This quiz is over and the winner is STEPHEN W PERRY! Congratulations!
Here is the full scoreboard:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
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Swp 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 1 10
Joshua K - 1 - 1 1 1 1 - 1 1 - - 7
Mark B 1 - - - - - 1 - 1 1 - - 4
Dan B 1 - - 1 - - 1 - - - - 1 4
Pete G - - - - - 1 1 - - 1 - - 3
Dan T 1 - - - - - 1 - - - - - 2

1. Which nations fought in the Nitrate War?

Chile against Per� and Bolivia.

It was sufficient to give Chile and one of the other two. The war stood
in 1879-1884 and was a major victory for Chile who enlarged its
territory by a third or so, making gains from both Bolivia and Per�.

2. Which country recently voted in favour in a referendum that two-thirds
of neighbouring country is rightfully part of the voting country?

Venezuela. The neighbouring country is Guyana. Apparently, it is an
old grudge from 1899 with the British empire.

3. OK boomers, what's a Millennial pause?

That's when you record a video for Tiktok or similar, and there is a
quiet second before you start talking, singing, whatever. The younger
kids thinks that this is a bad habit of the Millennial generation. See
also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennial_pause.

4. "The Boy and the Heron" is the most recent work from which
master of animated films?

Hayao Miyazaki

Miayzaki was sufficient, although his son has also issued animated
films.

5. Times of Troubles was a period of turmoil in the beginning of the
17th century in which country?

Russia.

In Russian the name is Smutnoye Vremya, and the English name is a
possible translation of this name. In Swedish we know this period as "Den
stora oredan", "The Big Mess" or "The Great Disorder" in English.

In 1598, tsar Fedor died without a heir, and Boris Gudonov became
the tsar, but his situation was as stable as of King Harold of England
in 1066. When bad harvests caused a famine 1600-1603 he was toppled,
and Russia went through a period with several ursurpers and "false
Dmitiris". Both Poland and Sweden stuck their noses in to add insult
to injury. Eventual Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar in 1612, and
things went back to normal.

6. Translated into English, "Black Pete" is the name of the sidekick
of Santa Claus in the folklore of which corner of the world?

The Dutch Lowlands.

The Dutch name is Zwarte Piet.

7. Aramco is said to be the most profitable company in the world.
In which country are they based?

Saudi Arabia.

It's the national oil company.

8. Name any two of the 2023 Nobel laureates.

Narges Mohannadi (peace)
Jon Fosse (literature)
Pierre Agostini (physics)
Ferenc Krausz (physics)
Anne l'Huiller (physics)
Drew Weissman (physiology or medicine)
Katalin Karik� (physiology or medicine)
Claudiua Goldin (economy)
Aleksej Jekimov (chemistry)
Louis E. Brus (chemistry)
Mougi Bawendi (chemistry)

I will have to admit that the only two I knew myself without looking
up were Fosse and Karik�.

9. What is smetana?

To quote Wikipedia: "It is a dairy product produced by souring heavy
cream. It is similar to cr�me fra�che". Wikipedia points out that its
cooking properties are different from cr�me fra�che, and, yes, I
noticed this a few weeks ago, when I used cr�me fra�che as a change
to smetana. Smetana is popular in central and eastern Europe.

And, yes, there was also a composer by that name. You could argue
that if I had been asking for that person, the question would have
read "Who was Smetana". (Past tense, uppercase and all that.) But,
hey, it's Christmas, so I accept it.

10. "The Barber of Seville" is an opera by which composer?

Gioachino Rossini

11. A few days ago, France won the women's World Championships in
handball, co-hosted by Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Handball is
not a very big sport in North America, and of 32 teams there
was only one from North America, which? Hint: it was one of
the less populous countries.

Greenland.

Stephen was both closest and furhterest away by answering Canada.
Canada can certainly not count as "one of the less populous countries",
but in the final qualification round Greenland won over Canada.

As for how come, I guess there is a Danish influence. Handball is a big
sport in all the Scandinavian countries.

12. Name two of the main ingredients in Pesto alla genovese.

Garlic, basil, pine nuts, coarse salt and some hard cheese
like parmesan or pecorino. And of course olive oil.



Thanks to everyone for playing and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

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Erland Sommarskog:

And, yes, there was also a composer by that name. You could argue
that if I had been asking for that person, the question would have
read "Who was Smetana". (Past tense, uppercase and all that.) But,
hey, it's Christmas, so I accept it.

