Social networks, spaceflight vanity and a happy tortoise – take the Thursday quiz

This tortoise is keen for you to tackle this week’s quiz! Photograph: Alex Telfer/The Observer

As the world waited with bated breath to see if anybody could catch the very naughty miniature dachshund Valerie, who has been living her best life for more than 500 days, the Thursday quiz had to contain its excitement and knuckle down to come up with 15 vaguely topical general knowledge and pop culture questions for your pleasure. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing your scores in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 206

1. 

   Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin burned up loads of carbon this week with a vanity flight into, or at least quite near to, space on its rocket New Shepard, featuring which pop star (not pictured)?

   1. Gwen Stefani

   2. Katy Perry

   3. Miley Cyrus

   4. Kate Bush

2. 

   Everybody loves a happy ending, and a Mississippi tortoise (not pictured – that is Priscilla at London Zoo) got one when it was recently reunited with its people after having been carried away by a tornado. What was its name?

   1. Myrtle

   2. Yertle

   3. Snirtle

   4. Derek

3. 

   We lost the wonderful Jean Marsh, who co-created the 1970s TV hit Upstairs, Downstairs. Which character did she memorably play in it?

   1. Rose Tyler

   2. Rose Mills

   3. Rose Noble

   4. Rose Buck

4. 

   Which White Lotus actor expressed their displeasure at Saturday Night Live mocking their teeth (not pictured), calling it "mean and unfunny"

   1. Sarah Catherine Hook

   2. Natasha Rothwell

   3. Aimee Lou Wood

   4. Sophie Aldred

5. 

   The tennis player Harriet Dart asked the umpire what during a match against Lois Boisson at the Rouen Open?

   1. "Can you tell her to change her green top, because the pattern design is distracting?"

   2. "Can you tell her to wear deodorant, because she smells really bad?"

   3. "Can you tell her to stop grunting, because she sounds like a warthog?"

   4. "Have you seen that video of Valerie the very naughty miniature dachshund on Kangaroo Island?"

6. 

   Here is Karl-Heinz with his opening lines. This week, the Thursday quiz imagines the German soccer legend would like to know which book opens with a letter from R Walton that begins: "You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings"?

   1. Frankenstein

   2. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

   3. Dracula

   4. Treasure Island

7. 

   This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She has heard that the global sales of a much-loved drink have fallen to their lowest level since 1961. Which drink?

   1. Scotch Whisky

   2. Prosecco

   3. Red wine

   4. Carrot juice

8. 

   This week's flag question is about Chile (not pictured). Chile's flag has two equal horizontal bands of white and red, with a blue square in the canton that contains how many white stars?

   1. One

   2. Two

   3. Three

   4. Five

9. 

   It is the anniversary of Martin Luther's trial in 1521. Where was it held?

   1. Diet of Wolves

   2. Diet of Worms

   3. Diet of Wisent

   4. Diet of 30-50 Feral Hogs

10. 

    It is Victoria Beckham's birthday. Happy birthday, Posh Spice! We wanna really, really, really wanna zig-a-zig-ah! What year did she get married to David Beckham?

    1. 1991

    2. 1995

    3. 1999

    4. 2003

11. 

    Which esteemed actor said this week that they were serious about giving up the job, because there were a lot of other things they wanted to do with their life?

    1. Tilda Swinton

    2. Gwendoline Christie

    3. Daisy Ridley

    4. Cate Blanchett

12. 

    Who spoiled a good walk at the weekend by becoming only the sixth player to achieve golf’s career grand slam by winning the Masters tournament in the US?

    1. Justin Rose

    2. Rory McIlroy

    3. Scottie Scheffler

    4. Ronald Mael

13. 

    Kate Adie has claimed that the BBC has an unofficial league table of the most unpopular accents. Which accent did she say came top?

    1. Sunderland

    2. Birmingham

    3. Cornwall

    4. Syldavian

14. 

    There was uproar after an ancient tree (very much not pictured) was felled in London. Contractors working for which food chain were believed to be responsible?

    1. Angus Steakhouse

    2. Toby Carvery

    3. Wimpy

    4. Little Chef

15. 

    And finally, which British political figure has said they are planning to launch their own "uncensored" social network to counter mainstream media?

    1. Michael Gove

    2. Jacob Rees-Mogg

    3. Nigel Farage

    4. Liz Truss

Solutions

1:B - It was the first all-female space flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova hopped into space for the Soviet Union in 1963. Tereshkova is now a Russian politician. It isn't clear if Katy Perry plans to go into politics in the future , 2:A - Hilariously for Beach Boys fans, he lives in Kokomo, Mississippi, which you imagine isn't quite as exciting as the Kokomo they sang about on their widely derided comeback hit, 3:D - She had a very distinguished career, also including playing three different characters in Doctor Who – Sara Kingdom, Richard the Lionheart's sister Joanna, and the interdimensional sorceress Morgaine, 4:C - "The rest of the skit was punching up and I was the only one punched down on," she said, 5:B - Absolutely wild scenes. Dart later apologised, and Boisson made a social media post begging Dove for a collaboration, 6:A - Robert Walton is an Arctic explorer to whom Victor Frankenstein relays the tale, in one of those infuriating "it's a story within a story told by a series of letters" type of literary devices. And then the fun begins …, 7:C - The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Tuesday that 2024 consumption fell 3.3% from the previous year, to 214.2m hectolitres, which is probably about 1.7m ancient Sumerian cubits worth of wine if you laid it in a delicious, thin straight line, 8:A - It is known as La Estrella Solitaria (The Lone Star) in Spanish, 9:B - Worms is, of course, a place in Germany and a diet was a meeting, they didn't literally feed him worms, 10:C - They got married on 4 July 1999 at Luttrellstown Castle in Dublin, 11:D - We guess once you've been in a Sparks video, what other mountains are there left to climb?, 12:B - More than a decade had passed since McIlroy won the last of his quartet of majors, 13:B - Sorry Brummies, everybody else in the UK hates it apparently …, 14:B - The tree was felled earlier this month by contractors working for Mitchells & Butlers Retail (MBR), which runs the nearby Toby Carvery and leases the land where the tree stood from Enfield council. The council said it had not been informed of the decision to cut down the tree. A spokesperson for MBR said its contractors had warned that the tree was diseased and posed a health and safety risk, 15:D - Hopefully it will be called "LettuceTalk" or something like that …

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Memory of You, the new posthumous single by the late, great Mark Stewart instead?

Watch the video for Memory of You by Mark Stewart.