New Scaratings

15 Questions, 1000 Points each, Points decrease rapidly with time and 3 Clues:

1. A sequacious person is one who is:_________________.
[Choices: Religiously orthodox, Emotionally blocked, Intellectually servile, Morally ambiguous, Spiritually bold ]

2. "A Brief History of Time" is the best known work of this celebrated scientist:_________________.
[Choices: Jane Goodall, Alan Guth, Stephen Hawking, Timothy Berners-Lee, Carl Sagan ]

3. Which U.S. President signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830?__________________.
[Choices: Calvin Coolidge, James Buchanan, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, John Quincy Adams ]

4. Which thing listed would produce a lahar?__________________
[Choices: Camera, Honeybee, Flute, Sturgeon, Volcano ]

5. "Dombey and ___________" is one of many novels by Charles Dickens.
[Choices: Friends, Drusilla, Louise, Son, Dog ]

6. Sociologist John Shelton Reed is a noted specialist in this U.S. region:_______________.
[Choices: Pacific Northwest, South, Mid-Atlantic states, New England, Far West ]

7. Popular in the 19th Century, faro was a:___________________.
[Choices: Bicycle, Dance, Fruit beverage, Card game, Recreational drug ]

8. The Ramayana is an epic poem from ancient:_________________.
[Choices: India, China, Europe, Pre-Columbian America, Africa ]

9. When this famous chess player was born, his last name was Weinstein:__________________.
[Choices: Garry Kasparov, Phil Hellmuth, Boris Spassky, Magnus Carlsen, Bobby Fischer ]

10. Belgium's Django Reinhardt was a pioneer in European:__________________.
[Choices: Fashion, Architecture, Contemporary dance, Filmmaking, Jazz ]

11. The Treaty of Kiel in 1814 gave Norway its independence from:____________________.
[Choices: Denmark, England, Portugal, Sweden, France ]

12. Which Shakespearean character is accompanied through a storm by his fool?_________________.
[Choices: Hamlet, Othello, Prospero, Lear, Macbeth ]

13. Red fescue is a variety of:___________________.
[Choices: Ornamental shrub, Parasitic vine, Lawn grass, Softwood, Hardwood ]

14. Ole Kirk Christiansen is the Danish inventor of:____________________.
[Choices: Furniture, Pastries, Legos, The Great Dane breed, Butter cookies ]

15. In Hindu mythology, Hanuman would best be described as a:_________________.
[Choices: Lion king, Wise elephant, Happy mouse, Monkey general, Courageous dog ]



Answers:

1. Intellectually servile [I (REACH, LESTER) called this one, noting that "obsequious" means "servile" when applied to a person, and "sequacious" might then apply to an idea, etc. See https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sequacious ]

2. Stephen Hawking [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time ]

3. Andrew Jackson [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Removal_Act ]

4. Volcano [I called this as a guess biased by some vague memory of seeing the term; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahar ]

5. Son [I split my votes, getting it right as REACH; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dombey_and_Son ]

6. South [We at Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON mostly guessed wrong, with LESTER getting 608 Points and Richard (ACE2) 553 Points, and others less.]

7. Card game [Chris (CEEZED, KAYZED) pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(card_game) ]

8. India [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana ]

9. Garry Kasparov [I guessed right on this one, having eliminated Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, and Magnus Carlsen. I never heard of Phil Hellmuth as a chess player (apparently he is a poker player). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov ]

10. Jazz [Several of us pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt .]

11. Denmark [I wrongly pre-called Sweden, missed the first Clue "No smorgasbord meal", and lost all 1000 Points by not paying attention to the third Clue "Actors Hamill, Harmon"; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kiel ]

12. Lear [Sue (SWIFT) and I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear ]

13. Lawn grass [I pre-called "grass"; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festuca_rubra ]

14. Legos [I guessed this from the Danish-looking name "Ole Kirk Christiansen" (cf. Hans Christian Andersen); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego ]

15. Monkey general [I called this one (a character in the Ramayana - see the Answer for Q8); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman ]

The Answer for Q6 should have included the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelton_Reed .

The Fellowship would like to give a tip of its hat to the folks at Tipsy Coyote for this game. On the Network Rankings page we were listed as being tied for 1st place. When the HOF showed up on Wednesday, though, BWW-Kent was listed as being alone in first place. Adding up all the points for the top five boxes for each team reveals that Tipsy Coyote had 72,300, while The Fellowship had 72,301. In other words The Fellowship squeaked by Tipsy Coyote by literally the smallest possible margin: 1/5 of a single point. This has got to be an incredibly rare occurrence for a premium game. In fact, the only other comparable instance I can think of is Sullivan's 1/6 of a point victory over Inside Out in Madison, WI on May 19, 2009. It has got to be agonizing to be on the short side of a result like this, so we'd like to recognize just how close it was.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Could be a team of masochists.

Back in the 90's, playing at a bar called Kronies in Chicago (silhouette of Winston Churchill on their sign) we lost a Showdown by one point as well.

_________________
Merkin

To ANON: because the Site scores listed are averages truncated by leaving off any decimal fraction, you can have teams tied on averages, but the ties broken by considering the total number of Points scored (on 5 or 6 Player scores, depending on the game). Previously, I had noted that the Site scores as averages are not rounded up if there is a decimal fraction greater than 0.5.

Still, I agree that any Site that scores the same truncated average is worthy of respect.

Thanks to MERKIN and REACH for the info/clarification. Thanks to SHAKES for his innovative interpretation .

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."