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Showdown Recap for 1 Nov 2016 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
The team that assembled for tonight’s game was an amalgamation of our very best. There were 13 people manning 23 boxes for this evening.
Having survived in the first knockout round of the Sandbagger Tourney, the team moved into the Quarter Finals with hopes of another great game. But this one was to be more of a horror show than we expected. There was uncertainty and also communications difficulties at unexpected times. The horror was deferred during the…
Worn-up Round
1. In the days of the Old West, a sourdough was a: PROSPECTOR.
2. A stevedore named Crown and a cotton picker named Jim are characters in: PORGY AND BESS.
3. What happened in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945? GERMANY SURRENDERS.
4. In which sport is Ichiro Suzuki a superstar? BASEBALL.
5. The nib is part of this old-fashioned object: FOUNTAIN PEN.
6. ‘Because They’re Young’ and ‘Rebel Rouser’ are classics by this 1950’s guitarist: DUANE EDDY.
7. A person who is easily fooled would best be described as: GULLIBLE
8. U.S. Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were: DISTANT COUSINS.
9. This popular series of novels is set in the town of Forks, Washington: TWILIGHT.
10. In war, it’s a barricade of felled trees laid in a row: ABATIS.
The team got 9 of 10 correct. We had a 2-way split on WU 9 as none of us are big trash lit fans, but could eliminate all but Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray.
The horror of cheesy/scary Halloween movies apparently spilled over into this day’s game. The specter of Mr. Low Talker haunted the team. BLZBUB is sure that every team has to deal with this ghostly team member. They’re the one that vocalizes a good answer so softly that even the people sitting next to them don’t hear a call that was made soto voce. Then the team has to deal with, “But I said…”
Ground-down Round
1. In some states of Germany, yesterday was celebrated as: REFORMATION DAY.
2. Scientists say the Greenland ___ is the longest-lived vertebrate: SHARK.
3. To be a U.S. Senator, a person must be a U.S. citizen for at least ___ tears: NINE. {People’s shouts of ‘30’ were soon quelled by the reality they were answering the question not as it was written. “RFQ,” said Tom.}
4. Which film director coined the term ‘paparazzi’ for annoying celebrity photographers: FEDERICO FELLINI.
5. Signed in 1994, the Restitution of Land Rights Act is a key moment in ___ history: SOUTH AFRICAN.
6. In Richard Wagner’s famed opera cycle, the Chief of the Nibelungs is: ALBERICH, and not Siegfried. {The whole team got hammered here.}
7. Canada’s Nadine Thien is an award-winning: NOVELIST. {Splitsville, until the third clue.}
8. To visit Huascaran National Park, you’ll need to book passage to: PERU.
9. ‘Big Blonde’ and ‘Horsie’ are stories by this witty writer born in 1893: DOROTHY PARKER.
10. Where is Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee complex? KENYA. {Saved by the third clue, giving us refuge from Syria.}
11. A threnody is a song of: MOURNING.
12. Subclavian, axillary, and popliteal are ___ of the human body: ARTERIES.
The team rang up perfects on eight of the twelve in this round. The exceptions were noted above.
The Countdown Round is where the team is most often terrorized by the Pumpkinhead Confident Guy. This is the player who calls out an answer with what you are fooled into believing is complete confidence. Then a few seconds later, after Pumpkinhead has had a chance to overlook the entire list of choices, you hear, “Well maybe it’s Number…” It is only then that the team realizes the score for that question has been horribly chain-sawed to death.
Scatology Round
S1. Popular Fiction v GREEK MYTHOLOGY
In Greek myth, Troilus, Cassandra, and Polydorus are all the children of this man: PRIAM. {DUFF got it first.}
S2. BASEBALL 2016 v Who Makes What
The Major League leader in home runs in 2016 was Mark Trumbo of the: BALTIMORE ORIOLES. {WALACE hit this one out of the park.}
S3. 1863 v Cities of the World
In an elaborate ceremony in New York in 1863, Lavinia Warren was married to: TOM THUMB. {DUFF, straight and short to the point.}
S4. WHO MAKES WHAT v Popular Fiction (which we aren’t going to touch because of the ‘Twilight’ query earlier tonight.)
It lays claim to being the world’s largest seed company: MONSANTO. {SCOOTR}
S5. Cities of the World v BASEBALL 2016
In which category did Kyle Hendricks lead the Major Leagues in 2016? EARNED RUN AVERAGE. {A call for a 2-way split with K’s ensued.}
S6. Greek Mythology v 1863
The January Uprising of 1863 pitted ___ versus ___. POLES – RUSSIANS. {We were expecting a U.S. Civil War question here, resulting in a 5-way split.}
Although a bit disappointing, getting 4 of the 6 was going to have to serve as acceptable for this round.
