New Scaratings

Questions:
1. Rorqual is a term for a type of:___________________. [Choices: Dog, Monkey, Whale, Wild Sheep, Cat]
2. Which fictional place is situated between the Celestial City and the City of Destruction?___________.
[Choices: Emerald City, Skull Island, Slough of Despond, Xanadu, Isle of Wisdom]
3. What is studied in stoichiometry?_________________
[Choices: Chemical reactions, Evolution, Marine Science, Disease processes, Plant science]
4. The Adamson Act, passed in 1916, was an important piece of ____________ legislation.
[Choices: Scientific, Financial, Labor, Alcohol, Sports]
5. What is the state insect of Montana?______________
[Choices: Smiling spider, Skimmer dragonfly, Cave cricket, Tarantula hawk wasp, Mourning cloak butterfly]
6. In the hexadecimal system used in cascading style sheets, what color is #00FF00?_____________.
[Choices: Aquamarine, Green, White, Blue, Yellow]
7. The 17th Century's Royal Society of London was devoted to the development of:___________.
[Choices: Natural science, Space travel, Music, Colonial ventures, Citizens' rights]
8. Mount Narodnaya is the highest point in the ___________ Mountains.
[Choices: Atlas, Ural, Andes, Adirondack, Caucasus]
9. Born in Russia in 1792, Lev Perovski has a ____________ named after him.
[Choices: Symphony, Dessert, Fish, Mineral, Ballet company]
10. In the human body, the utricle helps maintain:_______________.
[Choices: Glucose levels, Balance, The heart, Oxygen in the blood, Sex drive]
11. This 19th-century virtuoso pianist also created the orchestral tone poem:_______________.
[Choices: Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Wolfgang Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Guiseppe Verdi]
12. Many veterans of the U.S. Civil War resettled under terms of the:_______________.
[Choices: Volstead Act, Logan Act, Homestead Act, Newlands Resolution, Mann Act]
13. Samhain is a traditional ______________ festival running from October 31 to November 1.
[Choices: Gaelic, Roman Catholic, Islamic, Santeria, Etruscan]
14. After his first few novels, this writer abandoned English and began writing in French:___________.
[Choices: Joseph Conrad, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett]
15. Rudolf III, who died in 1032, was the last of the independent kings of:________________.
[Choices: Piedmont, Silesia, Burgundy, Castile, Moldavia]

Answers:
1. Whale [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorqual ]
2. Slough of Despond [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress . Note: in 1950, Columbia University Press ran a poll in which this was voted The Most Boring Book Ever (see http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comme ... _book_ever ), although I rather liked the allegory. An updated list of boring books (most of which I had never heard of) is at https://www.thetoptens.com/boring-books/ ]
3. Chemical reactions [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometry ]
4. Labor [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamson_Act ]
5. Mourning Cloak Butterfly [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... te_insects ]
6. Green [see https://www.mathisfun.com/hexadecimal-d ... olors.html ]
7. Natural science [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society ]
8. Ural [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Narodnaya ]
9. Mineral [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Perovski and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite (calcium titanate, CaTiO3) ]
10. Balance [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricle_(ear) ]
11. Liszt [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_poem . Perhaps Liszt's most famous symphonic poem is "Les Preludes" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_preludes , from which "the 1856 published score includes a text preface...what is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death?" This is a hopeful, energizing viewpoint, but one recalls it was also the music and philosophy of Goebbels in the dying days of the Third Reich.) For a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pqrPjMiUXo , and sample 2:20-3:39 and 13:00-17:00. A great symphonic poem is Smetana's "Vltava" (die Moldau); see https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Moldau . It starts with the trickle of spring waters which gather momentum, flow past peasants dancing, and then majestically pass by Prague. For the first and last bits, see 0-3:50 and 8:00-12:47 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdl8i0KPIiM (the ending is somewhat compressed in dynamic range on YouTube, so get the CD of this performance by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra!). If the links don't work, go to https://www.youtube.com/ and Search for "liszt les preludes" and "Smetana moldau szell".
12. Homestead Act [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts ]
13. Gaelic [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain ]
14. Beckett [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett ]
15. Burgundy [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_III_of_Burgundy ]

Father REACH, will you hear my confession?

I whiffed on Question 5, failing to take the Mourning Cloak Butterfly, which I've seen at the 45th parallel as early as March 15.

On Question 6 (a question so specialized that it shouldn't have been included), I drew an inference from the first elimination and scored 400 more points than any of my tablemates.

On Question 9, regarding Perovski, for whom a mineral was named, I once again led my tablemates astray. For this I beg your forgiveness.

On Question 11, I pre-called John Field, confusing the Nocturne with the Tone Poem.

I'm a confused young sinner, Father REACH, and I need further instruction. But what I most need to know is this: how can I create a pipeline that'll permit me to download, not Canadian sand-fracked oil, but Canadian brains? How the fuck did Big Guy's collect a 14K off this quiz? And what do I need to do to be able to compete against them?

Yours in Humble Supplication

Li Zhu

To Gone D: We at Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON, were the #3 Site in Canada & the USA in this game, and would also want to know how our friends at Big Guys in Winnipeg MB managed a Site Score (average of best 5 Player scores) of 14,096 Points out of 15,000 max! We needed clues on Q5, 6, 10 and 15, for a Site Score of 12,550 Points.

As I have sent game summaries and Canadian Site and Player rankings to Alex Milton (MADMAN, DUMLUK) and Dorothy Wigmore (RADFEM) at Big Guys in the past, I'll ask them to 'splain at this website.

This was one of the hardest games ever, as anyone can tell if they try to answer the Questions from the 5 choices given for each. I used a camcorder to record this and the SHOWDOWN game, and transcribed the exact wording of the Questions and the Choices, so anyone at home can see how they would do before clues.

I wouldn't expect RADFEM or MADMAN to divulge their secrets. Nor should they.

All competition is internal.

I could expand on that flagrant aphorism, but I'm busy eating rotten salmon, expired cole slaw, and the remnants of a tomato that I originally sliced up several hours, or possibly days ago.

A splash of vinegar is never inappropriate.

Keeping me happy is a lost cause. But as nearly as I can tell, everyone else on these pages is open to the possibility.

Congratulations to Alex(Madman) and teammates for a great game.As usual you represent Winnipeg with decorum.You make Winnipeggers proud.