One sounds like a knot
One is OK in a sport
One is (reputedly) an Australian idiot, perhaps he should be sent to prison to save time?
One is an actress who liked to play cards on her own
One sounds like a Tolkien Character
So who was the ugly one?
Sounds like a knot -> bowline -> Boleyn, Anne, 2nd wife of Henry VIII
OK in sport -> par (golf) -> Parr, Katherine, sixth wife of Henry VIII
Australian idiot (reputedly) -> Howard, John Howard, Australian prime minister. Also an oblique hint via Terry Pratchett, the citizens of Fourecks* send their prime ministers to prison as soon as they are elected, why? It saves time. Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII.
Card-playing actress -> Jane Seymour, Solitaire from Live and Let Die, third wife of Henry VIII (and probably the best clue).
Tolkien character -> Aragorn, sounds like Aragon, Catherine of Aragon was Henry VIII's first wife.
Which leaves only The Flanders Mare, Anne of Cleves, who was considered by Henry to be too ugly to contemplate having sex with. A portrait of Anne by Hans Holbein led Henry to believe she would be a suitable queen, and so a marriage was arranged, but Henry thought he had been grossly misled by the portrait and as a consequence Holbein was never asked to paint anything for Henry again and his reputation as a portrait painter suffered as a consequence. Henry arranged an annulment and Anne took the title and rank of the King's sister and she retired from the court with a generous settlement.
* Terry Pratchett's foreword to The Last Continent:
“Discworld is a world and a mirror of worlds.
This is not a book about Australia.
No, it's about somewhere entirely different which just happens to be, here and there, a bit ... australian.
Still ... no wories, right?”
Neal
He thought his tenacious friend had been given beer goggle laser surgery, but what was the source of his own problems with forming relationships?
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He has a tail. Reference to Mauricio (Jason Alexander) in Shallow Hal, the eponymous hero of which is played by Jack Black, who is also half of "Tenacious D". |
Alan
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He has a tail. Explanation: The reference is to the movie "Shallow Hal", specifically to Mauricio Wilson (Jason Alexander), the best friend of Hal Larson (Jack Black). Mauricio has self-esteem issues; even if he's lucky enough to interest a stunning beauty, he always manages to find an excuse to break it off before he can get hurt. When he attracts Lindy (Manon von Gerkan), a rare lovely that most men would kill for, he casually blows her off because her second toe is longer than her first. The source of this self-esteem issue is Mauricio's own physical abnormality -- he has a tail. |
Venky
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There is a prolific TV executive producer whose name brings to mind talk of a conspiracy that suggests the King is not dead. Explain.
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The Guinness Book of World Records cites Aaron Spelling as the most productive television producer of all time. Since selling his first script to Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater in 1956, he has produced a record amount of television programming, more than 4,300 hours, including 266 hours of movies for television and 11 feature films. Elvis Presley's middle name was Aron, but was originally listed on his birth certificate as Aaron; his father went to great lengths to get the birth certificate corrected. However, his tombstone also has the spelling "Aaron", prompting conspiracy theorists to believe that this was done deliberately, either as a sign/hint to the true fans that Elvis was not really dead, or because Elvis did not want to "tempt fate" by having his name correctly spelled on a tombstone. |
Vicky
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Surprisingly this design didn't make it, what was built instead?
The Arc de Triomphe.
This was a design by Charles François Ribart for a monument for Louis XV in the Place de l'Etoile to dominate the Champs Elysées in Paris, it was not built. Instead a little matter of a revolution got in the way and the prime site was taken by the larger of two Napoleonic triumphal arches.
Vicky
Going 182.269 Feet per second against the flow is one thing, but they have a lot of other things going for them. Who are these young ladies?
The young ladies are Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova of the Russian teen pop duo "t.A.T.u." Going 182.269 Feet per second against the flow is a reference to their hit album, entitled "200 Km/H in the Wrong Lane".
