New Scaratings

Due to a grevious screw-up of the video recording, the reacp for last Tuesday's game went kablooie. So I am going to paste up a purloined recap from the team at Grevey's in Falls Church, VA...mea culpa.

Mr. Grevey came over to chat as we were warming up and was as polite and gentlemanly as he was on the basketball court back in the day. We were a different story, and once we chased him off, we attempted to do the same to our opponents, who, being in various bars scattered across the continent, were pretty far away to start with. We doubt they were aware of our efforts.

The final category was Wonders of the Ancient World, which we took to be in honor of the hosts’ visit earlier, and Steve called out MAUSOLUS as buried in the eponymous tomb at Helicarnassus long before the choices were put before us. Chuck took individual honors and left quickly with them. The team netted close to 50,000 points, good for 9th in the….

9th. That’s awfully good. I’m impressed. Steve correctly predicted this, too. Five of our six scores were in the top 100.

Chuck’s victory prevented Sarah from getting the coveted Triple Crown Hat Trick Trifecta that we claim to award in cases such as she failed to accomplish. It’s just as well. We were a little to pooped for pomp and circumstance.

Once we got the Pyamid Round dance correct, we sailed through it, missing but one question out of 5 questions * 6 contestants = 30 answers in the Pyramid matrix. Alan Burnett wrote ‘The History of Boys’ fortunately before the Penn State scandal; the HOUSE OF BURGESSES was the first ever English assembly of elected representatives in the New World, and it’s been downhill ever since; Robert Goddard and Konstatin Tsiolkovsky were pioneers in SPACE TRAVEL but not colonization (someone tell Newt); Pina Bausch contributed controversy to MODERN DANCE by introducing obstacles; and righty writer ROBERT NISBET penned ‘Prejudices’ and ‘Quest for Community’.

The Lightning Round, which was not so fast as to beat Bob getting back to the table. The Paul Butterfield Overland Blues and Mail Trail starts in St. Louis and ends in SAN FRANCISCO which doesn’t due you much good if you want to send a note the other way; Sara Paretsky deemed V I WARSHAWSKY important enough to write about; Portia Simpson Miller is the first ever female Prime Minister of JAMAICA (no, she wanted to do it); the WILLIS Tower nee Sears Tower, and it’s for sale so you can put your name on it next; VOLARE is the only foreign song to win a Grammy, take that, ABBA; MACEDONIA is north of Greece in the way that the back seat is behind your car unless we’re talking about what the U.N. refers to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; and the Grand Guignol staged HORROR plays, naturally.

In the Category Round, we went with Medicine and Deaths twice each and we implore you not to read anything into this, and City Books and Festivals once each. The INCAS celebrated Inti Raymi just as Chet Raymo celebrated the Prime Meridian; schleroderma causes thick SKIN so it’s popular among politicians; Clarence Clemons was in the E STREET BAND and the Red Bank Rockers; regional enteritis is CROHN’S DISEASE in some areas; Severiano Ballesteros was a GOLFER and also Spanish (there is no truth to the rumor he was run over in the parking lot while playing a shot; see paragraph 15); and LEWIS MUMFORD wrote ‘The City in History’ before Chrisie Hynde wrote ‘My City is Gone’, which must have been some sort of musical tribute to it.

In the Early Rounds, which get the worm, Jeff Bezos founded AMAZON.COM to serve as a reference site about books; Superman is the man of KEVLAR; Bessarabia was EASTERN EUROPE and Bessamerica was Miss Myerson; Don Van Vliet was CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, man and myth; methane hydrates, shale, and cows are unconventional sources of NATURAL GAS; Barbara Cook renditions BROADWAY SHOW TUNES persistently; a male DONKEY is a jack and a female one is not a jill; a furbelow is on a WOMAN’S GARMENT, but don’t stare at it; a linnet is a SONGBIRD that knows the words; ”M” is not “100” but “C” is; the St. Vitus Cathedral is where they dance in PRAGUE; dysarthria is a SPEECH disorder, so opt for dat one; Voyager 2 was first to see NEPTUNE, but others had seen Uranus; Sir Thomas Malory compiled ROUND TABLE stories but hasn’t interviewed us yet; Guarani is spoken by indigenous SOUTH AMERICANS, I think they said it was just a pair of guys in the follow-up; Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted a big MEDUSA head, why not; WOODY GUTHRIE was the Oklahoma Cowboy before relocating to Dallas; TOGO is east of Ghana but doesn’t deliver there; pyrrhonism is a form of SKEPTICISM, or so they claim; ancho, Anaheim, and Serrano are CHILI PEPPERS that were not admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the Battle of Towton was in the WARS OF THE ROSES near the village of The Same Name (who called it that); and kafir designates an UNBELIEVER. This ast one threw us into a tizzy, as the third clue (the one pointing to the correct answer) said “true believer”, so some switched from “unbeliever” to “loyal adherent”. This, of course, set us off our feed until the Sudden Death in Overtime arrived with nine spoons. And we say “nine” just to remind you.

Out in the hinterlands of this great country, the little-team-that-could finished in 12th place. Our crosstown rivals at Smegtasters finished in 38th place.

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Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!