Ghost writing, the voice of Beep the Meep and shrinkflation – take the Thursday quiz

Not real ghosts – it is a double exposure of children in costumes – but which ghost-written novel has recently raised a stink? Photograph: Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF

Some things seem inevitable in life: death, taxes and Liz Truss making a speech about how she was right about everything. Also inevitable? It is Thursday and so the quiz is on. Fifteen questions on recent news, trivia and general knowledge await you. There are no prizes, because it is just for fun, but let us know how you get on in the comments. You can earn bonus points for spotting hidden references to Doctor Who, and lose points for needless quibbling. Have fun!

The Thursday quiz, No 126

1. 

   KARMA MAN: Which supermarket chain (not pictured) has started shaming brands by labelling 26 products with notices calling out "shrinkflation"?

   1. Lidl

   2. Morrisons

   3. Carrefour

   4. Kerblam!

2. 

   CRACKED ACTOR: A row has erupted over ghost-writing celebrity novels after the publication of Nineteen Steps, ghost-written by Kathleen McGurl (not pictured) but credited to whom?

   1. Millie Bobby Brown

   2. Natalia Dyer

   3. Cara Buono

   4. Millie Gibson

3. 

   KOOKS: The Conservative candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall, has sparked controversy after it was discovered she had liked a tweet (or an X post or whatever it is these days) praising which politician?

   1. Oswald Mosley

   2. Enoch Powell

   3. Benito Mussolini

   4. Count Binface

4. 

   I'M AFRAID OF AMERICANS: Which member of US Congress (not pictured) was ejected from the Beetlejuice musical after being caught vaping?

   1. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative for Georgia

   2. Lauren Boebert, Republican representative for Colorado

   3. Josh Hawley, Republican senator for Missouri

   4. Ted Cruz, Republican senator for Texas

5. 

   LOVING THE ALIEN: Which legendary British star has been announced as the voice of the alien Beep the Meep in the forthcoming Doctor Who special The Star Beast?

   1. Judi Dench

   2. Patrick Stewart

   3. Miriam Margolyes

   4. David McCallum

6. 

   ASHES TO ASHES: After 1bn copies and 118 years, which retail catalogue has announced last week it is to finally go online only?

   1. Argos

   2. Littlewoods

   3. Freemans

   4. Miniature Dachshund monthly

7. 

   CHANGES: It is Independence Day today in Malta. Congratulations Malta! What is Malta's capital?

   1. Mdina

   2. Rabat

   3. Argolis

   4. Valletta

8. 

   A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN: It is also the anniversary of the appointment of the first woman to become a US supreme court judge. Who?

   1. Sonia Sotomayor

   2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

   3. Amy Coney Barrett

   4. Sandra Day O'Connor

9. 

   FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Siouxsie is flying from Israel to Hong Kong for the latest stage of her tour – coincidentally, two places referenced in two of her hits. The distance between the two airports is 7,770km. At one point the pilot announces they are 40% of the way there. How far has Siouxsie travelled?

   1. 1,308km

   2. 3,108km

   3. 3,180km

   4. 3,801km

10. 

    SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS): This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. Here she is pictured as she finds out that an AFLW match between Greater Western Sydney and Richmond was delayed after what was spotted in the grass?

    1. A redback spider

    2. A colony of red fire ants

    3. A red-bellied black snake

    4. 30-50 feral hogs

11. 

    SUFFRAGETTE CITY: When did women first gain the universal right to vote in national elections in France?

    1. 1924

    2. 1934

    3. 1944

    4. 1954

12. 

    ART DECADE: An artist has been ordered to pay back money lent to him by a museum after he supplied empty frames as his artwork in return. Where?

    1. Denmark

    2. Sweden

    3. Norway

    4. Finland

13. 

    NEW KILLER STAR: Christopher Nolan’s brief movie about J Robert Oppenheimer has become the highest-grossing biopic of all time. Which movie has it replaced at the top of the biopic charts?

