The chairman of the improbably-sized investment company Prandeamus Asset Management was full of festive cheer when I dropped by his office this week so I decided not to wake him. Instead, here is his and Professional Adviser's 2016 Christmas Quiz.
It is long on Christmas, short on financial matters and a bit silly in places. We trust you will forgive us.
The chairman has blagged prizes for the first three correct (or most correct) entries that are drawn out of his metaphorical hat at noon on 5 January 2017. Two will receive copies of his friend Paul Mumford's entertaining and insightful blend of personal and professional experience The Stockpicker, while the third will receive the same book but with a £20 Amazon voucher inside.
The chairman isn't too bothered - you can use the voucher towards the Christmas present you hinted you really wanted but nobody gave you or, if it risks breaching your compliance code, as a bookmark. He is however keen that, to enter, you email him your name at [email protected] with ‘Prando's Christmas Quiz' in the subject line. Professional Adviser's normal terms and conditions apply - with one important addition …
You may think you know the right answers to the questions below - indeed you may actually know the right answers to the questions below - but should any of your answers happen to be different from the ones we print at the start of next month then, for the purposes of this quiz, they are not right. In other words, the chairman and the editor are most insistent their decision is final. Let's just hope it ends up being the same decision.
Prando's AM and Professional Adviser 2016 Christmas Quiz
1. What is the zodiac birth sign of people born on the 25th of December?
2. Which of the three wise men shares his name with a ghost?
3. If you saw Perdix perdix in Pyrus communis, what would you be looking at?
4. Who banned Christmas in England between 1647 and 1660?
5. According to the old joke, why did Darth Vader know what Luke Skywalker was getting for Christmas?
6. Which song by Tina Turner begins: "Well the men come in these places and the men are all the same, you don't look at their faces and you don't ask their names"?
7. Often portrayed with a bow and arrow, who is the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Eros?
8. The death of which silent film star in 1931 caused mass hysteria and even reported suicides among his female fans?
9. What was last seen by the human eye in February 1986 and is next scheduled to make an appearance in July 2061?
10. Can you find a seasonal connection within the previous four answers?
11. Who wrote the Christmas novels The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth?
12. Orson Welles and Joe Pesci have both played characters called Harry Lime - Welles in The Third Man but in what Christmas film (and sequel) was Joe Pesci's role?
13. Which Shakespeare play essentially shares its name with the title of a 1982 Christmas single by David Essex?
14. And which Shakespeare play is another name for the day before Epiphany?
15. What is the chemical formula of snow?
16. The editor's namesake 'Mr J Marr' was lead guitarist for which influential UK indie band between 1982 and 1987?
17. The first two bands to reach number one in the charts with each of their first three singles came from Liverpool - Gerry & the Pacemakers was one, who was the other?
18. Early members of which band included Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe?
19. In 1986, the first names of which band were Axl, Duff, Izzy, Slash and Steven?
20. Can you find a seasonal connection between the previous four answers?
21. Who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1951 for The African Queen?
22. Who is the lead singer of The Pogues who duetted with Kirsty MacColl on ‘Fairytale of New York'?
23. Born Maurice Cole, the DJ and television personality - whose catchphrases included "It was all done in the best possible taste" - is better known by which name?
24. Which apple-related scientist said: "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants"?
25. Can you find a seasonal connection between the previous four answers?
