New Scaratings

Warm-up Round (10 Questions, 500 Points each, 14 seconds to answer after posting of Question & 5 Choices; No Clues):

1. Chaim Weizmann was the first President of modern:___________________.
[Choices: Syria, Italy, Sudan, Israel, Lebanon ]

2. Punchbowl Crater is a site in __________________ that is visited by many tourists.
[Choices: North Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Wyoming ]

3. Which of these is a breed of dairy cattle?________________________
[Choices: Swarovski, Charolais, Stilton, Muesli, Varney ]

4. What superhero does actor Chris Evans portray in several movies?__________________________
[Choices: Captain Marvel, Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Avengers ]

5. Soldering is a process most identified with:_______________________.
[Choices: Carpentry, Metalworking, Papering, Pottery, Painting ]

6. Romanian is a ___________________ language.
[Choices: Slavic, Romance, Semitic, Baltic, Germanic ]

7. Which hot drink was named for the color of the robes worn by a category of monk?_____________________
[Choices: Cappuccino, Darjeeling, Mocha, Tisane, Toddy ]

8. Gold Reef City is an amusement park in this city:_______________________.
[Choices: Birmingham, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Calgary, Wellington ]

9. Cat's Cradle is one of the world's oldest:_______________________.
[Choices: Games, Tools, Weapons, Trapping devices, Dwellings ]

10. What nation is currently hosting this year's Pan-American Games?_______________________
[Choices: Jamaica, Peru, Ghana, Australia, Canada ]




Countdown Round (12 Questions, 1000 Points each, Points decrease rapidly from 4 to 16 seconds, and with 3 Clues):

11. In which year was Everglades National Park established?__________________
[Choices: 1973, 1912, 1996, 1934, 1951 ]

12. In Japanese cuisine, Ichiban Dashi forms the basis of:_______________________.
[Choices: Sukiyaki, Teriyaki, Bibingka, Clear soup, Sashimi ]

13. Which large company was created by a merger on November 30, 1999?____________________
[Choices: Burlington Northern, Exxon Mobil, Best Buy, Walmart, JP Morgan Chase ]

14. The Kushan Empire of the early centuries A.D. was located in:_________________________.
[Choices: Mesoamerica, Central Asia, North Africa, Australia, Siberia ]

15. If you're cogitating, you're:_________________________.
[Choices: Feeling ill, Taking a nap, Telling jokes, Thinking seriously, Running in place ]

16. Indian writer Vikram Seth penned this novel published in 1993:_______________________.
[Choices: A Singular Person, A Precocious Lady, A Presentable Girl, A Lonely Man, A Suitable Boy ]

17. The Verzasca River flows through Southern:________________________.
[Choices: Venezuela, Sweden, Switzerland, Malaysia, Italy ]

18. Which insects are wingless creatures that can cause household damage?_____________________
[Choices: Silverfish, Swallowtails, Wasps, Damselflies, Hornets ]

19. Most of Australia's national flag consists of six white stars on a ________________ background.
[Choices: Green, Orange, Blue, Red, Yellow ]

20. "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" is a 2018 album by this English rock band:______________________.
[Choices: Blink-182, Arctic Monkeys, Kraftwerk, Barenaked Ladies, Franz Ferdinand ]

21. It is a medical term for a type of scar:_____________________.
[Choices: Ossicle, Blofeld, Keloid, Pleurosite, Megtor ]

22. His "The Star Rover", published in 1915, has fantastic and science fiction elements:___________________________.
[Choices: Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair ]




Category Round (6 Questions, 1000 Points each, Points decrease from 4 to 20 seconds, and with 3 Clues; Category chosen by majority vote at each Site):/b]

23.(a) BUSINESS CURRENTS v Saxophonists: T-Mobile recently won U.S. antitrust approval to take over this rival:_____________________.
[Choices: Arco, Intuit, Direct TV, Sprint, Oracle ]

24.(a) VERMONT v Geometry class: The Vermont State Fair takes place every year in the city of:_____________________.
[Choices: Augusta, Bellows Falls, Rutland, Concord, Montpelier ]

