New Scaratings

Whew! Is everyone still in shock from last night's Showdown? Judging from the scores, it must be one of the most difficult in recent memory - only 3 sites over 54000, eight over 50000, 28 over 40000, and 54 over 30000. Congratulations to Home Turf and Stringz & Wingz for amazing 60000+ scores on this game and to Sigis and the Ross Bay Pub for the top Canadian score.

It would be interesting to know how many missed the final question vs how many, like us, crashed on the Pyramid round. As I have visited Juneau, and often seen their claim to be the largest city in the USA, we had no trouble with the final. Like last week, though, for us there was only one fairly easy Pyramid question (the oldest sharks one), and we were guessing all the way on the others, although they seemed like things we should have known. With only 6 Playmakers that worked (and three players), splitting didn't help much either. You have to admit that it is hard for a Canadian to remember whether it was Polk or Buchanan in your 1844 election - we were going back and forth debating that, and all ended up on the wrong one. Oh well, maybe next week!

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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.

Last Wednesday in six they had a matching question about juneau's size. They had Chicago and a few others, Juneau was considerably larger in area. So buzztime is going to be in the habit of repeating premium game questions?

One more thing, you really want to congratulate a bar for a good score, that looks up answers on the computer (Home Turf)?

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Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

I recall the cities in last week's Six Matching as being San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, and Anchorage.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

The only Pyramid I had touble with was the shark question. The crappy thing is that we had Shark Week on TV here all last week, but with no sound. What do you bet they said, "Sharks have been swimming our oceans for 400 million years," at least a half dozen times?

Despite the SIX question last week, I switched off of Alaska mid-question, then back again. I'm a dumbass.

You are probably correct, but it basically points to the correct answer if anyone could remember. Unless, of course last night had Anchorage and Juneau..

I swear I have lost my memory since the start of us being pregnant..

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Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

Shark question in Pyramid got us at Coaches. My fault for getting people off a five-way split. 200 million just *seemed* so right! Sigh.

We tanked the last question, the Pyramid round, the lightning round, and the other rounds. This may be our lowest scoring Showdown game ever.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

According to Don's NTN site it was the toughest game of the year so far, but only 10th on the all-time list.

We got kidney-punched in every round apart from Category before the final left hook left us on the floor. We went with Texas on the final question, and not simply out of jingoistic pride - anyone who has driven into San Antonio might sympathize (when you pass the city limit sign there is nothing but open fields as far as the eye can see).

In Pyramid it was the book by the guy we had never heard of and the Carlist wars which got us. Not that it matters, in retrospect....

Only bright note: COOGS' weaselly 20% bets on final enhanced our score such that we scraped in at #100, just preserving our streak for the year to date.

At Adams Mill it was a tough game. It didn't help that our best player was ill, and I certainly wish Al a speedy recovery.

The Warmup Round was tough; the Countdown started out as a brutal round. We somehow did okay on the Category and Lightning rounds, and most of us got three questions on the Pyramid Round (missing the Carlist Wars and the sharks questions.) We then aced the last question to finish 25th overall.

I was able to precall Lord's Cricket Ground in the Lightning Round, and also precalled the final question.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Home Turf's 60k+ score WOULD be amazing, if they weren't a Borg bar. They use computers whenever one of those Traveling Trophy tournaments is going on (such as this month).

Still, they did their thing well... McGillacuddy's, the other Borg team (full-time, Traveling Trophy or not) in Oregon, finished 137th, far behind the Old Barn's honest-and-for-true 7th, the top REAL score in Oregon...

I don't know the full rundown on which places are known to inject their answers with electronic steroids... Is there a list anywhere, at least somewhat current? If anyone wants to answer this, you can do it in a PM to me if you don't want
a flame war to start up or something


Pat

p.s. We got the sharks one because one of our players happened to hear this same question on a local radio show earlier that same day Nope, wasn't me...

Showdown Recap for Coaches 9 Aug 11

The stakes couldn’t be higher for the little-team-that-could at Coaches Sports in Albuquerque. Will our investment in time spent on trivia lead to a profitable evening, or a horrific crash? The traders at Buzztime have been roiling the markets lately with red herrings designed to trip up the Traveling Trophy teams. A quick margin call awaits the unwary in the Worn-out Round.

