The all new, revised and easier quiz! (mod note posts 1 and 2042)

looksee

*warbles*

Torchy, Torchy, the battery boy
He's a walking, talking toy
Press my switch,
See my light
Start to (gleam?)
Its the most magic light yooooo haaaaave seeeeeen!

Have no memory of the program at all! Just the song.

garancafan

Would it be "mizzle"?

BrensBenz

garancafan wrote: »

Would it be "mizzle"?

No, not mizzle (mist + drizzle?).

Previously, I was hereabouts, ranting I mean discussing the trend of taking perfectly good words and giving them entirely different meanings, e.g. the word "meal" means one thing at McDonalds but something todally different in the rest of the English-speaking world. Or "spam"!

I can't confirm but I suspect that this word may have been in use in meteorology first and was then usurped and re-cycled so that, these days the interloper meaning seems "normal" and the original meaning seems strange.

By the way, the "word" also applies to "clouds" closer to ground level, e.g. fog (natural); smog (unnatural).

garancafan

BrensBenz wrote: »

No, not mizzle (mist + drizzle?).

Previously, I was hereabouts, ranting I mean discussing the trend of taking perfectly good words and giving them entirely different meanings, e.g. the word "meal" means one thing at McDonalds but something todally different in the rest of the English-speaking world. Or "spam"!

I can't confirm but I suspect that this word may have been in use in meteorology first and was then usurped and re-cycled so that, these days the interloper meaning seems "normal" and the original meaning seems strange.

By the way, the "word" also applies to "clouds" closer to ground level, e.g. fog (natural); smog (unnatural).

Indeed. I remember being looked at rather oddly when I told a couple of youngsters (probably in their forties) that I used to love spam, egg and chips.

Would the answer to your question, by any chance, be "precipitation"?

BrensBenz

garancafan wrote: »

Would the answer to your question, by any chance, be "precipitation"?

No, not precipitation.
I know that precipitation can mean wet stuff falling from the sky and also solids settling on the bottom of a container of liquid but, in a way, these two meanings are similar.

Following intense research with my daughter and niece, the "word" has its normal, modern, everyday meaning but the meteorologists' meaning is entirely different. When told of the other meaning, said daughter and niece were heard to remark: "Ya whoh??? Dat's mad!"

Pulsating Star

Blanket?

looksee

The tv weather person calls it 'spits and spots' of rain.

looksee

haar ... um, no.

Samaris

Heard of them as either "atmospheric particulate"(s) or aerosols?

BrensBenz

Samaris wrote: »

Heard of them as either "atmospheric particulate"(s) or aerosols?

Yes, aerosols. Well Done.

I can (sort of) understand why "aerosol" is appropriate in both meteorology and bathroom cabinets, i.e. in both cases, drops, particles or tiny solids are suspended in gases, but it's still strange to me to think about clouds being full of aerosols!

Samaris

Clouds are aerosols, as is mist and smoke Dust from deserts is another; as soon as you have tiny drops of solids (or liquids) suspended in a gas, you have an aerosol. It did cause a certain confusion between "aerosols are bad!" and the canned ones though.

Where it can be a bit confusing is their effects - it's a physical reaction rather than a chemical one, so aerosols overall effect is a cooling one - the Sun's rays hit the tiny particles being carried and refract the light back out into space.

*cough, nerd moment over*

Sooo... oh! A device used in several detective stories, particularly Agatha Christie; if the detective finds a handkerchief embroidered with the letter H at the scene of the crime, who (singular or plural) may be the owner out of the following list?

Helene Ansbacher
Hortense Kiely
Natalya Andrinov
Clara Horton
Ola Hansdottir

Edit: Remember to follow normal detective story rules! There's no mad chance in the question above, so no need to be too Sherlockian

looksee

Any of them really, people don't always have the correct initial on a hanky- they could have borrowed it or be setting someone up or got married or...

Samaris

looksee wrote: »

Any of them really, people don't always have the correct initial on a hanky- they could have borrowed it or be setting someone up or got married or...

