New Scaratings

Showdown Recap for 2 Jan 2018 at BWW in ABQ

There was an enthusiastic crowd of triviots for the inaugural game of a New Year. The Ragged Rascals gathered at the BWW on Montgomery Blvd one more time. The group was 11 members strong and playing 13 machines. Battery life has become to be a problem at this location as the afternoon lunch crowd has had a generous number of kiddies using the machines while school is out of session. Nevertheless, the Rascals were prepared to man as many functioning boxes as possible, to do battle with the BUZZHEADS when 6:30 rolled around.


Worn-up Round

1. Boatswain and coxswain are ranks in some: NAVIES.
2. Democrat Doug Jones of ___ was recently elected to the U.S. Senate: ALABAMA.
3. Which of these items would you wear, as opposed to eat? FROCK.
4. Which Commonwealth holiday celebrates the arrival of the first fleet in 1788? AUSTRALIA DAY.
5. Bernard Malamud’s ‘The Natural’ is a classic sports novel about a great: BASEBALL STAR.
6. Where is the vestibular labyrinth? HUMAN BODY.
7. Which Canadian city has major pro sports teams named the Jets and Bombers? WINNIPEG.
8. Brad Thor is a popular and controversial ___ novelist. SPY.
9. Born Matoaka in what is now Virginia, she is better known as: POCAHONTAS.
10. Uncle Duke is a character you would find in this comic strip: DOONESBURY.

This round was a study in perfection. The team easily answered all ten of these.

Ground-down Round

1. Which word refers to a name that is linguistically undesirable? CACONYM.
2. Leukoma is a medical malady that directly affects your: EYE. {Erk}
3. Where in Asia is Rakhine state, a current site of violent conflicts? MYANMAR.
4. Where would one most likely see an intinction? CHURCH.
5. Cowbane is one of several poisonous plants in the ___ family. CARROT.
6. ‘Curse of the Starving Class’ and ‘Fool for Love’ are among the noted plays of the late: SAM SHEPARD.
7. The Penghu Islands, also called the Pescadores, are located in the ___ Strait. TAIWAN. {Cast adrift, with no straight course to an island.}
8. To deflagrate is to: BURN RAPIDLY.
9. Which battle took place on January 22-23, 1847? BUENA VISTA.
10. The name of a fish with suction-like fins comes from a Latin word for ‘delay’: REMORA.
11. Which of these would you most likely see at a ballet? FOUETTE.
12. Mozartkugel, Bachwurfel, and Tournedos ___ are dishes named after composers. ROSSINI. {The dreaded 5-way split and the third-clue save.}

On that round, the problems started multiplying after a miss on GD 2 and a late call on GD 4. Then it got worse on GD 7 and 12, when the only saving grace was the third clue. Fortunately, the other eight questions went better.

Scatology Round

S1. Foreign foods v 20TH CENTURY HISTORY
The 1913 Treaty of Bucharest gave ___ to ___. CRETE - GREECE. {Ever-trustworthy DUFF got this history-boy query correct. SCOOTR get an assist.}

S2. The Bible v U.S. PRESIDENTS
In what year did Millard Fillmore become the 13th President of the United States? 1850. {Several voices on the audio can be heard debating the exact year, but cannot be distinguished from one another. Credit the Cacophonous Trio.}

S3. MAN’S BEST FRIEND v mountain ranges
What country’s national dog is the Pharaoh Hound? MALTA. {We went with Ethiopia, and we got bit.}

S4. U.S. PRESIDENTS v foreign food
He was 42 years old when he took office, making him the youngest U.S. President to do so. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. {DUFF, leading the Greek Chorus.}

S5. Mountain ranges v THE BIBLE
Two books of the Old Testament are named after women. One is Esther. The other is: RUTH. {CSICOP}

S6. 20TH CENTURY HISTORY v man’s best friend
The Sigurimi was once this country’s state security and secret police service: ALBANIA. {Thanks for the third-clue save.}

This round was a bit bumpy. The team needed the third-clue save on both S3 and S6.


