Free pub quiz: week of September 28, 2026

Leo Tolstoy

Also accept: Lev Tolstoy, Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Tolstoy, L. N. Tolstoy, Count Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. His early acclaim came from his trilogy Childhood, Boyhood and Youth and Sevastopol Sketches.

Ulysses

Also accept: Ulixes, Ulyxes

Ulysses is the Latin variant of Odysseus's name. Roman authors, including Virgil, commonly used this form when depicting him negatively.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Also accept: UDHR, Universal Declaration, Declaration of Human Rights, UN Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris in 1948. It became a foundational text in the history of human and civil rights.

Canaan

Also accept: the land of Canaan, the Promised Land

Genesis describes Abraham traveling from his home into the God-given land of Canaan, associated with the ancestral history of Israel.

Fallingwater

Also accept: Falling Water, Fallingwater House

Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a weekend retreat for Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. and his wife Liliane. It is built partly over Bear Run, a stream in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Also accept: Thinking Fast and Slow, Thinking, Fast & Slow, Thinking Fast & Slow

Daniel Kahneman’s book presents System 1 as fast and emotional and System 2 as slower and more logical. It summarizes decades of research into judgment and cognitive biases.

Invincible Armada

Also accept: Spanish Armada, Enterprise of England, Grande y Felicísima Armada, The Armada, Armada, Armada Española

The Spanish Armada is often known as the Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England. Despite its famous nickname, it was defeated and forced to return home around Scotland and Ireland.

The Diary of a Young Girl

Also accept: The Diary of Anne Frank, Het Achterhuis, The Secret Annex, Anne Frank's diary, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

The Diary of a Young Girl is Anne Frank’s account of hiding with her family in the Netherlands during World War II. It was first published under the Dutch title Het Achterhuis.

Brasília

Also accept: Brasilia

Brasília’s planned layout resembles an airplane, with the Monumental Axis as its fuselage and a government plaza in the cockpit.

Ellis Island

Also accept: Little Oyster Island, Ellis, Ellis Island Immigration Station

Ellis Island processed about 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey from 1892 to 1954. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965.

dictator perpetuo

Also accept: dictator in perpetuity, dictator perpetuus, perpetual dictator, lifetime dictator, dictator for life

In early 44 BC, Caesar was proclaimed dictator perpetuo, meaning dictator in perpetuity. His unprecedented authority alarmed senators who feared he might become king.

August 15

Also accept: 15 August, 15th August

India celebrates Independence Day every August 15, marking the end of British rule in 1947.

West Berlin

Also accept: Westberlin

The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany. It became a major physical symbol of the Cold War’s Iron Curtain.

Zhongdu

Also accept: Beijing, Yanjing

Zhongdu was the Jin dynasty’s capital, captured by Genghis Khan in 1215 after a four-year campaign.

Walt Disney

Also accept: Walter Elias Disney, Disney, Walt

Walt Disney and his brother Roy established the Disney Brothers Studio, which later became the Walt Disney Company.

Wu-Tang Clan

Also accept: Wu-Tang, Wu Tang Clan, Wu Tang

Wu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island, New York City, and became one of the most influential groups in hip-hop history.

Cubism

Also accept: the Cubist movement, Cubist art

Cubism revolutionized painting and visual arts by representing subjects from multiple perspectives rather than a single viewpoint.

Impression, Sunrise

Also accept: Impression: Sunrise, Impression, soleil levant, Impression: soleil levant

The movement’s name derives from Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. Critic Louis Leroy coined the term in his 1874 review.

Orson Welles

Also accept: Welles

Orson Welles directed, produced, co-wrote, and starred in Citizen Kane. The film was his first feature and earned him unprecedented creative control at RKO.

Sicily

Also accept: Sicilia

Michael retreats to his family's ancestral homeland while the violence in New York subsides. He later returns to the United States after Apollonia is killed.

Grand Canyon

Also accept: the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a Colorado River valley in Arizona, known for its immense size, colorful landscape, and exposed ancient rock layers.

Clue

Also accept: Cluedo

The game is marketed under a different title in North America, while retaining its familiar murder-mystery gameplay.

Mitochondrial cristae

Also accept: cristae, mitochondria, inner mitochondrial membrane, Mitochondrial inner membrane

Mitochondrial cristae are folds of the inner mitochondrial membrane where oxidative phosphorylation occurs in eukaryotes.

Germany

Also accept: Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany

Catan was first published in 1995 by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag in Germany. It later became one of the first Eurogames to gain popularity outside Europe.

1869

Mendeleev presented his early periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society in 1869, describing elements by atomic weight and valence.

FIFA

Also accept: Fédération Internationale de Football Association, International Federation of Association Football

FIFA is the global governing body for association football and organizes the World Cup.

sparrow

Also accept: 麻雀, máquè, sparrows, maque, ma que, mahque

The game was originally called 麻雀, meaning “sparrow,” in reference to the sound of shuffled tiles resembling sparrows’ chittering.

Meyrin

Also accept: Meyrin, Switzerland

CERN is based in Meyrin, a western suburb of Geneva. Its main site hosts major facilities, including the Large Hadron Collider.

538 electors

Also accept: five hundred thirty-eight, five hundred and thirty-eight

The total includes 535 electors apportioned among the states and three assigned to Washington, D.C., under the Twenty-third Amendment.

33 metres

Also accept: About 30 metres, About 32 metres, About 33 metres, 33 m, 70 cubits

The Colossus was considered the tallest statue in the ancient world. Accounts commonly gave its height as about 70 cubits, equivalent to 33 metres.