New Scaratings

Tink, tink, tink went the sound of the ratchet. The sound of the tightening rope rose from a muted whisper to that agonized squeak that rope makes when it approaches its snapping point. The groan of the wood as the stresses built up became as palpable as that of frightened cattle being lead to the slaughter. Everything was poised for the launch of that orange prolate spheroid that would signal the beginning of a new contest. The little-team-that-could waited in anticipation of another battle.

Worn-out Round

1. “11/23/63,” The date of the JFK assassination, is the title of a new book by: STEPHEN KING. 2. The three main categories of American domestic pigs are pork, bacon and: LARD. 3. Al-Shabaab rebels work out of: SOMALIA. 4. Ajowan, turmeric, and cardamom are species widely used in __ cuisine: INDIAN. 5. Which word is a synonym for hummock: KNOLL. 6. In which decade did marriage counseling become a reality in the U.S.: 1930’s. 7. Batik is a process that uses dye and __ to make designs on fabric: WAX. 8. The 1545 Council of Trent is regarded as the beginning of the: COUNTER-REFORMATION. 9. In the human body, one of the functions of the __ is energy storage: LIPIDS. 10. “The Merry Widow” and “Paganini” are __ by Franz Liszt: OPERETTAS.

The rope is jerked, and the trigger is released. The pumpkin is catapulted long and high through the clear blue New Mexico sky. The team’s heads swivel and their eyes strain to follow the flight of the pumpkin. A distant puff of dirt and the orange froth of an exploding pumpkin give proof to the success of the team in their preparations for battle.

Ground-down Round:

1. A riad is a traditional __ house or palace: MOROCCAN. 2. Australia’s quoll is a type of: MARSUPIAL. 3. Classical musician Helene Grimaud is one of Europe’s most unique: PIANISTS. 4. Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are located here: HUMAN BRAIN. 5. “Blue Nights” is this celebrated author’s book about her late daughter Quintana: JOAN DIDION. 6. Abdurrahim el-Keib is the new prime minister of: LIBYA. 7. 1961’s “Africa/Brass” is a classic jazz album by: JOHN COLTRANE. 8. Walter Heller’s concept of “Fine Tuning” belongs to this field: ECONOMICS. 9. Fontina, bel paese and caciocavallo are Italian: CHEESES. 10. The 1727 “St. Matthew Passion” is one of the masterpieces of: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. 11. In an ecological disaster, cane toads were imported into __ in the 1930’s: AUSTRALIA. 12. Protagoras is one of the most famous of those ancient Greek teachers known as: SOPHISTS.

We were deadly on target for Q’s 1, 3-5, 7 and 9-12, but had deficient shots on 2, 6, and 8. Fortunately we got second chances on these, and qualified on short throws. The sling needs to be adjusted for the next round, as another set of misfires would result in lost points in the battle. That would result in a:

Scatological Round:

1. BUSINESS CURRENTS v Latin music
James Bell, Pres. and CFO of __has announced that he will retire in 2012: BOEING. {I think that one went straight up and came down on our heads.}

2. book awards v GEOGRAPHY
The Tanami Desert is located here: AUSTRALIA {Damn it, we should have picked up on the trend established by the quoll and cane toad.}

3. CENTRAL AMERICA v palaces
Alvaro Colom is the Pres. Of this Central American nation: GUATEMALA {kersplat on another Cat.}

4. geography v BUSINESS CURRENTS
Bank of America is headquartered in this southern U. S. city: CHARLOTTE {Yea, high and far.}

5. Palaces v BOOK AWARDS
In 2006, The U.K.’s Whitbread Awards were renamed the __ Awards: COSTA. {Our pumpkin came apart before it could fly.}

6. Latin music v CENTRAL AMERICA
This country is divided into 7 provinces and 81 cantons: COSTA RICA. {It turned into pie before it could fly.}

ALTOGETHER, WE PIED FIVE OF THE SIX IN THIS ROUND…SHEIT! The extra strenuous effort we put into this round crushed our pumpkins before they could take flight and score for us. What a humiliating disappointment.

Frightening Round:

1. George Papandreou began this year as __ of Greece: PRIME MINISTER. 2. Sleep __ is a disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing: APNEA. 3. Tomas Tronstromer of __ won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011: SWEDEN. 4. Tim Cook is in the unenviable position of having to fill the shoes of: STEVE JOBS. 5. Which country is an isolated kingdom in the Himalayas: BHUTAN. 6. William Sydney Porter published short stories under the name: O. HENRY. 7. Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, is located here: RUSSIA.

Zounds. That was a stunning series of successful shots. We are hurling pumpkins for maximum distance now. The only real question at this point is whether we can keep that up through the:

Pumpkin Pie-ram-it Round:

P1. Which philosopher was a staunch exponent of stoicism: EPICTETUS {It took DUFF a while to crank the windlass, but he got the shot.}

P2. Born in England in 1890, Arthur Holmes ranked among the most important: GEOLOGISTS. {Misfire, but saved some points on the 5-way split.}

P3. Bechamel, the mother of all sauces in French cuisine, is also known as: WHITE SAUCE {Got it. You know they say the white pumpkins are denser and fly farther.}

P4. Tony Horowitz’s “Midnight Rising” is about this figure of American history: JOHN BROWN {We couldn’t decide between the white or orange pumpkin, and time ran out before we got the shot off.}

P5. Which term was coined by Charles Sanders Peirce: SEMEIOTICS. {We cranked off another masterful shot and racked up the bonus points.}

Three great shots and two miserable shots left us questing for the perfect pumpkin to catapult us into the Top 10 for the evening.

FINAL TRAJECTORY
Topic: CLASSICAL MUSIC

Born in 1567, this composer is known for his concerted madrigals:
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

{We lost some time sorting through the five final pumpkins for the most chunkable candidate. DUFF eliminated Eccles and Berlioz, and BLZBUB nixed Weber. MONTEVERDI was the best choice remaining, so we let it fly, to great success.}

Inch by inch, our best pumpkin chunks were 47756, 47306, 44272, 43712, 43413, and 43149. Our average distance was 44,934, which turned out to be good enough for NINTH Place for the night. The Fellowship finished first with an astonishing 57,578 points. Team Jilly’s just edged us for eighth with 45,175.

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

Did anyone take the first Book Award question? Given what happened to us on the Geography question, I'm thinking maybe we should have, too.

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

IIRC, the second Category Round Geography question asked which sea was next to Kamchatka; Bering Sea wa the answer.

-- RWM

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

The first Palace question was a gimme..they asked where Peter the Great built the Winter Palace.

Was the error on the date yours, BT's or Stephen King's?

I was unaware that Liszt did a version of The Merry Widow.
The only one I had ever heard of is Franz Lehar's. Is anyone out there familiar with this Liszt version?

It was Lehar for us, but maybe that was just the EDT version of the game.

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

Error on date was mine alone

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

I've been saying for weeks now that ever since they started announcing the categories in advance the questions have become much more difficult. I imagine the Coachs team might agree with me right now.