That is being too Sherlockian Not borrowed, stolen, incorrect.

looksee

Helene Ansbacher
Hortense Kiely
Natalya Andrinov
Clara Horton
Ola Hansdottir

mutter, seems too easy...

looksee

(Don't tell me you can't have a surname initial on your hanky)

Samaris

Incorrect. ^^

looksee

Samaris wrote: »

Incorrect. ^^

Snort! think i will go and do something useful.:pac:

Samaris

I get the feeling I may be in mild trouble when the answer comes out!

Jellybaby1

I will say Natalya Andrinov because old Natalya, bless her...him, had either a middle name beginning with H, or Natalya is a ladee who married a MR. H-something or other. Knowing Agatha Christie, I'll bet they always suspected the murrrrderrrerrr was of the 'lower classes', as dem wot are our betters are ladees and gents and incapable of doing such rascally things, doncha know loike?

OldGoat

Helene Ansbacher

The golden rule of detectives is "Follow the money" and Ansbacher is the stand out money name in the list.
Though the reality is that it was the butler, in the library, with the lead pipe.

Samaris

I love these suggestions. Remember I'm asking for a list of people who it COULD belong to! Helene Ansbacher is one of them, yep. No-one's married or changed their name though. You don't need to find the killer.

Edit: They're all women by the way!
Edit to the edit: For the sake of argument, I'll say it was a wispy cambric high-class thing. /nod

Jellybaby1

Flippin' 'eck! Even old Agatha would have given more clues! Will you wait until you have us all in the drawing room before drip-feeding us more clues? Wot about Clara and Ola then, do they deserve an 'aitch'?

Samaris

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Flippin' 'eck! Even old Agatha would have given more clues! Will you wait until you have us all in the drawing room before drip-feeding us more clues? Wot about Clara and Ola then, do they deserve an 'aitch'?

I'm mean, aren't I? :P Hrm, alright. Consider Miss Horton there - have you ever seen a hanky that just uses a surname initial as an identifier? Monograms tend to include first and surname initial, else everyone's would get mixed up

Jellybaby1

I've had plenty of hankies in my time, not one monogram though! Someone must know this!

garancafan

Obviously it's the misses Horton and Hansdottir. (They were both lovers of M. Poirot and had each nicked one of his hankies.);)

OldGoat

It's Ola.
She is the child of a Spanish mother and Norwegian father. The name Ola is in fact an abbreviation of the Spanish word Hola, an endearment used by her father. Obviously Hola drops the silent H with a careless informality but her singular monogram is both her fore and sur names.

BrensBenz

I think I saw this episode so does that disqualify me?

Our Russian friends, of whom Natalya Andrinov is one, have this strange alphabet where several of "our" letters are either reversed or in (what we think is) the wrong place, e.g. H = N. Therefore, I suggest to the court that it was Natalya Andrinov wot dunnit. Her crime? Smuggling hankies out of the motherland.

Samaris

BrensBenz wrote: »

I think I saw this episode so does that disqualify me?

Our Russian friends, of whom Natalya Andrinov is one, have this strange alphabet where several of "our" letters are either reversed or in (what we think is) the wrong place, e.g. H = N. Therefore, I suggest to the court that it was Natalya Andrinov wot dunnit. Her crime? Smuggling hankies out of the motherland.

Yep! For the sake of the full list, Misses Horton and Hansdottir are disqualified, because really, the likelihood of putting one's surname initial alone on a hanky are fairly remote, especially for the Icelandic lady (of a country with very few surnames!)

So the hanky could belong to
Helene Ansbacher
Hortense Kiely
Natalya Andrinov, as H is N in the Cyrillic alphabet.


Christie's used that trick at least three times now

I pass it to Brens there, as, although no-one listed the full group, and Helene Ansbacher was mentioned, he came closest to getting the trick!

As for whodunnit, give Murder on the Orient Express a shot at some point It's an entertaining one.

garancafan

Herumph.

