SF Bay Quiz

Feb 14, 2016by Arun K. SimhaSF Bay Quiz

WRITTEN ROUND10 questions

1 point each

IDENTIFY THE CITIESNative NameMeaningAsh-ShamLevantAl-QhirahVictoriousAl-Quds Qadusa means pureA-ddar Al BaidaaWhite housearbulus al-GharbCorruption of three cities + of the westAs-suwaysSuan means beginningHalab or ash-ShahbaaWhite or white-coloredad-DawaBig tree or perhaps, bay or gulfWadi-al-Hejara (not a ME city)Valley of the stones al-Jazir The Islands

AnswerNative NamePopularly referred to asAsh-ShamDamascusAl-QhirahCairoAl-Quds JerusalemA-ddar Al BaidaaCasablancaarbulus al-GharbTripoli (Libya)As-suwaysSuezHalab or ash-ShahbaaAleppoad-DawaDohaWadi-al-HejaraGuadalajaraal-JazirAlgiers

INFINITE BOUNCE10 points eachHalf-points when stated5 additional bonus pointsNo pounce

BUSINESSKarl and Theo Albrecht are two billionaire German businessmen who broke up Aldi into Aldi Sd and Aldi Nord. Both companies operate in the US; Karl uses the name Aldi while Theo who bought a US company, operates under that name. The US company was founded by Stanford Business School grad Joseph Hardin Coloumbe in 1967.

What is the name of the US company?

AnswerThe company is Trader Joes.

TRUTHINESSWhen X met Y during a goodwill tour of Asia in 1995, the former informed the latter that Xs parents named their child after Y. The claim was repeated many times, including in a famous memoir. Fact-checkers (Snopes!) proved this to be blatantly false since Ys most famous achievement took place in 1953, six years after X was born.

Who are X & Y?

AnswerHillary Clinton and Sir. Edmund Hillary

Since Christopher Hitchens isnt alive to write about this election, we can go back in time and read this column http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/01/the_case_against_hillary_clinton.html

MOVIESThe job title X in the movie industry is derived either from a tool consisting of a large metal hook with a handle or pole, especially the one used to pull large fish aboard a boat or from a British slang for boss.X is the head electrician, responsible for the execution (and sometimes the design) of the lighting plan for a productionWhat is the job title?

AnswerGaffer

HISTORYDuring a Rolling Stones concert at West Berlin in 1982, Carlo Karges, a guitarist for the group Nena noticed balloons being released. This inspired him to write the lyrics for 99 luftballoons. A year later, Stanislav Petrov, a Lt. Colonel in the Soviet Air Defense forces made a crucial decision that later won him many awards. What did he do?

AnswerOn September 26, 1983, just three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile, followed by another one and then up to five more, were being launched from the United States. Petrov judged the report to be a false alarm, and his decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies that could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned.99 balloonson their way to the horizonPeople think they're UFO's from spaceso a general sent upa fighter squadron after themSound the alarm if it's sobut there on the horizon wereonly 99 balloons.

LOCAL BUSINESS HERODavid Tran started his small business in 1975 in his native Vietnam. In 1978, the Vietnamese government began to crack down on ethnic Chinese in south Vietnam. Tran and three thousand other refugees crowded onto the Taiwanese freighter Huey Fong, heading for Hong Kong. He was later granted asylum in the US where he restarted his business, now named after the freighter. What is his companys flagship product?

AnswerHuey Fong Foods makes Sriracha sauce.

SCIENCEOn January 18th, 1996, the NY Times carried an obituary of Danish inventor Ernst Morch. Among his many creations was a simple handkerchief dabbed with a mixture of cocaine and dried rabbits blood. This invention is credited to have saved all but 500 of Denmarks 7000 Jews. How did the invention save them?

Answer.at a time when the Gestapo was using bloodhounds to sniff out Jews hidden under the false bottoms of fishing boats taking them to safety in Sweden, he and a friend who was a pharmacist experimented on a cocker spaniel until they perfected a mixture of dried rabbit's blood and cocaine that disabled the dogs' ability to smell.

MUSICIt is a type of music very representative of the country of its origin and a new trend in the 50s and 60s. Which music genre?

