The Guardian's weekly Saturday quiz is a beloved brain-teaser for trivia enthusiasts across the UK. This edition, featuring clues about a basilisk lizard and the birth states of US presidents, offered a particularly eclectic mix of questions spanning history, nature, arts, and sports.
From LA Beating to Classical Music Siblings
The quiz kicked off with a question about a pivotal moment in modern American history. The answer to what LA plumber George Holliday videotaped on 3 March 1991 was the Rodney King beating, an event that sparked widespread civil unrest.
Other standalone answers included Earth's largest land biome, the boreal forest (taiga), and the first named storm in the UK in November 2015, which was called Abigail. Literature fans were asked which character declares, “Come not, Lucifer! I’ll burn my books!” – the answer is Dr Faustus from Christopher Marlowe's play.
In the realm of public figures, the quiz noted that presenter Floella Benjamin, of Play School fame, now sits in the House of Lords. It also highlighted the Kanneh-Mason siblings as famous names in the field of classical music.
Connecting the Clues
The 'What links' section is often the quiz's most challenging part, requiring lateral thinking. This week's connections were diverse:
Babington; Parry; Ridolfi; Throckmorton were all linked as plots against Elizabeth I.
Bleu; saignant; à point; bien cuit are, of course, ways of having your steak in France, denoting increasing levels of cooking.
Perhaps the most visually intriguing link was for basilisk lizard; fishing spider; jacana; pond skater; Clark’s grebe. These are all animals that can “walk” on water, using surface tension or rapid movement.
A numerical clue listed US states with numbers: Virginia (8); Ohio (7); New York (5); Arkansas, California, Hawaii (one each). This referred to them being the birth states of US presidents, with the numbers indicating how many commanders-in-chief were born there.
Scales, Hanks, and Renaissance Art
The quiz also tested knowledge of measurement scales for natural phenomena. Enhanced Fujita measures tornado intensity, Modified Mercalli gauges earthquake effects, Saffir-Simpson categorises hurricanes, and the Torino scale assesses the hazard from near-Earth objects like asteroids.
In a cinematic link, the figures Ben Bradlee; Walt Disney; Jim Lovell; Colonel Tom Parker; Chesley Sullenberger were all united by being portrayed on film by Tom Hanks in The Post, Saving Mr. Banks, Apollo 13, Elvis, and Sully respectively.
Finally, the art history link revealed that Clarissa Strozzi; Charles V with a dog; Philip II; Pope Paul III and his grandsons are all subjects of portraits painted by the Renaissance master Titian.
Other answers included the long-running cricket fixture Gentlemen v Players (1806-1962) and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) being based in Poole, Dorset.
