These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 2024-11-18,
and should be interpreted accordingly.
On each question you may give up to two answers, but if you give
both a right answer and a wrong answer, there is a small penalty.
Please post all your answers in a single followup to the newsgroup,
based only on your own knowledge. (In your answer posting, quote
the questions and place your answer below each one.) I will reveal
the correct answers in about 3 days.
All questions were written by members of What She Said, and are
used here by permission, but have been reformatted and may have
been retyped and/or edited by me. The posting and tabulation of
current-events questions is independent of the concurrent posting
of other rounds. For further information please see my 2024-08-30
companion posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition
(QFTCI*)".
* Game 10, Round 7 - Entertainment - Magic
No, this round isn't about sorcery, but rather the performing art
of magic. Top hats and rabbits! Abracadabra!
1. Traditionally there are three elements of any magic trick.
The first is the "pledge", where a seemingly ordinary object is
shown to the audience. The second is the "turn", where something
extraordinary appears to happen to the object. The third is
where the object is once again "confirmed" to be ordinary.
What is that element called? It is also the title of a 2006
movie directed by Christopher Nolan.
2. Harry Houdini once stated that nobody could be considered an
accomplished magician if they had not mastered one particular
category of trick, since that trick involves both the basic
fundamental skills and effects of magic: for skills it uses
sleight of hand, misdirection, and audience management, and for
effects it can utilize vanishing, appearance, transposition, and
transformation. What is the common name for this type of trick?
3. Among magicians, a common technique in card magic is a Zarrow
shuffle. How does a Zarrow shuffle differ from a regular
card shuffle?
4. What is the term for using sleight of hand to conceal an item
within one's hand? When done properly, the audience believes
the hand is empty while it is in fact holding the concealed item.
5. What is the term for the branch of magic which makes the
audience believe the performer has telepathic, mind-reading,
or predictive powers?
6. Many practitioners of <answer 5>, along with psychics and
fortune-tellers, use a technique to quickly obtain a great deal
of basic information about a person via visual observations
about the person's appearance and manner of speech, and then
"creating" more knowledge via high-probability guesses and
confirming the correctness of those guesses by observing body
language. What is this technique called?
7. Although Houdini practiced multiple types of stage magic, he
was best known for what physically intensive performing art,
typically either included within stage magic or closely
associated with it?
8. A magician has a long coil of rope on a stage. The rope
begins levitating upwards, with no external support, until
it is out of the audience's view. The magician then ascends
the rope. The name of this trick involves a nationality,
although it appears the trick does not originate in that country.
Which country is this rope trick named for?
9. Another staple of magic tied to a nationality are the linking
rings, but unlike the rope trick, this one *was* invented in
the country they are named for. What country?
10. Finally, a relatively new but very popular field of
sleight-of-hand magic uses a specific item as its specialized
prop for magic effects. What common plaything is that prop?
* Game 10, Round 8 - Sports - Leaders
Name them.
1. NBA all-time leader in rebounds.
2. NFL all-time leader in passing yards.
3. NBA all-time leader in points scored.
4. FIFA all-time leader in goals scored.
5. MLB all-time leader in runs batted in.
6. NHL all-time leader in wins as a goaltender.
7. MLB all-time leader in walks received as a batter.
8. NFL all-time leader in pass receptions and touchdowns.
9. NHL all-time leader in power-play goals and overtime goals.
10. International Tennis Federation leader in Grand Slam tournament
wins (two people tied, name either).
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | The real trouble with this world of ours is... that
[email protected] | it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. --Chesterton
My text in this article is in the public domain.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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