Trivia Contest 2021

Worldly and otherworldly topics
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C.J.Woolf
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by C.J.Woolf » Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:28 pm

The elements question was particularly evil and I respect that. I only took the first one or two letters of the nick and looked up the element's discovery date. I didn't think it through and look up all the elements of the nick. What should have tipped me off was "As", arsenic, which was known to the ancients.

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by HighlyIrregular » Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:30 pm

How does the French Parliament relate to Winnie the Pooh?

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Ferrus
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by Ferrus » Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:55 pm

HighlyIrregular wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:30 pm
How does the French Parliament relate to Winnie the Pooh?
A parliament of owls is the collective name for owls. There is an owl in Winnie the Pooh.

Although historically it was also applied to foules (fowls, which in Middle English was synonymoys with 'birds'). See this poem by Chaucer.
Ex falso, quodlibet

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Utisz
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by Utisz » Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:15 pm

Ferrus wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:35 pm
*Perforns wild football-style goal celebration*

I knew watching this would come in handy one day.
Great video!

If there's one thing I learnt from making this version of the quiz, it's that there are some weird collective nouns out there!

I installed a Flair extension, for the bragging rights. 🏆
HighlyIrregular wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:47 pm
I loved Winnie the Pooh but that's all I remember about it.
Was thinking of a hint about it being banned in China, but that would veer off the question logic a bit.
C.J.Woolf wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:28 pm
The elements question was particularly evil and I respect that. I only took the first one or two letters of the nick and looked up the element's discovery date. I didn't think it through and look up all the elements of the nick. What should have tipped me off was "As", arsenic, which was known to the ancients.
Indeed! The trail was hot on that one, thought it was gonna be gotten.
HighlyIrregular wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:30 pm
How does the French Parliament relate to Winnie the Pooh?
Yep, as Ferrus mentioned it's the collective for owls. (You can see the answer for others, though admittedly others are less well-known. Didn't know it was the French parliament to be honest. :ph34r:)

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Ferrus
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by Ferrus » Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:30 pm

Utisz wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:15 pm
Yep, as Ferrus mentioned it's the collective for owls. (You can see the answer for others, though admittedly others are less well-known. Didn't know it was the French parliament to be honest. :ph34r:)
A coffle of donkeys must be a more recent invention given it references slavery in the American South. There are others for them like drove or herd. Probably comes from Lipton's An Exultation of Larks as many of the more modern ones are.
Ex falso, quodlibet

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Utisz
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Re: Trivia Contest 2021

Post by Utisz » Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:36 pm

Ferrus wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:30 pm
A coffle of donkeys must be a more recent invention given it references slavery in the American South. There are others for them like drove or herd. Probably comes from Lipton's An Exultation of Larks as many of the more modern ones are.
Yep, on that one I took a little bit of liberty as I needed a "recognisable" image, and "drove" or "herd" were difficult to find something iconic for, though indeed "coffle" is rarer than the other options. I figured it was okay as the other collective nouns were a bit more "solid".

I knew I wanted a question on collective nouns but it wasn't easy to come up with a reasonable (Google-proof) formulation. :happy:

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