BMJ-ingle all the way

It takes light eight minutes and 20 seconds for light to travel from the sun to the earth, and some teams took almost as long to come up with an answer to this question in what was — as ever — a fiercely contested MJA Christmas Quiz.

The British Medical Journal team — Caroline White, Ingrid Torjesen, Jacqui Young, Elisabeth Mahase, Gareth Iacobucci and John Illman — took the honours, and bottles of bubbly, in a tough contest which covered children’s literature, flags of the world, the periodic table and UK racetracks.

Quiz masters Paul and Kate came up with some crackers: Which book, written by E.B. White and published in 1952 has been voted the best children’s book of all time? Or, what word is spelt out by the symbols for tungsten, silver and Einsteinium? And can  you name three countries with a sun on their flag? Or two with a crescent moon?

Top marks if you answered: Charlotte’s Web; wages (W-Ag-Es); could name three from this list, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bangladesh, Greenland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macedonia, Malawi, Mongolia, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Palau, Philippines, Rwanda, Taiwan or Uruguay; or two from these countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Malaysia, The Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tuninsia or Turkey.

And an extra one for trivia buffs — one of the heroes of the recent London Bridge attack grabbed a Narwhal horn from the Fishgmongers’ Hall to help subdue a knife-weilding terrorist. But who knew there was one in the Great Hall of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries — the venue for our annual quiz?

Our thanks to MJA administrator extraordinaire Sallie Robins for organising the event.