Quiz of the Decade

A Courtroom dramas

1 Who, six months before death, won pounds 75,000 over the sale of some dresses?

2 Why did Outward Bound sue Rowan Atkinson?

3 Who went to court to defend his "dignity and honesty" but had pounds 500,000 taken off him by Imran Khan?

4 Who took exception to being dubbed in France as "a perfect cretin"?

5 "Free speech not only lives, it rocks." Who declared this after being taken to court by Texan farmers for announcing that she had eaten her "last burger"?

6 In what other burger case were David Morris and Helen Steel (apparently) less successful?

7 Who fought off a train robber and caused Oliver Popplewell some puzzlement over the matter of noontime refreshment?

8 Who thought, and fought to the tune of pounds 1,000, that Bernard Ingham behaved badly in calling him a "stupid, nasty, foul-mouthed, posturing juvenile with a limited command of the language"?

9 Which former Druid brought a tedious case to prove successfully that he is not boring?

10 Why did Louis de Bernieres' phrase "an unpleasantly sarcastic megalomaniac" bring the threat of action from Paul Sennett?

Philosophical interlude

What were the circumstances of what contribution to ornithology by Eric Cantona?

B Sex and celebrity

1 Who asserted in 1997, when apparently pulled over by police in the company of a transsexual prostitute, "I'm not gay, I love my wife"?

2 Which cafe owner discovered that Hayley Patterson is still technically a man?

3 Who "did something completely insane" in a car in LA?

4 Who "sat up in this silent scream"?

5 Which MP showed in 1994 that oranges are in fact the only fruit?

6 Who became the Minister for Fun in 1992?

7 Who, earlier that year, boosted his party's standing by confessing to an affair?

8 What have Jacqueline Ramsay and Mark Davies had almost a decade to put behind them?

9 What did Robin Cook declare at an airport in 1997?

10 What safe sex act was performed in Place de la Concorde in 1993?

C Limping and

trembling

How are these disquisitions on life and love linked?

1

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long;

For sideways would she lean, and sing

A faery's song.

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look'd at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna dew,

And sure in language strange she said,

I love thee true.

2

She was married when we first met

Soon to be divorced

I helped her out of a jam, I guess,

But I used a little too much force.

We drove that car as far as we could

Abandoned it out West

Split up on a dark sad night

Both agreeing it was best.

She turned around to look at me

As I was walkin' away

I heard her say over my shoulder,

"We'll meet again someday on the avenue".

3

There's a woman in a rape trial... at the moment where she has to tell the court what the accused has said to her on the night of the rape. And she finds she can't bring herself to say the words out loud. And so the judge suggests she write them down on a piece of paper and it be handed round the court. Which she does. And it says, "I want to have you. I must have you now". So they pass it round the jury who all read it and pass it on. At the end of the second row there's a woman jurist who's fallen asleep at the boredom of the trial. So the man next to her has to nudge her awake and hand her the slip of paper. She wakes up, looks at it, then at him, smiles and puts it in her handbag.

D Bombs and guns

1 What happened at the World Trade Center in February 1993?

2 And where was this total exceeded by one two days later?

3 Who ran wild in which school in the summer of 1996?

4 Who had set such an example four months earlier?

5 By what name is Theodore J Kaczynski better known?

6 Who killed 167 in the Oklahoma City Federal Building?

7 Which leader of a murderous group was released in 1994 after a decade in jail?

8 Where were three-dozen people murdered by Martin Bryant in 1996?

9 And, the previous week, where did 18 Greek tourists die?

10 On 12 April 1997 there was another assassination attempt in Sarajevo. Which intended victim had already survived such an attempt elsewhere?

E Family life

1 Who was Matthew Eappen?

2 To whom was Lourdes Maria born and whose child has a waterside view towards Manhattan?

3 With what was Diana Blood joined at last?

4 Who referred one weekend to there being "blood on their hands" and the next to "your blood family"?

5 Who said, upon hearing that a man had met his wife: "You lived to tell the tale, did you?"

6 What did Michael Heseltine's 85-year-old mother, Eileen, urge parents to administer?

7 To whom was S, a ward of court since eight days old, returned three years later, and why did this cause outrage?

8 Why did Juanita escape the attention of the NSPCC?

9 What happened to the parents of Erik and Lyle Menendez?

10 Against what were many women prompted to insure after a Church of England advertisement which asked about a "bad-hair day"?

