Showdown Recap for BWW Gibson in ABQ for 27 Jan 2015
The Ragged rascals assembled a strong team of 14 bodies, manning 25 boxes, for this Tuesday’s game of Showdown. An early theme for the night was ‘playing the dozens’ in response to incorrect answers called with confidence. This carried over into the Big Game. Some of it was quasi-profound with insults like, “Never before in the annals of trivia history has so many bad answers been owed to so few players.” Then there was the sophomoric, “We came, we saw, we didn’t comprehend.”
Warm-up Round
1. In the acronym ‘RADAR’ the ‘D’ stands for: DETECTION. 2. Ascot, Doncaster, and Beverley are longtime British: RACECOURSES. 3. Bacchus is the Roman God of: WINE AND INTOXICATION. 4. After the Taika Reforms of A.D. 646, this warrior class emerged in Japan: SAMURAI. 5. Cryptanalysis is the study of: CODE SYSTEMS. 6. Sebum is ___ oil: SKIN. 7. The ___ islands lie between Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s mainland: GULF. {We couldn’t bridge our gulf of ignorance here.} 8. William Harvey is credited with the first complete description of the circulation of: BLOOD. 9. A ‘favela’ is a Brazilian: URBAN SLUM AREA. 10. Tarmac is a type of: SURFACING MATERIAL.
The team is off to a good start here with 9 of 10 correct. However, after WU7, someone in a faux Benjamin Franklin voice proclaimed, “If we don’t all hang together, we shall surely split separately.”
Ground-down Round
1. Tony Abbott has been the Prime Minister of ___ since 2013: AUSTRALIA. 2. Embalming fluid typically contains a mixture of formaldehyde and: METHANOL. 3. Which writer wrote extensively in both Scots and English: JAMES HOGG. 4. Rama, Krishna, and Kalki are avatars of this deity: VISHNU. 5. Joseph Breen is known to U.S. history as a censor of: MOTION PICTURES. {Did Joe Breen disallow preening before the screening?} 6. A factotum is someone whose job requires him or her to do: MANY TYPES OF TASKS. 7. Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray were among the most famous ___ of the 1920’s: CONVICTED MURDERERS. 8. Cycads are ___ that have existed on Earth for 280 Million years: PLANTS. 9. In 1848, the political group Young ___ staged a failed revolt against the British government: IRELAND. 10. The zebu are a type of: CATTLE. {Do the zebu produce Zebum?} 11. ‘Cockney’ was originally a derogatory term applied to: ALL URBANITES. 12. In the history of science, Rudolf Virchow is known as the founder of social: MEDICINE. {We were not social enough here, so we had to swallow bitter medicine.}
After near flubs on GD 5 and 10, we bailed out on GD 12. The other nine were simple enough, but not simple enough to avoid the cat-call after GD3, “Nice misperception…did you do that on purpose, or did you just wake up ‘stoopid’ today?” That nicely set up the refrain on GD10, “I’ll take ‘stoopid answers’ for a thousand, Alex.”
Scatology Round
S1. Gawd-damned-pink-fuzzy-venomous animules v GERMAN SCIENTISTS
He won the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of nuclear fission:
OTTO HAHN. {BLZBUB radiated confidence on this one.}
S2. Classic films v SUPERBOWL PREVIEW
New England and Seattle will square off this Sunday at ___ Stadium:
UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX. {LOONEY actually pre-called the question and this answer.}
S3. U.S. Geography v GREEK MYTHOLOGY
In Greek mythology, this King of Crete was the father of Ariadne and Phaedra:
MINOS. {DUFF climbed out of his way-back machine to call this one.}
S4. SUPERBOWL PREVIEW v g-d-p-f-v animules
This week’s Superbowl is the ___ in NFL history:
49TH. {KURGAN and HEBEGB were the first with the accurate call.}
S5. GREEK MYTHOLOGY v Classic films
In Greek mythology, Cadmus is the legendary founder of:
THEBES. {DUFF knocked the Cretan sand off his sandals and made this call.]
S6. German scientists v U.S. GEOGRAPHY
Which state is due south of Colorado?
NEW MEXICO. {Too many of the ignorant people in this country still think we live in a foreign nation, which we residents of New Mexico find hilarious. See, for example
http://www.nmmagazine.com/one-of-our-50-is-missing/}
Six for six is the best way to play this round, and we did it tonight.
Frightening Round
1. Cartoonist Walter LANTZ created Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, and: WOODY WOODPECKER. 2. When translated, this dish’s name means ‘that which is served”: MINESTRONE. 3. ‘The House of the Dead’ is a prison camp novel by: FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY. 4. Mato Grosso is one of the 26 states of: BRAZIL. 5. Regulation NFL footballs are inflated to a pressure of about ___ per square inch: 13 POUNDS. 6. William Goldman wrote ‘The Princess Bride,’ ‘Magic’ and: MARATHON MAN. 7. Which western city was founded in 1781 by Spanish Governor Felipe de Neve: LOS ANGELES. {Massive uncertainty swallowed the time available to answer questions F6 and F7, crippling our scores for this round.}
The best riposte followed F7, with, “The coldest stare I ever got was one night calling de Neve on San Francisco.” A close contender after F6 was, “A house divided among itself will fall for a 5-way split.”
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. In Greek mythology Melampus and Tiresias are:
SEERS. {Having a resident soothsayer, we knew we didn’t need a prophet for this question. DUFF got it without divination.}
P2. In which decade did the U.S. embargo of Cuba begin?
1960’s. {There was a lively banter over 50’s v 60’s but the team put it to rest with the correct call.}
P3. Artist Ralph Steadman collaborated on many projects with this writer:
HUNTER S. THOMPSON. {MEERA was all gonzo for this answer, and we cheered upon seeing it correct.}
P4. In geography, Australasia is a region of:
OCEANIA. {Several voices were heard to make this call.}
P5. Robert Moses is considered the master builder of:
POST-DEPRESSION NEW YORK. {The pre-calls here, while inaccurate, pointed in the direction of the correct answer. CHILL gets the lion’s share of the credit.}
Hot Damn! The team went 5 for 5 on this difficult round. Does nirvana await in the…
FINAL TRAGEDY, on the Topic of: CLASSICAL MUSIC
His ‘Choral Fantasy in C Minor’ portends his final symphony:
1. Franz Schubert
2. Gustav Mahler
3. Ludwig Van Beethoven
4. Joseph Haydn
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The order of the eliminations was 4, 2, 5, and 1, leaving #3 LUDWIG VAN and his glorious 9TH, as the final answer. My droogies love the symphony, but are less sanguine about the points scored on this final tragedy.
Historically there have been some games with legendary hoots after these bon mots:
“Once again, so that we are clear on this, Carrie Nation’s nickname was not Molly Hatchet,” and
“Panama Canal, it’s a lock! Is not the appropriate response to ‘Where is Gatun Lake?’”
The final tally showed the top six boxes on the scales at 56050, 55663, 55437, 54682, 52636, and 52569 points for this game. The team average was a surprising 54,506 points. As the rankings scrolled, the Ragged Rascals saw themselves at SECOND Place in the Mt/Pac Zone of play, but behind a known Borg location.
Overall, this score was also good enough for ELEVENTH, system-wide. Congratulations to all the wetware teams who bested us for this week.
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