25.(a) Superheroes v PHILOSOPHERS: In 1958, this English thinker delivered a classic lecture, "Two Concepts of Liberty":________________________.
[Choices: Isaiah Berlin, Bertrand Russell, Brian Epstein, Wayne Fontana, Alfred North Whitehead ]

26.(a) Geometry class v BUSINESS CURRENTS: What tech giant has been sued by Democratic Presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard?_______________________
[Choices: Chase Morgan, Instagram, Anadarko, Google, Spotify ]

27.(a) Philosophers v VERMONT: The town of Barre, Vermont, is home to a humongous:_________________________.
[Choices: Granite quarry, Fly fishing museum, Teddy bear factory, Statue of catamount, Hot spring ]

28.(a) Saxophonists v SUPERHEROES: Which superhero's alter-ego has Masters degrees in Physics and Engineering?__________________________
[Choices: Bruce Wayne, Ben Grimm, Peter Parker, Johnny Storm, Tony Stark ]




[b]Lightning Round (7 Questions: 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 Points, but time to read & answer decreases from 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5 to 4 seconds):

29. Which man recently took office as the President of Latvia?_______________________
[Choices: Xander Schauffele, Syarhey Rumas, Arieh Warshel, Saku Maenalanen, Egils Levits ]

30. By definition, a diligent person is one who is:_____________________.
[Choices: Magnanimous, Assiduous, Infertile, Trustworthy, Odorific ]

31. What is the title of the hit Michael Jackson tribute musical that premiered in 2009?______________________
[Choices: Beat It, Rock with You, Purple Rain, Thriller Live, Heartbreak Hotel ]

32. In which decade was genetic fingerprinting developed?_____________________
[Choices: 1940's, 1980's, 1920's, 2000's, 1960's ]

33. An ex-Navy SEAL named Scot Harvath is the hero of a series of books by:_____________________.
[Choices: Kirsten Gillibrand, Andrew Cashner, Brad Thor, Patricia Highsmith, David Baldacci ]

34. The "Kitchen Debate" was a series of exchanges between Nikita Khrushchev and:__________________________.
[Choices: Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Winston Churchill, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon ]

35. The three commonest elements in Earth's atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen and:____________________.
[Choices: Lithium, Carbon, Barium, Argon, Hydrogen ]




Dreaded Pyramid Round (5 Questions: 12000, 7000, 4000, 2000, 1000 Points for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Right out of 5; Time from post of Question & Choices = 16 seconds; No Clues):

36. Mollie and Giles Ralston are characters in a famous play by:___________________________.
[Choices: Neil Simon, Arthur Miller, Agatha Christie, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost ]

37. The 1618 Defenestration of Prague started the Bohemian revolt which led to the _______________________ War.
[Choices: Russo-Japanese, Peninsular, Thirty Years', Franco-Prussian, French and Indian ]

38. Rangpur, a citrus fruit, is a hybrid between the citron and the:_______________________.
[Choices: Lemon, Lime, Pomelo, Grapefruit, Mandarin orange ]

39. Purpura is a medical condition that directly affects the:________________________.
[Choices: Larynx, Tissues under your skin, Spinal column, Bone marrow, Retina ]

40. Thanks to a name change this year, there is now a country called:_______________________.
[Choices: West Mali, East Tanzania, North Macedonia, South Armenia, Central Guyana ]




Final Jeopardy Question on ISLANDS OF THE WORLD (50% Bonus if Right Immediately; Points decrease rapidly from 4 to 20 seconds, and with 3 Clues; 50% Deduction if Final Choice is Wrong):

41. Fuerteventura and Tenerife are among the ____________________ Islands.
[Choices: Cape Verde, Canary, Aleutian, Channel, Galapagos ]







Answers:

1. Israel [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann ]

2. Hawaii [about 4 or 5 Players at Whispers Bar, Ottawa ON (not including me) guessed this; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punchbowl_Crater ]