1. Mythical figure, huntsman & son of Poseidon: ORION. 2. Darren Clarke won the 2011: BRITISH OPEN <It must truly be open if they let a Northern Irishman play.> 3. The NYC dance & performance award: BESSIES. 4. In Education, the “T” in the acronym STEM: TECHNOLOGY. 5. The prime ___ runs thru Greenwich, England: MERIDIAN. 6. Upon emerging from bankruptcy, __ magazine is for sale: READERS DIGEST. 7. The late Jerry Ragovy wrote songs made famous by: JANIS JOPLIN. <The team’s flub here took a little piece of our heart.> 8.The Klipspringer & Orisi are African: ANTELOPE. 9. An antitussive drug often abused by teens: DEXTRO METHORPHAN. 10. The metro police of London are more often called: SCOTLAND YARD.

Even novice investors had little trouble warming up to the game, but the Ground-down Round looms on the tickers.

1. His sudden 1973 death has been confirmed as a suicide: SALVADOR ALLENDE. <GACK, and we didn’t feel too well after this one, either.> 2. A prefecture is an administrative: SUBDIVISION. 3. African-American musician Jimmie Lunsford was: A SWING BANDLEADER <He played a tune on our scores, too.> 4. The Asian Tiger is an invasive species of: MOSQUITO <DAMN Buzzies, bitten again.> 5. Which country’s President just survived an assassination: GUINEA <But we took a bullet for him.> 6.Sanchuniathon is a quasi-legendary ___ historian of yore: PHOENICIAN <Split answers all over the map.> 7. A haboob is a severe: SANDSTORM <From Phoenician to Phoenix in one jump.> 8. An adult w/ body mass index of 15 is: SERIOUSLY UNDERWEIGHT. 9. “Look Homeward Angel” is a famous American Novel by: THOMAS WOLFE. 10. Babur was a conqueror who founded an empire in: INDIA. 11. Crime victim’s story is “A Stolen Life” JAYCEE DUGARD. 12. Lares were guardian deities in the belief sytem of: ANCIENT ROME.

Whoa, a capital loss and a loss of interest for seeing that round again. Some of our biggest accounts got ravaged in that round. Scatology ensued…which is only fitting, since the Scatological Round is next.

1. Murdoch empire v COUNTRY MUSIC
Which country music legend was born in Canada: HANK SNOW <snow…Great White North…yeah, makes sense.>

2. Invasive birds v BIG BUSINESS
The second-quarter profits for ___almost doubled: APPLE <We found some good returns on this one, too.>

3. FOOD FACTS v fine art
“Entrecote” is a term that applies to a: CUT OF MEAT <In spite of having a resident chef on the team, this one cut deep.>

4. BIG BUSINESS v Murdoch empire <like that’s not redundant>
Which bank just posted a big loss, due to bad Mortgage loans: BANK OF AMERICA <the team score profited from their misfortune.>

5. Fine Art v INVASIVE BIRDS
The Rock Dove is the name of this detested bird, invasive in No. America: PIGEON <Nothing to squawk about here.>

6. Country music v FOOD FACTS
Red Split, Spanish Pardina, and Puy are types of this humble and ancient food: LENTILS <The bulls and the bears fought ferociously to get their choice of question. In the end, the chef prevailed, and didn’t squander our resources.>

After taking a drubbing in the early trading, we are rebounding nicely in the mid-game action. But can our nest egg be safeguarded in the Frightening Round?

1. Dent, flint and sweet are three types of: MAIZE. 2. Belgian artist Herge created comics about: TINTIN. 3. Abel Magwitch is the source of ___ in a Charles Dickens novel: GREAT EXPECTATIONS. 4 It refers to your area of expertise: WHEELHOUSE. 5. Horticulture is the art or science of: CULTIVATING PLANTS. 6. Lord’s is a celebrated ___ in St. John’s Wood, London: CRICKET VENUE. 7. “De gustibus non est disputandum” means there is no arguing about: TASTE

Our investments took a hit on questions 3 and 6, because we mostly misinterpreted what the questions meant.
Now comes the time to try to pyramid our gains by clever use of the futures market.

