Restarting the brain

[jadesfire]

Hi all! I'm not back properly, just lurking really, reading some fic and some journals and generally mooching around. I probably won't really be back until about 3rd January, when I get back from my in-laws (yes, we're still here and having a nice time, thank you for asking)

I've been quietly pleased with my three Christmas fic exchange stories - two for sga_santa and one for Yuletide. Drabbles for any non-betas who can identify which are mine! I still have some drabble prompts from weeks ago that I'm working through, and I need to write my lostcityfound story for 7th January, but it's been a nice, relaxing holiday and just what I needed.

Anyway, the point of posting was not to ramble (for a change) but to pass on a quiz picked up from fajrdrako. "It's the 2008 King Williams College Quiz. It's an annual quiz given to the students at this college on the Isle of Man. First they to it off the top of their heads, then they get it as an open-book test for a while. There's a prize for the person who gets the most questions right."

fajrdrako has reproduced it at her journal, but since our flists don't entirely overlap, I thought it would be fun to put it here too. It's somewhere between a general knowledge quiz and a cryptic crossword - see how many you can get and drop the answers in comments. Discuss amongst yourselves and I'll keep dropping in to see how you're all doing. I'll update answers as often as I can! My own 'first pass answers' are in bold. More when I've had a chance to look things up!



1) During the year 1908:
1. who announced T?
Henry Ford
2. who finished at 59 with 15 and 25?
W G Grace, who retired from cricket that year. 15 and 25 were his scores for his final innings.
3. what confectionery was inspired by Shaw?
The Chocolate Soldier, a musical adaptation of Shaw's Arms and the Man
4. who gained her second first at an old east-coast fort?
The Lusitania, who regained the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing.
5. where did the Thomas Flyer arrive on the Asiatic mainland?
This is a reference to the Great Auto race of that year. They came ashore in Japan, then crossed to Vladivostok, which I assume is the answer.
6. whose birthday present was cut into nine pieces for the family headdress and other equipment?
Edward VII - the Cullinan diamond - crystalshard
7. whose resignation pre-empted his demise by just 16 days?
The Prime Minister Campbell Bannerman.
8. which tale launched a nouveau riche boy-racer?
Wind in the Willows
9. for whom was Lord Hugh best man?
Winston Churchill, who had been one of Lord Hugh Cecil's "Hughligans" in parliament
10. what event elevated Manuel?

2) Who began what by:
1. recalling unusual citrous abundance?
2. describing his subject's physiognomy with a succession of v's?
3. justifying the creation of a short palindromic nickname for "himself"?
4. describing the emergence at dawn of a moustached little man with bowlegs?
5. recalling melancholy inspiration from early evening sights and sounds in a rural churchyard?
Thomas Grey Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - rustydog and hellenebright
6. suggesting that it was generally accepted that a well-heeled loner must be looking for a lady?
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
7. describing a studio filled with the scents of roses, lilac and pink-flowered thorn?
8. describing his hero facing execution and recalling the –discovery of ice?
9. recalling a send-off from family and friends at Charing Cross?
10. providing an alibi for the white kitten?
Lewis Carroll Alice through the looking glass hellenebright

3) [Jades' note: these are all to do with messages and telegrams]
1. Whose ground-breaking effort quoted Numbers XXIII, 23?
Samuel Morse. The verse was chosen for the first long-distance morse code message sent by telegraph.
2. Who wired who confirming worst fears and requesting gumboots?
Flora Poste Cold Comfot Farm by Stella Gibbons
3. Whose telegram caused Dew to hasten westward on the Laurentic?
Captain Henry George Kendall who wired that he had Crippen and Le Neve aboard his ship hellenebright
4. Who, on sighting the enemy, urgently requested a firearm and 300 bullets?
5. Whose expression of delight was accompanied by a request for a patent oil cooking stove?
6. With what single word did the defeated Governor allegedly advise cancellation of the papal travel arrangements?
7. Who described a suave, Bohemian, elderly, storekeeper in the Commercial Road?
Sherlock Holmes, The Creeping Man stackcats
8. Which repetitious message prompted the query "Does that mean Yes?"
"Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown" Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons
9. Who discovered a crumpled telegram reading "Suivez à Bokhare Saronov"?
Scots lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen (the Powerhouse – John Buchan) with_apostrophe
10. On what occasion was the royal wrath not expressed in code?
I wonder if this is a reference to Mary, Queen of Scots.

