Team: Cornell University A Written by: Shelby Dietz and Eric Tentarelli TOSSUP 1 This type of compound can be produced by the reaction of alkoxides with methyl halides or primary alkyl halides in a Williamson synthesis. On standing in air it forms explosive peroxides and is highly flammable. FTP, name this type of organic molecule in which two alkyl groups are linked through an oxygen atom, and its namesake molecule is an anesthetic. Answer: _ETHER_ TOSSUP 2 Despite Jack's premature mourning for his fictional brother, who was carried off in Paris by a severe chill, the only casualty of this play's action is the fictional Bunbury. By the end, Jack manages to parlay his only known antecedent, a leather handbag, into a reunion with his cousin Algernon and marriage to Gwendolyn. FTP, name this Oscar Wilde farce in which Jack and Algernon compete to be christened with the titular "important" name. Answer: "The _IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST_" TOSSUP 3 In June 1996, its premier, Vance Amory, ordered the preparation of a bill declaring its secession, but federal prime minister Denzil Douglas, like most Caribbean leaders, is opposed. FTP, name this small Leeward island with one-third the population of its sibling island, St. Kitts. Answer: _NEVIS_ TOSSUP 4 He grew up in the shadow of his father, a former writer for Sid Caesar, and later married Penny Marshall of "Laverne and Shirley" fame. Later, he played Michael Stivick, Archie Bunker's daughter's boyfriend and eventual husband, on "All in the Family." FTP, what co-founder of Castle Rock Entertainment is better known as the director of movies such as "Stand by Me", "The Princess Bride", and "When Harry Met Sally...?" Answer: Robert "Rob" _REINER_ TOSSUP 5 Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, he settled in London in 1863 and, with Oscar Wilde, came to epitomize the aesthetic dandy in the popular imagination. His critical essays and lectures helped expand art theory to encompass his abstractly-titled paintings, at first reviled by Victorians as anti-decorative. FTP name this painter most famous for his "Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist's Mother". Answer: James Abbott McNeill _WHISTLER_ TOSSUP 6 Though liberal concerning wills and contracts, they represented codification without deliberate reform, preserving debt slavery and patrician privilege. Drafted by ten men to make the law accessible to the plebeians, and posted in the Forum in 450 BC, FTP, name this early Roman law code. Answer: the _TWELVE TABLES_ (or _LEX XII TABULARUM_) TOSSUP 7 Gnaphalium leontopodium and Leontopodium alpinum are the two main varieties of this flower, named from the German words for "noble" and "white." Found mostly in the rocky soil of the Swiss alps, it symbolizes remembrance and hardship and is therefore sometimes placed atop coffins. FTP, name this small flower that inspired a song from "The Sound of Music." Answer: _EDELWEISS_ TOSSUP 8 In 3-space, this operator is defined as being dual to the second-rank wedge product; its value is technically a pseudovector, as it's unchanged if the the two argument vectors are inverted through the origin. FTP, name this anticommutative operator useful for generating a vector perpendicular to two given vectors. Answer: _CROSS PRODUCT_ (prompt on "vector product") TOSSUP 9 Also known as "poor man's weatherglass", it's actually a nondescript plant of the genus Anagallis. In fiction, however, it's the suitably dashing pseudonym under which one Sir Percy Blakeney rescues assorted damsels and aristocrats in distress. FTP, name this 1905 novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy about an adventurer during the French Revolution. Answer: the _SCARLET PIMPERNEL_ TOSSUP 10 In 1841, Rhode Island was still governed by the Royal Charter of 1663, so reformers drafted a liberal constitution allowing broader suffrage, which a referendum overwhelmingly passed. After the existing government failed to gain popular support for a new constitution of its own, the reformers set up a rival government, but its leader was captured and imprisoned. FTP, name this liberal rebellion named for its charismatic leader. Answer: _DORR_'s Rebellion (named for Thomas Wilson Dorr) TOSSUP 11 STET of Italy, Sherritt International of Canada, and Grupo Domos of Mexico have already been threatened with sanctions for violating it, though the EU and OAS have condemned it as a unilateral solution to a non-problem. Passed in March 1996, FTP, name this U.S. Congressional act imposing sanctions on companies trading with Cuba, named for an Indiana Representative and a North Carolina Senator. Answer: the _HELMS-BURTON_ Act TOSSUP 12 David Lister, in suspended animation for three million years, awakens to find the entire crew killed by a radiation leak, the only survivors being the ship's computer Holly, a creature evolved from the ship's cat, and a hologram of his long-dead