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Showdown Recap for 27 Mar 2017 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
Old Man Winter is trying to send a last blast of bad weather through the hinterlands of this great country. His efforts are not appreciated, but not very successful either out here on the high desert plains of New Mexico. It did, however, make the environment out on the patio of the BWW on Gibson Blvd in the ABQ questionable. BLZBUB really wishes that the establishment could raise the heat to levels where He’d be comfortable, but then He’d need to apologize to the people spontaneously combusting.
Fortunately, all 11 players survived the conditions to manipulate 17 machines without Hell-crisped fingers.
Worn-up Round
1. MAGLEV is a ___ technology: PUBLIC TRANSPORT.
2. Which common abbreviation refers to a U.S. Government agency? FEMA.
3. Which day of the week did the Romans name after a planet? SATURDAY.
4. One Tree Hill is a famous location in: NEW ZEALAND.
5. It’s a fancy-schmantsy name for ‘teacher’: PEDAGOGUE.
6. Which literary character was created by Sir Walter Scott? LOCHINVAR.
7. What body of water is formed by the Glen Canyon Dam? LAKE POWELL.
8. This animal is sometimes known as the Red Lynx: BOBCAT. {Gawd-dammed-pink-fuzzy-venomous animules question!}
9. This is a trick question: which element is named after a city: HAFNIUM.
10. A farming accident gave baseball Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown this nickname: THREE FINGER.
[The Ragged Rascals suffered a couple of missed questions in this round, those being WU4 and 8. There were no splits; everybody flamed out on these.]
Ground-down Round
1. ‘Asimov’s’ and ‘Analog’ are two ___ magazines that are still extant. SCIENCE FICTION.
2. Which type of wine is produced in Burgundy, France? MEURSAULT.
3. Leucism is a condition in animals caused by a partial loss of: PIGMENTATION.
4. Lochinvar, Laumbe, and Lusaka are National Parks in: ZAMBIA.
5. ‘The Story of Tonight’ and ‘Your Obedient Servant’ are songs from this hit musical: HAMILTON.
6. Which of these is a popular type of European pear? ANJOU.
7. Antithetical is a synonym of: OPPOSITE.
8. Alan Boyd was the first U.S. Secretary of: TRANSPORTATION.
9. The Tanner Scale is a scale of human: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
10. Dauphin was a title given for many years to the heir apparent of the throne of: FRANCE.
11. A convection zone is part of any: STAR.
12. From 1986 to 1989, the Cruzado was the currency of: BRAZIL.
[In a surprising development, this round went better than the Warm-up Round. In fact it was the best outcome in a Countdown Round all year. The team got 11 of 12 correct. The piker was GD9, which required the dreaded 5-way split.]
Scatology Round
S1. The letter B v ANCIENT GREEKS
In this Greek city state, women had more rights and equality than most other societies: SPARTA. {SCOOTR was the first to suggest this; ratified by DUFF.}
S2. VOCABULARY TEST v U.S. islands
It means a questionable remedy or scheme: NOSTRUM. {SCOOTR again, was the fastest to this.}
S3. PSYCHOLOGY v musical plays
In Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which comes first? SENSORIMOTOR. {The first call was for ‘concrete operational,’ but it was the first eliminated. After that the team went with BLZBUB’s call for sensorimotor.}
S4. U.S. Islands v THE LETTER B
The game of bagatelle is quite a bit like: BILLIARDS. {BLZBUB’s pre-call for ‘billiards’ was shouted down by SCOOTR’s call for ‘pinball.’ As pinball was not on the list of choices, the team opted to honor BLZBUB’s call. A study of the available articles about bagatelle, from the internet, generally backs up BLZBUB’s contention that bagatelle was derived from billiards, but later led to the development of pinball. Na-na-nah –Nyan na!}
S5. Musical plays v VOCABULARY TEST
Something that is not completed or fully developed would best be described as: INCHOATE. {DUFF gave the fully developed answer.}
S6. ANCIENT GREECE v psychology
Although located in Sicily, ___ was a Greek city state: SYRACUSE. {DUFF, our history knave, was the first to pre-call this.}
[The team got all six of these without much difficulty.]