4) [Jades' note: these answers are Scottish islands]
1. What is the Island of Sheep?
Fair Isle stackcats
2. Where did the sea cave inspire Op 26?
Fingal’s Cave, part of Mendelsohn’s Hebrides Overture with_apostrophe
3. Where was Magnus Erlendsson executed?
The island of Egilsay with_apostrophe
4. What was David's gift to the Berkshire monks?
A monastery on the Isle of May, granted to the monks of REading stackcats
5. Where did an amputated digit earn its owner the right to build a monastery?
6. Where did the great grandson of King John III make his first British landfall?
7. Where is the unique mutton derived from a diet of Laminaria?
Ronaldsay hellenebright
8. Where was quarantine enforced for 48 years?
Gruinard Island, where anthrax was released to wipe out the sheep. It was a biological warfare test that got a bit out of hand
9. To what was Meg's deafness compared?
10. Where was Andie Dale the prefect?
The Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth- Catriona with_apostrophe

5) Travelling from Nordic lands, try unravelling:
1. the eponymous traitor
Quisling hellenebright
2. then Merrill's famed fisherman partner
3. and a misplaced cygnet
The Ugly Duckling stackcats
4. contrasting with a little anser,
I think this is a reference to Ibsen's The Wild Duck where the truth destroys rather than bringing happiness (hence "contrasting")
5. thousands of whose elders visit a Waddenzee barrier island,
The Eider Duck
6. while in Belgium, memories of Ursula are awakened by a Flemish Primitive,
I think this is the Shrine of St Ursula in Bruges, painted by Hans Memling, who inherited the 'Flemish Primitive tradition from van Eyck.
7 and in the Amblève, or perhaps the Lesse, one might confusingly make geometry a sport
8 and try to catch a little trout
9 or even its seemingly lepidopteran relative
10 before celebrating in Germany with Piesport's speciality

6) Who: [Jades' note: these are all VIs]
1. was Foolish?
2. was Rodrigo de Borja y Borja?
Pope Alexander VI
3. invested Henry Sinclair as Earl of Orkney?
King Haakon VI of Norway invested and confirmed Henry as the Norwegian Earl of Orkney
4. had a half-sister sired by his –father's physician?
5. founded a Siamese school, which was later named in his honour?
Rama VI of Siam. Having been educated at Oxford, he founded Thailands' first university, which was renamed Vajiravudh college in his honour (Vajiravudh was the name he ruled under)
6. was born on the 34th anniversary of the death of his great grandfather and the 17th of that of his great aunt?
7. was the offspring of parents sharing the same grandmother?
8. was the 36th and last in a line started in 1299?
9. was blinded by his mother Irene?
Constantine VI in 797
10. was tripartite


7)
1. Which language was developed by a Polish ophthalmologist?
Esperanto
2. Which language of the Romance group has a definite article suffix?
Romanian miss_zedem
3. Of which European language is the origin unknown, even to the experts?
Basque miss_zedem and hellenebright
4. Which geographically Scandinavian language is not linguistically Scandinavian?
Finnish - it's part of the Finno-Ugric branch, although it does borrow some words from Swedish. miss_zedem and hellenebright
5. Which European language is the only survivor of its branch of the Indo-European group?
Armenian miss_zedem
6. Which Slavonic language is spoken in a country whose national language is not Slavonic?
Sorbian (Upper and Lower) which is spoken in the Lusatia region of Germany
7. Which European language is spoken by about 1% of the population of Switzerland?
Romansch miss_zedem
8. Which European language has a past tense form which looks like a future?
9. Which Slavonic language has done away with the case forms of nouns?
Bulgarian miss_zedem
10. Which European national language still retains the dual number?
Slovene miss_zedem