3. Charolais [a wrong call for "Varney" doomed those of us who used to play at Buster's Bar; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charolais_cattle ]

4. Captain America [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Evans_(actor) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America ]

5. Metalworking [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldering ]

6. Romance [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_language ]

7. Cappuccino [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappuccino ]

8. Johannesburg [Jean (LESTER) and I (REACH) and others went with this, because of the gold discovered in South Africa; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gold_Reef_City ]

9. Games [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_cradle ]

10. Peru [Patrick (MRRED) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Pan_American_Games ]




11. 1934 [see the section "Park history" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades_National_Park ; I thought a call for 1912 was too early, and the other Choices were too late.]

12. Clear soup [Jean and I knew that "Ichi"="One" in Japanese, and were trying to figure out the rest (after the Answer was revealed, I recognized too late that "dashi" is stuff tossed together; see https://holistickenko.com/dashi-stock/ ). BGHAWK and SHARK got 949 and 1000 Points, respectively, for this one.]

13. Exxon Mobil [Patrick called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil ]

14. Central Asia [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire ]

15. Thinking seriously [see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cogitation ]

16. A Suitable Boy [Phil (BSLXPN) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Suitable_Boy ]

17. Switzerland [we mostly missed this one, forgetting that Italian is one of the languages of Switzerland; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verzasca_(river) ]

18. Silverfish [the other Choices have wings, so we went with this, even though we didn't think it was that harmful (it eats the glue of wall paper, etc.); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverfish ]

19. Blue [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia ]

20. Arctic Monkeys [we deduced this by eliminating American Blink-182, German Kraftwerk, Canadian Barenaked Ladies, and Scottish Franz Ferdinand; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquili ... l_&_Casino ]

21. Keloid [Patrick called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keloid ]

22. Jack London [some of us (including me) deduced this by eliminating the other Choices within 3 seconds; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Rover ]



23.(a) Sprint [Patrick called this one; see https://marketrealist.com/2019/08/the-t ... hallenges/ ]

24.(a) Rutland [we lost most of the Points, going with Montpelier (the capital of Vermont); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_State_Fairgrounds and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland_(city),_Vermont . The only previous time I had heard of a Rutland was from Monty Python; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland_W ... Television , and https://www.amazon.ca/Rutland-Dirty-Wee ... 0458921009 (for "The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book" by Eric Idle). Presumably the Vermont Rutland is named after the small British area, just as London, Paris and Berlin (now called Kitchener, after WWI) in Ontario, Canada are named after the much larger cities in Europe.]

25.(a) Isaiah Berlin [we lost most of the Points, going with a pre-call for Bertrand Russell; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Concepts_of_Liberty ]

26.(a) Google [we guessed this, from the huge influence of "Google search" engines on categorizing political candidates; see https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/9ke ... censorship ]

27.(a) Granite quarry [Dave (YELDOR) pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barre_granite ]

28.(a) Tony Stark [see the section "Origins" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man ]




29. Egils Levits [I guessed this from the similarity of "Egils" with Egil Krogh, a descendant of Norwegian heritage who was involved in the Watergate Affair; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egils_Levits and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egil_Krogh (at the time, a name pronounced "Eagle Crow" seemed suitably fitting for the fiasco). You could have also eliminated the other Choices: American golfer Xander Schauffele (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xander_Schauffele ), Belarusian politician Syarhey Rumas (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syarhey_Rumas ), Israeli-American biochemist Arieh Warshel (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arieh_Warshel ), and Finnish hockey player Saku Maenalanen (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saku_Maenalanen and fellow Finnish hockey player https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saku_Koivu ).]