Py-ram-it Round
P1. “Ecological Imperialism” and “The __ Exchange” are influential works by Alfred Crosby:
COLUMBIAN <That danged Columbus…screwing up the new world…they oughta rename the capital of Ohio to NATIVE RAPE>

P2. The Costaguana Republic is an invented country in his novel, “Nostromo”:
JOSEPH CONRAD <Maybe they can rename Colombia, too.>

P3. Historians say this 1844 Presidential candidate was the first “dark horse” candidate:
JAMES K. POLK <The year given eliminated all other candidates for this answer.>

P4. The earliest sharks date form approx. ___ Million years ago:
400 <Hey, what’s that biting my ass? Why it’s the Shark Week special programming I ignored last week.>

P5. The Carlist wars of the 19th Century were fought by factions of:
SPANIARDS <We quickly narrowed this down to a two-way split. Yay. One of the two actually turned out to be the right answer. YAY>

We racked up huge gains for this round. Unfortunately, dealing with the loan shark cost us major dividends. We hope to hedge our portfolio by buying on 50% margin for the FINAL TRAGEDY. The topic for the weekly earnings report is: U.S. CITIES

The four largest U.S. cities by area are all located in this state:

ALASKA <Yahoooo…there’s gold in them thar hills. We picked a tidy profit right out of the ground that the BUZZARDS had salted with nuggets.>

The team’s top six scores were 46924, 46069, 45832, 45469, 43474, and 43343. The yield on this play was 45220 points for the team average. Once the final figures had been toted up, the Crotches Crewe had finished in 15th place. We saw many of our friends and frienemies on the scoreboard. Chalk up another win to the Fellowship in Ohio. Congrats to all wetware teams.

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}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!

I know people have different specialties. Hell I've never heard of a bunch of movies of which everybody else seems to know the entire cast and crew judging by scores. But really - a whole team who didn't know Conrad? I mean not knowing Nostromo is one thing but...hey it's the guy who wrote the novella on which "Apocalypse Now" was based......

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

I assumed they meant the other book question, about the _____ Exchange (COLUMBIAN) written by some guy I'd never heard of either (we missed it, obviously. I didn't pick up on the "Imperialism" in the other title mentioned that was a fair clue to Columbian). I agree that Conrad was easy.

PS - Nostromo is also the name of the ship in Alien!

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BUBBA
Blue Goose Sports Cafe

BUBBA is correct. It was that guy. We were all over Conrad - I've been waiting for years to see Costaguana come up as a big money question in Jeopardy! or WWTBAM so for us it was a gimme.

I can add 3 below. --Rick Magnus

[quote="BLZBUB"]Showdown Recap for Coaches 9 Aug 11



1. Murdoch empire v COUNTRY MUSIC
Which country music legend was born in Canada: HANK SNOW <snow…Great White North…yeah, makes sense.>

MURDOCH EMPIRE vs. country music: In 2007, Murdoch purchased THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

2. Invasive birds v BIG BUSINESS
The second-quarter profits for ___almost doubled: APPLE <We found some good returns on this one, too.>

3. FOOD FACTS v fine art
“Entrecote” is a term that applies to a: CUT OF MEAT <In spite of having a resident chef on the team, this one cut deep.>

4. BIG BUSINESS v Murdoch empire <like that’s not redundant>
Which bank just posted a big loss, due to bad Mortgage loans: BANK OF AMERICA <the team score profited from their misfortune.>

big business vs. MURDOCH EMPIRE: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX is owned by Murdoch's News Corporation.


5. Fine Art v INVASIVE BIRDS
The Rock Dove is the name of this detested bird, invasive in No. America: PIGEON <Nothing to squawk about here.>

FINE ART vs. invasive birds: A chryselephantine statue is made of IVORY AND GOLD.

6. Country music v FOOD FACTS
Red Split, Spanish Pardina, and Puy are types of this humble and ancient food: LENTILS <The bulls and the bears fought ferociously to get their choice of question. In the end, the chef prevailed, and didn’t squander our resources.>

Sharks did us in at Teaser's, only one of us got it. Otherwise, it was a wonderful night there. I'd like to thank CLIPPER and the rest of the gang at Teaser's for being such gracious hosts as my family and I invaded on Tuesday. It was a real pleasure to meet and play with you all.

Congrats to the rest of my team in Ohio for snagging the top legitimate score. Obviously they did not miss me much

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