New Scaratings

The story of the scores appears to be one of a continentwide extinction event some time during the Pyramidaceous period.

My money is on the Praemium Imperiale as the culprit. The notion of the Japanese using a Latin appellation just seemed too outlandish, although after some less frantic thought I realize that Latin was probably one of the first western languages that they were exposed to, via those Portuguese Jesuits.

Our "guess at will" efforts resulted in a split between Spain and Britain.

The Pyramid questions were all tough, except the ALS one. We did split on the Premium Imperiale, although I picked Japan as the only one of the choices still having an emperor. The O'Neill salesman and captoptric killed us.

Congratulations to Stringz & Wingz for another win in a difficult game, and to the writers, for getting a final question that was fair, challenging, and difficult to google.

_________________
Wayne Neily
Tremont, Kings Co., N. S.

"What mighty contests rise from trivial things!" - Alexander Pope, 1712.

"Beauty is truth, and truth beauty", John Keats, 1820.

That's the one that got us, and for that very reason--although a couple of people were (like Falcon) mentioning that only Japan still had an Emperor (I think most of us went with Britain, which at least has an imperial pedigree). At that point we thought we were out of the running. Thanks to Falcon for the props, though. Congrats to Jilly's, Danny K's, and In The Zone--the usual suspects--for the next highest legitimate scores on a tough game.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Before I commit a faux pas, is there any prohibition here for someone posting a recap of the Showdown game in its entirety?
BLZBUB in Abq
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
oh my gawd, they kiilled
Ken Z
You bastards

Griff from St Louis used to did this til he slowed down on his NTN playing. Its perfectly fine, Ken.

