New Scaratings

Showdown Recap for 22 Aug 2017 at BWW Elmwood in NOLA

BLZBUB was still stomping around the swamp as another Tuesday rolled around. He ventured to Greater New Orleans to sit in with the impressive team there, only to discover that most of its members had decamped to Tennessee to view the total eclipse of the Sun. They had not yet returned to NOLA, so the remainder of the team had decided not to play Showdown that day. RATZ!

BLZBUB did extract a bit of revenge on that team for its horrid faux pas (letting their personal lives get in the way of Showdown.) He murdered their Countdown leader board by snagging the second on their leader board with the second 15,000 point game of the month and third highest score on their board with a14,679 score.


Worn-up Round

1. An oxbow lake is shaped like the letter: U. {An obvious answer for a Louisiana native, but one which made BLZBUB wonder if this would signal another Delta-heavy set of questions. This would portend a solid round of razzing once BLZBUB returns to the high desert in the hinterlands of this great nation.}
2. By definition, something old and no longer useful would be called: ARCHAIC.
3. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Love never Dies” is a musical that is a sequel to: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
4. English, Zulu, Xhosa, and ___ are official languages of South Africa. AFRIKAANS.
5. ‘Beecher’s Bibles’ was a 19th Century term applied to a certain brand of: RIFLES.
6. A wife whose husband is temporarily absent is called a ___ widow. GRASS.
7. The current government of France is the ___ Republic. FIFTH.
8. What is the name of the ship in Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf”? THE GHOST.
9. In Spanish cuisine ajoblanco is known as: GAZPACHO.
10. On what day of the year is Remembrance Day celebrated in Canada? NOVEMBER 11.
{Missed WU6, 8, and 9.}

Ground-down Round*
• (y) = correct; (n) = missed; (3) = third clue save

1. This statesman was one of the ‘Seven Sages of Greece’: SOLON (3)
2. The Rigolets is a tidal strait that helps connect ___ to the Gulf of Mexico: LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. (y) {DAMMIT, I knew there would be more Louisiana based queries with me away from the Ragged Rascals in NM.}
3. What geological era is sometimes referred to as the ‘Age of Mammals’? CENOZOIC. (y)
4. The National Liberation Front was better known as in the 1960’s as the: VIET CONG (y)
5. [BOX FROZE (n) – paraphrase: The millibar is a unit to measure: AIR PRESSURE.]
6. Andrea Dworkin was a noted ___ writer. RADICAL FEMINIST (y)
7. Colloquially, the Fontanelles are called: SOFT SPOTS (3)
8. In Greek Myth, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis helps precipitate the: TROJAN WAR. (3)
9. Proposed by Winfield Scott, the Anaconda Plan was designed during the: U.S. CIVIL WAR. (y)
10. Pretas are ghostly beings in this spiritual tradition: BUDDHISM. (3)
11. The Red Panda, The Red Goral, and the Takin are animals native to: CENTRAL ASIA. (y)
12. ‘The Shape of ___ to Come’ is an acclaimed album of music by Ornette Coleman: JAZZ. (y)

One of the highlights of this trip was a visit to The Regional Military Museum in Houma, LA. This museum commemorates the military service of residents of the bayou parishes of southeastern Louisiana. BLZBUB got a tour conducted by the founder of the museum, Col. CJ Christ. There were a lot of historic artifacts, dating back to WW I and up through Desert Storm. They have an amazing collection of jeeps, boats, and aircraft. Even more impressive is that most of these were donations, not purchases by the museum.

Scatology Round

S1. WORLD CITIES v current music
The massive hilltop tomb of Ataturk can be seen from most of this capital city of Turkey: ANKARA. (y)

S2. YOU ASKED FOR IT v general science
‘Absolutely on Music’ is a book of conversations between author Haruki Murakami and: SEIJI OZAWA (y)

S3. FICTIONAL CHARACTERS v revolutions
Which fictional character is the father of Daniel and the grandfather of Abra? JACK TORRANCE (3)

S4. General science v WORLD CITIES
A major seaport, the second largest city in France is: MARSEILLE. (y)

S5. REVOLUTIONS v you asked for it
The ___ Revolution was fought between 1791 and 1804: HAITIAN. (y)

S6. Current music v FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
Oliver Mellors and Constance Reid are the main characters in: LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER. (y)

While at the Regional Military Museum, BLZBUB got into a conversation with one of the docents, a Mr. Arcement. While talking about family in the area, he pulled out his phone to show me a picture of a Cajun family taken early in the 1900’s. He told me this was the family of Leonce Richard (Lay-awnse Ree-shard). I was surprised, and told him that Leonce Richard was one of my great-grandfathers. He stopped for a moment, fixed me firmly in the eye as if to assess whether or not I was pulling his leg. Then he told me that Leonce Richard was also one of HIS great-grandfathers. As the cliché goes, you could have knocked us both down with a feather.


