New Scaratings

Topix for this month:

March 6 - What's Your Poison?
March 7 - Horsin' Around
March 13 - The Planet Neptune
March 14 - Oscar-Winning Music
March 20 - College Mascots
March 21 - In 3-D
March 27 - North Carolina
March 28 - Hollywood's Fresh Faces

The Topix I most wanted to play on that list is 3/13 and it is questionable that I will even be able to play. I should at least be able to play on 3/27.

Trendalicious for this month:

March 7 - The Oscars
March 14 - St. Patty's
March 21 - SXSW
March 28 - March Madness

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

College Mascots could be fun too. Nothing that promising on that list though.

I like the last three Thursdays, and we will probably field teams for them in Gaithersburg. I'm probably too much of a dreamer, but can we hope that the 3/21 game will be on Weird Al Yankovic's classic second album?

"Nature Trail to Hell....." We wouldn't be that lucky.

OK on 13 and 27. Might do 6 to see if it's actually about poisons etc then give up if it's about booze - a subject on which BT's answers are notoriously subjective as if nobody has heard of regional and temporal differences in cocktails and whatnot. 20? Not a chance. Appear to be no Fridays where 10 minutes with Wikipedia and IMDB guarantee you a 13.5+ like last weeks either so, as certainly nothing to interest me intrinsically, I shan't bother. I'll play boring softballs occasionally, but why play boring games that you'll bomb out on into the bargain?

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

Ooh- I just assumed it was about actual poison. I didn't even consider that it might be booze-related. Now I'm doubly excited, as I quite enjoy regional and temporal differences in cocktails and whatnot! Unfortunately, I am currently experiencing a moratorium on playing while working, so any play I do will be by proxy, helping others. That said, I do like 6, 13 and 27. Screw college mascots. So to speak.

Neptune's on my calendar

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Help! I have a reflexive urge to say it beats having the next planet in on it.

A lil help for the west coast. The answer to the last question is Statue Of David. You're welcome

Out of curiosity, I did play the Topix last night (What's Your Poison?) and it was about alcoholic beverages. The game reminded me of Sci-Files. Sorry, I don't recall any of the questions, but most seemed to be of the form "adding an onion to a screwdriver makes a ..." I do know that Jagermeister was the answer to one of the questions as a drink consumed before (or after) meals.

If I can, I will try to play next week's game on Neptune, but it's by no means a certainty.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Paraphrasing:

A Harvey Wallbanger is a variation of which cocktail?
What gives a Tequila Sunrise its red color?
What traditionally garnishes a Manhattan?
Which of these is a digestif? (That was the Jaegermeister)
What puts the sting in a Stinger?
What kind of alcohol is Jean-Marc XO?
In what city is St. Pauli Girl brewed?
The addition of an onion turns a Martini into what drink?
In addition to tequila, what alcohol is used to make a Margarita?
What liquor bottle's label includes the image of a gold seal with red ribbon?
From what fruit is Slivovitz made?
What was the first Mexican beer to come in a can?
Which is a cocktail made with two fruit juices? (Madras)
What designation is given to tequila that is aged in oak barrels for between two and eleven months?

And one more that I don't remember, but I suspect was pretty simple to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of beverage alcohol.

I aced, through a proxy, all but the St. Pauli question (I was thinking Stuttgart before the answers even came up, but I was confusing St. Pauli with Dinkelacker) and the Jean-Marc XO. I should have called "Vodka," as it sounded French, but the XO threw me, so I meekly suggested "Rum." At that point I was so disheartened at screwing the puppy on the German beer question that I really didn't care any more, leaving my poor cat's paw in a mere 12th place on the board. I feel bad.

I checked the sitefinder and it looks like whatever was there had closed. You may not be able to find anything closer than Buffalo Wild Wings Callisto.

East Coast Cookery is in Neptune. A five-hour drive from my house (I have a really fast spaceship!)

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Regarding the March 20th TOPIX game....
I can just imagine LILJOL having a fit if NTN asks a question about a certain college mascot in the Pac-12 Conference, especially the one that is shaped like a tree.

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"My mechanic told me, 'I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder'." - comedian Steven Wright

"The Planet Neptune" recap, with answers and commentary following

1. In 1612, he became the first scientist to observe Neptune:
2. One day on Neptune lasts just over ___ hours
3. Which color best describes the planet?
4. Neptune is closest in size to what other planet?
5. What is the symbol of Neptune?
6. Neptune is the ______ place in our solar system:
7. The largest moon of Neptune is:
8. Neptune orbits the sun at roughly ___ astronomical units
9. The main component of Neptune's atmosphere is:
10. With [answer to 9] taking up 80%, the other main atmospheric component is:
11. In 1989, it became the first U.S. spacecraft to reach Neptune:
12. Adams, Le Verrier, and Galle are names of three of Neptune's ______:
13. Neptune currently has exactly ___ known moons
14. In 1989, [answer to 11] discovered what astronomers called the:
15. Triton is one of the ______ places in our solar system
---> 1. Hilliest • 2. Fertilest • 3. Warmest • 4. Coldest • 5. Wettest

1. Galileo Galilei (who did not realize he had observed a planet, because Neptune's movement is so slight)
2. 16 hours (shortest of the five choices offered)
3. Blue
4. Uranus
5. Trident
6. Windiest (coldest was not an available option here)
7. Triton (it possesses something like 99.7% of Neptune's satellite mass)
8. 30 AU (or about 4.5 million km/2.8 million miles, give or take a metric furlong)
9. Hydrogen (a good list of distractors with no absurd throwaways, methane among them)
10. Helium (I think most of the five choices here were elements, barium among them)
11. Voyager 2 (first US spacecraft, only spacecraft ever . . . tomayto, tomahto . . .)
12. Rings (nearly missed this looking for discoverers as my answer)
13. 14 moons (like Q2, the smallest number was the correct one)
14. Great Dark Spot (or, what may appear in the lap area of a passed-out 'Palooza participant)
15. Coldest (Buzzies, are you sure those warm Tritonianese hills aren't wet and fertile?)

Respectfully submitted,
someone who ought to know his ice worlds

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Pretty basic questions although I probably would have blinked on Q6 since for many years Saturn has been the windiest place in the solar system. BT certainly has a question in their database stating such, so one of those questions is in error.

Thanks for the recap.

I'm sure some people from the strip between Manitoba and Oklahoma would laugh about the claims of both Saturn and Neptune. However, you wouldn't have blinked. The other choices were hottest, wettest, driest and hilliest.

The question that caused me to blink was the one about the color. Blue or green? Green or blue? The factoid that the methane absorbed the red wavelengths just added to the confusion. Take red out of white light and you're left with ... cyan. Halfway between blue and green. The only reason colorblindish me 962ed the question was because I'd scanned the wiki page a few hours earlier, and if it's on wiki, it's right to Buzztime, no?

Thank you for posting the questions, pengwn. I wish I was able to play, but circumstances worked out otherwise. Based on what you posted, I am sure that I would have had close to a perfect score had I played.

Looking forward to the Topix on North Carolina. Also looking forward to the next astronomy-based Topix, whenever that may be.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Maybe something on Pluto next summer, when New Horizons trundles by?

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Another possibility may be Dwarf Planets or Asteroids, given Dawn's arrival at Ceres.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Just what we need, a game that lends itself to "LILJOL" as every other throwaway answer

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?