_________________
Mitch (MTCHWF/WLFFLY)

Co-Home Bar: Buffalo Wild Wings Edwardsville, IL and Time Out in St Louis, MO

The little-team-that-could gathered together for another riotous night of trivia and beer. Many of the team were missing and presumed vacationing, probably to get away from BLZBUB.
Worn-out Round
MILKWEED is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. The assassinated Ahmed Wali Karzai was brother to the AFGHAN PRESIDENT. Relatives of anteaters, the ancient Aztecs called them “turtle-rabbits”: ARMADILLOS <Texans just call ‘em “speed bumps.”> Under Roman rule, the client kings of some middle eastern lands were called TETRARCHS. Bulgarian is closely related to this other language MACEDONIAN. <They are mutually unintelligible, claims DUFF.> The Sex Pistols, Black Flag and Bad Religion were PUNK groups <I won’t call them bands, since bands play music.> San Marino is the world’s oldest CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. Which country has two chemical elements named after it: FRANCE <both of whom surrendered to Oxygen in WW I.> Dogtown and the Zephyr Team, or Z-boys, were SKATEBOARDERS. This cheese was named after a region in northern France: BRIE <And Brie surrendered her panties to the first Doughboy she met in WW I.>
The miscue on number eight grates on us.
Ground-down Round
These conifers come in Subalpine, Western, and Tamarack varieties: LARCH. George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”…FANTASY NOVELS. In math, the “FTA” is the fundamental THEOREM OF ALGEBRA. <Any Nth order polynomial has N roots, although to most innumerate people they are merely imaginary.> The study of ice cores gives up to 200,000 yrs of the history of GREENLAND. <Dang, that’s nearly as long as CHILL’s childhood memories.> Founded in the 18th Century, the MARIINSKY Ballet is Russia’s foremost troop. The Igneri and the Taino are groups that inhabited __ during pre-Columbian times: PUERTO RICO. Columbus just missed discovering the Fuckaowiee Tribe before they went missing.> In the 1820’s Charles MacIntosh invented this useful item: WATERPROOF FABRIC. George Berger and Claude Hooper Bukowski are central characters in this musical: HAIR <of the long, streaming, flaxen, waxin’ variety.> Water covers approx. 71 PER CENT of the Earth’s surface. <of which, CHILL wants 50% to be converted into beer.> In geological time, there is no evidence of life during the first, or HADEAN Period. <Not even on Saturday nights.> Which composer is said to represent the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism: ANTON BRUCKNER. Kirkpinar is a/an ___oil wrestling tourney that has been held since 1346: TURKISH. <How they wrestle oil is beyond me.>
Typical 5-way splits on numbers 1, 4, and 8 brought our average down.
Scatological Round
1. Trees v U.S. GEOGRAPHY
In which state are both the Blue Ridge Mountains and Okefenokee Swamp: GEORGIA <Peachy keen…we got this one clean.>
2. At the zoo v COOKING SCHOOL
Pieces of meat flattened by a mallet are called: ESCALOPES <What kind of animal is an esca-lope? Out here in the hinterlands, antelopes flattened by a car are ROAD KILL.>
3. Asian history v GREEK PHILOSOPHY
The most famous name of the Ephesian School, he emphasized the role of flux in reality: HERACLITUS <We got a quick 2-way call with Empedocles as alt.>
4. COOKING SCHOOL v trees
Traditionally, this cheese is made with whey: RICOTTA <amazingly, some folks, probably guys with German names like Schultz, wanted Munster, here.>
5. GREEK PHILOSOPHY v at the zoo (to see god-damned-pink-fuzzy-venomous animules)
___ of Elea emphasized the Doctrine of One: ZENO <Ah yes, Zeno, the warrior philosopher, can kill you with an axiom.>
6. U.S. GEOGRAPHY v Asian history
U.S. territories Baker and Howland Islands are located southwest of: HAWAII <Howland Mad Murdoch would not have gotten lost flying in this direction.>
The team went 6 for 6 here, a much better result than last week.
Frightening Round
1. Veteran golfer, hole in one at 2011 British Open: Tom Watson. 2. The Genie Awards are the ___ equivalent of the Oscars: CANADIAN <Ouch! Blame Canada!> 3. Cadmium is chemically similar to: ZINC <the other choices were a classical gas.> 4. A large saltwater clam: GEODUCK. 5. “The Watsons” is an unfinished novel of this great author: JANE AUSTEN. 6. Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz wrote this show biz anthem: THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT <we were not amused with our wiff> 7. “La Vie en Rose” is the signature song of: EDITH PIAF.
Py-ram-it Round
P1. In which decade did physicists announce the discovery of Pentaquarks: 2000-2010
<BLZBUB, putting on his Dr. Science lab coat, called 5. Hey dude, PENTA…heh heh heh.>
P2. Which classic salesman character was created by Eugene O’Neill: THEODORE HICKMAN <Dang! Forced into a 2-way this early in Py-ram-it does not bode well.>
P3. ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is aka: LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE <Fortunately, we didn’t need the luckiest guess in the world.>
P4. The Praemium Imperiale honorees are honored by the ___ Royal Family: JAPANESE <RATS! A 5-way was the best we could muster.>
P5. “Catoptric” refers to anything related to these objects: MIRRORS <BLZBUB’s memory of optics is getting sketchy with age. He nearly bought into the suggestion that “optrics” was an illusion.>
OK call it 3 ½ out of 5 for this round. Not shabby, but well below our expected value.
Now we have to ace the FINAL TRAGEDY to score well for this game. Thankfully, the topic was NAMED AFTER.
Which thing is named after the Island of Cyprus?
COPPER <History dude, DUFF could precipitate the Cupric solution. And CHILL could talk about the field trip where he and Eurekates discovered it.>
The top six individual scores were 47307, 47140, 46917, 46299, 46044, and 45883. This grouping gave a team average of 46598. Given how wildly the final scores have ranged over the last 3 months, we expected we might have a top 20 finish, but not a top ten. The final rankings show us at 16th. The usual suspects were ahead of us again this week. Congratulations to all wetware teams.
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z
You Bastards