The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Super-Duper Makeup and New Citizen-Shout-Out Grab Bag

In honor of last week's AWOL quiz, and the recent ascension of our own Art Stukas to the honored status of Real Aussie Man, we invite you to a veritable feast of questions.

Come one, come all. Don't be shy. Cancel that lunch date. You've got some skull-sweatin' to do.

Today's time-annihilator consists of six completely randomly assembled forays into sheer pointlessness. Some have multiple parts. Here they are:

1. A portion of Bronzino's famous painting "An Allegory of Venus and Cupid" appeared regularly on what television series first broadcast between 1969 and 1974?

2. Of the six currently existing absolute monarchies, three are in Asia, one on an island, one in Africa, and one in Europe. In one of these, the monarch is that rare bird, an elected but absolute monarch. Name as many as you can.

3. Follow-up: in another Asian nation, a group of hereditary rulers of individual states elect the monarch of the Federation to a five-year term. What is the nation?

4. In 1837, two German professors of linguistics and philology joined with five of their colleagues to protest the abolition of the liberal constitution of the state of Hanover by the King (who happened to be one of George III's sons). They and their colleagues were known collectively as Die Göttinger Sieben (the Gottinger Seven). They were fired from their posts and one of the two was deported. He was joined by the other, and they were invited to Berlin to continue their work. But for what very different activity are the two best known today, under what collective name?

5. Henry Maxwell Dempsey, born in 1925, is perhaps most famous for a dystopian novel (published under his pen name) set in sweltering New York slums of the future, and begins when NYPD detective Andy Rusch is drawn into a riot which starts as a protest by people 65 years and older who have been forced into retirement. The film adaptation of his work changed the title, much of the detail, and added a radically shocking ending. What was the film's title?

6. The United States contains a number of places designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Most of these (such as Yellowstone National Park or Everglades National Park) a predominantly comprised of natural features; several are comprised of ancient Native American dwelling sites, such as Taos Pueblo. Only three are centered around man-made constructions from the 18th Century and beyond. The oldest was completed by 1753; the most recently constructed was dedicated in 1886. The other is a two-part site, consisting of a private home and a public institution, located in the same area. What are the three sites?

Anybody who gets all of these by their own selves can take over this Quiz nonsense. (Actually, anybody who's silly enough to ask has a good shot at the position). But honor, glory and a chorus of digital huzzahs will be heaped on those first with each individual piece. All search engines, reference tomes, and knowledgeable village elders should be shunned for the duration. Do it to prove you can. One guess per part of each question per comment. But comment away, me hearties, comment away.

Comments

partial answer, then time to make dinner (fried emu wings and 'roo burgers):

2. sultan of brunei
5. soylent green
6. statue du liberte
6. ellis island

back later!

Posted by: art | May 11, 2007 03:57 AM

1. masterpiece theatre
2. laos
2. luxembourg

Posted by: art | May 11, 2007 08:09 AM

Soylent Green is people!

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 08:13 AM

4. The Brothers Grimm?

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 08:19 AM

6. FDR's house (and museum?) in Hyde Park

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 08:23 AM

1. Love American Style?

2. a. The King of Bhutan
b. The Dalai Lama (he's still IN Asia, technically, though not in Tibet)
c. The King of Thailand
d. The King of Nepal (well, usta be.)
e. Sultan of Brunei, as previously mentioned.
f. King of Jordan
g. Saudi King.
h. Kim Jong IL is absolute preznit, but he just got it 'cause his daddy was (oh, wait, that's us, too.) Is he the rare bird?
g. Queen Beatrix of Denmark?

3. Afghanistan?

4. The German Bund? I don't know anything about it, it was just a crossword puzzle clue last week.

5. Cocoon.

6. St. Augustine, Florida

Posted by: bootsy3000 | May 11, 2007 08:39 AM

Hi ho. Bootsy here again. I forgot to file these under #2 - it's all part of my Dick-Cheney-Goes-Hunting Strategy:
1. King of Andorra.
2. Does the Pope count as the elected monarch?
3. Emirs of Oman and Kuwait.
And I think Beatrix is Holland. Denmark's queen is somebody else. I know, neither one is absolute.
4. Um, the Maltese Falcon?
I would much rather keep spinning out pointless answers than going to work, but the Wombat's wages are wack. Rise up, young stafflings!

