Link Goethe's famous Doctor to Chris Thomas King via a legendary bluesman. What do they share with Bart Simpson, and how do their stories differ?
Goethe's famous Doctor is Doctor Faustus/ Faust, who sold his soul to Mephistopheles, a familiar spirit of The Devil. Chris Thomas King played the part (in O Brother Where Art Thou?) of Tommy Johnson a 1920s Delta bluesman who was said to have sold his soul to the Devil, a similar story which is also told of Robert Johnson, a slightly later and more famous blues legend from the same area. Bart Simpson also sells his soul, but the Devil is not involved, Bart sells his soul to Milhouse Van Houten for $5, Milhouse later trades it for Pogs with the Comic book store guy (The unnamed proprietor of Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop "Ohhh... loneliness and cheeseburgers are a dangerous mix.") who sells it on to Lisa, who returns it to Bart.
Variation on a theme by Demar
Describe the original flag that was known as the 'Jolly Roger'
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Red. Derived from the French jolie rouge, meaning "pretty red," it refers to a red pennant also known as the jolie rougere, flown by 17th and 18th century French buccaneers in the Caribbean to denote no prisoners would be taken in battle. . |
Alan
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Later the phrase was used to refer to any number of different flags pirates may have flown, the most common being variations on the skull and crossbones on a black flag.
Peter Morris
Which of the following does not belong on this list and who should be the replacement?
Apollo
Michelangelo da Caravaggio
Paul Cézanne
Hernán Cortés
Vasco da Gama
Sigmund Freud
Jacob Grimm
Frans Hals
James Joyce
René Magritte
Charles Darwin
Jean Sibelius
All appeared on European banknotes when the Euro was introduced, all but Charles Darwin (United Kingdom £10) were replaced by Euro notes. To make the list complete Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg needs to be added to the list, as all the other Euro-zone countries appear in the list.
Michelangelo da Caravaggio Italy 100.000 lira
Hernán Cortés Spain 1000 pesetas
Vasco da Gama Portugal 5000 escudos
Sigmund Freud Austria 50 schilling
Jacob Grimm Germany 1000 Deutsche Mark
Frans Hals Netherlands 10 guilder
James Joyce Ireland 10 pound/punt
René Magritte Belgium 500 Belgian Franc
Charles Darwin United Kingdom 10 pound
Jean Sibelius Finland 100 markka
Kepano
Who is depicted here?
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Pandora. The sculpture is by Harry Bates, A.R.A., made of marble with the box made of ivory and bronze, 42 inches and can be found at the Tate Gallery, London. |
Venky
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Which number is missing
58...108...xxx...228...778...1429...2871...4504...4450-7380?
150. The numbers represent the average distances of the planets from the sun, rounded to the nearest million kilometres. The figure for Pluto is given as a range because its orbit is so highly elliptical, spending several earth-years within the orbit of Neptune.
Graybags
Apparently, he claims to have travelled in one night from the U.S. city of Miami to Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington D.C., Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and even remembered New Orleans. Who is he?
James Brown, from the lyrics of Night Train.
Mick T
Find a pair of English words that are homophones but have no shared letters (for example awe-or, except they're arguably not homophones because of the 'r' sound in some accents). Feel free to show off by giving more than one pair.
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This is very tricky with the accent thing. For example, I pronounce "our" and "ah" the same but I bet they're not strictly considered homophones. Oh, here we go: ewe / you. And also, two place names: Kwai (as in Bridge over the River) and Quy (near Cambridge, UK). Hearing the traffic announcers on the radio struggling with "Quy" is quite amusing! |
Vicky
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Also offered:
I and aye
Cy (abbreviation?) and sigh
oh and eau (French!)
Alan
Who's missing from this list?
Roger
Dean
Todd
Fred
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Michael Explanation: The list of first names belong to four out of five of the usual suspects, in the film "The Usual Suspects", as follows: Dean Keaton (Gabrial Byrne) Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak) Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey) Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro) The missing character is Michael McManus, played in the movie by Stephen Baldwin. |
Pete Mitchell |
Vicky
In my trusty dictionary between a salad herb and a supporter of monarchy I find a style of heavy ornamentation, a swindler, noisy and merry, an Indo-Iranian language, a series of prayers, a currency unit, a game of chance and a disorderly retreat.
Which product of the plant Cannabis sativa do I also find?
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Between rocket and royalist you find rococo, rogue, roisterous (or possibly rollicking), Romany, rosary, rouble, roulette and rout. You also find rope. |
Alan
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Rocket is the traditional British spelling of the herb sometimes called roquette. Of course in English we always sound the H of herb, (unless our accent drops all initial Hs.) Pronouncing it 'erb is a French habit. Perhaps the Americans will now stop trying to sound French now they have fallen out with them over their lack of desire for a fight?
Rollicking is defined by my dictionary simply as an adjective meaning noisy and merry, but it is very close in meaning to roisterous which fits just as well into the alphabetical sequence.
Cannabis sativa is of course hemp, one of mankind's oldest crops, a source of very useful fibre, oil and pharmaceutical and recreational drugs.
Name this city.
Frankfurt am Main.