My understanding of "Monogram Etiquette" as collated by Mark and Graham is that where there is a single letter employed then it should be the initial letter of the last name. That leaves the misses Horton and Hansdottir as the only candidates.

BrensBenz

OK. If I were to ask "where's Eblana?" I calculate that, with average broadband speeds and other technical jargon that nobody really understands, it would take about "that" long for someone to post "Dublin" and "it's Latin for Dublin", etc., etc. We might even get the bit about Ptolemy's map of about 140ish AD referring to Eblana where Dublin is today.

However, some really clever people now think, with some justification, that the settlement which Ptolemy called Eblana in c.140AD was not / is not Dublin at all.....at all. So, if these people are correct, where is Eblana?

Oh, we already know that Skerries is the Centre of the Cosmos but it appears that Ptolemy didn't know this. The eejit overlooked Skerries entirely!

Jellybaby1

Well if it wasn't Dublin, and it wasn't (saints preserve us!) SKERRIES, then I bet its somewhere near Skerries, (or should that be Sjkerries (in Norwegish))? Deffo northside, Howth, Rush, hmmmmm.....Finglas. It could be Finglas (called after Finland obviously ) and that's where Olaf and his pals landed and took over Erland. Y'see it's true, those compewter games have all da answers! :D

BrensBenz

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Well if it wasn't Dublin, and it wasn't (saints preserve us!) SKERRIES, then I bet its somewhere near Skerries, (or should that be Sjkerries (in Norwegish))? Deffo northside, Howth, Rush, hmmmmm.....Finglas. It could be Finglas (called after Finland obviously ) and that's where Olaf and his pals landed and took over Erland. Y'see it's true, those compewter games have all da answers! :D

Fair play to them Vikings for getting their boats all the way to Finglas!

No, it's not Howth or Rush either. Bear in mind that this is only a theory, though admittedly from people who got loads of points in their Leaving Cert.

So, we're looking for a settlement which existed in Ptolemy's time almost 2,000 years ago, probably beside the seaside, not too far from Dublin and, I promise, this time it's not an island.

A further hint: I was working in Italy in mid 1990's when, one morning, my minder, excitedly pointing to his newspaper, said that "our people" (the Romans) HAD been to "your country" after all! Evidence of trade with Roman Britain had been found where, we think, Eblana actually was. Then the Irish theory geniuses looked at a map of the area and thought "Hmmm, dem pesky Romans! Day weren't trading with us, day were just sussing the place out for an invasion when they thought "hic perfectus est" ("HERE" is perfect")."

The Skerries branch of Mensa report that the Romans did assemble an invasion force but, when they got to "Eblana", it was early closing so they went home.

Samaris

Is it the recently discovered "other Dublin" that the Vikings had? They had two winter settlements; Linnduchaill, at Annagassan in Louth and Dublin itself. Linnduchaill was only discovered a couple of years ago, but it is north along the coast from Dublin.

looksee

Dammit that was the one i was trying to remember, but Brens said 2000 years old, so its a bit too old for that.

BrensBenz

Samaris wrote: »

Is it the recently discovered "other Dublin" that the Vikings had? They had two winter settlements; Linnduchaill, at Annagassan in Louth and Dublin itself. Linnduchaill was only discovered a couple of years ago, but it is north along the coast from Dublin.

No, not Annagassan. Ptolemy's map wasn't very accurate but it wasn't that far out!

Just one more clue: As is the case with many east coast harbours, the settlement had (and still has) a beach lying between substantial rock formations, creating natural harbours. The southern end of the settlement's "bay" is a headland, jutting into the sea with rocks on its north, east and south sides. There is also an iron age defence closing off its western side so, once captured, this headland would be easy to defend.

Many years later, the British built a fortification on this headland (one of many on the east coast) to give early warning of a visit from Napoleon.

The Great Reveal will be tonight, unless someone has a Eureka moment first!

BrensBenz

No takers? OK, the latest theory on the location of Eblana is......Loughshinny.