30. Assiduous [we originally chose "Trustworthy" for "Diligent", until Jean pointed out that "Assiduous" was better; see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/assiduous ]

31. Thriller Live [I guessed this (the other Michael Jackson possibility was "Beat It"); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_-_Live ]

32. 1980's [Sue (SWIFT) and others called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_profiling ]

33. Brad Thor [we totally struck out on this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Thor and https://www.goodreads.com/series/40445-scot-harvath ]

34. Richard Nixon [Jean pre-called this one first; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate ]

35. Argon [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argon . The most common isotope of element 18, argon-40, has 18 protons and 22 neutrons in the nucleus, and is formed from radioactive potassium-40 (element 19, with 19 protons and 21 neutrons) by electron capture of an inner electron (most probably from the innermost 1s orbital, whose probability of electron density at the nucleus is not zero) which converts a proton to a neutron, keeping the mass number the same at 40. Or by positron emission (a form of beta decay of a proton to form a neutron and a neutrino). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_capture and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission .]




36. Agatha Christie [I suggested the names (especially "Giles") sounded British, eliminating the American playwrights and American poets. Sue (SWIFT) recognized the names from "The Mousetrap"; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap .]

37. Thirty Years' [Phil (BSLXPN) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague ]

38. Mandarin orange [only Jean (LESTER) and CRAXER got this right; in hindsight, the "Rang" of "Rangpur" should have suggested "orange". See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangpur_(fruit) .]

39. Tissues under your skin [Still reeling from my stupidity in Q38, I changed from this right answer to "Retina" on a wrong call; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpura ]

40. North Macedonia [Phil called this one, explaining that Greece objected to the name "Macedonia"-alone for the former part of Yugoslavia; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Macedonia ]




41. Canary [we all recognized Tenerife as part of the Canary Islands, as its airport was the site of the deadliest accident in aviation history (583 dead). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands , https://en.wikipedia.org/wikiTenerife and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster .]

The second link in the answer to Q41 should have read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife .

24. vermont vs. GEOMETRY CLASS.
The formula for the area of a TRAPEZOID is the mean of the bases times the height.


26. GEOMETRY CLASS vs. business currents.
An early mathemetician was 7th Century BCE Greek THALES OF MILETUS.
(The final clue was, at least on the surface, ambiguous; I think one of the wrong answers had a first name beginning "mil.")

--Rick Magnus
RickM, Blue Goose

We took the Saxophonists questions both times...

Can't remember the wording or answer choices, but the first one basically asked for David Brubeck's sax player. Answer was Paul Desmond, and I seem to remember that none of the other choices were saxophonists.

The second one asked whose (something classical involving the sax) debuted in 1986. Two of the five choices were at least somewhat logical selections, being sax player I knew of... And I chose the one that was NOT the correct answer, which is Lester Young. Don't quote me, but I think my choice was Ben Webster...

To all appearances, there were a whopping 18 sites that might have won this quiz by answering the Pyramid and Final Showdown successfully. All eighteen were bunched between 51K and 45K. Oliver's Old Towne Tavern, in Laurel MD, infrequently mentioned, might have brought it off. Whether they did or no, the Oliver's players passed through enough hoops to claim the win.

Was there a Culprit Question? One which brought everyone down?



This was the question that took down B-52. REACH provides an excellent hook. We just didn't pick up on it. Hindsight being 20-20, "The Mousetrap" was mentioned.



This one fooled nobody.



My stab in the dark, successful, was based on a loose concept of genetic compatibility.



Shame on you, REACH. It would be a flight of fancy that everything you saw would be tinged in shades of purple. But if you have a spare dose of that drug, feel free to PM me. I'll pay top dollar.



This is way too newsy for the 40th question of a Showdown quiz, which should be devoted to classical studies in whatever field, in whatever century, including the 21st.

Re my stupidity in changing my answer to Q39 from "Tissues under your skin" to "Retina": there was a brief instant after the wrong call when my brain recalled that "visual PURPle" (rhodopsin) is the light-sensitive molecule in the retina.

Re Q28: The Category Choice was between SAXOPHONISTS and SUPERHEROES. Phil (BSLXPN) got a laugh from others in the room when he instantly suggested we pick SUPERKENNYG.

This conversation is going Downhill fast. Is it possible that a Dance of Slalome might deliver Phil's head? You could send it here by surface mail. It's obvious that the object is already over-ripe.

SUPERKENNYG? You could go Up or Down with the ordinary one.