The Ultimate Useless Trivia Whiz Quiz

Answer: Istanbul

The city of many names. The word Byzantium became the name given to the culture of the Eastern Roman Empire in the middle ages. It's referred to in many works of literature such as W.B Yeats' famous poem 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

Answer: The Dude

'The Dude' played by Jeff Bridges gets mixed up with his namesake 'Jeffrey Lebowski' with hilarious consequences. He may be the biggest fan of bowling ever to hit the world of cinema.

Answer: Psychoanalysis

This involved having patients talk a lot about their dreams and early experiences. It was very controversial at the time due to the sexual nature of a lot of his discoveries. He was roundly condemned in his own time. A lot of Germans considered that such discoveries could only be true of nasty Austrian Jewish types but not of mankind in general.

Answer: malicious glee

It comes from the German for Schaden - damage and Freude - joy as in joy due to damage caused - charming word.

Answer: Dimitri Mendeleev

This guy isn't half famous enough - he really should have called it the Mendeleev Table.

Answer: Spin the chamber

If he spins again their is a 1 in 2 chance of hitting his opponent (3 barrels from 6) while if he shoots straight away without spinning, there is only a one in three chance. Think about it like this - if all three unloaded barrels are together, there is only one of these chambers which has a loaded chamber as the next in line - therefore a one in three chance.

Answer: Arundhati Roy

Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, India. 'The God of Small Things' tells the often heart-breaking story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. It's a superb book - I recommend it to everyone.

Answer: Methane

Just add 4 Hydrogen atoms to every one Carbon atom and badda bing badda bam, you got yourself some Methane.

Answer: C sharp

I put this in cause I really wondered about how they came up with that. Anyway, it's part of the new Microsoft .Net framework of development languages. Wiser minds tell me that # is the symbol for sharp in music.

Answer: Dylan Thomas

A beautiful poem about the death of his father. He does not want his father to accept death passively, but to fight it like the hero he is to his son.

Answer: Document

Released in 1987, it didn't have any great success until much later when they were millionaires - the most famous song from it would be 'It's the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)' which is a helluva title for a song I think you'll agree.

Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Excellent book - a must read for fans of crazy emotional Russian stuff.

Answer: William Shakespeare

He spent his years well - 37 plays and 150 odd poems - pretty impressive. In fact he wrote so many sonnets that most poets after him don't even bother trying to match his type of sonnet and opt for the more complicated Petrarchian Sonnet instead.

Answer: His Father

Both his grandfather and father (Carmine) were composers of music. He did do a very good job though so there was nobody complaining. This was unfortunately far from the case however when he cast his daughter as a last-minute replacement in 'The Godfather III'. Let's be charitable and say that her performance showed her inexperience.

Answer: Oliver Kahn

The German goalkeeper had a fantastic tournament both as a great shot-stopper and the scariest guy in the world. He didn't perform quite so well in the final particularly for the first goal but the award was (bizzarely enough) already decided by then.