determine the circumference of the earth, given the angle of the sun at a given distance apart at the same time. I don't know the name.

[+MartyBartfast]

I'll give the Ding to Optimist on the run. The chap was Eratosthenes.