Mark Mason

Answers to The Spectator Diary 2023 Quiz

  1. Which item of stationery was introduced in America in 1977 under the original name Press-n-Peel? – Post-it Note
  2. The Order of the Companions of Honour is limited to 65 people. The Order of Merit is limited to 24. As of summer 2022, only two people held both titles. Both are British, and they have the same Christian name as each other. Who are they? – Sir David Attenborough and David Hockney
  3. In August 2021 James Anderson became the second bowler to take 400 Test wickets in one country (obviously, in his case, England). Who was the first, and in which country? – Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka
  4. What did the American writer Clifton Fadiman call ‘milk’s leap toward immortality’?Cheese
  5. Which group of nine people now use Hawks painted red, though they originally used Gnats painted yellow? The earlier arrangement led to the unfortunate nickname ‘the Daffodil Patrol’.The Red Arrows
  6. In 2018, David Berry Jr of Missouri was convicted of poaching deer. He was sentenced to one year in prison. The judge also ordered that during his sentence, at least once a month, Berry had to watch which 1942 movie?Bambi
  7. Which pop star, born Alecia Beth Moore in 1979, took her stage name from a character played by Steve Buscemi in a movie of 1992? – Pink (the character being Mr Pink in Reservoir Dogs)
  8. Which British TV comedy programme originally aired from 1982 to 1992, meaning it lasted six years longer than the real-life set of circumstances that inspired it? – ‘Allo ‘Allo (the Nazi occupation of France having lasted from 1940 to 1944)
  9. In 1970, a famous American musician held a party. One guest brought along the French composer Pierre Boulez. Mishearing the musician’s name, and that of his wife Peggy, Boulez mistakenly called them ‘Al’ and ‘Betty’. In 1986, the musician used the incident as the inspiration for one of his best-known songs. Which song?You Can Call Me Al (by Paul Simon) 
  10. Only one person has served as a government minister under four different Labour prime ministers. Who is she?Margaret Beckett (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science under Wilson and then under Callaghan, several posts under Blair, Minister of State for Housing and Planning under Brown)
  11. Edward VIII had seven Christian names. The first three were Edward, Albert and Christian – the last four were chosen to reflect the fact he might well become monarch of the United Kingdom. What were those four names? – George, Andrew, Patrick, David
  12. In a novel of 1887, whose qualities are summarised, by someone who has recently met him, in a list that includes: ‘Knowledge of literature: nil… Knowledge of philosophy: nil… Knowledge of chemistry: profound… Is an expert singlestick player, boxer and swordsman… Has a good practical knowledge of British law’?Sherlock Holmes (as described by Dr. Watson in A Study in Scarlet)

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