AnswerBossa nova

FINANCEThe single word originates from Anglo-Saxon and Middle-French for death pledge which in turn originates from Latin. The OED defines it as An arrangement or transaction whereby a benefit is acquired at the expense of exposure to some (esp. future) risk or constraint; the trading of something valued for profit, security, or advantage; (also) an instance of this.Whats the good word?

AnswerMortgage

LITERATUREDirector Richard Glatzer directed the film using a text to speech app on an iPad since he suffered from ALS and couldnt speak The film was based on a book written by a woman who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University and has done research at Massachusetts General, Yale and NIH.Which film?

AnswerStill Alice

LITERATUREGreenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep were four novels written about Richard Hannay, an expatriate Scot recently returned from Southern Africa. Which novel was the first in the series?

AnswerThe Thirty Nine Steps

ACADEMIA

[..] Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study. [..]

He mentions that he prefers letters and goes on to give his address.Whose famous no-email policy?

AnswerDon Knuth

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html

ROMAN LAWA tribune was charged with protecting the rights of the plebians. A tribune could overrule a magistrate or an assembly by uttering the Latin word for I forbid. With this one word statement, laws, senate decrees, and elections were invalidated.

What word?

AnswerVeto

MYTHOLOGYX and Y are two mythical sea monsters described by Homer. X was a rock shoal on the Italian side of the strait and Y was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. What are X and Y? For bonus points, give me any idiom that expresses the sentiment.

AnswerBetween Scylla and Charybdis

- "on the horns of a dilemma"between the devil and the deep blue sea"between a rock and a hard place" "Lesser of two evils"Out of the frying pan, into the fire"

CULTUREIt is loosely based on a real-life incident featuring Michel Portail and his American girlfriend Beverly Lynette. In November 1952, Michel Portail stole a car to visit his sick mother in Le Havre and ended up killing a motorcycle cop.

What?

Answer

CLASS ACTIn Norman England, English speaking laborers slaughtered animals to serve moneyed French speaking diners. This accounts for what difference in language from the farm to the table?

AnswerSlaughter (Germanic/English)Serve (Romanic/French)Cows beef (boef)Deervenison (venesoun)Sheep mutton (moton)Chickenpoultry (pouletrie)Pigspork (porc)

GrAPHIC NoVEL

The graphic novel is about a culinary war in LA. Blurb excerpt:

On one side, the Internationalists, who blend foods from all over the world into exotic delights. On the other, the "Vertical Farm," who prepare nothing but organic, vegetarian, macrobiotic dishes. Into this maelstrom steps Jiro, a renegade and ruthless sushi chef, known to decapitate patrons who dare request a California Roll, or who stir wasabi into their soy sauce.

Co-written with Joel Ross by which celebrity?

AnswerAnthony Bourdain

LITERATUREIt was impossible to translate any passage of Oldspeak into Newspeak unless it either referred to some technical process or some very simple everyday action, or was already orthodox in tendency.Wrote Orwell in 1984. Which famous passage does he cite as an example of Oldspeak that cannot be rendered into Newspeak?

AnswerThis passage from the Declaration of Independence.

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN, DERIVING THEIR POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. THAT WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THOSE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE NEW GOVERNMENT ...

SPORTOn April 15th, 2009 on the 20th anniversary of an event, a speech by Andy Burnham, UK Minister for Sport, was interrupted by crowds chanting Justice for the 96. Explain.

AnswerFamily members of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster & fans asking for an investigation into the cover up of police ineptness via a conspiracy to obstruct justice and (false) accusations that drunk Liverpool fans were the root cause of the disaster. ESPNs 30 for 30 documentary on Hillsborough is a must-see.

HISTORYOn April 1804, a letter written by physician Charles Cooper to Senator Philip Schuyler was published in the Albany Register. Excerpt;I assert that X and Judge Kent have declared, in substance, that they looked upon Mr. Y to be a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government.

Identify X and Y and describe what happened next.

AnswerX is Hamilton and Y is Burr. A correspondence between Burr and Hamilton followed which culminated in the famous duel that led to Hamiltons death.

ARCHEOLOGYSwiss Scholar Johann Ludwig Buckhardt left Cambridge and proceeded to Syria to study Arabic and Islam further. He adopted the pseudonym Ibrahim ibn Abdullah and created a backstory about being a Muslim from India. In 1812, during an expedition*, a Bedouin led him to a secret dry-river valley surrounded by cavernous rocky walls. He was the first European to enter this place in many years. What had he re-discovered?

