Quiz answers

[chickenfeet]

You lot should do really well in an education system that values imagination and creativity over actually knowing anything. Well, I got a good laugh out of some of the answers. Anyway, I realise that some of the nicknames I used may have more than one usage so the following is what I intended when I devised the thing.

Pongo: British and Australian navy slang for a soldier. "Where the army goes, the pong goes". I don't think it's derived from the genus of the orangutan. No-one got this one which surprised me. The closest was perhaps ajhalluk with "military policeman". However, in my experience the normal slang for an MP is "redcap" though several less polite terms may also be used.

Monsters of the Midway: As albionwood says, the Chicago Bears of the NFL.

The Grey Funnel Line: Lots of you got this one. It's the Royal Navy. It's a sort of play on the fact that many merchant shipping lines are/were known by their funnel decorations, eg the White Star line of Titanic fame.

Los Merengues: rhythmaning claims there is a Peruvian soccer team with this nick name. He may well be right. I was thinking of the rather better known Real Madrid.

Toonie: A Canadian two dollar coin, as many of you know. The one dollar coin has a loon on the reverse and rapidly became known as a "loonie", so when they introduced a two dollar coin it was inevitable.

Nobody: Odysseus is an erudite and excellent suggestion but it wasn't the sneaky Greek that I had in mind. lunar_affinity got what I was driving at; John Eales, former Australian rugby captain, who was so called because Nobody's perfect.

The Tart with the Cart: Almost everyone got this which amazed me. It's a statue of Molly Malone near the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin.

The Silver Ferns: The NZ netball team as most of the southrons knew. FWIW, the cricket team is "The Blackcaps" (and who came up with a stupid name like that) {ETA the men are the "blackcaps", the women are the "White (not siver) Ferns"} and the rugby team is the "All Blacks". The Silver Ferns are famous for being the only major sports team to sell advertising space on their underwear.

Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard: rhythmaning was so close but not quite with "The Royal Scots Guards". Unfortunately there is no such regiment. The correct answer is The Royal Scots, formerly the 1st of Foot, and in continuous existence since 1633 though apocryphally descended from Caledonians in Roman service. The Scots Guards are something quite different. As of this year the Royal Scots will cease to exist as they are to merge with KSOB to form a battalion of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The Hedgehogs: Noone got this. It's the Seattle Supersonics of the NBA. Geddit?

Comments

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Hell -- I did know some of those -- Toonie and the Tart, at least. But the Sonics? I've never heard them called that! Generally it's "those bastards/losers who play at the Key" or "the other basketball team" (most of the people I know who watch hoops are regular attenders of the Seattle Storm's home games).

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know the NZ men are the Black Caps; I remember being amused by it, because they were being sponsored by a company called Clear which meant they kept describing themselves as the Clear Black Caps.

But I was not far off, when I looked it up; the NZ women's cricket team are the White Ferns. Or at times the Clear White Ferns, though I think they've changed sponsor since.

Re Odysseus, I remember being very struck by the notion that he'd got the idea of calling himself Nobody because Oudeis is not entirely unlike Odysseus. Unfortunately, Homer uses the form Outis instead of Oudeis, which doesn't fit the theory so well.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

NZ women's cricket team are the White Ferns

But not the Silver Ferns

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I didn't say I was right; I originally said it sounded familiar, and latterly that I wasn't far off. Heraldically, white and silver are both described as argent.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Heraldically, white and silver are both described as argent.

Indeed! I can only suggest that you complain to New Zealand Herald Extraordinary

[radinden]

Ah, the question-setter's curse: I've heard a good half of those, but only realised so when I actually read the answers...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I thought you would find it trivially easy

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

As soon as lunar_affinity posted their answer (John Eales), I groaned, because I actually knew that - I was trying to think of the person who wrote "The Diary of a Nobody", serves me right for trying to be clever!

Here's one for you - do you know who/what is the "Floozy in the Jacuzzi"?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

nope

[anneth.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to quibble too much, but the original Monsters of the Midway were the University of Chicago's football team. The midway is the mile-long park that stretches north-south between 59th and 60th streets and Cottage Grove Ave and Stony Island (east-west); it bisects the U of C's campus. Wikipedia's got an article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago

The Chicago Bears coopted the U of C football team's nickname and insignia, that stylized "C" on their helmets.

[pyroclasticgrub.livejournal.com]

I didn't think it was derived from the genus name for orangutans, I just saw Pongo and thought of orangs because I just wrote a 25 page paper on them. I really knew nothing of the context of the quiz.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

So you didn't get my original answers? I had Pongo, Grey Funnel Line, Tart with the Cart and Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard right, or would have done if there had been room for my answers.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Alas, the Floozy in the Jacuzzi is no more. Or, to be precise, she's languishing in a storage yard somewhere. Poor thing, not her fault everyone used to chuck their rubbish at her.....

Floozy in the Jacuzzi = a bronze statue of Anna Livia (the Liffey) that used to live on O'Connell Street. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Livia

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Molly Malone isn't by the Ha'penny Bridge! She's at the Trinity College end of Grafton Street. Random trivia: when she was first unveiled, the feminists of Ireland were in uproar about the prominent boobage and general "tart-iness" until it was pointed out that the sculptor was, in fact, a woman!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting connection but I imagine it must be a coincidence. Next paper "The influence of primate zoology on Royal Navy slang" perhaps?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

That would, I think, have made you top scorer

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there another one? I thought, when I was in Dublin a few years ago, there was the Tart with the Cart, the Floozy in the Jacuzzi, and the... Someone Else with Other Attribute which I've forgotten.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And today's news is that Surrey are changing their one-day nickname from the Lions to the Brown Caps. I'm wondering what this means for their mascot, the perfidious Roary.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Brown Caps?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It's explained here (http://www.surreycricket.com/news/surrey-cricket/surrey-ccc-announce-new-limited-overs-nickname,5024,NS.html). They do wear brown caps, and apparently have done since 1845. And 71% of a members' poll preferred it.

[klig.livejournal.com]

Further on the NZ business: The basketball team are known as the "Tall Blacks" and the badminton team are reportedly referred to as the "Black Cocks".

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Aaaah...there are a multitude of amusingly named statues in Dublin. Come to think of it, I feel a quiz of my own coming on....

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Merengues - that was one of the Wikipedia ones, I think.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

That's probably because 80% of Surrey members date from 1845

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Father in the RAF; father-in-law in RAF and RN; husband in RN.

*sings "Justone more day... on the Grey Funnel Line"*