Frightening Round

1. It was founded in 2005 to counteract The Drudge Report: HUFFINGTON POST. (y)
2. Which word is derived from a Greek word for ‘contest’? ATHLETE (n)
3. The former President of ___ was convicted and sentenced last month to 9 ½ years in prison. BRAZIL (y)
4. What historic name is given to the chimp leader in the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise? CAESAR. (y)
5. Where in the United States is the city of Biloxi? MISSISSIPPI. (y)
6. Christopher Wray was sworn in this month as the new ___ Director: FBI (y)
7. The Dow Jones Average recently went over ___ for the first time ever. 22,000 (y)

Another highlight of this trip to the area was a near mandatory visit to the World War II Museum in New Orleans. In the lobby I met Mr. Joe Terrebonne of Destrehan, LA, a veteran of the invasion of France in WW II. I tried to find out if he was in the same U.S. Army battalion, brigade, or division as my father. Well they may or may not have been; we couldn’t tie the two together. About that time another visitor to the museum came up to talk to Mr. Terrebonne. It turns out that the gentleman was also a WW II vet…

Py-Ram-It Round

P1. ‘They also Serve Who only Stand and Wait’ is a famous line from a 17th Century poem by:
Choices: (all Johns) Bunyan, Keats, Constable, Milton, Donne
A: JOHN MILTON (n)

P2. Which of these is a genus of flowering plants?
Choices: Madrigal, Bartelia, Geoduck, Stimson, Croton
A: CROTON (n)

P3. Which figure is featured prominently on the Great Seal of the Confederate States of America?
Choices: Lincoln, Washington, Uncle Sam, Robt. E. Lee, Jeff. Davis
A: GEORGE WASHINGTON (n)

P4. This geologist wrote “Canyons of the Colorado” in 1895:
Choices: Robt. Boyle; John Milne; John Wesley Powell; Ed. Halley, Mi. Faraday
A: JOHN WESLEY POWELL (y)

P5. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey Clinker are heroes of ___ novels;
Choices: Romance, Picaresque, Mystery, Epistolary, Erotic
A: PICARESQUE. (y)

This second WW II vet was from Saginaw, MI, and flew 30 missions on the B-17 bomber in 1944. I let the two vets share experiences, and I heard a wonderful story. Mr. Terrebonne related his memory of hearing bombers massing in formation above his garrison in England. This was before he went into France after D-Day. Joe said that the soldiers could tell whether or not that day’s bomber mission was going deep into Germany, because they would start forming up around 2 in the morning. If it was a short duration mission, the forming uo would take place around 4 Am.

The Bomber crewman chuckled at this. He said that the way that they could tell was if they got two candy bars and two oranges. That meant a long mission, deep into enemy territory. If they only got one candy bar and one orange, it would be a short mission.

FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: NATURAL DISASTERS (like most of this game as far is BLZBUB is concerned)

What destroyed the City of Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1692?

1. Fire
2. Hurricane
3. Tornado
4. Earthquake
5. Volcanic Eruption

The order of the eliminations was 2, 5, 3, and 1, leaving #4, EARTHQUAKE, as the correct answer. (n)

BLZBUB’s top individual scores for the night were nil.
The team average score was nil points.
The team’s ranking was 278 Place.

[The Ragged Rascals’ top individual scores for the night were 57649, 57570, 57142, 55860, 55132, and 51178 points.
The team average score was 55,755 points.
The team’s ranking was FIFTH Place.]

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

S2. you asked for it [what did we ask for?] vs. GENERAL SCIENCE.
Sial and sima are among things known by GEOLOGISTS.

S3. fictional characters vs. REVOLUTIONS.
The Revolution of 1911 led to the toppling of the CHINESE QING regime.

(I assume that the current music category was about the Beautiful Ohio Waltz ("Drifting down the current of a moonlit stream") or Row, Row, Row Your Boat.)

--Rick Magnus
RickM, Blue Goose

_________________
liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Looking back over the course of the last few years, I can't help but observe how much more informative and assured BLZBUB's Recaps have become.

His results on this particular quiz were very similar to my own. The difference would be, that I was playing in a group of nine who turned in a fine ensemble effort, which delivered me a 52K. Ken, playing alone, opted to play as a guest (or so I conjecture, having looked up the individual scores in Louisiana). Had I, too, been playing alone, I think he would have beaten me.

I used to play Showdown as a solo player quite often, and it seems my ceiling fell short of 57K. On at least three occasions, I was playing for a 59, and I flatlined on each of them.

Since then the game has grown more difficult - interesting questions are harder to come by - and I despair of providing 10% of the documentation we've received from New Orleans this week, the next time I play solo.

We're living in interesting times. BLZBUB has a lot of ground to cover.

I can only say that from week to week I only aim for sophomoric humor. If my maunderings poke above that level, it is either coincidence or inspiration. And the inspiration is usually purely accidental. This week's recap recounted a couple of stories I thought worth sharing.

So thanks for the kind words of encouragement. There are weeks where the prospect of coming up with something that lifts the recap above a mere recitation of dry facts is daunting. So the responses from the readers offers incentive to continue pushing that rock uphill.

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