* Not in current day Syria

AnswerPetra.

CULTUREHe wrote an article on March 16th, 1992 in The Baltimore Sun about the demise of a snitch called Possum . Excerpt"Tell him about the thing you did with the FBI with the hats," says the cop, conjuring up ancient history. "You remember that?""Hats?" asks Possum."The thing where the agents couldn't find the guy and you went to the corner and put the red hat on the guy they were looking for."Name the journalist who wrote the article.

AnswerDavid Simon of The Wire fame. He based the character Bubbles on Possum.

HISTORYThomas Bruce, an Earl, was appointed as an ambassador to the Sublime Porte (Ottoman govt). In 1801, he claimed to have received a firman from the Sublime Porte who then ruled Greece. Using this supposed firman, he did something in Athens that is controversial to this day.

What?

AnswerHe was the 7th Earl of Elgin. Per wiki; From 1801 to 1812, Elgin's agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheum. The Marbles were transported by sea to Britain. In Britain, the acquisition of the collection was supported by some, while others likened Elgin's actions to vandalism or looting.

ART & RELIGIONGoyas Third of May 1808 shows Spanish resistance to Napoleon. Christian iconography includes the central figure as the crucified Christ, heraldic colors of the papacy (yellow and white), lantern attributing Roman soldiers and a mark on the hand of the victim. What is the mark called?

AnswerStigma.

The term originates from the line at the end of Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." Stigmata is the plural of the Greek word stigma, meaning a mark, tattoo, or brand such as might have been used for identification of an animal or slave.

ART & LITERATUREPaintings (1875-78) by Edward Burns-Jones depicts a myth from Ovids Metamorphoses of which man?

Pondering his lonelylife as a single manPlaying God, he has created woman and now stands back to admire her, At the temple of Aphrodite, praying for forgiveness for the years he has shunned her and begging for a wife as perfect as his marble womanAs he returns home, he finds that his statue has come to life and humbles himself at her feet.

AnswerPygmalion

GEOGRAPHYThe marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II famously resulted in the gifting of Bombay to the British. However, her accession to British royalty also resulted in a very familiar area being named after her. Which area?

AnswerQueens, New York. Brooklyn was original called Kings County.

ART AND SCIENCE

An experiment on a bird in an air pump by Joseph Wright is a seminal painting from 1768 depicting scientific curiosity with a reverence usually reserved for religious figures. It recreates which famous scientists air pump experiments?

AnswerRobert Boyle

ETYMOLOGY & THE SUBCONTINENTHorace Walpole wrote a letter to Horace Mann on January 28, 1754 in which he described using a talisman to discover a link between two families. He wrote;[] This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call X, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavor to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of x: as their Highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of []

Which word did he coin?

ANSWERSerendipity

MUSICThe name of this genre of music means destiny/fate in Portuguese. What?

AnswerFado

CUSTOMSThe Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit was an order of chivalry under the French monarchy. Due to the way it was hung on the neck, the Knights became known as "X. Over time, this expression was extended to refer to other distinctions of the highest class for example, cooking and sporting events. What is X?

AnswerLes Cordon Bleus

MUSIC - SEA CHANTEYScottish Version (~1549)British Navy (~1800s)______ ________vorsa,vorsa.vou, vou.ane lang draucht, ane lang draucht. mair maucht, mair maucht. zong blude, zong blude. mair mude, mair mude______ ________vorsa, vorsa!vou, vou!one long pull! more poweryoung bloodmore mud!

FITB with the word that could have possibly meant hoist, heave ho in Scottish.

AnswerHeisa, Heisa

SPORTFC Barcelona fans raise a massive cry for Catalonian Independence during both halves of their football matches precisely at the 17.14 min mark. Why 17.14?

AnswerIt commemorates the defeat of Catalonia during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Catalan troops that initially fought in support of the Habsburg dynasty's claim to the Spanish throne were finally defeated at the Siege of Barcelona by the army of the Bourbon king Philip V of Spain on 11 September 1714 after 14 months of siege.

ART & WARThe title of this Crimean war painting by Robert Gibb (1881), derived from the uniform of the Highlanders, has become an English language figure of speech for any minimally spread military unit holding firm against attack. What?

