A hero named after an American ornithologist gets to grips with an evil genius named after an English cricket commentator. What line of work was the hero's father-in-law in?

"The Birds of the West Indies" is the best book ever published on the subject, by American ornithologist James Bond. The name appealed to Ian Fleming because it was so ordinary. The prime villain of the James Bond books is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Henry Blofeld is an English cricket commentator. Fleming knew Henry Blofeld's father from school but it was at his London club where he was reminded of the name, seeing three Blofelds (Henry, his brother and his father) on the membership book, at least that is the way Henry tells the tale. Interestingly Fleming gives Ernst Stavro Blofeld his own date of birth: 28th May 1908. Psychologists and astrologers make of that what they will (they usually do).

James Bond was married the once, in book and film series alike, to the Countess Teresa 'Tracy' di Vicenzo, her title came from a short-lived previous marriage. Tracy's father was Marc Ange Draco, head of the Corsican organized crime syndicate the Union Corse, trading under the name of Draco Construction. They apparently were better organized and 'harder' than the effete Scillian Mafia.

Hours after their wedding a submachinegun wielding Irma Bunt, personal assistant of Blofeld, opens fire from Blofeld's speeding Mercedes, killing Tracy instantly. That part of the story is the same in book and film alike, now I'll leave the camp film stories behind and tell the real story.

In the wake of the death of his wife Bond becomes a liability to the secret service, M decides the only way to bring him around is to send him on an impossible mission. Bond gets promoted, losing his 00 prefix and his licence to kill, and gets sent to Japan to secure an impossible favour from the Japanese secret service's Tiger Tanaka. The Japanese don't want to bargain on M's terms, but they do have a use for a British agent. The price of this international cooperation is one death. The Japanese are concerned about the activities of Swiss botanist Guntrun Shatterhand, who seems to have created a garden of death, full of poisonous plants and fish, the garden is acting like a magnet to Japan's suicidally inclined youngsters. Shatterhand is quite clearly both dangerous and barking mad. The Japanese require the elimination of Shatterhand, their best man has already been lost in the attempt to kill him. Of course Bond manages to get into the castle eventually and comes face to face with Shatterhand, who he knew to be Blofeld from the first moment Tiger Tanaka showed him his photograph, that is one face he will never forget. After a few nasty fights against the samurai sword weilding Blofeld Bond manages to get the better of him and gets to grips with him, strangling him with his bare hands.

For a moment the two sweating faces were almost up against each other. The boss of Blofeld's sword battered into Bond's side. Bond hardly felt the blows. He pressed with his thumbs, and pressed and pressed and heard the sword clank to the floor and felt Blofeld's fingers and nails tearing at his face, trying to reach his eyes. Bond whispered through gritted teeth, 'Die, Blofeld! Die!' And suddenly the tongue was out and the eyes rolled upwards and the body slipped down to the ground. But Bond followed it and knelt, his hands cramped round the powerful neck, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, in the terrible grip of bloodlust.

[That's how to do a smartarse answer!]

Can you identify these two cities?

(Click for a closer look)

Images deleted

Leipzig (Germany) and Shanghai (China).

No obvious connections, except perhaps both used to be run by communists?

The author of a story that was the basis for a Quentin Tarantino film

A Chancellor of Germany or, later, a legendary king

The great-uncle of the first emperor

The Member of Parliament for Oxford University

Who was the poet that we never got to see?

Sgt Dudfoot

A small town in Tennessee with a religious, clean living community who don't tolerate drunkenness.........seems to be a good town for the American President.

What do they call it?

New Hope, Powell, Clinton, White House, Beaver, Big Lick, Boring, Chief, Republican, Reagan, Freedom, Dadsville, Harrison, Jackson, Lynchburg?

No. They call it Nut Bush. Take it away Tina...

A church house gin house

a school house outhouse

on Highway Number Nineteen

The people keep the city clean.

They call it Nutbush oh Nutbush

Call it Nutbush city limits.

 

Twentyfive was the speed limit

Motorcycle not allowed in it

You go t'the store on Friday

You go to church on Sunday.

They call it Nutbush oh Nutbush

Call it Nutbush city limits.

 

You go t'the fields on week days

And have a picnic on Labor Day

You go to town on Saturday

But go to church ev'ry Sunday.

They call it Nutbush . . .

 

No whiskey for sale

You can't cop no bail

Saltpork and molasses

Is all you get in jail.

They call it Nutbush

 

Little old town in Tennessee

That's called a quiet little old community

A one-horse town

You have to watch

What you're puttin' down in old Nutbush.

They call it Nutbush.

Demar

Some words, such as "ace" and "belt", consist of letters appearing in alphabetical order.

Which is the last such word (alphabetically) of four or more letters, to be defined in the dictionary?

Sgt Dudfoot suggested this question but asking for words of three letters or more. I've decided to run it but make it four letters instead, so he doesn't know the right answer either. I have decided to mark only one answer as correct and I have no idea what it might be, or whether more than one of you will agree on the same word. If you have found an obscure word you will need to provide evidence in the form of a link to a non-subscription online dictionary of general vocabulary. If entering the word into Google results in the word appearing underlined then it appears in the lexicon at Dictionary.com, as long as it has a definition other than as a proper noun that will be ample evidence and you can keep it quiet. If your word fails that test please email me with supporting evidence and I'll make a judgement as to whether I can accept it, and I might let you know if you have to try harder. It is allowable to have double letters.

The best fully defined word is PSST

psst int. (also pst)

a whispered exclamation seeking to attract a person's attention surreptitiously.

[imitative]

Next came oops.

Puxy looks good but no online or concise dictionary carries it, only very large dictionaries that charge to let you take a peek.

Huxley's novel metal

Donovan's easy-going mood

Chilly dramatic hit

The front of any British train

Lisa Simpson

Where we all live

What character flaw could apply to join this set?

What's the connection?

Image deleted

One's a picture of half a sand dollar (Echinarachnius parma) a marine creature; the other urchin is the rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson).

50 cent = half a dollar.

Which famous Washingtonian was welcomed to the Nixon White House as an honoured guest, a noble man of the highest rank, although his father had gone in the back door as a servant?

In my trusty old dictionary between a sudden violent change of feeling and a self propelling projectile I find the a high-flown enthusiastic speech, a thick skinned mammal, an equilateral quadrilateral, indecent talk, a horseless carriage, those the doorman keeps out, meaningless talk, a counter-attack, the damp end of the joint and a seriously big bird.

Can you find anything musical?

Revulsion, rhapsody, rhinoceros, rhombus, ribaldry, rickshaw, riffraff, rigmarole, riposte, roach, roc, rocket.

Infamous

Direction from Edinburgh to Inverness

Entranced

Cowboy's tool

Nautical safety equipment

What telephone call are we making?

Zack

Alan got a perfect score. But Demar were more perfecter. ;-)

Alan didn't include ROCK as a musical word until prompted, that counted as a negative smartarse bonus.

Sgt Dudfoot: oops indeed. But well done setting an excellent question, look at that pattern in the column for question 3, virtually perfect for a bitch of a classic question, four correct answers, including the top three players. Question 3 made the difference.

Were question one, nine and ten too easy? No. The players are all smart.

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