30-20-10. Identify the artist.
A. In a new book entitled The Superhuman Crew, the Getty Museum has partnered his most famous painting with the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row."
B. Unable to negotiate its loan, his native country's Royal Museum of Fine Arts displays a reproduction of "Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889" at its recent retrospective of his work.
C. He is hailed as "Belgium's famous painter" by They Might Be Giants.
answer: James Ensor
NASA's Great Observatories project is three-quarters of the way complete, with the last facility to be launched in late 2001. One of them is, of course, the Hubble Space Telescope, which observes in the ultraviolet and visible regimes. For 10 points each--name the other three, which permit observations in the gamma-ray regime, the X-ray regime, and soon the infrared regime.
answer: Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Space Infrared Telescope Facility or SIRTF
The field of semiotics as a study of signs was advanced by the work of American Charles Sanders Peirce. In particular, he categorized signs as one of three types depending on how it related to what it stands for (its "referent"). Identify the type after a short description, for 10 points each.
A. This type of sign does not resemble the referent, but has its meaning ascribed by convention--for example, traffic signals.
answer: symbol
B. This type of sign resembles the referent directly--for example, a school crossing sign.
answer: icon
C. Similar to an icon, these signs resemble aspects associated with the referent--for example, smoke as a sign for fire.
answer: index
In an act of pre-emptive rage, this sports-hating question writer has opted to avenge his team's baseball and football questions by asking about that font of excitement known as cricket. Answer these questions about the cups of rugby's boring cousin, 10 points each.
A. What trophy is awarded to the victor of the England-Australia Test match, which gets its name from its contents?
answer: The Ashes
B. What trophy is awarded to the victor among countries in the West Indies, which probably does not contain its namesake brew?
answer: Red Stripe Cup
C. What trophy is awarded to the victor among teams in South Africa, which sounds like it would be more at home in India?
answer: Currie Cup
With its vocabulary of long and complicated words, physics often induces in students the use of four-letter words. Combine the two and give these four-letter words used by physicists and probably their violence-driven students as well, for 10 points each.
A. This term refers to the change in acceleration over time.
answer: jerk
B. Analogous to the metric unit kilogram, this is the unit of mass in the English system.
answer: slug
C. This refers to the variation in the amplitude of two interfering waves with nearly the same frequency.
answer: beat
Given the state, name the highest mountain in it for the stated number of points.
A. For 5 points, Oregon.
answer: Mount Hood
B. For 10 points, North Carolina.
answer: Mount Mitchell
[Note: Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi.]
C. For 15 points, Montana.
answer: Granite Peak
Women in art are occasionally more famous for the biographical films about them than for their works. Answer these questions about artists portrayed on screen, for 15 points each:
A. Her father Orazio was a major follower of Caravaggio, and her command of dramatic realism is seen in portraits of Judith and her beheading of Holofernes. Valentina Cervi portrayed her on screen in a 1997 film.
answer: Artemisia Gentileschi
B. She is better known for her relationship with Auguste Rodin than for her sculptures Ripe Age and Young Girl With A Sheaf. She was portrayed by Isabelle Adjani in a 1988 film.
answer: Camille Claudel
Ever feel like you are just phoning in the answers? Answer these questions related somehow to the telephone, for 10 points each.
A. This mathematical construct acts on functions rather than variables--for example, the Hamiltonian.
answer: operator
B. This is the name of the theme song of the 1970s Saturday morning cartoon "The Jackson 5ive" and the network which aired it.
answer: ABC
C. This Indian foodstuff is semifluid clarified butter.
answer: ghi (variant spelling of ghee)
Note: the answers are all found on a telephone number pad -- 0(OPERATOR), 2(ABC), 4(GHI)
The recent flap over the retirement of chimpanzee veterans of the space program has reminded us of their trailblazing ancestors. Answer these questions, for 15 points each.
A. What was the name given to the first American chimp to fly in and return from space, on 31 January 1961?
answer: Ham
B. For another 15 points, give the name of the first chimp to complete an orbit of the Earth.
answer: Enos
Identify the Germanic tribes given the name of a king or chieftain, for 5 points each.
A. Alaric
answer: Visigoths
B. Theodahad
answer: Ostrogoths
C. Gelimer
answer: Vandals
D. Gaiseric
answer: Vandals
E. Ermanaric
answer: Ostrogoths
F. Athanaric
answer: Visigoths
With the free elections in Indonesia last month, the world's largest Muslim nation has now emerged from beneath the shadow of the long rule of General Suharto.
A. General Suharto's replacement as president served for 17 months, withdrawing from the race in the face of certain defeat. For 5 points each, name him and his long-time ruling party.
answer: B.J. Habibie and the Golkar Party
B. For 10 points, name the Muslim leader chosen by the Parliament as the first freely-elected president of Indonesia.
answer: Abdurrahman Wahid (also accept Gus Dur )
C. For 10 points, name the newly-elected vice president, the daughter of the founding president of the post-colonial archipelago.answer: Megawati Sukarnoputri (accept either name)
With the Bundestag in Berlin, Germany becomes only the latest country to relocate its capital. Given the former or soon-to-be former capital of a country, give the country for 5 points, and the new capital for an additional 10 points.
