Oddly Ranked Trivia Quiz

The number here is the number of heads possessed by Cerberus. In Greek mythology, Cerberus was normally described as a three-headed dog belonging to Hades, the Greek god of the dead. Cerberus guarded the gates of the underworld. His capture was the last of the twelve Labours of Heracles.

A more recent example was the three-headed Fluffy from the 1997 novel and the 2001 film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (known in the US as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone").

The US Department of Defense, also known as the Department of War, has its headquarters at the Pentagon in Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The Pentagon was built during the Second World War and, as its name implies, is a five-sided structure which is the number tied to the clue.

The Pentagon held the record for being the world's largest office building (by floor area) for 80 years, losing the title to the Surat Diamond Bourse in India in 2023.

Akira Kurosawa was a trailblazing Japanese film director who had a 60-year career during which he made 30 feature films. His impact in the West has been recognised through multiple film awards as well as state honours from France and Italy. He also had a San Francisco International Film Festival film award named after him; he was the first recipient of the award in 1986, which has since been renamed (twice).

The 1954 epic "Seven Samurai" is the film providing the number for this clue. It has inspired many remakes, some official and some not. Films like "The Magnificent Seven" (1960 and 2016), the space opera "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980) and the animated comedy "A Bug's Life" (1998) are examples.

The Muses were ancient Greek goddesses known for being the inspiration or the source of knowledge in the fields of literature, science and the arts. By the Classical Period, the number of Muses were fixed at nine with their names normally given as Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.

One origin story records them as the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, each with their own particular artistic talent. A challenger of any Muse always lost and suffered punishment. These days they are found as statues and in paintings or you could go to New Orleans, Louisiana where all nine have streets named after them.

The American sci-fi horror TV series "Stranger Things" ran to five seasons between 2016 and 2025. The character with the numerical connection was the protagonist Eleven, portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown. In keeping with her character nickname, the actress was 11 years old when she first appeared in the series.

Her in-series name was in fact Jane Hopper (birth name Ives), although she was better known as Eleven or El. She had powers of telekinesis and telepathy.

The word 'triskaidekaphobia' is from the ancient Greek words meaning 'thirteen' (treiskadeka) and 'fear' (phobos). The ancient Greek term was being used by psychologists at the beginning of the 20th century, however the superstition around the 'unlucky' number has been around for a lot longer. For example, there were 15th century tarot cards where trump cards representing Death were numbered '13'. The superstition has been linked to the Biblical Last Supper by an 18th century writer. Others have put forward a similar Norse myth as the source.

There are also regions where '13' is considered a lucky number. This was the case in France before the First World War. In China, it is what the number sounds like that determines its meaning. In Cantonese, the number '3' sounds like 'to live' or 'life' whereas '4' sounds like 'death'. Number combinations are important so '13' sounds similar to the Cantonese words for 'sure to live' (and hence is considered lucky) whereas '14' sounds like 'sure to die'. The number '3' also has some negative connotations in China.

The Romans did not number each day of the month but instead counted back from fixed points in the month. The Kalends was the first of each month, indicating a new lunar phase. Kalends is the source of the word 'calendar'. The Nones was the seventh of 31-day months (or the fifth of 'hollow' months) and eight days before the Ides, which was one day earlier than the middle of the month.

The Ides of March was therefore the fifteenth of March and is best known as the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE.

The soothsayer's warning 'Beware the Ides of March' as found in William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" refers to this event.

Haiku is a Japanese short-form style of poetry. The traditional haiku has three phrases consisting of seventeen morae in a 5-7-5 pattern which includes elements such as a kireji (cutting word) and a kigo (seasonal reference). The Japanese language uses morae rather than syllables.

A mora in linguistics is unit of time equal to a short syllable. Thus the Japanese the city Ōsaka has three syllables but four morae since the first syllable (Ō) is pronounced as a long vowel. Various approaches have been taken for creating haiku in the English language including using syllables instead of morae in a 5-7-5 pattern.

British musician Paul Hardcastle was best known for his song "19" which reached the top of the UK singles chart in 1985 as well as a number of other countries. It contained samples of narration and news reports, with the various international versions of the song using well-known local news anchors from France, German, Japan and Spain.

The hook was the synthesised stuttered 19. It was the best selling single in 13 countries that year. It was an anti-war song and inspired by watching the 1982 ABC News "Vietnam Requiem" documentary where the average age of the American combat soldier was said to be 19, although this figure has been disputed.

The genetic disorder known as Down syndrome takes its name after British physician John Langdon Down who first described it in 1862, recognising it as a distinct form of mental disability. The syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is caused by having all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21 rather than the usual two copies. There are two other recognised forms of the syndrome.