New Scaratings

As the team slowly assembled for the latest version of “beat your brain box”, BLZBUB noticed that we’d be a few short of a full deck of players. This got Old Scratch to pondering the types of “abridged sets” he’d been acquainted with over the years. The team had but 11 able-bodied citizens for the quest, and would be lucky to maintain 15 boxes in play. Surely, an abridged set.

Worn-up Round

1. Both the cravat and the fichu are: NECKWARE. 2. A non-supercell tornado over the ocean is called a: WATER SPOUT. 3. Lumbago is a term for ___ pain: LOWER BACK. 4. Which event took place in 64 A.D. during the reign of Nero: GREAT FIRE OF ROME. 5. What sort of creature is the storm petrel: BIRD. 6. Sweep and sculling are terms used in this sport: ROWING. 7. These tire spikes are used in war to stop the vehicular movements of the enemy: CALTROPS. 8. This medical term derives from the Greek word that means “to cut”: ANATOMY. 9. Nouri al-Maliki is the current prime minister of: IRAQ. 10. The annual Ojai classical music festival takes place here: CALIFORNIA.

Being of a mathematical bent, BLZBUB notes that subsets are generally an abridged set of the set from whence they came. For example, Abelian groups are an abridged set of the set of all possible groups. BLZBUB further notes that the set of all humans who give a shit about what he is talking about here is an abridged set of the set of all humans.

Ground-down Round

1. Which region of England borders Scotland: NORTHUMBERLAND. 2. The noiret ___ was developed in the United States circa 2006: GRAPE. 3. On July 4, 1939, this sports figure gave an unforgettable speech: LOU GEHRIG. 4. Uday and Qusay were the sons of: SADDAM HUSSEIN. 5. Which of these is classed as an ectoparasite: TICK. 6. Back in 2010, this comic strip icon was declared missing in Guatemala: LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE. 7. The Apostle Islands are located in: LAKE SUPERIOR. 8. The Libera Awards honor independent: MUSIC. 9. Much in the news, ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and: SYRIA. 10. 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of his “Understanding Media”: MARSHALL MCLUHAN. 11. The catalpa is a type of: TREE. 12. John Adams’ “The Death of ___” is a controversial modern American opera: KLINGHOFFER.

A further example of an abridged set is the set of all natural breasts on Angelina Jolie or Christina Applegate. OW, that may make you go all…

Scatology Round

S1. Current fiction v BARCELONA
Barcelona’s “Boulevard of 1000 Faces” is otherwise known as: LA RAMBLA {MEERA got this one for us.}

S2. ASTRONAUTS v The South Pacific
This astronaut was the first American to walk in space: ED WHITE. {DUFF beats BLZBUB into orbit with the right answer.}

S3. Food v BIRDS
Which type of bird is a harrier? RAPTOR. {JAX made the great bird call.}

S4. THE SOUTH PACIFIC v current fiction
Bislama is one of the official languages of this nation between Fiji and Australia: VANUATU. {KURGAN put us on this tropical paradise.}

S5. Birds v ASTRONAUTS
What astronaut made an emergency landing in the Pacific aboard Gemini 8 in 1966? NEIL ARMSTRONG. {Good old DUFF splashed down first on this one.}

S6. Barcelona v FOOD
This kind of cooking oil is produced from the seeds of the rape plant: CANOLA. {JAX lubricated our way to success.}

BLZBUB believes one should consider all terrorists an abridged set of the set of rational humans. Contemplating this too seriously could lead one to a…

Frightening Round

1. On screen, he played Hud, Hombre, Harper and the Hustler: PAUL NEWMAN. 2. Charles Lewis’ “___ Lies” exposes corporate and government deception: 935. 3. Bhutan is a country in: SOUTH ASIA. 4. Endeavour Morse, a literary character created by Colin Dexter, is a: POLICE DETECTIVE. 5. In the scientific formula for Ohm’s Law, V = IR, the “I” stands for: ELECTRIC CURRENT. 6. Saxophonist ___ fronted the all-stars in Motown’s premier instrumental group: JUNIOR WALKER. 7. Which classic English novel was written by Thomas Hardy: THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE.

The set of all baseball players who still chew tobacco is an abridged set of the set of those who care about living life well. The set of all pitchers who use the spitball is an abridged set of all those who care about ethics. The Hall of Fame should set about showing them a…

Py-ram-it Round

P1. Which fruit is named after an African city:
TANGERINE. {RAOUL pre-called this answer.}

P2. The angles of circles may be measured in degrees, grads or: RADIANS. {BLZBUB played the angles correctly.}

P3. Which mythic island is found in Slavic mythology:
BUYAN. {CHILL saved us froma three hour cruise gone bad.}

P4. Magnesium sulfate is made of magnesium, sulfur and:
OXYGEN. {JAX was the quickest to react with the right element.}
P5. Worn by the Pope, “The Ring of the Fisherman” bears the likeness of this apostle: PETER. {DUFF gave this answer his benediction.}

And finally, following his orchiectomy, BLZBUB has an abridged set of testicles. Never mind, he was never going to use them for anything productive anyway. That is in contrast to his brain on the…

FINAL TRAGEDY, on the Topic of: LIBRARIES

The Bodleian is the main research facility of ___ University:

1. Stanford
2. Oxford
3. Yale
4. Cambridge
5. Princeton

The order of the eliminations was 1, 4, 3 and 5, leaving #2, OXFORD, as the correct answer. During the thirty seconds allowed to enter the final wager, this famous library, as well as others, was mentioned, so the team was primed to go for the answer quickly. Most of the top scoring boxes got the full 50% bet on this question.

It appears that the set of points the team scored is an abridged, although larger than normal, set of the total points available for this game.

The top six scores were 59455, 59227, 57912, 57201, 56922 and 56904. Those scores combined to generate a team average of 57,936 points. That was good enough for SECOND place in the Mt/Pac Zone of play, a scant 39 points behind Halftime Sports of Gig Harbor, WA. It was also EIGHTH place for the whole system of teams across the USA and Canada.

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

The Ragged Rascals are particularly interested in this week's altergory questions. There was a lot of debate over which topics to honor this week.

Thanks in advance to our contributors.

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

I recall that the second Barcelona question was about the architect who designed a certain playground in the city. We pounced, because we knew Gaudi had to be the answe to one of the two Barcelona questions, and this was it.

First South Pacific was:

This drink common throughout the area has sedative and anaesthetic properties.

I confess I had no clue about the properties but kava is the only relevant regional drink I had heard of so no problem there.

Second birds was:

The Redbird or .................... Cardinal is native to the Eastern US and Southeastern Canada.

Not too tricky even though I'm no ornithologist, and the mention of Canada is likely to push most folks to the correct answer of Northern

And yes as xtrain already mentioned, the second Barcelona question asked to which architect is the city's Parc Guell dedicated (it was intended to be a sort of luxury private community that fizzled and became a public park; Gaudi built a house there, but to my knowledge never lived in it)

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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.

the first food question asked: "chutney" refers to a family of _________ in south asian cuisne. condiments