8) What:
1. is also a game using 28 marbles?
Solitaire hellenebright
2. formed part of a linear horti–cultural decoration?
3. are typically preserved in seasoned butter in Lancashire?
Shrimps from Morcambe Bay hellenebright
4. when released in America, suggested involvement with Christine Keeler?
Scandal, which had to be cut for, er, over-enthusiasm on the part of some extras with_apostrophe
5. are geographically confusing names of what is neither one thing nor the other?
6. pelecypod was perhaps familiar to the pupils (and their successors) of Rev Thomas Langhorne?
Mussels - Loretto school is in Musselburgh, Scotland and was founded by the Rev. Thomas.
7. did the man from the Borough regard as the invariable accompaniment of poverty?
8. legs are found in unbaled water together with tangled lines?
9. nominally, has blue representatives in another kingdom?
10. when baked too brown, must sugar his hair?
The Sluggard - Alice in Wonderland hellenebright

9) Journeying on what, between which termini, might one's thoughts turn to:
1. sleepwalking?
2. elliptical orbits?
3. the quintessential libertine?
4. a soldier without a passport?
5. the founding father of the EU?
Robert Schuman station - Trains travelling between Brussels South station and Namur and Luxembourg call at the station with_apostrophe
6. the royal prisoner of Sönderborg?
You are travelling between Vanlose and Lufthavnen on the Copenhagen metro, and when you go past Christanshavn station you would be reminded of the Danish king Christian II who was a prisoner for 17 years in the castle of Sonderborg hellenebright
7. Judith and three mute wives?
8. clothed and naked versions?
9. the mount of Bellerophon?
The train from Zurich to Amsterdam is called Pegasus
10. melting clocks?
This must be to do with the Salvador Dali Painting (xparrot) "The Persistence of Memory". Quite how that works, I have no idea... with_apostrophe adds that there's a Dali painting called "The Station of Perpignan", so presumably you're travelling by train.

10) Which river:
1. received the defeated Aunus?
I think this refers to the Finnish assualt in 1918, in which case the answer is the Tuulos.
2. floats laden barges by banks of myosote?
The Thames There is a Hill by Robert Bridges with_apostrophe
3. was central to the non-payment of a mayoral debt?
The Weser in The Pied Piper of Hamlyn hellenebright
4. was identified without doubt by the discovery of the initials AD
5. saw Captain Schenk acquire an engineer to replace the deceased Walter?
6. despite being in flood, could be crossed dry-shod following clerical plantar immersion?
Joshua 3 - the crossing of the Jordan River
7. provided drinks for kine, and horses, and little humorous donkeys?
8. along with Cairo was passed unnoticed by the raft in the fog?
9. was a source of shelly snails and green lettuces?
10. witnessed a case of unwitting filicide?

11) Who or what:
1. had instinct?
2. reds started as Villa?
3. uniquely, got three in whose match?
4. claimed continuing labial adhesiveness?
5. was formerly William and succeeded Louis?
6. in repetitive utterances, anticipated Glyn Daniel et al?
7. described a small arm accident on 17/6/15?
8. was executed at Bolton after Worcester?
9. was targeted by Nat and Dermot?
10. was presumptuous?

12) Where:
1. was the mistress leguminous?
2. were the Harmonic Meetings regularly held?
3. was Rogue resuscitated after his prolonged immersion?
4. did the circus manager point out that "People must be amuthed"?
The reference is to Hard Times (thanks to with_apostrophe and I think the answer is Coketown
5. did the curate speak for one hour and 25 minutes at an anti-slavery meeting?
6. did a little, yellow high-shouldered man, with a fixed grim smile, tell about a queer client?
7. did the landlord report that Phil was so drunk that a boy might take him?
8. did the Yorkshire schoolmaster interview tutors and pupils?
9. did the strange man stir his rum-and-water with a file?
10. did the hangman bind the old man to his chair?

