This weekend's edition of The Guardian's Saturday quiz presented a formidable challenge to trivia enthusiasts, spanning topics from Renaissance art to modern American history. The puzzle, crafted to test a wide breadth of knowledge, left many readers scratching their heads over clues linking the basilisk lizard and the fishing spider, or pondering the birth states of US presidents.
From LA Streets to the Boreal Forest
The quiz opened with a stark reminder of recent history, asking what LA plumber George Holliday videotaped on 3 March 1991. The answer, the Rodney King beating, remains a pivotal moment in discussions of police accountability. The questions then journeyed from the geopolitical to the ecological, identifying Earth's largest land biome as the boreal forest, or taiga, named after the Greek god Boreas.
British weather history was referenced with the query about Abigail, which was the first named storm in the UK under the Met Office's naming system in November 2015. Literature buffs were tasked with recalling which character declared, “Come not, Lucifer! I’ll burn my books!”—a line spoken by Dr Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's tragic play.
Lords, Lifeboats, and Classical Prodigies
The quiz celebrated British institutions and talent. It noted that beloved Play School presenter Floella Benjamin now sits in the House of Lords. Another question highlighted the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the renowned rescue organisation based in Poole, Dorset. The cultural spotlight also fell on the exceptionally gifted Kanneh-Mason siblings, who are celebrated names in the field of classical music.
Sports history was touched upon with the long-running cricket fixture Gentlemen v Players, which was played from 1806 until 1962. The quiz also delved into the treacherous politics of the Elizabethan era, with the link between Babington, Parry, Ridolfi, and Throckmorton being their involvement in plots against Elizabeth I.
Scales, Steak, and Silver Screen Portrayals
A section required linking specialised scales to the phenomena they measure: the Enhanced Fujita scale for tornadoes; the Modified Mercalli scale for earthquakes; the Saffir-Simpson scale for hurricanes; and the Torino scale for the hazard from near-Earth objects. Culinary knowledge was tested with French terms for cooking steak: bleu, saignant, à point, and bien cuit.
The thread connecting Ben Bradlee, Walt Disney, Jim Lovell, Colonel Tom Parker, and Chesley Sullenberger was that they have all been played on film by Tom Hanks in The Post, Saving Mr. Banks, Apollo 13, Elvis, and Sully respectively. Finally, art lovers were asked to connect subjects like Clarissa Strozzi and Charles V with a dog—all were portraits painted by the Renaissance master Titian.
The quiz's ingenious 'What links' rounds provided some of the toughest challenges. The connection between the basilisk lizard, fishing spider, jacana, pond skater, and Clark’s grebe is that they are all animals capable of “walking” on water. Meanwhile, the sequence Virginia (8), Ohio (7), New York (5), Arkansas, California, Hawaii (one each) denotes the birth states of US presidents and the number of commanders-in-chief each has produced.
