|
Showdown Recap for 12 Sep 2017 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
The Ragged Rascals knew they were going to be short-handed for tonight’s edition of Wrack Your Nerves, but the core of the team would be intact. We were fortunate enough to have two guests, Joe and Susan, at the invitation of our moderator, CHILL. Those two would supply some key answers as this game progressed.
With the addition of our guests, the team would play at 13 strong, albeit without our chef or nuke-u-lar chemist. The early rounds went pretty well, starting with the…
Worn-up Round
1. Which would best describe an artist who lives an unconventional lifestyle: BOHEMIAN. {BLZBUB wanted to wax rhapsodic over this answer.}
2. On December 9, 2016, this Hollywood veteran celebrated his 100th birthday. KIRK DOUGLAS.
3. Until the ___ was invented, the triode was used in radios, audio systems, and televisions. TRANSISTOR.
4. If all goes as planned, the NFL’s Oakland Raiders will be moving to ___ in 2020. LAS VEGAS.
5. ‘The ___ of the Sierra Madre’ is a 20th Century literary classic written by B. Traven. TREASURE.
6. A boreal climate is one characterized by: LONG WINTERS.
7. Which battle took place during the American Revolution? WHITE PLAINS.
8. The Orange Roughy belongs to the slimehead family of: FISH.
9. In which activity would you use a ‘crampon’? MOUNTAIN CLIMBING.
10. Jerusalem and Galilee are small fishing villages on the coast of: RHODE ISLAND.
{The team got the first nine, but went on a futile crusade to find the answer to WU 10.}
******
BLZBUB is going to cheat a bit on this recap by rerunning a commentary from 8 Jul 2014. There are lots of people new to the recaps on the BadBart Facebook page who deserve a shot at being exposed to the full panoply of BLZBUB’s musings.
******
Good old BLZBUB has often commented upon his diploma in math from Nicholls State University, particularly after Showdown questions that put his memory of math to the test. The Rascals have often heard him exclaim, “Thankfully I won’t have to mail my diploma in math back to Nicholls on the grounds that it did not take.” How many of you know anything about N.S.U. and its namesake? Old Scratch will try to provide some background for your edification.
Ground-down Round
1. Born in 1787, he was a pioneer in the education of the deaf: THOMAS GALLAUDET.
2. Sexton and verger are officers in a: CHURCH.
3. ‘TED’ is a non-profit organization devoted to sharing ideas through: CONFERENCES.
4. On what island of the Philippines do you find the Bataan Peninsula? LUZON.
5. By definition, a sozzled person is one who is: DRUNK.
6. In which city will you find Emancipation Park, named for newly freed slaves? HOUSTON, TEXAS.
7. In making Beef Wellington, you coat the tenderloin with: PATE DE FOIE GRAS.
8. Which literary character has a discussion with the ghosts of Julius Caesar and Aristotle? LEMUEL GULLIVER.
9. Which term was commonly used for U.S. soldiers in World War I? DOUGHBOY.
10. Somateria Mollissima is the scientific name of this sea duck that breeds in the Arctic: EIDER.
11. Rembrandt was a famous painter who lived in the ___ Century. 17TH.
12. The notorious Zimmerman Telegram proposed an alliance between Mexico and: GERMANY.
{On this round the stumper was GD8. The team got the other 11 answers well before the third clue appeared.}
N.S.U. is named after Francis Tillou Nicholls, who was born in 1834. The young Nicholls was educated at a private academy in New Orleans before enrolling at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1855. He saw action in the third Seminole War before resigning his commission in 1856. All of this was long before we ever saw our…
Scatology Round
S1. POPULAR FICTION v Obscure awards
Which popular author writes the ‘Theodore Boone’ series about a boy lawyer in training? JOHN GRISHAM. {DUFF, with the citation, got us points.}
S2. Supreme Court Cases v CALIFORNIA CITIES
Oxnard is the largest city in California’s ___ Country. VENTURA. {Our Guest, Joe, called this. Yay!}
S3. TV SITCOMS v Canadian history
Sheldon and Leonard are two featured characters on this TV show. THE BIG BANG THEORY. {Nerd chorus! NERRRRDS!}
S4. CALIFORNIA CITIES v popular fiction
This California city’s name means ‘hidden’ in Spanish. ESCONDIDO. {BALDRC dijo esto.}
S5. Canadian history v SUPREME COURT CASES
Trustees of ___ College v. Woodward is an 1819 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case. DARTMOUTH. {DUFF ruled on this one.}
S6. Obscure awards v TV SITCOMS
What actress plays the title role in TV’s ‘New Girl’? ZOOEY DESCHANEL. {CROEM creamed at the sight of this question and answer. The rest of us were excited to go 6 for 6 on this round.}
Upon his return to Louisiana, Nicholls attended the U. of Louisiana (now Tulane Univ.) where he obtained his law degree. He moved to Napoleonville, where he practiced law in Assumption parish prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. At the outbreak of the war he was elected to serve as a Captain of a unit in the infantry. He fought in the First Battle of Bull Run and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He also fought in the Shenandoah Valley, where he lost his left arm in the Battle of Winchester. Similarly, the Showdown team will lose appendages in the…
