Today's Article - Dr. No

This article is for quizzes on Thursday September 22nd...

Dr. No is a 1962 British spy film, starring Sean Connery, with Ursula Andress and Joseph Wiseman, filmed in Jamaica and England: it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, a partnership that would continue until 1975.

In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American space launch with a radio beam weapon. Although the first of the Bond books to be made into a film, Dr. No was not the first of Fleming's novels, Casino Royale being the debut for the character; the film makes a few references to threads from earlier books. This film also introduced the criminal organisation SPECTRE, which would also appear in six subsequent films.

Dr. No was produced on a low budget and was a financial success. While critical reaction was mixed upon release, over time the film has gained a reputation as one of the series' best instalments. The film was the first of a successful series of 24 Bond films. Dr. No also launched a genre of "secret agent" films that flourished in the 1960s. The film also spawned a spin-off comic book and soundtrack album as part of its promotion and marketing.

Many of the iconic aspects of a typical James Bond film were established in Dr. No: the film begins with an introduction to the character through the view of a gun barrel and a highly stylised main title sequence, both created by Maurice Binder. Production designer Ken Adam established an elaborate visual style that is one of the hallmarks of the film series.

The Tosa Tavern

Thursdays 6:30pm (starts October 6th!)

The Tosa Tavern (inside Whole Foods)
11100 W Burleigh Street
Wauwatosa, WI 53222 (map)
(414) 808-3600
www.wholefoodsmarket.com

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Specials:
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Quizmaster: TBA

Today's Article - The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

This article is for quizzes on Wednesday September 21st...

"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published in December 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

• - "Like a Rolling Stone", by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, was chosen as number 1. The single was released on 20 July 1965.
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• - The list is mostly composed of songs recorded by male North American and British artists and mostly from the second half of the 20th century. Of the 500 songs, 352 are from the United States and 119 from the United Kingdom; they are followed by Ireland, with 12 entries (of which 8 were composed by U2); Canada, with 10 (a majority of them by Neil Young); Jamaica, with 7 (most of them by Bob Marley & the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, and Toots & the Maytals); Australia, with two (AC/DC); and Sweden (ABBA) and France (Daft Punk), each with one.
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• - The list includes only songs written in English, with the sole exception of "La Bamba" (number 345), sung in Spanish by the American singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens.
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• - Few songs written prior to the 1950s are included; some that are listed are Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" (1936), in the version recorded by Cream, and Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (1949). "The House of the Rising Sun", listed in the version by English rock band the Animals, was recorded at least as early as 1934. Muddy Waters's "Rollin' Stone" (1950) is based on an earlier song, dating to the 1920s.

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• - The longest tracks are "Whipping Post (Live)" (22:40), by the Allman Brothers Band; "Rapper's Delight" (14:35), by the Sugarhill Gang ; "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" (12:02), by the Temptations; "The End" (11:41), by the Doors; "Desolation Row" (11:21), by Bob Dylan; "Marquee Moon" (10:47), by Television; and "Free Bird" (9:08), by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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• - Love is the most frequent word used in the songs' lyrics, with 1057 occurrences, followed by I'm (1000 uses), oh (847 uses), know (779 uses), baby (746 uses), got (702 uses), and yeah (656 uses).
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• - The Beatles are the most heavily represented musical act, with 23 songs on the list. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison are also represented as solo artists. However, Lennon is the only artist to appear twice in the top 10, as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist. 

Today's Article - H. H. Holmes

This article is for quizzes on Tuesday September 20th...

Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known under the name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or more commonly just H. H. Holmes, was one of the first documented serial killers in the modern sense of the term. In Chicago, at the time of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Holmes opened a hotel which he had designed and built for himself specifically with murder in mind, and which was the location of many of his murders. While he confessed to 27 murders, of which nine were confirmed, his actual body count could be up to 200. He brought an unknown number of his victims to his World's Fair Hotel, located about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the fair, which was held in Jackson Park. Besides being a serial killer, H. H. Holmes was also a successful con artist and a bigamist.

Holmes arrived in Chicago in August 1886 and came across Elizabeth S. Holton's drugstore at the northwest corner of South Wallace Avenue and West 63rd Street in the Englewood neighborhood. Holton gave Holmes a job, and he proved himself to be a hardworking employee. After the death of Holton's husband, Holmes offered to buy the drugstore from Holton, and she agreed. Holmes purchased the store mainly with funds obtained by mortgaging the store's fixtures and stock, the loan to be repaid in substantial monthly installments of $100 (worth $2,600 in 2015). Holton was never seen or heard from again, and whenever any regular customers asked Holmes about her whereabouts after she sold the drug store to him, he would say that she moved to California to be close to relatives.

Holmes purchased an empty lot across from the drugstore where he built his three-story, block-long hotel building. Because of its enormous structure, local people dubbed it "The Castle". The building was 162 feet long and 50 feet wide. The address was 601-603 West 63rd Street. It was called the World's Fair Hotel and opened as a hostelry for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, with part of the structure devoted to commercial space. The ground floor of the Castle contained Holmes' own relocated drugstore and various shops, while the upper two floors contained his personal office and a labyrinth of rooms with doorways opening to brick walls, oddly-angled hallways, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that could only be opened from the outside and a host of other strange and deceptive constructions. Holmes was constantly firing and hiring different workers during the construction of the Castle, claiming that "they were doing incompetent work." His actual reason was to ensure that he was the only one who fully understood the design of the building.

Today's Article - Highest Mountains

This article is for quizzes on Monday September 19th...

There are at least 109 mountains with elevations greater than 7,200 metres (23,622 ft) above sea level. All of these mountains are located in southern and central Asia. Only those summits are included that, by an objective measure, may be considered individual mountains as opposed to subsidiary peaks.

The highest mountains above sea level are generally not the highest above the surrounding terrain. There is no precise definition of surrounding base, but Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro and Nanga Parbat are possible candidates for the tallest mountain on land by this measure. The bases of mountain islands are below sea level, and given this consideration Mauna Kea (4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level) is the world's tallest mountain and volcano, rising about 10,203 m (33,474 ft) from the Pacific Ocean floor. Ojos del Salado has the greatest rise on Earth—13,420 m (44,029 ft) from the summit to the bottom of the Atacama Trench about 560 km (350 mi) away, though most of this rise is not part of the mountain.

The highest mountains are also not generally the most voluminous. Mauna Loa (4,169 m or 13,678 ft) is the largest mountain on Earth in terms of base area (about 2,000 sq mi or 5,200 km²) and volume (about 10,000 cu mi or 42,000 km³), although, due to the intergrade of lava from Kilauea, Hualalai and Mauna Kea, the volume can only be estimated based on surface area and height of the edifice. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the largest non-shield volcano in terms of both base area (245 sq mi or 635 km²) and volume (1,150 cu mi or 4,793 km³). Mount Logan is the largest non-volcanic mountain in base area (120 sq mi or 311 km²).

The highest mountains above sea level are also not those with peaks farthest from the centre of the Earth, because the figure of the Earth is not spherical. Sea level closer to the equator is several kilometres farther from the centre of the Earth. The summit of Chimborazo, Ecuador's tallest mountain, is usually considered to be the farthest point from the Earth's centre, although the southern summit of Peru's tallest mountain, Huascarán, is another contender. Both have elevations above sea level more than 2 km less than that of Everest.