bunkmate Arnold Rimmer. FTP, name this BBC science fiction comedy series about a mining ship named for an astronomical phenomenon exemplified by Proxima Centauri. Answer: _"RED DWARF"_ TOSSUP 13 Spreads include the Celtic Cross, Horseshoe, and the Tree of Life. Popular decks include Rider-Waite, Norse, and Cat People. FTP, name this divination technique based on such major and minor arcana cards as the High Priestess, the Ten of Swords, and the Fool. Answer: _TAROT_ TOSSUP 14 A Chilean senator in 1948, he was forced into a four-year exile when his nation's political mood turned decidedly anti-Communist. In addition to his political work, he translated Blake into Spanish and wrote such volumes as "Residence on Earth." FTP, name this 1971 Nobel laureate and author of "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair." Answer: Pablo _NERUDA_ (or Neftali Ricardo _REYES_ Basoalto) TOSSUP 15 The Benjamin-Ono equation for gravity waves, the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation from quantum dynamics, and the Korteweg-de Vries equation applicable to water waves all permit this peculiar type of solution. FTP, name this localized, nondispersive wave retaining its integrity, first seen in nature in a Scottish canal in 1824. Answer: _SOLITON_ TOSSUP 16 His films include "Our Hospitality" and "Sherlock Jr.," though he is best known for "The General." His trademark porkpie hat was perhaps not as memorable as the bowler and cane of his more famous contemporary, Charlie Chaplin. FTP, name this film comedian who shares his last name with the director of the recent film "Unstrung Heroes" and with the star of "Multiplicity." Answer: Joseph Francis "Buster" _KEATON_ TOSSUP 17 On October 19, after three days of fighting, a French corporal mistakenly destroyed the sole bridge over the Elster River, blocking the French retreat from the forces of Karl Schwarzenberg, Leonty Bennigsen, Jean Bernadotte, and Gebhard von Blucher. FTP, name this 1813 battle in Saxony, which cost Napoleon control over Germany and Poland. Answer: the battle of _LEIPZIG_ (or _BATTLE OF THE NATIONS_) TOSSUP 18 Its name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, the brother of a executive, at a New Year's Eve party--a feat for which he received a $100 prize, fairly poor compensation given the immense popularity of the product today, due in no small part to its catchy moniker. FTP, name this Hormel potted food product whose ingredients are salt, water, sugar, sodium nitrate, and chopped pork shoulder with ham meat added. Answer: _SPAM_ [Note: The author of this question (SBD) has a dandy Spam recipe involving pineapple chunks and miniature marshmallows, available on request.] TOSSUP 19 Born in French Indochina in 1914, she moved to France at the age of 17 and received a law degree from the Sorbonne, after which she was active in the Communist party for ten years. Her first novel, "The Sea Wall," depicted working class whites in the tradition of Steinbeck. FTP, name this novelist and screenwriter who passed away in March and whose works include "Moderato Cantabile" and "The Lover." Answer: Marguerite _DURAS_ (or Marguerite _DONNADIEU_) TOSSUP 20 It has a serpent's head, a leopard's body, a lion's hindquarters, and a deer's hooves, and it runs continually searching for water to slake its thirst. In the "Morte D'Arthur," King Arthur meets it by a fountain; in "The Once and Future King" it is the object of an eternal and fruitless chase. FTP, what is this mythical animal, named for its elusiveness when sought in Arthurian legend? Answer: the _QUESTING BEAST_ TOSSUP 21 DDT is present in the eggs of seed-eating birds but appears in far higher concentrations in the eggs of predatory birds like the bald eagle. FTP, name this phenomenon, in which biologically stable compounds, when ingested, are retained in the body and concentrated as they pass up the food chain. Answer: biological _MAGNIFICATION_ TOSSUP 22 Although he doesn't hold an official leadership role in the Independent Republic of Padania, unlike Liberation Committee head Robert Maroni or prime minister Giancarlo Pagliarni, he is still the dominant figure of this nominally separatist shadow state. FTP, name this man, leader of Italy's Northern League. Answer: Umberto _BOSSI_ TOSSUP 23 Named for an English distiller and patron of exploration, its only permanent settlements are Spence Bay and Thom Bay. Discovered in 1829 by James Ross, FTP, name this 170-mile-long peninsula in the Kitikmeot region of the Northwest Territories, the northernmost extension of mainland North America. Answer: the _BOOTHIA_ Peninsula TOSSUP 24 Organized by Harry Wright with an annual payroll around $9300, its 79-game winning streak was broken by the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1870. FTP, name this Ohio sports franchise, which in 1869 became the world's first all-professional baseball team. Answer: the _CINCINNATI RED STOCKINGS_