Latest questions: 16 February 2021

This week's questions have mainly been gleaned from those set for use in Weeks 9 to 12, and the Knockout Quarter–Finals, of the 2016–17 season in Stockport Quiz League, by the Little Horse & Farrier (Questions 5 to 7), the Travellers Call (8 to 12), the Alexandra (13 to 17), the Sun & Castle (18 and 19) and Heaton Moor Rugby Club (20 to 32).

What was the name of the American lawyer who recently had to deny that he was a cat, during a court case conducted over Zoom?		Rod Ponton
The American jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea died recently. Give one of his two forenames.		Armando or Anthony
In which city – the largest on New Zealand's South Island – did 51 people lose their lives in a terrorist attack on 15 March 2019, when two mosques were targeted, and which was described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "one of New Zealand's darkest days"?		Christchurch
Joe Biden is the oldest person ever to be US President, and by some distance the oldest to take office. Which birthday did he celebrate 17 days after the 2020 election?		78th
A company formed in 1939 by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich is commonly known by which three–letter abbreviation – as is its successor, The Russian Aircraft Corporation?		MiG
What name is shared by the largest city in the ancient Greek kingdom of Boeotia (be–O–shia) – the setting for the stories of Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others – and an ancient Egyptian city, part of modern Luxor, across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings?		Thebes (theebs)
What is the oldest dukedom in the peerage of England, and as such considered the "premier" dukedom?		Norfolk
What's the highest mountain in Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park?		Whernside
Which British national hero is celebrated in the alternative title of Haydn's Missa in Angustiis (Hoboken XXII/11, composed in 1798)?		Nelson
What was Oasis's sixth single, the first from their second album (What's the story, Morning Glory?), and the first of their eight UK No. 1 singles to date?		Some Might Say
What was Blur's twelfth single, the first from their fourth album (The Great Escape), and the first of their two UK No. 1 singles to date?		Country House
What was Blur's first single from their self–titled fifth album, and the second of their two UK No. 1 singles to date?		Beetlebum
Which person, very much in the public eye then as now, launched a new men's fragrance named Empire, in 2015 – "Because every man has his own empire to build"?		Donald Trump
Who wrote the utopian socialist novel News From Nowhere, first published in 1890?		William Morris
Which rock 'supergroup' was formed in 1970 by former members of The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster?		Emerson, Lake & Palmer
In which London borough is Heathrow Airport?		Hillingdon
Edge Hill University is based in which Lancashire town – having moved there from its original premises in Liverpool during the 1930s, when it was a teacher training college for women?		Ormskirk
Which pop–rock group, formed in Los Angeles in 1971, was originally named Halfnelson, but renamed at the suggestion of their record label to one inspired by the Marx Brothers?		Sparks
Bella Court and Placentia (meaning 'Pleasant Place') are former names of which royal palace, built around 1443 and demolished in 1660?		Greenwich Palace
At the 89th Academy Awards ceremony, in 2017, La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner of the Best Picture Oscar. What was the actual winner?		Moonlight
Which founder member and long–term member of the Beach Boys wasn't related to any of the others, but was a school classmate of Brian Wilson?		Al Jardine
The Dexter is Europe's smallest breed of what type of livestock animal?		Cattle (cow)
Who was the BBC's highly–respected political editor, from 1981 to 1992 – arguably best remembered by many for the mangled vowels of his Belfast accent? He died in 2013, aged 85.		John Cole
Which British photographer won Oscars for Best Costume Design, for Gigi in 1958 and My Fair Lady in 1964?		Cecil Beaton
Which much–loved puppet character first appeared in 1962, in The Three Scampies, an ITV series about an out–of–work circus act that also included a very aggressive Scottish hedgehog named Spike McPike?		Basil Brush
An experiment that established the wave theory of light (in contrast to Newton's particle theory) and a 'modulus' that relates the stress in a body to its associated strain, were both devised or described by which English polymath, who lived from 1773 to 1829?		Thomas Young
Which British band's Top Ten hit Mirror, Mirror turned them into one–hit wonders in January 1966?		Pinkerton's Assorted Colours
Which German art school, or movement, combining crafts and the fine arts, was founded in Weimar and operational from 1919 to 1933?		Bauhaus
Who wrote the poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came – first published in 1855?		Robert Browning
Browning's poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came was inspired by lines from which play by Shakespeare?		King Lear

And finally (these two have long but definitive answers, which don't fit the normal format for these pages):

In King Lear, what two lines follow "Childe Rowland to the dark tower came"?
	His word was still "Fie, foh, and fum, / I smell the blood of a British man."

Why was the American political analyst Robert Kelly in the news in March 2017?
	His children 'video bombed' a BBC television interview

© Haydn Thompson 2021