From the link:

I would fail his challenge except maybe the billiards. I have tried all the rest and have always been an abysmal player in any game that requires eye-hand coordination. I'm not quite tone deaf, but again never felt a great desire to play an instrument. And I never felt the need to overcome those things.

I also have never been asked the nonsensical questions in an interview either, but have only been the interviewee about ten times in the past 18 years or so.

On the other hand I have been the technical interviewer about 20 times for junior DBA's. The first question I ask is "What does DML and DDL stand for?" The second Q is "What are the four DML commands?" That pretty much gives me an idea of where and how to pitch the rest of the questions.

Out of the 20 interviews we hired two over time. The one didn't have the definition of DML and DDL down and wasn't quite sure of the DML commands but was taking notes during the interview. The next time I asked he knew it cold. He was shoved into a non-DBA but front-line tech SW support role and did well. He left voluntarily to a better role after more than a year.

The other didn't know the definitions but knew three out of four of the DML commands. She did okay with standardized scripts that couldn't be automated to the general support types, but couldn't really develop hot data fixes in the DB. (The SW sucked and we were the DBA's in support.) She decided the tech life wasn't for her.

But asking the number of cows in Canada is just stupid. Forcing someone to find interest in a game they wouldn't or didn't care for is not indicative of how good an employee they will be.