h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>Since Clive actively encourages use of encyclopaedias<

I think people should be free to indulge their instincts, if they think they remember something about Queen Hasheput, but need to look it up to check I'm not going to complain overmuch.

My riddles are intended to be unravelled that's half the joy of it. (2/5ths is klaxoning Taff repeatedly... ), if you like I want to encourage the competion (of thinking and researching) but ban the use of steroids.

>>I didn't even realise that that was the answer Clive was looking for. I thought it was an interesting aspect.<<

We have that in common then.

>I still believe you should have klaxoned iron, despite it being the right answer<

Ah see I may klaxon a few things either side of the correct answer, for errant stragglers if you will , but the route to the correct answers is always clear to those who can make the distance.

Thanks, Clive.

As I said, I did *not* look it up, not knowingly anyway, and that's the last I'm going to say about it before I leave.

No use in awarding me any points, Clive, I don't think I'll come back.

Oh please stay Bel..

Besides it's a new scoreboard at the end of the year. Everyone drops back to zero.

Accept these points (when I get around to compiling them) at least until the 31st of the month.

I always try to make my questions so that you can get them without looking them up, by deduction (possibly through use of clues from klaxons Taff stumbles into ).

Yes B'El stay with us

I found it a very elegant solution, getting encouraged to look up something you didn't know thanks to the question and stumbling by chance upon the question.

Clive - I think your usual warning text at the start is enough. "You are allowed to ask friends" would just look silly (Mmmh, the height of refinement would be to start a thread on <./>askh2g2</.>, wouldn't it? )

>>I always try to make my questions so that you can get them without looking them up, by deduction (possibly through use of clues from klaxons Taff stumbles into ).<<


I think we agree more than we disagree you know. I mean I do that too. At least I hope I do. I try to do my best to hide the solution in my 'fiendish' (Icy) and 'code-like' (Mrs Zen) questions, but all of my clues are decipherable if you ask the right questions and follow the clues and hints I try to sprinkle liberally either in the title, the question or in the forum.

Anyone who follows my antics on QI should realise by now I'm big fan of etymology.

I don't think it should be necessary for anyone to *have* to look something up, and like you I'd rather they didn't and kept it as a guessing game, but I'm rather relaxed[1] about people using the resources they have to hand - I just specifically rule out google and wikipedia, but if other choose to go further, like you said each to their own.



[1] Which I define for this purpose as when B'el said she used an encyclopaedia to look up Iron cross, I didn't flinch one inch, I just wrote that off as resourcefulness.

I also don't especially mind people using the Guide to <./>Search</.>

I mean, that's sort of what it's there for.

>>I'm big fan of etymology.<<

You like insects??

That's entomology.

I may have a go in the new year , I do sometimes lurk here . Its about time I posted and got a few

QI - All that glitters....is not Gary

Looking forward to it already.

Gary Glitter?





































Just kidding.

QI - All that glitters....(is not gold)
------------------------




Correct (+3)
------------------------
HD (5) - Prussia
HD (88) - A magnet or lodestone
HD (113) ' Is it just iron?'
Taff (15) - 'the king gave people iron jewellery'
B'elana (159) - 'The Iron jewellery were replicas/ the 'donated' gold was used to help fund the war/ their worth was as a symbol of patriotism.



QI Bonus (+6)
------------------------
Taff (17) - Dissolving pearls in acid.
Toybox (119) - You can deflect a stream of running water with a magnet.



DGI Bonus (+1)
------------------------
Swl (33) - 'Which items are the most valuable'
HD (35) - 'Something more precious than rubies or gold'
Rod (45) - 'a lump of [something]'
Toybox (53) - a recent invention or something older'
Teasswill (91) - The substance itself is magnetic
Taff (145) - Presented by the King



Klaxon (-5)
------------------------
Iago (12) - Archimedes / Density
Rod (42) - A sense of touch
Toybox (50) - Lenses
Taff (99) - Fluorescence
Toybox (109) - Copper, (Cu)+



Elf (+2)
------------------------
Clive



Total to be added or subtracted.
------------------------
Hygienic Dispenser +10
Taff +5
B'elana +3
Clive +2
Swl+1
Toybox -3
Rod -4
Iago -5


In reverse order, then: our run-away loser today has been HonestIago - who has proven to be anything but, caught red handed and with no alibi it's -5 for them. Now what's this? Well my word: He only scored in every single category and that fact has saved him so although he entered through the scullery, knocked over all the saucepans, trod on the cat, and left sticky fingerprints all over the cabinet, but in spite of it all somehow he's escaped with +5 of our most precious QI points- it's the luckiest cat burglar of them all - it's Taff coming in 2nd.

But the arch swindler of them all, the Debonair charmer with the guile and the wit to pull of the big jobs and in such style. We didn't even see him coming and he's waltzed off half the treasury -if he had a moustache he'd be twirling it right now - it's Hygenic Dispenser on +10!!!


Mark Twain once said: "Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold".
He also said "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

How right he was.

Goodnight!

I was thinking the same. Normally it is glisters, isn`t it?

True. I was using the bastardised misquote knowingly.

I think the original Shakespeare from Merchant of Venice is Glistens.

but I'm going off a memory of having seen it on stage when was like 14....

All that glisters is correct, at least that is what is printed in the first folio.