Monday Trivia, No. 127 [Mark Thompson wins!]

20 thoughts on “Monday Trivia, No. 127 [Mark Thompson wins!]”

1. They all play football/soccer.Report

2. Nations which did not exist in their current form in 5000 BC.Report

3. Distance of their capital cities from El Paso is less than the distance between the Earth and the moon?Report

4. Just a minor quibble. Northern Cyprus isn’t a recognized UN member-state.Report

   1. Then let it be stricken from the question! (Thank you for the corrective quibble. Good to see you.)Report

      1. You and your outrageous anti-Muslim bias!Report

      2. On that note, neither is Palestine. It’s classified as a non-member observer state.Report

      3. Eh? I could have sworn I saw Palestine in there. Was it edited out, or did I misread Pakistan?Report

      4. You must have misread Pakistan. Palestine would not be on the list even if it enjoyed full UN membership.Report

      5. Brandon cleverly elicits a hint.Report

5. Also vague guess: Has something to do with Rugby?Report

   1. I think it has to be something sport related. The range of countries is too vast for anything real. You have hot and cold countries, warm and wet countries, new and old countries, big and small countries. No clear religious connection.

      So, yea, something sports or something quirky, like more men than woman in the population.Report

6. Countries which have never contained my kitchen.Report

7. Here’s your Tuesday hint: if the nations were to be listed in chronological order rather than alphabetically, the list would be Sri Lanka (it was called Ceylon back then), India, Israel, Central African Republic, United Kingdom, Portugal, Dominica, Norway, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Bangladesh, France, Poland, Turkey, Canada, Burundi, Rwanda, Pakistan, Haiti, Guyana, New Zealand, Senegal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Finland, Mozambique, Ukraine, Germany, Jamaica, South Korea, Moldova, Iceland, Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, Slovakia, Mali, Thailand, Denmark.Report

   1. Sri Lanka (it was called Ceylon back then)

      Countries named after Commodores songs (or was that purely serendipitous?)Report

   2. I assume that the event that triggered eligibility for this list for Yugoslavia happened specifically in Slovenia between 1929 and 1991.Report

   3. Ugh. I missed that Croatia was on the list. Either way, I’m pretty sure I have the answer:

      Appointment or election of female prime ministers.Report

      1. Helle, I think you got it.Report

      2. This is the correct answer. My formulation of it was “a female head of government,” but it’s effectively the same thing since every one of the women in question was a Prime Minister (that’s full PM, not “acting” or “effective”) other than Angela Merkl, and my understanding of the German system of government is that the Chancellor is more like a Prime Minister than a U.S. President anyway. Turns out, most countries that have Presidents name them heads of state, rather than heads of government, so they do ceremonial things and exercise comparatively little power.

         As for countries with both female heads of state and female heads of government, I suspect that would be the UK and the Commonwealth nations from the above list — Sri Lanka, Jamaica, India, Bangladesh, UK, Canada, Pakistan, Australia, Trinidad, and Rwanda, since each of them had a female PM at the same time Elizabeth II Windsor has sat as sovereign.Report

      3. Something you need to be careful with on that score Burt is that not all Commonwealth countries have the Queen as their head of State. I’m pretty sure India doesn’t for one thing.Report

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