13)
1. Who remained a bachelor?
James Buchanan xparrot
2. Who had been ADC to Mad Anthony?
This is Mad Anthony Wayne (thanks pwcorgigirl) - anyone know his Aide de Camp?
3. Who was described as a withered little apple-john?
James Madison xparrot
4. Whose nickname was perfect for a slogan of approval?
Eisenhower "I like Ike" roga
5. Who enlisted as a private, but came out as a brevet major?
Rutherford B Hayes xparrot
6. Who maintained that silence ensured no need for repetition?
Calvin Coolidge 'Silent Cal' pwcorgigirl
7. Who, in his youth, admitted to cutting down a cherry tree?
George Washington crystalshard and roga
8. Who compared his strength to that of a male cervid?
Possibly Harry Truman - "The buck stops here" xparrot
9. Who is remembered, nominally, in West Africa?
James Monroe. The capital of Liberia is called Monrovia in his honour pwcorgirl
10. Which two died on the same day?
John Adams and Thomas Jeffesrson, July 4th 1826 roga

14) Within the capital of which member state of the United Nations will you find:
1. calluna?
Wellington xparrot
2. 3.14159?
Apie, capital of Samoa xparrot
3. that its alright?
Tokyo with_apostrophe
4. a Windermere resident?
5. a West Country watercourse?
6. a pudding distinguished by –ladies' fingers?
7. a simian representative?
Budapest xparrot
8. a Tibetan monk?
9. a semi-metal?
10. nothing?

15) Who:
1. was morally pure in EC2?
2. shot Buffalo Bill at Belvedere, Ohio?
Clarice Starling The Silence of the Lambs
3. went to the wrong church for her wedding?
4. believed, erroneously, that –Byron murdered Ezra Chater?
Bernard Nightingale - in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
5. killed Lord Frederick in a duel, following his return from Belgium?
Sir Mulberry Hawk, Nicholas Nickleby stackcats
6. possessed nothing but the –contents of his wallet, the clothes he stood up in, the hare-lip, the automatic he should have left behind?
7. was as little interested in love as in the habits of Trematodes?
8. wore white for her immolation on October 27?
9. advocated unlimited slaughter of bluejays?
Atticus in 'To Kill A Mockingbird' stackcats
10. posed as Doctor Copernicus?

16) Following my leader, who or what:
1. is a Hampshire jewel?
2. decorated Findlater's label?
3. is meteorologically striking?
Both with_apostrophe and I think the answer is 'lightning', so I'm going with that
4. houses Colum Cille's shrine?
5. could be wild duck washed down with Ch. Latour?
6. might refer to poor Sarah's biliary obstruction?
7. is absolutely necessary to a ram?
8. was Anastasia's great aunt?
Maria Feodorovna - survivor of Russian royal family crystalshard
9. could have been a crusader?
10. is a –musteline appendage?

17) In which town:
1. did prisoner 24601 steal the episcopal silver?
Digne. Jean Valjean in Les Miserables
2. did Lady de Winter poison the novice at the convent?
Bethune - The Three Musketeers xparrot
3. was the cathedral like a vast boudoir prepared for Emma?
4. did Jake, dining alone, drink a bottle of Ch. Margaux for company?
5 .did Duhamel ask that the crayfish should be very lightly boiled just seized?
6. did la Baronne de la Chalonnière encounter Alexander Duggan at the Hôtel du Cerf?
Genoa The Day of the Jackal
7. did Holmes spend some months in a research into coal-tar derivatives?
Montpellier stackcats
8. were plum-coloured shoes removed to expose red stockings?
9. did Harry urge his uncle to enter and fortify the town?
Halfleur Henry V donutsweeper
10. did Hannay receive hellish news from Laidlaw?
Amiens Mr Standfast by John Buchan