Oh, I wasn't expecting a point. But I accept it.

11... Hint: it was one of the less populous countries.

Greenland.

Not a country at all! That makes it harder to guess.
--
Mark Brader | lying
Toronto | abort reply.
[email protected] | -- random words at end of a spam message

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Mark Brader ([email protected]) writes:

Erland Sommarskog:

And, yes, there was also a composer by that name. You could argue
that if I had been asking for that person, the question would have
read "Who was Smetana". (Past tense, uppercase and all that.) But,
hey, it's Christmas, so I accept it.

Oh, I wasn't expecting a point. But I accept it.

11... Hint: it was one of the less populous countries.

Greenland.

Not a country at all! That makes it harder to guess.

Well, it has a country code... But, true, it is not independent.

I was considering this problem, but I could not think of a better
alternative that would not be too stilted or have been too much of
a hint.

And, after all, it is no news that there are national teams representing territories that are not fully independent.

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Erland Sommarskog:

11... Hint: it was one of the less populous countries.

Greenland.

Mark Brader:

Not a country at all! That makes it harder to guess.

Erland Sommarskog:

Well, it has a country code... But, true, it is not independent.

Not a serious complaint. After all, as somebody said, it is no news
that there are national teams representing territories that are not
fully independent.

I was considering this problem, but I could not think of a better
alternative that would not be too stilted or have been too much of
a hint.

Since the question asked which *team*, "Hint: it was not one of the
more populous countries" would have worked this time.

The same problem arises with questions about normal teams in the major
sports, where the typical pattern is a city name followed by team name:
a few of them don't use a city name, they use a state or province or
region or even, in one case, a nickname for the city. So in writing
trivia questions and saying what's required, if you refer to the
"city name" you're being misleading if the team is one of those oddball
ones. (I sometimes say "city or other place name" in such cases.)
--
Mark Brader | "You could have a perfectly normal life, if you were simply Toronto | willing to have a perfectly normal life."
[email protected] | -- Q (Michael Piller, "Star Trek: Voyager")

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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swp ([email protected]) writes:

hmmm. an interesting trivia category. professional teams playing
in the top level league of their sport in a country that don't have a city name as part of their normal name. for example, the new york yankees
would not be in this set because they are associated with the city of
new york not the state, nor would the lehigh valley ironpigs since they
are a triple-a club and not at the top level.

It seems to me that in North America, team names are almost often on
the form Place Something, where Place is the city, state or possibly
the area.

In Europe, it's different.

of course, a lot of premier league soccer teams fall into this category
so it is a good sized set overall with lots of potential for
subcategories.

Some PL teams have names that associate them to a part of town, for
instance Chelsea, Everton. I don't know on the top of my head if
there are team names with no geographical connection at all.

In Sweden, we certainly have them. Last year's football champions
were H�cken ("The hedge"). One team that played a final qualification
game for the highest leauge, but lost, is Utsikten ("The view".)

There are also such teams elsewhere in Europe: Ajax (Netherlands),
Inter (Italy), Juventus (Italy), Young Boys (Switzerland or Austria).

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On 12/25/23 17:03, Mark Brader wrote:

The same problem arises with questions about normal teams in the major sports, where the typical pattern is a city name followed by team name:
a few of them don't use a city name, they use a state or province or
region or even, in one case, a nickname for the city.

There's even some that use the name of a body of water: the Tampa Bay
teams. The city is just Tampa, not Tampa Bay. They use the name of the
body of water so as not to exclude fans from St Petersburg.

BTW, which is the nickname of the city? There's the Golden State
Warriors, but that's a nickname of the state, not city.

--
Dan Tilque

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Mark Brader:

The same problem arises with questions about normal teams in the major
sports, where the typical pattern is a city name followed by team name:
a few of them don't use a city name, they use a state or province or
region or even, in one case, a nickname for the city.

Dan Tilque:

There's even some that use the name of a body of water: the Tampa Bay teams...

I consider that a region name.

BTW, which is the nickname of the city? There's the Golden State
Warriors, but that's a nickname of the state, not city.

The one I had in mind was the Vegas (not Las Vegas) Golden Knights.
--
Mark Brader "Relax -- I know the procedures backwards."
Toronto "Yeah, well, that's a quick way to get killed." [email protected] -- Chris Boucher, STAR COPS

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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