A. Before 1991, Lagos
answer: Nigeria for 5, Abuja for 10
B.The capital is moving incrementally from Abidjan
answer: Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast for 5, Yamoussoukro for 10
In a flurry of threatened legal action and press coverage, Greg Galcik has chosen to shut down this website this October after 500 cartoons.
A. For 10 points name it, which invited people to rewrite the captions to actual editions of a particular syndicated single panel comic.
answer: The Dysfunctional Family Circus
B. The original author of the strip and the syndicate that distributes it successfully convinced Mr. Galcik to shut down the site. For 5 points each, name the author and syndicate.
answer: Bil Keane, King Features
C. The pent-up anger of some submitters was briefly focussed on another single-panel syndicated cartoon, this one drawn by Brad Anderson. For another 10 points, give the name of this dog-based strip.
answer: Marmaduke
Their ad campaigns were shot in the woods, footage that was later recovered. Identify the shows whose promos parodied The Blair Witch Project, for 10 points each.
A. This ABC sitcom dropped the restaurant from its name and featured parody ads featuring one of its three twentysomething leads.
answer: Two Guys and a Girl
B. This new NBC sitcom showed its two leads bickering in the woods, one of them demanding "Stop calling me Doogie."
answer: Stark Raving Mad
C. Nickelodeon ran a marathon of episodes of this 1970's cartoon with their take on the film ads, odd since they never actually found any real witches--or ghosts, for that matter.
answer: Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
Answer these questions about Émile Zola for 10 points each.
A. Each volume in this 20-volume series relates the tale of a different member of the same family.
answer: Les Rougon-Macquart
B. His novel about a painter, The Masterpiece, led to his estrangement from the Impressionists, especially this painter with whom Zola was an early schoolmate.
answer: Paul Cezanne
C. You likely know that his J'Accuse dealt with the Dreyfus affair, but in what newspaper was it published?
answer: L'Aurore or The Aurora
"T" is for "Tasty." Identify these unwitting cannibals from Greek and Roman mythology for 10 points each, all of whose names start with the letter "T."
A. Pretending to offer reconciliation after a long and bitter feud, Atreus summoned this younger brother to Mycenae, only to serve him his own son in a banquet.
answer: Thyestes
B. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, this Thracian king married Procne and seduced her sister Philomela, cutting out her tongue to secure her silence. When she informed Procne through her embroidery, Procne served up his son, Itys.
answer: Tereus
C. In Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, the orgy of violence at the end culminates in this Goth queen's sons Chiron and Demetrius being served in a pie.
answer: Tamora
30-20-10. Name the short novel.
A. First published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863, its author, a Unitarian minister, was chaplain to the U.S. from 1903 until his death in 1909.
B. It was inspired by the case of Clement L. Vallandigham, a Civil War Congressman from Ohio who was banished to the South for treasonable utterances.
C. For his crimes, the novel's protagonist is exiled on a United States warship.
answer: The Man Without a Country
In his account of his Nobel Prize-winning work, James Watson relates the story of his and Francis Crick's work at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratories developing the structure of DNA. Answer these questions about others involved in the work, for 10 points each.
A. Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize with this alumnus of the Manhattan Project and King's College professor.
answer: Maurice Wilkins
B. Her X-ray diffraction work on DNA at King's College was invaluable, but her death in 1958 made her ineligible for the Nobel Prize.
answer: Rosalind Franklin
C. This director of Cavendish Laboratories at the time shared the 1915 Nobel Prize with his father for discovering the law of X-ray diffraction, the technique used by Dr. Franklin.
answer: Sir Lawrence Bragg
Jimmy Carter has the distinction of being the only President in the 20th century to have had no appointees to the Supreme Court. Three other 19th century Presidents share this distinction. For 10 points each--name them.
answer: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Andrew Johnson
30-20-10. Name the author from clues.
A. Theories still abound as to this writer's actual identity; some have suggested that he was the illegitimate son of Kaiser Wilhelm II or Bavarian revolutionary Ret Marut.
B. His first book was about a sailor who boards a ship sunk for insurance money, The Death Ship.
C. His most famous novel, turned into a 1948 John Huston film, was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
answer: B. Traven
Answer these questions about the War of Spanish Succession for the stated number of points each.
A. (10) What monarch of Spain died childless, thus precipitating the conflict?
answer: Charles II
B. (5) Charles II designated as heir Philip, duc of Anjou, the grandson of what reigning French monarch?
answer: Louis XIV
C. (15) Separate treaties were negotiatied to end the conflict, named for the three cities in which they were signed. For 5 points each--name them.
answer: Utrecht, Rastatt, Baden
Answer the following questions about a Medieval order, for 10 points each.
A. Formally named and recognized by Pope Paschal II in 1113, this order based in Jerusalem was led first by the monk Gerard and then by Raymond de Puy.
answer: the Knights Hospitaler or Knights of Malta
B. After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 the Knights Hospitaler moved their headquarters to this port city in modern-day Israel, where it remained for the next century.
answer: Acre
After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Knights Hospitaler relocated to this island in the Eastern Mediterranean, from which they fled in 1523 and eventually settled for good in Malta.
answer: Rhodes
******** Tiebreakers begin here ********
30-20-10. Name the historic European kingdom given one of its kings.
A. Sigismund I the Old
B. Casimir I the Restorer
C. Vladislav I
answer: Poland