Posted by: bootsy3000 | May 11, 2007 08:53 AM

1. Monty Python's Flying Circus
2. Naboo
4. the Mallachi Crunch

Posted by: james | May 11, 2007 09:12 AM

When I say absolute monarchy, I mean those which have a ruler who takes a title of nobility or royalty -- sultans, kings, or princes, etc. Since Bootsy has guessed it, I'll say that indeed, the Pope is the elected but absolute monarch of the Vatican City.

Posted by: BT | May 11, 2007 10:33 AM

5. PBS brain, please kick in. Monticello slavery shrine. And wherever the Liberty Bell is in PA?

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 10:57 AM

I meant number 6.

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 10:58 AM

2. Island monarch — Hawaii?
Asia: Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia
Africa: Scotland? Ha ha.

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 11:39 AM

1. Brady Bunch
2. a. I know the Queen in Africa is M'Bute Twala - is she Niger?
b. Thailand
c. Denmark
d. Myanmar

3.
4.
5. Logan's Run
6. a. Ford's Theatre and the House where Lincoln died
b. Independence Hall in Philadelphia
c.

Posted by: boxjam | May 11, 2007 11:49 AM

James has No. 1; Cupid's foot stomps down at the end of the credits.

Art nabbed Brunei for the island portion of No. 2. Bootsy gets king of Bhutan (Bootsy), il Papa (an elected Prince, but absolutely powerful over the V.C. once elected), the king of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultan (not Emir) of Oman. Some of the others mentioned are constitutional monarchies, where the royal person has more limited power. No one has yet guessed the African one.

No. 3 is still a mystery.

Shananan rightly guesses No. 4 with those lefty profs the Brothers Grimm.

On No. 5, everyone, it seems, knows about Soylent Green. It wasn't people in the original book by Harry Harrison, titled Make Room! Make Room!, where overcrowding, not cannibalism, was the problem. But Art got there first.

No. 6 has been answered piecemeal by now, thanks to boxjam correctly naming Independence Hall (where the Lib Bell rang, shananan). That's the oldest of the three. The second-oldest is indeed Monticello, along with the University of Virginia -- both products of Jefferson's Sally Hemmings-fevered brain. And Art proves he's still SOMEWHAT of an Amurrican (though apparently a suspiciously Francophone one) by mentioning the Statue of Liberty.

Posted by: BT | May 11, 2007 12:26 PM

For #3, Malasyia or INdonesia. I think the former.

Posted by: bootsy3000 | May 11, 2007 01:26 PM

3. Mongolia
2. Ethiopia

Posted by: boxjam | May 11, 2007 01:33 PM

Long and absolutely may you reign, quiz monarch.

Posted by: shananan | May 11, 2007 03:41 PM

Having just been to Malaysia for our honeymoon, I'll admit that the federation in question in #3 probably does involve these 4 states (and Singapore and Brunei were originally supposed to be members of the federation but backed out (B) or were asked to leave (S)).

As for the Statue of Liberty, well it was originally dedicated on my birthday (28/10) but when the centennial rolled around, it ended up being celebrated on the 4th of July -- I'm still grumpy about that!

Posted by: art | May 11, 2007 09:42 PM

This here's an Incompetacracy, shananan, in which the most bumbling are maintained in power until they show dangerous signs of doing anything right. But thanks for your support.

Also -- art's educational honeymoon schooled him well in the interesting political architecture of the Malaysian variant of constitutional monarchy. I didn't know Singapore had been asked to leave, though. Was it the caning?

Posted by: BT | May 14, 2007 09:30 AM

Probably should have been "Incompetarchy." Or maybe it's a "Demeritocracy"

Posted by: BT | May 14, 2007 10:25 AM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: Super-Duper Makeup and New Citizen-Shout-Out Grab Bag

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