Mark Brader:
> These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 1998-03-16,
> and should be interpreted accordingly... For further information...
> see my 2020-06-23 companion posting on "Reposted Questions from
> the Canadian Inquisition (RQFTCI*)".

> * Game 8, Round 1 - Current Events (excerpt)

> Answer these 1998 questions if you like for fun, but for no points.

Nobody tried these this time.

> 1. According to a study presented this week, the combined odors
> of two materials have been found to produce the highest level
> of sexual arousal in women. Name either material.

Cucumber, black licorice candy. (The runners-up were baby powder
and a combination of pumpkin pie and lavender.)

> 2. Asteroid 1997 XF11 is now predicted to come within only about
> 1,000,000 km of the Earth, at about 2:30 am EDT on October 26
> of what year?

2028.

> I wrote one of these rounds, and you know which one.

Yep -- the geography round.

> * Game 8, Round 2 - History - Bosnia: Lest We Forget

> In 2009 Erland Sommarskog disputed some of the causations cited in
> the questions, and I just said "He may well be right; I'm no expert
> on this". I'm not going to check on those details this time either.

This was one of two rounds tied for 6th-hardest of the season.

> 1. The man who became the first president of Bosnia & Herzegovina
> hoped that he could buy peace for his republic by staying
> in a decentralized Yugoslav federation instead of declaring
> independence. He argued that there could be no war if his side
> refused to fight. Who """is""" he?

Alia Izetbegovic. (He died in 2003.) 4 for Erland.

> 2. Beginning on 1992-08-06, TV viewers were shown starving,
> terrified Bosnian men filmed at a place called Omarska, and
> later at another place called Trnopolje ["Turn-o-POL-yeh"].
> What sort of places were these?

Concentration/prison/detention camps. 4 for Erland and Pete.

> 3. In July 1995, Serbian forces seized one of Bosnia's best-known
> "safe areas" from Dutch UN troops, and over the next few days
> deported the surviving women and children on buses and killed
> nearly all the men -- several thousand of them -- in nearby
> forests. Name this so-called safe area.

Srebrenica. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, Erland, and Pete.

> 4. After 3 years of war and hundreds of thousands of casualties,
> the TV image of 37 dead people in Sarajevo on 1995-08-28 finally
> led NATO to bomb Serb positions and force all sides to the
> peace table. How did these 37 people die?

A mortar shell fell into an open marketplace. 4 for Erland.

> 5. Croatian forces helped the Bosnian Muslims against the
> Serbs in some regions and fought the Muslims in other regions.
> A Turkish-built construction that had been designated as a
> historical monument by UNESCO was destroyed by methodical
> Croatian shelling in the town of Mostar. What type of thing
> was it?

A bridge. (Stari Most or the Old Bridge, in Mostar.) 4 for Erland
and Pete.

About 10 years later it was rebuilt to the same design:
http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_0946_0011-1200-630-20130123174833.jpg
http://www.globeguide.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bosnia-Mostar-bridge-tam.jpg

> 6. After the Serbian atrocities against Muslims at <answer 3>,
> the US tacitly gave Croatia permission to "ethnically cleanse"
> Serbs from a Croatian border region the Serbs had inhabited
> for 400 years. What is the name of this region?

We expected Krajina ["Kra-YEE-na"]. Erland said "Kninska Krajina"
was more correct. (Krajina means "borderland" and there are others.
"Kninska" ties it to the city of Knin.) 4 for Erland.

> 7. Members of one UN peacekeeping force were accused of visiting
> brothels where women were kept as slaves and selling weapons to
> the fighters on both sides, in the Zepa Valley and elsewhere.
> From what country was this UN force drawn?

Ukraine. (Which also means "borderland".)

> 8. The """new""" International Court of Justice in the Hague
> has been trying Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats for war
> atrocities. Name the Canadian judge who was appointed to this
> tribunal as chief prosecutor.

Louise Arbour.

Her next appointment, by the way, was to the Supreme Court of Canada.

> 9. New York writer and critic Susan Sontag came to Sarajevo while
> it was under siege, to produce a classic 1950s play that she
> thought spoke to the situation of the city's inhabitants.
> Name the play.

"Waiting For Godot".

> 10. Name either the ex-leader of the Bosnian Serbs or his chief
> military commander, both of whom """are""" under indictment
> at the Hague for war crimes. You don't have to say which one
> you're naming.

Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic (respectively). 4 for Joshua, Erland
(the hard way), and Pete.

They were finally arrested in 2008 and 2011, and convicted in
2016 and 2017, respectively.

> * Game 8, Round 3 - Geography - Transportation Facilities

> 1. The Panama Canal runs from Panama City at the Pacific Ocean
> end to what city at the Atlantic end?

Colón. 4 for Joshua and Dan Tilque.

> 2. The Suez Canal runs from Suez at the Red Sea end to what city
> at the Mediterranean end?

Port Said. 4 for Joshua, Dan Tilque, and Erland.

> 3. What international airport serving western Ireland is located
> near Limerick?

Shannon. 4 for Joshua, Pete, and Bruce.

> 4. What US city """is""" served by Logan International Airport?

Boston. (Still true.) 4 for everyone -- Joshua, Dan Blum,
Dan Tilque, Erland, Pete, and Bruce.

> 5. What city """is""" served by airports whose codes are MDW
> and ORD?

Chicago. (Midway, O'Hare. Still true.) 4 for everyone.

> 6. What city """is""" served by airports whose codes are CDG
> and ORY?

Paris. (Charles de Gaulle, Orly. Still true.) 4 for Joshua,
Dan Blum, Erland, Pete, and Bruce.

> 7. In Paris, most trains other than RER or Metro services --
> in other words, most long- or medium-distance trains -- start
> or finish at one of """6""" major terminal stations. In French
> or English, name any *two*.

Austerlitz, Est (East), Lyon(s), Montparnasse (Mt. Parnassus), Nord
(North), St-Lazare (St. Lazarus). (Still true.) 4 for Dan Blum
and Erland (the hard way).

> 8. In London, the situation is even more complicated: scattered
> around central London """are""" 14 stations where long- or
> medium-distance trains start and finish, varying in size from
> 4 to more than 20 platforms. And just to be confusing, some of
> these terminal stations """have""" a number of through tracks,
> so that a train can call at more than one. Anyway, name *any
> three* of the 14. Some have two-word names, in which case *both*
> words must be given.

> (Note: You're being asked for the form of the name commonly
> used within London; some stations officially have the word
> "London" prefixed before that, for the convenience of inter-city
> travelers, and this you can ignore.)

Blackfriars (1+0), Cannon St. (1+0), Charing Cross (2+2),
Euston (1+0), Fenchurch St. (0+0), King's [or Kings] Cross (1+2),
Liverpool_St. (0+0), London Bridge (0+0), Marylebone (0+0),
Moorgate (1+0), Paddington (5+4), St. Pancras (2+3), Victoria (4+0),
Waterloo (6+3). 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, Erland, and Bruce.

The numbers indicate how many times they were named by different
entrants in 2009 and in 2021. I was surprised by how rarely King's
Cross showed up, both times, in view of its importance in the Harry
Potter series.

Today Moorgate has only 2 tracks for medium-distance trains.

> 9. For this final pair of questions, answers used on other
> topics may be repeated. The New York Central's crack train
> was the Twentieth Century Limited. Its endpoints were New York
> and what city?

Chicago. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, Pete, and Bruce.

ObMovies: "Twentieth Century" (1934), "North by Northwest" (1959),
"The Sting" (1973).

> 10. Amtrak's fastest trains today """are""" called Metroliners.
> On most trips, their endpoints """are""" New York and what city?

Washington. (They have since been replaced by Acela Express trains,
in many cases starting from Boston instead of New York, but Washington
is still the other endpoint and therefore the only possible answer.)
4 for Dan Blum, Erland, and Bruce. 3 for Joshua.

Scores, if there are no errors:

GAME 8 ROUNDS-> 2 3 TOTALS
TOPICS-> His Geo
Erland Sommarskog 28 28 56
Joshua Kreitzer 8 35 43
Pete Gayde 16 20 36
Dan Blum 4 28 32
Bruce Bowler 0 28 28
Dan Tilque 0 16 16

--
Mark Brader | "...what the customer wants doesn't matter;
Toronto | the only thing that matters is what the Marketeer
msb@vex.net | thinks the customer thinks he wants --
| or can be made to think he wants." --Steve Summit

My text in this article is in the public domain.