Ptolemy showed Eblana to be not "on" but "between" two major rivers (Liffey and Boyne?). It has good, rocky protection of its sandy beach and "Drumanagh" on its southern edge, with its elevated flat land, rocky protection from naval attack on three sides and an iron age wall / ditch on its western side. Drumanagh also has a Martello Tower from c.1800.

Archaeologists found Roman goods here in the mid 1990's. Their trading trips "may" have been a rehearsal for a more formal visit later.

Unfortunately, probably because of damage by motorbike scramblers to the grassland or to the iron age structure or both, either Drumanagh's owner or the Museum authorities have closed Drumanagh to walkers. However, Loughshinny remains a very pleasant spot for a day trip - no crowds, no yobs, recommended - and they even have interesting geological patterns in the rock cliffs west of its little beach. Now, it's not Skerries but hey?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eblana

Jellybaby1

Of course (smacks hand to forehead)...Loughshinny....what was I thinking! :rolleyes:

BrensBenz

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Of course (smacks hand to forehead)...Loughshinny....what was I thinking! :rolleyes:

Well, if you was thinking it you shuddov wrote it.

Who worked at the 53rd (fifty-thoid) Precinct in De Bronx, Noo Yoik?
Hmm, better re-word this: Who were the two best known members of the 53rd (fifty-thoid) Precinct in De Bronx, Noo Yoik?

Jellybaby1

The two coppers from "Car 54 where arrrrrrrrrrrrrre you?' Can't remember their names.

OldGoat

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

The two coppers from "Car 54 where arrrrrrrrrrrrrre you?' Can't remember their names.

The tall actor was Fred Gwynne who also played the part of Herman in the TV series The Munsters.

As for the precinct question, no idea whatsoever.
Cagney & Lacey.
Starsky & Hutch.
Hall and Oates.
Shaggy & Scuby.

BrensBenz

OldGoat wrote: »

The tall actor was Fred Gwynne who also played the part of Herman in the TV series The Munsters.

As for the precinct question, no idea whatsoever.
Cagney & Lacey.
Starsky & Hutch.
Hall and Oates.
Shaggy & Scuby.

Well done JB1 for getting "Car 54 Where Are You."
You're almost there - there is no separate "precinct" question.
Don't worry about the actors' names. Character names of the two best known members of the 53rd (fifty-thoid) Precinct in De Bronx, Noo Yoik are: Awffisah X and Awffisah "Y"???

The first awffisah's name rhymes with Liza Minnelli's mother's christian name;
The second awfissah's name, first syllable rhymes with the cow's husband; second syllable rhymes with "last month".

looksee

Yeah, somebody and Muldoon. Not making any claims on this one as I have totally no idea.

Jellybaby1

I remember! Muldoon and Gunther? Was Gunther his surname though?

BrensBenz

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I remember! Muldoon and Gunther? Was Gunther his surname though?

OOOh...OOOh...I think we have to give this to JB1 for getting the title of the show; "Muldoon" and "Gunther" (rhymes with Liza Minnelli's Mother's name = "Judy") Toody. As far as I remember, Gunther was rarely referred to as "Toody" but "Muldoon" was usually "Muldoon".

Also, there's no trivia left in my head, so over to you, JB1.

Jellybaby1

Another easy one for the easy quiz......

In what year did the first Academy Awards ceremony take place?

Samaris

1953?

Edit: Looked it up there after answering and all I can say is "lol" at my wild guess

BrensBenz

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

In what year did the first Academy Awards ceremony take place?

Best I can do is "late 20's / early 30's" There's an image in the back my head showing dustbowls and Hollywood glitz simul.....cymul.....symultay.....at the same time.

Jellybaby1

Well I will wait a little while longer before divulging the answer. Any more guessers out there.....go on.......give it a guess.......wild even......go on....go on....go on!

FrKurtFahrt

1929?

Jellybaby1

Well done FrKurtFahrt, 1929 is correct! Your turn to give us a question.