Man down! Man Down! We assembled to play BUZZTIME without one of the team’s anchors. DUFF ignored my entreaties not to let his personal life interfere with trivia and went to Ohio to visit his family for the holidays. In his absence, our chef TWIST also opted out of playing. We are missing a valuable pair of brains for our effort tonight. The only upside to holiday visits is at the HEBEGB table. Normally that table has seven people playing only two or three boxes. With holiday visitors that table has swollen to twelve. I hope some of the newbies know their history and music.
I am going to go through the game and give credit to whoever answered the question first, or failing that, loudest. We will see how the team performs without the DUFF man.
Worn-down Round
1. Economist Mario Monti replaced this European last month: SILVIO BERLESCONI (PANCHO or SCOOTR). 2. Snowcapped peaks, hot springs and glaciers can be found in this British Columbia park: KOOTENAY (HOTAIR, our Canuck). 3. The late Evelyn Lauder was closely associated with the fight against this disease: BREAST CANCER (Jason or Tom @ HEBEGB table). 4. Daniel Dafoe’s book about Capt. Avery is titled “The King of __”: PIRATES (CHILL). 5. The chuckwalla is a/an: LIZARD (JAX). 6. In his writings, he tells the story of Pocahontas saving his life: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH (CHILL). 7. The billiard ball model of the __ was formulated by John Dalton: ATOM (SCOOTR). 8. On which TV news magazine did Andy Rooney contribute, starting in 1978: 60 MINUTES (chorus). 9. Which word, borrowed for the French, means shady and disreputable? LOUCHE (SCOOTR). 10. Pugs are classified as __ dogs: TOY (BLZBUB & JAX).
No need to look for missing men (Jimmy Hoffa?) on that round, as we nailed all but the KOOTENAY question. Chuck the Canuck called it, but not loudly enough for our moderator, CHILL, to pull the team off the 2-way split and onto the one correct answer.
Ground-down Round
1. The Comoros are located between ___ and ___: EAST AFRICA: MADAGASGAR (CROEM). 2. Roger Casement was a/an __ patriot who was executed for treason in 1916: IRISH (CHILL). 3. Josef Breuer was an early collaborator of this influential man: SIGMUND FREUD (SCOOTER on a “go to Freud if you get knocked off your 5-way split call). 4. Gastropods and ____ are classes of mollusks: BIVALVES (BLZBUB). 5. The modern Southern border of __ was established during the reign of King Alfonso III: PORTUGAL (CHILL). 6. Aleister Crowley is England’s most famous: OCCULTIST (CROEM). 7. Basmati, meaning “the fragrant one” in Hindi, is applied to a valued variety of: RICE (CROEM, SCOOTR, & JAX). 8. Thomas Cromwell was a statesman who served as the chief minister of: HENRY VIII. (Jennifer @ HEBEGB table). 9. This Christian group, known for its nonviolence, originated in Switzerland: MENNONITES (Jennifer again). 10. Accreta, previa and abruption are three pathologies that may affect the: PLACENTA (Jason @HEBEGB). 11. Mimi and Musetta are the two female leads in this opera: LA BOHEME (someone, from HEBEGB table). 12. Commonly known as purple coneflowers, some species are marketed as: ECHINACIA (JAX).
The only thing missing in the Ground-down round was uncertainty. Sure we had a 5-way split on Q3, but we located the right answers all the rest of the way. Hell, we even think we found Judge Crater…
the missingest man of all.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9006026/ns/ ... rater-you/Scatological Round
1. VOCABULARY v sporting legends
Eudemonia, a term often used by academics, refers to this general concept: HAPPINESS (Dang, starting this round on a 2-way split, neither of which was correct, doesn’t bode well for the round. I guess none of us qualify as academics.)
2. U.S. artists v NEW BOOKS
“The Angel Esmerelda” is a new collection of stories by this acclaimed author: DON DELILLO ( Ack, a 5-way held until the third clue.)
3. MEDICINE v U.S. history
COPD is the co-occurrence of chronic bronchitis and __: EMPHYSEMA (Dr. Jason and SCOOTR)
4. new books v VOCABULARY
A lyceum is a: PUBLIC MEETING PLACE (Greek chorus of answers.)
5. U.S. HISTORY v U.S. artists
The era from the 1870’s to 1900 is known in the U.S. as the: GILDED AGE (SCOOTR with the pre-call, confirmed by CHILL)
6. sports legends v MEDICINE
Caput Succedaneum is swelling in the __ of a newborn: SCALP (Jason again).
Frightening Round
1. The MLS cup is a championship __ match: SOCCER (SCCOOTR and others). 2. Robert Mapplethorpe caused controversy with his erotically explicit: PHOTOGRAPHS (CHILL). 3. The Islamist Ennahda Party is gaining power in this country: TUNISA (Tom @ HEBEGB). 4. Which wine is celebrating its 60 year anniversary in 2011? BEAUJOULAIS NOUVEAU (Pulling the team off a 5-way, BLZBUB crashes the score with a bad call.) 5. Authorities are reinvestigating the 1981 death of this movie star: NATALIE WOOD (chorus). 6. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor and __are female U.S. Supreme Court justices: ELENA KAGEN (HEBEGB table). 7. Mulligatawny is an Indian: SOUP (JAX and Jennifer).
After that misfire on Q4, I guess BLZBUB can forget about the Air Force giving him his “Missing Man” formation at his burial. Perhaps he can locate his missing neurons on the next round.
Py-ram-it Round
P1. The Uyghur people live mostly in: CHINA (Tom @ HEBEGB table, keying on a BLZBUB call of Central Asia)
P2. In physics, “string theory” attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and: GENERAL RELATIVITY (SCOOTR, with a pre-call.)
P3. David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd” brought this social concept to general consciousness: ANOMIE (A crappy 5-way split is the best we could do. Although BLZBUB eliminated Game Theory, nobody could scratch repression, Pop culture, or reverse racism off the list with certainty.)
P4. “Hondo,” “The Burning Hills” and “Flint” are books by this Western writer: LOUIS L’AMOUR (chorus)
P5. Valhalla, located on a moon of __, is the largest impact crater in the Solar System: JUPITER (SCOOTR, with a great call on a toughie.)
FINAL TRAGEDY on the Topic: EUROPEAN RULERS
Since 1278, the Bishop of Urgell and the ___ Head of State have been co- rulers of Andorra.
FRENCH (CHILL quickly narrowed it down to a 2-way on France or Spain. Most of the team was on France.)
We went into the Final Tragedy with four boxes on 5 of 5 from Py-ram-it. From the vagaries of split tactics, only one of those four was on French for the Final Q. The rest of the team with 4 of 5 from pyramid made up the rest of our top six scores.
These were 59286, 52810, 52131, 50698, 50568 and 50454. The team average was thus 52,657. We felt pretty good about our performance, given that DUFF was not in attendance this night. This feeling was ratified by our placing SEVENTH for the night. The scores in the top 50 dropped rapidly after the top 10 teams. They fell all the way down to 37082 for 50th place.
We are pretty sure that many of the teams were scrambling for players as regulars were out of town for the upcoming holidays. That may have impacted the rankings and the team scores around the two nations. We send kudos to all that brought in their friends visiting from out of town.
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