    1. Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, about the Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash

    2. Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody, about the rock band Queen and their lead singer, Freddie Mercury

    3. Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, about the crooked Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort

    4. Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers, about Russell and Ron from Sparks

14. 

    I AM WITH NAME: For reasons still slightly unclear to the Thursday quiz, an Australian journalist gave their baby (not pictured) a ridiculous name to test the limits of the Births Deaths and Marriages register there. Which name?

    1. Cocaine Carnival

    2. Heroin Rocks

    3. Marijuana Marvel

    4. Methamphetamine Rules

15. 

    ALADDIN SANE: Talking of names, this week's unifying theme has been song titles by David Bowie. But what was his given name when he was born?

    1. David Albert Cook

    2. Harry Rodger Webb

    3. David Robert Jones

    4. Dogface Hermann Dingbat

Solutions

1:C - Carrefour has marked 26 products in its stores in France with the labels, which say: “This product has seen its volume or weight fall and the effective price from the supplier rise.”, 2:A - Brown’s and McGurl's novel was inspired by Brown's grandmother’s experience of the 1943 Bethnal Green tube disaster., 3:B - Endorsed by the Conservative party as suitable to run England's biggest city, Hall also liked tweets containing Islamophobic abuse towards Sadiq Khan, her Labour opponent. She seems nice., 4:B - As Thursday quiz colleague Edward Helmore noted, "Boebert has issued a second apology after she openly vaped in the audience, groped her companion and was graphically felt up in kind. Her date, 46-year-old Quinn Gallagher, was the owner of a bar that hosts LGBTQ+ and drag events. Boebert has been an outspoken critic of drag shows, posting a tweet which read: 'Take your children to Church, not drag bars.' Her first apology blamed her 'public and difficult divorce' for her behavior". She seems nice., 5:C - The actor said: "I’m relieved I got to work on Doctor Who before I died. With sci-fi you never know. Thank you for making an old woman very happy." She is nice., 6:C - Littlewoods stopped printing in 2015, and Argos ended its print edition in 2020. Freemans is now joining them., 7:D - The southernmost capital city in Europe, it was founded by Jean de Valette in the 16th century., 8:D - Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was an associate justice of the supreme court of the United States from 21 September 1981 until January 2006, and once referred to herself in a letter to the New York Times as FWOTSC (First woman on the supreme court)., 9:B - She didn't play either Israel or Hong Kong Garden when the quiz master saw her recently and he is still slightly annoyed about it., 10:C - The Giants and the Tigers’ round three match was pushed back by about 30 minutes while officials waited for a snake handler to arrive at Blacktown International Sportspark., 11:C - The provisional government of Gen Charles de Gaulle, then based in Algiers, passed the order on 21 April, 1944. Women voted for the first time in the 1945 election, and the order was definitively adopted in the French constitution in October 1946., 12:A - When staff unpacked the newly delivered works, they found two empty frames with the title Take the Money and Run. The artist and Thursday quiz folk hero Jens Haaning told Danish radio at the time: "The work is that I have taken their money. It’s not theft. It is breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work. I encourage other people who have working conditions as miserable as mine to do the same. If they’re sitting in some shitty job and not getting paid, and are actually being asked to pay money to go to work, then grab what you can and beat it.", 13:B - Oppenheimer has passed $912m in revenue around the globe since its cinema release on 19 July. Bohemian Rhapsody took more than $910m after its release in October 2018. Barbie took more than Oppenheimer, and the Thursday quiz has written to Hollywood to quibble why that isn't classed as a biopic., 14:D - Kirsten Drysdale submitted the baby's given name to New South Wales Births Deaths and Marriages as Methamphetamine Rules. “We thought we would submit the most outrageous name we could think of, assuming it would be rejected,” she said. “But it didn’t. He’s a very chill child, a beautiful baby boy, so not anything like a meth user.", 15:C - Your other options were the real names of Cliff Richard and David Essex, and an affectionate nickname for the quiz master's daughter.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comment

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and it’s a god-awful small affair.