18) During 2008:
1. which gartered kiwi was laid to rest?
Sir Edmund Hillary
2. which fine food has gained PGS in Leicestershire?
The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie
3. who, following 2nd at 2K with 3 others, got 1st at 3K alone?
4 which sometime bulbous plant would seem to be involved with "arthrology"?
5. who made successive day trips to Abergele, Fountains Abbey and Mugdock?
6. where has the pancake bell ceased to signal the start of a race owing to health and safety issues?
Ripon, North Yorkshire, where the Shrove Tuesday race was cancelled.
7. where did a giant arachnid briefly invade an apparently coleopteran habitat?
Liverpool - the giant spider which briefly invaded the land of the Beatles (beetles - Coleopteran) travels_in_time
8. what legendary diamond fell to the successors of the fictitious Misson?
9. who got six months for dis–honesty at White Plains?
10. whose jobcentre manager fetched £17.2m?

Comments

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

1.6 whose birthday present was cut into nine pieces for the family headdress and other equipment?

I suspect that was the huge diamond gifted to the king at the time, which was split and put into the Crown Jewels.

13.7 Who, in his youth, admitted to cutting down a cherry tree?

Wasn't that the apocrypal tale of George Washington? I don't know if it actually happened, but legend says it did.

15.8 Who wore white for her immolation on October 27?

Was that Joan of Arc? Am not sure at all, but it seems to fit.

16.8 who was Anastasia's great aunt?

I think this refers to Princess Anastasia, who was of the Russian royal family, and whose great-aunt was the only survivor of Rasputin's plot. Can't remember the great-aunt's actual name, but eh.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

good grief, I feel like an ignoramus!

9 - 10 melting clocks?

would be Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory) but I have no clue how that answers the question ^^;

17 - 2 Lady de Winter is The Three Musketeers, no? But I can't recall the event much less the town!

[roga.livejournal.com]

13)

4. Whose nickname was perfect for a slogan of approval?

Possibly Eisenhower? "I Like Ike".

6. Who maintained that silence ensured no need for repetition?

So familiar... maybe Ben Franklin, since it looks like this is the American public figures section, but I'm not sure.

7. Who, in his youth, admitted to cutting down a cherry tree?

Washington.

10. Which two died on the same day?

John Adams and Thomas Jeffesrson, July 4th 1826 (50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, BTW. You cannot buy that kind of symbolism.)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

1.6 Some Wiki-ing suggest that it's the Cullinan Diamond, presented to Edward VII in 1905

13.7 I knew that!

15.8 I looked her up, and she was burned on 30 May, so we need to keep thinking about that ;)

16.8 A bit more hunting brings up the name Maria Feodorovna.

Nice work!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

9.10 I think you're right, but I don't know how that answers it either!

17.2 Aha! I've done some hunting and the answer is Bethune - Milady poisons Constance, d'Artagnan's lover who's hiding in the convent there.

Thanks :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Oh that's great, thanks! The sections do seem to have themes and that seems to answer those nicely :)

[stackcats.livejournal.com]

2.2 Alan Moore in V for Vendetta is all that comes to mind, but I don't think V described anyone's appearance in Vs.

3.7 is Sherlock Holmes in "The Creeping Man". I hate that story.

4.1 I think is Fair Isle?

5.4 the Ugly Duckling?

9.2 Kepler's first law of planetary motion? This is where I should learn to read the question. Kepler's first law is hardly an answer to 'journeying on what from where to where?' *feels evern thicker*

13.7 is George Washington, and there was something about him admitting it to his father.

15.9 Atticus from To Kill A Mockingbird? I think it was blue jays he said they can kill, 'but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'.

17.7 I should know because I've just read "the Empty House". Somewhere in France or Italy, I think.

...Wow. *Feels thick*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

2.2 Hmmmm. I think we're possibly looking for the first line of something.

3.7 Neat, thanks :) I hate that story too - it's definitely one of the weird ones...

4.1 Maybe. It's ringing a faint bell somewhere but I'm not sure it's that one.

5.4 - I think the Ugly Duckling is 5.3. Not sure about the duck (that's an anser, right?)