It is not a reference to sky diving. Terminal velocity, the speed at which a human body falls when acceleration due to gravity is balanced by air resistance, cannot be meaningfully measured to six significant figures although 200 km/H or 125 MPH is a reasonable approximation.
t.A.T.u. have caused a lot of controversy by their overt lesbianism and wearing of school uniform. Unlike so many manufactured pop acts they do seem to be very talented, and there is of course (almost) no so such thing as bad publicity.
Number five represents Mississippi and featured Tom Cruise. Number sixteen represents Oklahoma and was composed by Brian Elias (under a different name). Number eighteen represents Delaware and died with the music. Numbers two and eleven only differ by color -- what two states do they both represent, and what are their colors?
Pete's explanation:
They represent Missouri and Virginia and are pink and white, respectively.
This question is a combination of official state trees and the names of the eighteen holes at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament. Each of the holes of this reknowned course are famous for being named after trees and shrubs featured on the hole. The names of the eighteen holes are:
1. Tea Olive
2. Pink Dogwood
3. Flowering Peach
4. Flowering Crab Apple
5. Magnolia
6. Juniper
7. Pampas
8. Yellow Jasmine
9. Carolina Cherry
10. Camellia
11. White Dogwood
12. Golden Bell
13. Azalea
14. Chinese Fir
15. Firethorn
16. Redbud
17. Nandina
18. Holly
The Magnolia is the state tree of Mississippi. The Redbud (also called the Judas tree) is the state tree of Oklahoma. The Holly is the state tree of Delaware. The Dogwood is the state tree of Missouri and of Virginia. The additional clues reference the film "Magnolia"; the ballet score "The Judas Tree"; and of course Buddy Holly, whose plane crash and death alongside Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were immortalized in the Don McLean song "American Pie" and is referred to as "the day the music died".
Pete Mitchell
Suppose the five top-scoring entrants to quiz 23 all decide to enter quiz 24, and each has a guess about the relative order of their results (all assuming there'll be no ties and no other entrants*), as follows:
Vicky: Alan will be two places higher than Pete
Alan: I will be third
Pete: Venky will be first
Venky: Alan will be second
Mick: Pete will be three places lower than Vicky
Now, if it turns out that only one of these guesses is right, and that it's made by the person who comes first, what will their order be in the quiz results?
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quiz order Mick, Vicky, Venky, Alan, Pete Alan is not 2 places higher than Pete. Alan is not 3rd. Venky is not 1st. Alan is not 2nd. Pete is 3 places lower than Vicky (so Mick must be 1st). Knew I could find a way to place 1st in the quiz :) |
Mick T
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Alan
What do the following words have in common?
append
lob
mast
orchid
sigmoid
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All of the words refer to parts of the body that may be surgically removed via an "-ectomy", as follows: appendectomy: removal of the appendix lobectomy: removal of a lobe of an organ or gland (e.g. lung, thyroid) mastectomy: removal of a breast orchidectomy: removal of a testicle sigmoidectomy: removal of the sigmoid colon |
Pete Mitchell
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They can all form words by adding -ectomy, but the word listed also has another meaning completely separate from what's being removed in the -ectomy. For example, tonsil would not fit on this list because although you can have a tonsilectomy, there's no other meaning of the word tonsil. |
Vicky
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Vicky
In my trusty dictionary between a loss of speech and a shady nook I find a pithy maxim, self possession, dubious scriptures, the Devil, a rhetorical silence, god-making, eagle-nosed, standing on one leg in style and a Semitic language.
What victim of a timely hoax do I also find?
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Between a loss of speech - aphasia and a shady nook - arbor I find a pithy maxim - aphorism self possession - aplomb dubious scriptures - apocrypha the Devil - Appolyon a rhetorical silence - aposiopesis god-making - apotheosis eagle-nosed - aquiline standing on one leg in style - arabesque and a Semitic language - Aramaic You also find "April fool" |
Patrick
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aphonia instead of aphasia also works, as does Arabic or Aramean/Aramaean instead of Aramaic.
What and where is this?
The Kinga Chapel in the Wieliczka salt mine near Krakow, Poland.