wiki-illiam #112 (scire ubi aliquid invenire possis ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est)*

[dubdobdee]

RUBRIC: welcome to the LJ wing of a quiz** sat for 111 years by some lucky schoolkids*** somewhere and etc blah blah: viz 18 themed sets of 10 questions each -- a new one every day (more or less). Don't put googled answers up till after the next question appears -- to let others show off their BRANES -- and note where they are googled (or borrowed off of rival sites with good answers). OFF WE GO!


1 In the year 1916:
i: who won 277-254?
ii: which aristocrat fell prey to an eagle?
iii: who released a story involving the mysterious “v. I”?
iv: whose 4th was completed but could not be extinguished?
v: who experienced what would later be listed as his funniest moment?
vi: what well-remembered observation followed explosions on Indefatigable and Queen Mary?
vii: whose prosecution was aided by an adjustment of punctuation?
viii: where, uniquely, was an elephant hanged for murder?
ix: how was Vermouth the toast of Sussex?
x: how did Ali Baba resurface?

COMPLETED:
i: is US PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON, who defeated the Republican Evans Hughes (combination carsmilesteve and dubdobdee)
ii: is KARL von STÜRGHK, Prime Minister of Austria at the time of his assassination by Friedrich Adler on 21 October 1916 ("Adler" = German for eagle). Googled by jeff_worrell
iii: is from JOHN BUCHAN'S GREENMANTLE (via jeff_worrell's google: the only clue is a piece of paper with three words written on it, Kasredin, cancer, v. I.; for fuller quote see comments)
v: jauntyalan) wonders if this is CHAPLIN (not yet confirmed)
vi: was "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today", said by Admiral of the (British) Fleet DAVID BEATTY (googled jauntyalan)
vii: is ROGER CASEMENT cf comma chameleon (guessed dubdobdee, google-confirmed jauntyalan)
viii: MARY THE ELEPHANT was hanged (more accurately lynched) in Erwin, Tennessee (googled jauntyalan)
ix: VERMOUTH won the Grand National that year (googled jauntyalan)
x: Ali Baba resurfaced in the musical CHU CHIN CHOW (googled jauntyalan and katstevens)

*= latin for: "real actual knowledge is knowin how to google**** stuff"
**as published every year in the guardian just before xmas (answers some time in the new year)
***all the boys of king williams school on the isle of man sit it sight unseen then take the paper home during holidays and look stuff up to increase their score and retake it
****the setters used to claim they've checked nothing is INSTANTLY googleable, tho this claim seems quite porous...

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

(apologies for the lateness of this going up: my family-bound internet-lite xmas was extremely full on)

(i will try and make up time by posting two a day, starting wed: unfortunately i have deadlined work for tomorrow)

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

*** there appears to be an "isle of man" round this year

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

roger casement was executed in 1916 and thus seems a likely candidate for vii

ii: i thought this might be the red baron but he died in 1918

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

iv. is presumably Carl Nielsen ("The Inextinguishable" Symphony)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i. I'm guessing this is the result of the electoral college in the US election? Sadly i can't remember who that makes the answer....

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

woodrow wilson was US president at war's end

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

(google goggles on)

ix Vermouth was the winner of the Grand National

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I thought due to the wording that Ali Baba might have been a hilariously-named submarine, but when I googled to 'confirm' I found this instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Chin_Chow

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

x appears to be a musical "Chu Chin Chow"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Chin_Chow

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

viii Erwin, Tennessee, as described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(elephant)

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

vii Roger Casement - comma chameleon (top marks for the headline) http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/comma-chameleon-an-irishman-s-diary-about-the-sometimes-fatal-effects-of-punctuation-1.2081575

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

vi "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" this dude…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beatty,_1st_Earl_Beatty#First_World_War

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

(with Google + via rival site found via Google but not opened)

iii. is the first of this year's inevitable Buchan answers. It comes from Chapter One of 'Greenmantle'. Hannay receives a telegram from Sir Walter Bullivant of the F.O. and goes to see him...

Sir Walter shook hands with me and his eyes blinked a little.

'I may be sending you to your death, Hannay - Good God, what a damned task-mistress duty is! - If so, I shall be haunted with regrets, but you will never repent. Have no fear of that. You have chosen the roughest road, but it goes straight to the hill-tops.'

He handed me the half-sheet of note-paper. On it were written three words - 'Kasredin', 'cancer', and 'v. I.'

'That is the only clue we possess,' he said. 'I cannot construe it, but I can tell you the story...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

(after googling "famous deaths in 1916" plus some fancy guesswork)

It looks like ii. is Karl von Stürgkh, who was Prime Minister of Austria at the time of his assassination by Friedrich Adler on October 21st. "Adler" is also German for eagle.

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

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

v sounds like Chaplin, but how is there a definitive "funniest moment was film X in 1916". so mebbes not??

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

Yay, we were right :)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1916