AnswerThe Thin Red Line

CULTUREDuring Nov 1965, X and his friend spent Thanksgiving in a former church in Massachusetts. As a favor to the owner, X decided to take the trash to the dump, but it was closed. So they dumped the trash over a cliff and later got arrested for littering, and were fined $50 each.

This crime was bureaucratically indistinguishable from a violent felony & enabled X to be deemed ineligible for the draft.

Who is X?

AnswerArlo Guthrie, Alices restaurant.

In Guthries words, they wanted "to know if I'm moral enough to join the Armyburn women, kids, houses and villagesafter bein' a litterbug."

HISTORYThis painting by Rubens depicts an event that took place in Mylapore, Chennai. According to Marco Polo - who learnt about the incident much later - the victim was allegedly killed by a badly aimed arrow of a fowler who wanted to bag some peacocks.

Whom or what does the painting depict?

AnswerThe martyrdom of St. Thomas.

JOURNALISMWhen X was a student at the Univ of Chicago, he wrote a satirical biography of William F. Buckley in the campus newspaper. He recounted;Buckley spent most of his infancy working on his memoirs, I wrote in my faux-biography. By the time he had learned to talk, he had finished three volumes: The World Before Buckley, which traced the history of the world prior to his conception; The Seeds of Utopia, which outlined his effect on world events during the nine months of his gestation; and The Glorious Dawn, which described the profound ramifications of his birth on the social order. Buckley came to the University of Chicago, delivered a lecture and said: X, if youre in the audience, Id like to offer you a job.

Who is X?

AnswerDavid Brooks

BACK UP QUESTIONS

CUSTOMSLike the stock, X was a device used for punishment. Those who gathered to watch the punishment typically wanted to make the offender's experience as unpleasant as possible by mocking, teasing and pelting the criminal with rotten food, mud, offal, dead animals, and animal excrement. X has now become a verb to mean expose to public ridicule, scorn and abuse . What is X?

AnswerPillory.When Daniel Dafoe was pilloried for seditious libel, adoring crowds pelted him with flowers.

CURRENT EVENTS"Hundreds of companies" have filed for bankruptcy, Trump said earlier in the debate. "I used the law four times and made a tremendous thing. I'm in business. I did a very good job. Donald Trump

U.S. Code: Title 11 BANKRUPTCYCHAPTER 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS CHAPTER 3 - CASE ADMINISTRATION CHAPTER 5 - CREDITORS, THE DEBTOR, AND THE ESTATECHAPTER 7 LIQUIDATION CHAPTER 9 - ADJUSTMENT OF DEBTS OF A MUNICIPALITYCHAPTER 11 WHAT?CHAPTER 12 - ADJUSTMENT OF DEBTS OF A FAMILY FARMER OR FISHERMAN WITH REGULAR ANNUAL INCOME CHAPTER 13 - ADJUSTMENT OF DEBTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL WITH REGULAR INCOME CHAPTER 15 - ANCILLARY AND OTHER CROSS-BORDER CASES

AnswerREORGANIZATION

U.S. Code Chapter 11 REORGANIZATIONSUBCHAPTER I - OFFICERS AND ADMINISTRATION SUBCHAPTER II - THE PLAN SUBCHAPTER III - POSTCONFIRMATION MATTERSSUBCHAPTER IV - RAILROAD REORGANIZATION

ETYMOLOGYThis term is Italian for in the church style. It reached preeminence with Palestrina in the late 16th century in the music that he wrote for the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. Now it refers to secular music as well.Which term?

AnswerA cappella

SOCIAL SCIENCEIn 1982, social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling wrote a famous article titled _____ ______ in the Atlantic Monthly in which they posited that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.

Fill in the blanks. (With the name of the theory)

AnswerBroken Windows (The Broken Windows theory)

It was built on the work done by Dr. Zimbardo at Stanford.

In 1969, Stanford psychologist Phillip Zimbardo deliberately abandoned two cars without license plates and with their hoods up, in Bronx and Palo Alto. The Bronx car was attacked within minutes and everything of value was stripped within 24 hours, while nothing happened to the Palo Alto car for a week. Zimbardo himself smashed the windows of the Palo Alto car, after which it too was stripped of value.

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