9.2 NP! Those are hard ones.

13.7 Yup :)

15.9 Awesome, thanks!

17.7 Aha! After looking it up (the trick is to know what to put into Google!), it's Paris.

*blinks* Why on earth do you feel thick? A really good score on this quiz is 3! You did great!

[stackcats.livejournal.com]

Ah! I meant 5.3. I've got no idea about 5.4.

17.7 is Montpelier, according to my copy.

Section 9 is a bugger, isn't it? I wonder if there are connections between all the answers in every section?

You did great!
:0)
I wonder what the highest score by the students was?

[stackcats.livejournal.com]

Also, Fair Isle is 'sheep isle' according to wiki, but there could well be more than one!

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

14) Within the capital of which member state of the United Nations will you find:
2. 3.14159

- I have no idea where, but that number is Pi

9. a semi-metal

- There are a few metals named for places, including Poland, India, France and Germany... I suppose the answer is India/New Deli because of that 'Tibetan Monk' (aka Dalai Llama) - did the Brits import heather and something like trouts there? I have no idea, but I know Botanical Gardens were 'in' when it was still a colony... I have no idea if I got this right, though



(sorry for all the editing)

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

2/5 is surely Thomas Gray and Elegy in a Country Churchyard

2/10 is Alice through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)which starts "One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it: -- it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that it COULDN'T have had any hand in the mischief. " (The mischief being making a cat's cradle out of a ball of wool)

3/3 is the Crippen case - it was captain Henry George Kendall of the Montrose - on which Crippen and le Neve took passage - who wired to Scotland Yard that he had the fugitives on board

4/7 is the Island of Ronaldsay (where the sheep subsist on a diet of kelp)

5/1 is Quisling

7/3 is this not Basque or Magyar?

7/4 Finnish?

8/1 solitaire

8/3 are shrimps from Morecambe Bay

8/10 is the Sluggard (we're back to Alice again)

9/9 isn't pegasus - having done this bloody thing for years, it's looking for two stations on a railway network or similar

13/5 Rifleman Sharpe ?????

17/10 is from the 39 steps if that's any help.


Gotta go back later

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

2. Which language of the Romance group has a definite article suffix? - Romanian. It's the only Romance language that does this, although it's pretty common in northern Germanic, so presumably there's some kind of influence from them there Vikings ;)

3. Of which European language is the origin unknown, even to the experts? Basque. It's what's called an isolate, in other words, it's not connected to the other languages around it.

4. Which geographically Scandinavian language is not linguistically Scandinavian? - Finnish - it's part of the Finno-Ugric branch, although it does borrow some words from Swedish.

5. Which European language is the only survivor of its branch of the Indo-European group? - Armenian? Depending on how detailed your tree is...

7. Which European language is spoken by about 1% of the population of Switzerland? - Romansch? It's the least widely-spoken of the official languages there.

9. Which Slavonic language has done away with the case forms of nouns? - I'd guess Bulgarian, which iirc has almost entirely dropped its cases.

10. Which European national language still retains the dual number? There are traces of it in a few, but Slovene is the only one that continues to make full use of it, I think :S

I don't even know what some of the other questions mean...

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

I'm so lost, I have NO IDEA what most of these things are referring to! I'm going to blame it on being across the pond and having no frame of reference. :D

I'll take a guess on a couple:

2.10 I'd think has something to do with Alice in Wonderland.

13.6 I'd vote for Calvin Coolidge, AKA "Silent Cal".

18.7 Giant Spider in Liverpool! (http://weirdnews.about.com/od/weirdphotos/ss/Giant_Spider_8.htm) (-coleopteran apparently = "Beatles"? I think I'm starting to see how this works...)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

17/9 is Henry V, Haflour or something like that

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

re: 13/5 Richard Sharpe ended up a Lt. Colonel

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

So glad you're having a relaxing time!

2) #5 Thomas Gray in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

16) #10 - musteline has to do with the order Mustella (I know this because of Jack fic I once wrote, heh) - weasels and badgers and such, so if anybody knows of something having to do with weasels' feet...