Major development

What turning point in human history was announced on 22 July 1991?

F Celluloid dreamworld

1 Who announced that he was through with love and who, in the same movie, could not follow his example?

2 Which director exchanged Manhattan for Barcelona?

3 Which movie found a part for the late Tex Avery?

4 Which Disney movie so outraged viewers in the Middle East that it was altered around the world?

5 In which movie was Jonathan Pryce's voice somewhat deeper than one might have expected?

6 The co-author of which movie brought a child-abuse action against the future husband of Debbie Rowe?

7 Which movie opened with a visual tribute to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"?

8 Who was intrigued by international descriptions of a beefburger?

9 Which pork product, a huge hit with children around the world, was lost on lip-readers?

10 What happened to Bill Murray - over and over, again - on 2 February?

A bright hope for the future?

What was announced on 31 August 1994?

G Profit and Loss

1 Whose debts were eased by $1m from Weightwatchers?

2 What piquancy is there in a bankruptcy case brought by the sister of the above?

3 Which airline went bankrupt in 1991?

4 Which bank was dissolved in 1992?

5 Which insurer racked up a loss of over pounds 2bn that same year?

6 What was a competitor on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? unable to specify in David Hockney's portrait of Ossie Clark, Celia Birtwell and Percy the cat, thereby losing over pounds 100,000?

7 Which pop star pioneered the hocking of one's future as a way of raising some readies?

8 Which ticket agency went bankrupt in 1991?

9 What did pilot Anthony Abraham try to claim after telling his ex-wife to "stick it!"?

10 What method of shaming Indians into paying their debts has recently started being used, with success?

H Miscreants

1 Of what crimes was Gillian Ayres a victim and alleged perpetrator?

2 Which soldier, victim of a dream, was released after 25 years in jail?

3 What did Tracie Andrews blame upon a "fat man with staring eyes"?

4 What set back 83-year-old Ted Newbery over pounds 4,000?

5 Various numerical groups - a 12, a 4 - were freed during the decade. Which 3 got out at the beginning of 1997?

6 Of which sporting murder was the Dalai Lama himself not guilty?

7 Whose (male) buttocks became a matter for President Clinton's close attention?

8 In what way did Alan and Julie Wilson prevail upon an appeal judge to take a more enlightened view of her buttocks than their doctor had done?

9 Which perpetrator of mortgage fraud was surprised to find that the case suggests that both Tony Blair and William Hague are losing their grip on reality?

10 Which boxer was felled by Desiree Washington?

I Whimsical behaviour

1 Whose ashes resurfaced in a bank vault in 1997 and were scattered in a river?

2 Which friend of Aldous Huxley had his ashes launched into space - and in the company of which man who had beamed at people throughout the galaxies?

3 Whose voice was described as being one of those with the inflexion, "how-may-I-help-you- but-don't-bloody-well- bother-me"? How might Michael Howard have sympathised?

4 Autumn has long been a season of the winnowing wind which blew while gathering swallows twittered in the skies, but what only became a problem in 1991?

5 How are fennec, zorro, linsang, suricate, sewellel and tenrec linked?

6 What has led to a court case being brought against Starbucks for $1m; and why is this man's wife suing the firm for $.5m?

7 Who hungered for any man "above Nick Hornby on the evolutionary scale" and who for a "woman unable to take Gerald Kaufman seriously"?

8 What, in descending order, are Sarah, Emma, Kelly, Louise, Claire, Lisa, Rachel, Clare, Michelle and Nicola?

9 What lead did Pravda take from the Daily Mail and The Sun in the summer of 1996?

10 Who wanted to be a millionaire - and actually became one on a quiz show?

J Yellow at the edges

When Woody Allen and Diane Keaton break up in the film `Annie Hall', they reclaim their own books - his all have death in the title. Who are the authors of these that could have since been added to the collection?

1 The Death of the Author

2 Love and Death on Long Island

3 God's Funeral

4 The Undertaking

5 The Unburied

6 Murder In The Title

7 A Dead Man in Deptford

8 How We Die

9 Deja Dead

10 Being Dead

How are these

people linked by a family that helped define the decade?

1 Dustin Hoffman

2 Michael Jackson

3 Mel Brooks

4 James Taylor

5 Paul and Linda McCartney

6 Bette Midler

7 Sting

8 George Harrison

9 Ringo Starr

10 Kermit The Frog