Another very frightening Halloween Trivia character is Mr. Bull Rush. This monster attacks each question as though your house was on fire, and that a warning call needs to be made before you even know if the fire can be contained with a calm response. This character will most likely call an answer to any question where they think they have some special knowledge. A question such as, “Which car is made in Japan,” will draw an immediate, loudly proclaimed answer before the five choices appear, even though there are multiple possible correct answers. Now the team has to ‘unthink’ this call and find the true answer. This is especially dangerous during the…
Frightening Round
1. You’re in ‘fine fettle,’ means that you’re: FEELING GOOD.
2. The late Curtis Hanson directed such films as ‘Wonder Boys,’ ‘8 Mile’ and: L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. {This supposedly easy Frightener nearly ate the entire clock before we got it.}
3. Harissa is a chili paste widely used in ___ cuisine: NORTH AFRICAN.
4. In the Bible, Noah is the grandson of: METHUSALEH.
5. This crooner had a hit in 2004 with ‘Each Day Gets Better’: JOHN LEGEND.
6. The state of Wyoming is home to the ___ mountain range: WIND RIVER.
7. Her middle name is Millicent and her surname is Roberts. What is her first name? BARBIE.
This round saw seven questions put to rest by the little-team-that-could. Practically all were answered by a different person. That was good work by the team.
Then there is Mr. Vacuum Filler. You all know that there will be questions for which no one on the team will have a ready answer. The silence upon seeing one of those questions on the board will prompt Mr. Vacuum Filler to blurt out a call that is usually nothing more than a tenuous guess. Rather than remaining silent, this blow-hard will influence the team into puffing up the incorrect answer. It takes real courage for someone else on the team to yell, “NO!” and put a cork in that bottle. This is crucial during the…
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. Born Samuel Wilder in Austria-Hungary in 1906, he went on to become a famous: HOLLYWOOD MOVIE DIRECTOR. {DUFF was the first to link ‘Wilder’ to “Billy Wilder.}
P2. The marmot is a member of the ___ family.
SQUIRREL. {BLZBUB saved our nuts on this one.}
P3. Maxwell’s Demon is a thought experiment in this scientific discipline:
PHYSICS. {DUFF and BLZBUB went all gedanken experiment on this one. They conjured up the correct demon.}
P4. Which oddly named fellow is a literary character created by Upton Sinclair?
JURGIS RUDKUS. {We settled on a 2-way split between Rudkus and Helton Caranza (?), thanks to DUFF.}
P5. This rare mineral of the garnet group was discovered in 1832:
UVAROVITE. {This mineral hardened into a dismal failure. Only two boxes got it.}
This was by some measures a very tough round for the team. By the end, the team was lucky to have preserved an ‘average’ result; we got 3 correct, one 2-way and one (sort of) 5-way split.
The last blood-sucking ghoul that the team may face is The Timorous. This mouse-like creature is actually a point-sucking vampire that dooms your team to a sub-par result. This beastie usually attacks the team during a question with a countdown clock. It delays the team from making a definitive call, or results in a split decision on an answer. At this point the team is reduced to counting on the clues to eliminate faulty choices, as their points bleed away. This is specifically hurtful during the…
FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: POLYNESIAN ISLANDS
The Polynesian Island of Tonga is a:
1. Kingdom
2. Theocracy
3. Dictatorship
4. Plutocracy
5. Republic
The order of the eliminations was 3, 5, 4, and 2, leaving #1, KINGDOM, as the correct answer. Several people were early to suggest this answer. It took a few moments for someone to speak up loudly enough for the whole team to benefit from this knowledge. In that time about 5 to 10% of their points bled away. The result was still very high scores for the round.
The top individual scores for the night were 56439, 54535, 50693, 50214, 49564, and 49003 points.
The team average score was 51,741 points.
The team’s ranking was TENTH Place. As our Sandbag Tournament match-up tonight we played the Mad River in NYC, NY. They finished 34TH with 43722 points. Our team feels grateful to have beaten this powerhouse team, and we send our congratulations on a game well played.
Nationally the top team was The Fellowship <sigh, again> with an awesome score of 58,480 points. The next Sandbagger team was Houlihan’s of Westbury, NY at 54,494 points. They were followed by Big Guys of Winnipeg, MB at 53088. Next up on the Sandbag roster were the Tilted Kilt of Scottsdale, AZ (52777) and BWW Arlington (52103). Although some of those teams suffered defeat last week, they put up big numbers for this game and finished in the Top Ten for the night.
As usual, raspberries go out to the two Borg units that snuck into the top ten through the back door.
_________________
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!
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