Sunday 10 January 2010

Results are In! (Quiz of the Year)


I’ll tell you something – I’ll tell you a LOT if you encourage me! – Setting a QUIZ OF THE YEAR is an interesting exercise.
The results are in, the analysis has been done and at the end of this post the grand winner will be announced.

And there lies the rub.

Is that correct expression?

There lies the first problem.

How to judge the answers?

Ok, ok maybe I made some mistakes with the question formulation, but when a question says “name THREE anniversaries celebrated …..” and someone names TWENTY ONE!!!! – What do you do?

Mark the answer wrong because the question clearly said name 3?

Award 18 bonus points?

Disqualify the person because they are clearly insane?

Abandon the whole idea and give EVERYONE a bottle of wine?

Bonus points are going to be complicated – one of the people who replied was clearly intoxicated, although claiming they weren’t, and in the process gave some hilarious answers. They deserve encouragement for originality but how much?

Another person, I suspect, used Wikipedia more than once whereas others used a blog-trawl method. Who gets the bonus there? Slow and in the spirit but not so clever, or clever but not so slow and out the spirit?

Furthermore (that’s the first time I’ve used that word in the blog) should there be minus bonus points for taking longer to answer than others?

So many things to sort out!

But the good news is that EVERYONE got question 9 correct !!!!!!!!

So lets get to it.

Question 1. An easy one to start - how many times did Bob Dylan feature in the Bitsnbobs advent calendar 2009?

Ok, a little unfair as I said it was easy but in fact it was a little bit of a trick question.
Answer – three. Once as singer (just) once and once again as writer.

Question 2. Which of these did not feature in Terry Wogan's farewell morning broadcast on BBC radio 2 -Abba (Dancing Queen) The Who (Pinball Wizard) Dire Straits (Sultans of Swing)?

Answer (surprisingly) - Abba. He did feature them but with the song Waterloo.
So in the first two questions only one correct response!! But HOW did Janet know?

Question 3. A long time ago George Best (footballer) scored 6 goals against Northampton Town , thus setting a record. Which of the six did he score with his head?

Answer - Clearly the first.

Question 4. Where did the year begin?

Ok, lots of good answers but it was meant to be a BLOG quiz so
Answer – Paris.

Question 5. HOW many mosquitoes?

Although “Too Many” is clearly an excellent answer and one i agree with I was hoping for 1.2million. (see above).

Question 6. In the almost legendary September Improv challenge - what WAS the thing sliding across the table?

Well, I’m pretty sure, and not alone, in believing that eventually it was a banana, albeit a pointy one.

Question 7. Name three anniversaries "celebrated" on Bitsnbobs this year.

Answer – well apparently there were 21! (though as writer I was unaware).
Possibilities were – The Eiffel Tower, Woodstock, The Fall of the Berlin Wall, The Birth of Sesame Street., Walking on the Moon, Chernobyl Explosion and the Mini Car. Oh and Barbie.
“Dunno” is not an acceptable answer. Not really. Well…

Question 8. Name as many countries as possible with only four letters in their name.

Bali seems to be a province, not a country and Guam is apparently a US territory. Pala sounds like a nice place to be, even if fictitious and as for Hong-Kong…………!
Answer – Chad Cuba Fiji Iran Iraq Laos Mali Oman Peru Togo and possibly Niue.

Question 9. What's your name?

Full marks!

Question 10. What should Bitsnbobs do in 2010?

Ok, I guess I was hoping for one or two solid suggestions for future challenges, subjects, inspirations but thankyou all for nice words and for doing the quiz and for being there.

Now, let me tot up….. one, em maybe…… two……he he he………

Oh God, this is so close, so hard, so unfair.

Will you accept if I say you are ALL winners?

Will my bank account?

I’m going to chicken out of awarding bonus and minus points, it will be so, so difficult.

So the OFFICIAL WINNER of the BITSNBOBS 2009 End of the Year Quiz – with a grand total of 14 points, only one more than her nearest rival -is……….


SAFF!

Well done to all, I hope it was as much fun for yee as it was for me.

One bottle of excellent French Red Wine to be sent or delivered personally – her choice (look to the comments).

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh blimey - that is so exciting, I once won a raffle and got a plastic coated picnic rug which at age 9 baffled me but this is enormous and makes re-reading the whole blog doubly worth it but which I did enjoy - and the wine in person is absolutely the only way to drink it. xxx

Janet Bianchini said...

Many cogratulations to Saff!!

It was great fun looking through the blog to find the answers. I chose Abba coz The Who was played and I just thought that The Sultans of Swing wouldn't be Terry Wogan's cup of tea, so chose Abba!!

Ps How many did I guess correctly??

popps said...

Ok saff you will have to wait a bit then -m since you chose personal delivery - the difficult i can do right now the less practical will take a little while!
Though i agree it is the only way.
i would also like to add that plastic covered picnic blankets would probably confuse most nine year olds.

popps said...

Janet - you were really unlucky, only one point behind saff!
Basically you got the first one wrong - so did saff, then you got no 2 right (the only person to do so)
then you got 3 wrong (so did saff) and then you and saff scored correctly 4,5,6,and 7 but your geospatial knowledge let you down on question 8 when you included Bali and Guam but missed Laos and Cuba!

Janet Bianchini said...

I don't know how I managed to get the George Best question wrong because I watched the video 2 times AND I was wearing my glasses! Never mind, I will be much more observant next time at your 2010 End of Year Quiz!!

popps said...

Janet, i've just checked again, in between slurps of delicious olive oil, and either your glasses were upside down or you need to look up the definition of "header" - to score with the "head"!!!

Janet Bianchini said...

Ok! I watched it again without my glasses and goal number 4 is a bit grainy and it could be with his head. However, have just watched with my glasses on and yes,I admit, it's probably scored with his feet. I recollect putting 2 as my answer, but in fact, only one goal was scored with his head. I stand well corrected, M'lord!

Vicki Hollett said...

Oh of course that pointy thing was a banana! How could I have forgotten that?
Many congrats to Saff for winning and also to whoever said 'too many' to the mosquito answer which gave me a good chuckle.
And many thanks to our quiz master for the Qs and more importantly, for providing us with the entertaining reading over the year.

popps said...

A bumper crop of Vicki comment this morning!
Exciting day!!
Yes, it's strange that the person who put it on the table forgot it was a banana!!!!
I'm not giving anything away but there may be a whole post about Anne's hilarious answers.

popps said...

A bumper crop of Vicki comment this morning!
Exciting day!!
Yes, it's strange that the person who put it on the table forgot it was a banana!!!!
I'm not giving anything away but there may be a whole post about Anne's hilarious answers.

popps said...

Janet - i agree number 4 is impossible to see and i was worried that someone might challenge me - but no one chose number 4.
i've looked at number 2 many times, with glasses, without, from across the room and hanging upside down from a trapeze and i don't see how ANYONE can see his head involved - except for a bit of quick thinking.
Please explain for the readers....

Janet Bianchini said...

Er, are you saying that Geoge Best didn't score ANY goals with his head???

The penny has finally dropped. I thought the question was how many goals he scored with his head NOT which number goal was scored with his head. No wonder I got it wrong!!

popps said...

Stop!
You're confusing me now!
He scored one of the six with his head it was the first of the six and the only one.
If you keep on i'll send you a bottle of wine! :-)

Janet Bianchini said...

Yes, I get it now!! Mea culpa! My mistake entirely. I didn't read the question correctly, so definitely do not deserve a bottle of yummy French wine!!

Last of the comments now as it's 1am.

Buona Notte :)