Frightening Round
1. Ekaterina Makarova is one of Russia’s premier: TENNIS PLAYERS. {Guest, Susan, got this for us. Yay!}
2. Which river flows more than 1,000 miles across the continent of Africa? LIMPOPO.
3. Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland co-star in 1938’s ‘The Adventures of ___.’ ROBIN HOOD.
4. In Ancient Egypt, a ___ was a unit of measure equal to ¾ inch. DIGIT.
5. Which Rock ‘N’ Roller recently wrote ‘England Lost’ and ‘Get a Grip’ about Brexit. MICK JAGGER.
6. Which object is depicted on the state flag of Florida? STEAMBOAT.
7. The letters in the 4-H youth organization stand for Heart, Health, Hands, and: HEAD.
{What a revoltin’ development…the team crashed on L5, 6, and 7.}
Nicholls was not done, however. He was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of a brigade which fought at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg in May of 1863. Here, he lost a portion of his left leg. Thus disabled, he was transferred to a desk job for the remainder of the war. The team hopes to survive unscathed for the…
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. Polly Peachum and Lucy Luckit are characters in a 1728 ballad opera by:
Choices: [all Johns] Gay, Cheever, Donne, Constable, Milton
A: JOHN GAY. {DUFF was the first to deduce this answer.}
P2. What English King is credited with having created the modern passport?
Choices: William VI, Thomas X, John II, Richard IV, Henry V
A: HENRY V. {Ah historians. Good old DUFF spent his time trying to figure out who needed passports, while missing the obvious point that FOUR of the choices never existed (until BLZBUB woke him up)!}
P3. With the exception of Nigeria, ___ has the most people of African descent.
Choices: Brazil, Haiti, Tahiti, Algeria, Panama
A: BRAZIL. {chosen by consensus}
P4. This element in the Lanthanide Series was discovered in 1878:
Choices: Cobalt, Ytterbium, Xenon, Tellurium, Polonium
A: YTTERBIUM. {CROEM recognized it was the only Rare Earth on the list.}
P5. What famous poem talks of ’25,000 mad comrades all together singing’?
Choices: The Wasteland, Howl, The Road not Taken, Dream Deferred, The Raven
A: HOWL. {After eliminating the 3rd and 5th choice, the group split on the rest.}
{The team got a good result on this round. Six boxes went 5 for 5: six more got 4 for 5; the remainders got 3 for 5 correct.}
Following the war, Nicholls returned home to resume his law practice. He was soon to make a name for himself in politics. He was nominated by the Democrats to run for Governor in 1876. The oral history maintains that at the convention, someone rose to “put into nomination all that is left of General Nicholls.” At some point, Nicholls is recorded to have quipped, “I may as well run for Governor as I am too one-sided to be a judge.” Judging by the results of the last round, we’ll not govern the…
FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: SONG LYRICS
‘On the Shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,’ begins the second verse of this song:
1. The Star Spangled Banner
2. Mood Indigo
3. This Land is Your Land
4. America the Beautiful
5. Stairway to Heaven
The order of the eliminations was 5, 4, 3, and 2, leaving #1, THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER, as the correct answer. There were some splits, but most went with BLZBUB’s suggestion of the U.S. anthem.
The top individual scores for the night were 54697, 54637, 54524, 52764, 52218, and 49232 points.
The team average score was 53,011 points.
The team’s ranking was FOURTH Place.
Heh heh, splits were the order of the day during the Reconstruction as politicians vied for control of the South. The elections of 1876 were disputed at both the national and state levels. In Louisiana, two men were sworn in as Governor, a Reconstruction Republican and the Democrat F.T. Nicholls. As part of the dirty deals that made the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes the U.S. President, several southern states, including LA, got Democrats for Governors. Governor Nicholls is reputed to have called out the state militia to remove the Republicans from the state house. He and several of these “Redeemer” governors effectively made their states one-party states, a situation that would persist until the middle of the next century. [Part I concludes. Tune in next week for BLZBUB’s connection to FTN.]
Kudos to Danny K’s of Orange, CA for the win at 57,981.
Second goes to Tailgate Sp, Minneapolis. MN @ 56,881
Third is for Bilmar Station, Tampa, FL(!) @ 55976, and not getting blown away by Irma.
_________________
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
