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Every now and then the Thursday quiz gets involved in a flap, as it did last week with “birb”-gate. After a sustained campaign lasting at least two weeks, subeditors finally relented and allowed the quiz to call our feathered friends “birbs” – only for half the comment section to revolt against the indignity of modern internet parlance. Still, that is nothing compared with the time a reader complained that the quiz using the phrase “baby cows” was unbecoming of a broadsheet newspaper. Anyway, 15 questions on news, general knowledge and obscure trivia await, and no “birbs” were harmed in the process. Allons-y!
The Thursday news quiz, No 262
- 1.Singer. Songwriter. Philanthropist. Icon. We lost Dolly Parton. Which song did she famously also write on the same day that she wrote Jolene?
- 2.Who is having an exhibition at the V&A dedicated to them, titled Splendid Things?
- 3.Organisers of the Sydney Marathon admitted an 'unfortunate error' on the finisher’s participation medal. What wrong landmark was mistakenly etched on to the design?
- 4.Stage three of the Vuelta a España had to be abandoned in the French Pyrenees with 15km remaining. What caused race organisers to stop the stage?
- 5.Which leader hit back on Instagram after a cosmetic surgeon offered to 'fix' her appearance on her return from Ukraine?
- 6.A UK-settled woman was left stranded at an airport in Spain because the Home Office eVisa system suffered a technical glitch. What was the cause of the mix-up?
- 7.First Bus is introducing a ban for under-16s travelling without an adult after 6pm following a wave of antisocial behaviour. Where?
- 8.It is Glen Matlock's birthday today. Happy birthday Glen! Anarchy! Don't feel pretty vacant today! Which instrument did/does he play in the Sex Pistols?
- 9.A recent Star Trek episode saw some of the characters replaced by muppets due to a transporter malfunction. In which series?
- 10.This week's guest canine is Slinky, who the Thursday quiz met in Gosport when Slinky was very very sleepy. Slinky knows a man was reprimanded after leaving his also sleepy seven-year-old son on the side of a mountain with some snacks and a soft drink while he carried on climbing up it. Where?
- 11.In a completely unworrying development, a humanoid robot (pictured) broke Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint world record by running it in 9.32 seconds at a test event in Beijing. What is its name?
- 12.A Maine Coon kitten from Wisconsin (not pictured) has broken a 24-year-old world record for 'the most toes on a cat'. They really will make a record out of anything these days, eh? Anyway, how many toes is the new record?
- 13.Japan enlisted 1,800 people to drag a 360-tonne castle keep to a new spot using ropes and rollers. Why?
- 14.On this day with Brian May! And his badger! 27 August is the anniversary of the most significant eruption of Krakatoa, destroying over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago. The Thursday quiz imagines Queen's legendary guitarist wants you to tell him – and his badger – in which year …
- 15.And finally … a 15ft reticulated python at Chester Zoo (pictured) made history by becoming the first snake to undergo electrochemotherapy to treat a jaw tumour. Who is the python named after?
If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Terrible Years by Desperate Journalist instead?
