-There shall be 14 more approximately weekly quizzes of 10 questions of equal weight, normally in the form of pictures stolen from the internet.
-Entry is open to all and sundry, provided that they are willing and able to submit their answers to the comments before the next quiz is posted.
-Entrants should solemnly vow to consult no other persons, nor to seek to obtain the answer or information leading to the answer from any source other than their own brain prior to entering their answers.
-Each entrant shall have up to one free point on one question each week provided that they admit their total ignorance of a subject moderately relevant to the question. (If the question is to name a the best response in a chess game, the answer "Pass. I know nothing about the Sicilian Opening" would be acceptable, while "Free pass for me, I'm a Franciscan" would not). Acknowledgement of ignorance will be taken as a declaration of intention to educate oneself on the aforementioned subject.
-The entrant with the highest total score taken from the aggregate of their best ten results for the season shall be declared the winner. This title may not be worth very much.
-Tie-breaks shall be determined by the aggregate of the best best eleven results, or if still tied, twelve results, et cetera.
-The editorship reserves the right to award bonus points for particularly clever or amusing answers, be they right or wrong, up to a total of ten points.
-Disputes on the rules will be entered into with any interested party, but any decision of the editorial team made ex cathedra shall be considered infallable.
With that done, let's get on with the show, which this week is about identification of glyphs, symbols and icons.
1. Which 'artist' once changed his name to this unpronouncable symbol?
2. In some languages, this character is a full blown grapheme, but in English is considered an example of what L?
3. This Mah-Jong tile represents which Chinese numeral?
4. This famous hunk of rock contains the same message in Egyptian Heirogylphics, Demotic script and which other ancient language?
5. What does the "p.p." in this and many other signatures represent?
6. These glyphs are an example of which language?
7. This is the alchemical symbol for which mundane element?
8. What is the name of this prominent religious symbol?
9. This is a picture of the most famous page of which medieval manuscript?
10. What was the "peace symbol" originally designed to represent?
Deposit your answers, in the language of your choice (provided that that language is English), in the comments.
4 comments:
1. Prince?
2. uhm...
3. The top part denotes it's the 5 of its suit. The suit itself represents currency in "thousands".
4. Something more akin to what we use...? Ancient Greek?
5. I'm going to guess something to do with papacy since, this blog. But honestly, no idea.
6. Kinda remind me of Japanese signature blocks but they ain't languages. Let's guess something olde and/or tribal... Maori?
7. Antimony
8. The... steering wheel. The Helm?
9. I can't remember any manuscript names, durnit. I can't even think of a good made up name ;)
10. Something to do with fingers?
Whew! I'll think twice before suggesting a topic next time.
1. Prince
2. That's the "ae" grapheme, which is normally written as "ae" or just "e"? I dunno what you're getting at here.
3. Five!
4. Ancient Greek?
5. Pages :p Pastor pope (and not "pasta pope" as I mistyped)
6. Santa claus-ese
7. Mercury
8. Ship's steering wheel
9. The original edition of the bible
10. A bird's foot
1. "Prince."
2. Considered an example of what L? I'm not sure I understand -- is the L a typo? I guess I'll go with "diphthong" or perhaps "antiquated alphabetical configuration that was much more common in mediaeval times." See what I did there?
3. I'll go with "five."
4. The Rosse -- oh, crap. Aramaic?
5. "I am the Pope, and you aren't."
6. Criminy, are those Aztec? Toltec, maybe?
7. Ooh, I used to know some of these. Urm, sulphur?
8. Trick question: it is not a prominent religious symbol.
9. Book of Kells, perhaps?
10. It was the logo of a nuclear disarmorment organization.
1. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince
2. I needed Google for this one, so no comment.
3. Five!
4. Ancient Greek, of course. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked very well as a translation, would it?
5. Let's go for a hilarious doggy latin attempt - I'll say "Papa Pontificus". Because even if it's wrong, it gave me a giggle.
6. I'll say Aztec. And invariably be wrong as it will turn out to be another similar but hardly identical South American language.
7. Antimony.
8. Prominent? Huh. Never seen it before, sadly.
9. Sadly it eludes me.
10. I'm going to go with it being a Hindu fertility symbol, because pretty much every other logo taken up in the twentieth century is.
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