This week's Friday Brain-Teaser from xrefer. Last week's Brainteaser was based on Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and this week's is based on Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable, a diverse and entertaining exploration of the linguistic and cultural landscape of the modern world. See if you can answer these questions - the solutions are all in the modern Brewer. Answers here.
1. What pseudonym is used by the English pop singer George Alan O'Dowd?
2. Who portrayed Lara Croft in the 2001 film, Tomb Raider?
3. What was the name first given to Santa Clara Valley, the area south of San Francisco where many electronics and computing industries are located, and subsequently adapted to similar sites elsewhere?
4. In the Arab-Israeli conflict, you often hear about "The West Bank." This region is on the west bank of which river?
5. What is the colloquial name for the disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)?
6. What make of training shoes is named after the goddess of victory in Greek mythology?
7. A ten-digit number called an "ISBN" is assigned to every book before publication. What does ISBN stand for?
8. Which rock group got its name from a US slang word for fighter pilots investigating UFOs?
9. Which 1981 novel starts with the words "I was born in the city of Bombay...once upon a time"?
10. "Poet's day" is a weary worker's name for which day of the week?