18) #7 - Well, it happened in one of the final episodes of season 2 of Primeval, but I wonder if they mean the Wisconsin auction of a VW Beetle tricked out to look like a spider (for an old movie).

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

I feel incredibly stupid reading these …

#13 (2) Refers to the American Revolutionary War general Mad Anthony Wayne (mad for his hot-headed temper, not his psychiatric state. Damned if I know who his aide de camp was.

#13 (6) I think this is Calvin Coolidge, who was known as Silent Cal.

#13 (9) is a reference to the founding of Liberia by freed slaves. I have not a clue who the question specifically refers to, though.

#16 (10) could possibly refer to the endangered black-footed ferret.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

13-1 - just googled it, James Buchanan was the only bachelor president.

14 - 2 must be Apia, capital of Samoa - it's the only capital that contains "pi".

Likewise, I think 14-7 is Budapest (contains "ape") and as calluna can be called ling, 14-1 is Wellington (New Zealand's capital). And 14-9 might be Lisbon, Portugal, containing Sb, the scientific name of Antimony, a semi-metal, but, um, I'm not sure (Port Moresby of Papua New Guinea also has an "Sb"?)

(And yes, I am simply word-searching a page of world capitals, why do you ask? ^^;)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

More Googling (...better things to do? why do you ask?)

13-3 - James "Withered Little Apple-John" Madison

13-5 Rutherford B. Hayes was a Brevet-Major General.

13-8 and this maybe is stretching it, but a cervid is a deer, that is, a buck, and Harry Truman is famous for having a nameplate on his desk with the phrase "The buck stops here".

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Duh! 10/3 is the River Weser (deep and wide etc etc from the Pied Piper of Hamlyn)

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

9/6 - you are travelling between Vanlose and Lufthavnen on the Copenhagen metro, and when you go past Christanshavn station you would be reminded of the Danish king Christian II who was a prisoner for 17 hears in the castle of Sonderborg

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Is 1/7 Campbell-Bannerman??

[stackcats.livejournal.com]

4.4 I think this could be the Isle of May, where David I set up an Abbey for Berkshire monks.

15.5 is Sir Mulberry Hawk, in Nicholas Nickleby. Looking at the other answer, I reckon there's a bird theme (and Atticus' surname is Finch).

Incase you think I'm brainy, it's mostly Google

[with-apostrophe.livejournal.com]

3/9 Scots lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen (the Powerhouse – John Buchan)

4/2 – Fingal’s Cave, part of Mendelsohn’s Hebrides Overture

4/3 island of Egilsay

4/10 It’s from "Catriona" by Robert Louis Stevenson – no idea where though

6/2 Pope Alexander VI

6/3 On August 2, 1379 at Marstrand, near Tønsberg, Norway, King Haakon VI of Norway invested and confirmed Henry as the Norwegian Earl of Orkney

6/10 Well God is too easy, so I think it’s “The Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940 by Saburo Kurusu of Japan, Adolf Hitler of Germany, and Galeazzo Ciano (foreign minister) of Italy entering as a military alliance and officially founding the Axis Powers of World War II that opposed the Allied Powers.” –Therefore, Kurusu, Hitler and Cian

8/4 The movie “Scandal” had to be recut for the US because of the rumour that certain extras got a little too enthusiastic in an orgy scene and weren’t actually acting…

9/5 Robert Schuman station - Trains travelling between Brussels South station and Namur and Luxembourg call at the station

9/10 The Dali Station is a railway station of Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) Yilan Line located at Yilan County, Taiwan. But it is not Dali City, Taichung County.
OR
Dali painted a picture called “Station of Perpignan”

10/2 Is from a short poem by Robert Bridges. No idea which river, however.

12/4 Is from “Hard Times” – don’t know the location

14/3 Tokyo (ok)

14/9 is confusing. I’ve tried Arsenic – As, Antimony – Sb and Bismuth – Bi, but all appear more than once. Maybe it’s a less well known semi-metal?

16/3 Could this possibly be as obvious as “lightning”?