Frightening Round

1. ‘IED’ stands for ___ Explosive Device. IMPROVISED.
2. ‘Second Chance’ and ‘Hold on Loosely’ are hit songs from this American rock band: 38 SPECIAL.
3. The Best in Show at the 2017 National Dog Show was a ___ Griffon. BRUSSELS.
4. Which restaurant group just purchased Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.4 Billion? ARBY’S.
5. Known for its wineries, the Old Mission Peninsula is located in this U.S. state: MICHIGAN. {Squish, went our scores on this one}
6. This movie director made ‘Winter Night’ and ‘Scenes from a Marriage’: INGMAR BERGMAN.
7. The Baseball Hall of Fame plaque of Tony Perez describes him as a: CLUTCH PERFORMER. {We went with ‘slick fielder,’ and committed an error.}

That round sucked for us. Delays nearly, but did not, cost us points on L3. We did miss L5 and L7 completely, however. That was a major loss of point for that round.

Py-Ram-It Round

P1. Electronic components are classified as __ or electro-mechanical.
Choices: Dangerous, safe; Artificial, natural; Active, passive; Absent, present; Dim, bright.
A: ACTIVE, PASSIVE. {HEBEGB and JAX made the good suggestion, and fortunately, we listened to them.}

P2. Lachesis was one of the three ___ of Greek Mythology.
Choices: Gorgons, Muses, Vestal Virgins, Fates, Harpies
A: FATES. {DUFF}

P3. On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson made a speech asking the world ‘be made safe for ___.’
Choices: The common man, Western civilization, Peace, Democracy, Falling in love
A: DEMOCRACY. {CSICOP}

P4. It’s a type of song you would hear at a funeral:
Choices: Monition, Threnody, Lobscouse, Heptameter, Euphony
A: THRENODY. {DUFF}

P5. This silvery-blue metal was discovered by a French chemist in 1875:
Choices: Europium, Fosnium, Bromine, Gallium, Lithium
A: GALLIUM. {SCOOTR with the call, and DUFF with the assist of pointing out that he named it after his native land.}


FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: LITERARY CHARACTERS

This heroine of a classic U.S. novel is an American who marries a European nobleman:

1. Daisy Buchanan
2. Roberta Alden
3. Brett Ashley
4. Ellen Olenska
5. Tobin Vote

The order of the eliminations was 3, 1, 5 and 2, leaving #4, ELLEN OLENSKA as the correct answer. We did not have a confident early call for this choice. In fact the only confident call was for the elimination of Daisy Buchanan. Many of the top boxes at the end of this question benefitted greatly from the split strategy, while others played a good hunch.

The top individual scores for the night were 54646, 53362, 53305, 53250, 52863, and 50831 points.
The team’s average score for this game was 53,042 points.

The Ragged Rascals’ systemwide ranking was SECOND PLACE.

The top team for this game was the Old Barn of Portland, OR with 54202 points. Following the Ragged Rascals for Third Place was the group at TEASER’s in Chicago with 47795 points.
Tailgate of Minneapolis got 46008,
Scooters Pub of Las Vegas got 45260
BWW New Orleans got 45254
Tilted Kilt of Scottsdale got 45251
Shannon’s of Long Beach, CA; West Park Station of Cleveland; and Mad River of NYC, NY rounded out the Top Ten.

With those scores, it appears The Ragged Rascals got a little lucky on the Pyramid Round and perhaps the Final Strategy question this week.

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

The Tailgate took exactly the same Scattergories as did the Ragged Rascals. We out-performed them in that round, but over 41 questions, we simply got outpaced.

Mountain Ranges 1: Which mountain range is in Alaska and the Yukon? ANS: St. Elias

Mountain Ranges 2: Where are the Raetian Alps? ANS: Switzerland (oddly enough).

_________________
Merkin