Frightening Round
1. There’s an S&P 500 company named ___ Alliance: WALGREENS BOOTS.
2. Tony Bennett received the 2017 ___ Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress. GERSHWIN.
3. A household product, what exactly is WD-40? PENETRATING OIL.
4. The Israeli folk song ‘Hava Nagila’ translates as: LET US REJOICE.
5. What cartoon character is known in Sweden as ‘Musse Pigg’? MICKEY MOUSE.
6. Which rock star has published a book entitled ‘On Power’? GENE SIMMONS.
7. Cyril Ramaphosa became the new President of ___ last month. SOUTH AFRICA.
[This round sort of sucked for us. We had a 5-way split on F1, 4, and 6, and also a 2-way split on F2.]
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. He was only 15 years old when he entered college in 1944:
Choices: Gerald Ford, Cesar Chavez, ML King Jr., Chuck Barris, John Glenn
A: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. {This was a team effort by elimination.}
P2. ‘One Fine Day, We Shall See’ is the most famous aria of this opera that premiered in 1904:
Choices: Pirates…Penzance; la Traviata, Lohengrin, Madama Butterfly, ???
A: MAMDAMA BUTTERFLY. {This answer was mostly a guess.}
P3. Which object is usually shaped like a Reuleaux Triangle?
Choices: Aerosol can, Golf ball marker, Fidget spinner, Guitar pick, frying pan
A: GUITAR PICK. {We figured either fidget spinner or guitar pick.}
P4. Thorvald and Thorstein were the names of the brothers of this adventurer:
Choices: Robin Hood, Lochinvar, Arthur of Britain, Leif Erikson, Roland
A: LEIF ERIKSON. {This was another group effort as various players called out the “Not #_” elimination, eventually leaving Leif as the best possible answer. Of course it was only in hindsight that someone pointed out the “Thor” in the brothers’ names as a rather obvious clue. DOH!}
P5. The original tale of ‘Aladdin’ is set in a city in:
Choices: Egypt, China, Scandinavia, Greece, India
A: CHINA. {Kablooie! There goes the round…into the ashcan of broken dreams. Be forewarned…this question is going to open a can of worms if you try to confirm the Buzzhead’s answer!}
[This round was challenging, because on each question nobody was sure enough to make a definitive call.
FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: TWENTIETH CENTURY NOVELS
This novel of Virginia Woolf is set at a summer home on the Isle of Skye:
1. On the Beach
2. Kew Gardens
3. A Room of One’s Own
4. To the Lighthouse
5. Mrs. Dalloway
The order of the eliminations was 1, 3, 2, and 5, leaving #4, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, as the correct answer. DUFF made a confident, early call for this answer. But then as the magnitude of the risk being taken, he backpedaled somewhat. The team started working the eliminations hard at that point. We wound up back on ‘Lighthouse,’ verbally. Fortunately all of the team had punched in #4 at the start of the clock and stayed there while we chit-chatted about this question.
The top individual scores for the night were 51546, 48918, 48525, 46936, 46611, and BLZBUB’s favorite score…46660.
The team average score was 48,209 points.
The team’s ranking was TWELFTH Place.
This was a difficult game, and the Ragged Rascals felt pretty good about our score, if not our final ranking. We were definitely shooting for a Top Ten finish. Que sera, sera.
Congratulations to the Stained Glass Pub of Elkridge, MD on their First Place finish for this game. Their score of 55,366 points was terrific for this game.
Second Place went to the Grand Slammers, playing at the BWW Arlington, VA with 54877 points.
Next in Line was the group at Houlihan’s in Westbury, NY at 52743 points. Then came:
T’s Rockin of Columbia, MI @ 52268,
BWW Blacksburg, VA @ 51276,
BWW Kent, OH (The Fellowship) @ 51209
Sonoma’s of Columbia, MD @ 50992,
Danny K’s of Orange, CA @ 50906,
Old Barn of Portland, OR with 50262 (just beating their Borg rival, McSpillacuppy’s),
and the Albuquerque Borg collective, just ahead of the Ragged Rascals.
Therefore, eliminating the two known Borg units, the Ragged Rascals finished TENTH in the wetware-only division.
_________________
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!
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