Showdown Recap for 26 Jul 2016 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
The game is on. The politicos recede into irrelevance. The team assembled tonight is eleven strong, and other than snarky partisan barbs no discussion of politics is countenanced for the night. There will be spirited discussions of trivia answers, but no other disputes allowed.
Worn-Up Round
1. The 2016 Fortune 500 has ___ ranked on top: WALMART. 2. A military cap, dark sunglasses, and a corncob pipe were trademarks of this war hero: DOUGLAS MACARTHUR. 3. The North Rim and Cape Royal offer the most spectacular views of: THE GRAND CANYON. 4. Canada’s Brooke Henderson made headlines in this sport last month: GOLF. 5. Which river flows over 850 miles across the country of India? YAMUNA. 6. According to ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by poet John Keats, ‘Beauty is ___.’ TRUTH. 7. Which event in U.S. history officially spanned two White House administrations: IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS. 8. The convict chiclid (sic, BUZZIE, sic) is a popular: AQUARIUM FISH. {BLZBUB finds the approved spelling to be ‘cichlid.’} 9. Fort McMurray is a city in the northern part of this Canadian Province: ALBERTA. 10. It’s one of the largest asteroids in our solar system: VESTA.
The team was not off to a good start on this round. There were brain farts on WU’s 1, 5, 7, and 8. WU 1 and 5 were clear misses of the correct answer. On WU 7, the team ran through several possibilities before going to the correct answer with time expiring. On WU 8, the misspelling of ‘cichlid’ caused many to second-guess their answer. The entire team scored only 4000 of the possible 5000 points for this round.
Ground-down Round
1. Novelist Lindsey Davis has written 20 mystery novels set in: ANCIENT ROME. 2. Which of these would a scientist most likely describe as nektonic: TROUT. 3. This oddly named-fellow was an evil dictator in the 1980’s: HISSENE HABRE. 4. Messenia is an ancient region of: GREECE. 5. Where in your body are your rhomboid muscles? UPPER BACK. 6. The CH-47 Chinook is the U.S. military’s primary transport: HELICOPTER. 7. In vegan cooking, aquafaba is used as a substitute for: EGG WHITES. 8. The wild mouflon is one of two ancestors of the domestic: SHEEP. 9. The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established in ___ in 1960. NEW JERSEY. 10. If you are sesquipedlarian, you are given to: USING LONG WORDS. 11. In which city is the Alfred Hitchcock thriller ‘Vertigo’ set? SAN FRANCISCO. 12. Alexander van der Bellen won a Presidential election in ___ earlier this year: AUSTRIA.
The Paunchos at BWW in ABQ were almost wrecked by this round. Thankfully there were clues supplied along with the questions. Of course the team was barely registering 250 points by the time the decaying clock has hit the third clue. On GD’s 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and 12 the team was either surprised by or praying for the third clue. Only six of the questions (GD 1, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11) were answered with confidence. The orgy of periphrasis in supplying the answer to GD 10 was particularly gratifying. Circumlocutions were the order of the day on the flubbed queries. The team averaged on about 7800 of the possible 12,000 points for this round.
Scatology Round
S1. Writers v LONDON, ENGLAND At the east front of this historic London landmark stands the Victoria Memorial: BUCKINGHAM PALACE. {Erk, not Windsor Castle? Oh shit. 3rd clue save.}
S2. G-d-p-f-v-Zoology v OFF WITH HIS HEAD Which person lost his head on January 21, 1793? LOUIS XVI. {CHILL and DUFF}
S3. ITALIAN COOKING v Name that year Puttanesca sauce, used on spaghetti in Italy, is made from tomatoes and: OLIVES AND CAPERS. {KURGAN yelled ‘capers,’ while JAX yelled ‘olives.’ BLZBUB thinks they were on the verge of disagreement when the answer appeared. }
S4. OFF WITH HIS HEAD v writers What English King was executed in 1649? CHARLES I. {DUFF pre-called it.}
S5. NAME THAT YEAR v g-d-p-f-v-Zoology On May 8, ___, Martiniques Mount Pelee blew its stack: 1902. {Double Oh Shit, both of our early choices were eliminated.}
S6. London, England v ITALIAN COOKING The Italian relish called Giardiniera requires this kind of preparation: PICKLING. {Our chef KURGAN called this with confidence. For once tonight, he was right.}
This round was another disappointment. Although the group got 4 of the 6 easily, they were reeling from the missed opportunities on the other two. So what were the altergory questions for S1 and S5?
Frightening Round
1. Which Newman wrote over 200 film scores? ALFRED NEWMAN. 2. The Zika virus gets its name from a place in: UGANDA. 3. Christopher Wallace gained fame in the music industry as the: NOTORIOUS B.I.G. 4. What do Hawaiians jokingly refer to as the ’ninth island’? LAS VEGAS. 5. Exactly how many Tony Awards did “Hamilton” win this year? 11. 6. What is the capital city of the Kingdom of Logres? CAMELOT. 7. Virginia Raggi recently became the: MAYOR OF ROME.
This round was like a bolt of lightning on a day when you decided to wear your new copper pants. It was worse than an anal probe by a Russian proctologist working for the FSB. And it was like going home from school to find your goldfish floating upside down. On F1, people kept saying Randy Newman, while BLZBUB swore it was his brother. Of course it turned out to be his uncle, but BLZBUB couldn’t remember the name anyway. “What, me worry?” jibes floated His way, ignoring the different spelling to make the pun work. On F2, we had three choices from Africa, and no consensus on the answer. WALACE, our youngest player on this night, called F3. Redemption came to visit BLZBUB on F4, where he made a good call. On F5, we opted for “13” and passed up a split with “11.” Nobody got close to the correct answer on F6. Fortunately, MEERA put us on a Roman holiday on F7.
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. Born in 1884, Otto Rank was one of the closest of this famous man’s colleagues: SIGMUND FREUD. {DUFF used his encyclopedic knowledge of historic dates to deduce this one partially. Splits with Tesla were recommended, but not widely followed by the team.}
P2. This Eudora Welty novel was inspired by a Grimm Brothers fairy tale of the same name: THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. {MEERA was spinning an anti-Rapunzel tale, and she seemed confident enough. The team went with her pick for a big score.}
P3. Mizoram and Odisha are two of this country’s 29 states: INDIA. {This one was called by DUFF, maybe because he thought the others on the list had no “states.”}
P4. Cornelius, the first Gentile to convert to Christianity, was a: ROMAN CENTURION. {DUFF timorously called this one.}
P5. The Fifth Postulate belongs to this discipline: EUCLIDIAN GEOMETRY. {DUFF and BLZBUB in parallel, making the call, to infinity.}
The majority of the team completed this round with 5 for 5 correct. Fifteen of 19 boxes were golden. What a relief that was, especially after tonight’s first 4 rounds.
FINAL TRAGEDY Topic: SCIENTISTS, {or something scientists do, right BUZZIE?}
In cognitive science, chunking is a method directly involving ___ tasks.
1. Tactile 2. Olfactory 3. Memory 4. Hearing 5. Visual
The order of the eliminations was 5, 2, 4, and 1, leaving #3, MEMORY, as the correct answer. The team was fortune that DUFF’s memory was in good working order, as he pre-called this answer before the five choices appeared. EVERYONE on the team got their full wager, scoring 50% of the points available at the end of the first 5 rounds.
The team’s top six scores were 50733, 50566, 50290, 49995, 49492, and 49083 points. At least we broke the 50K barrier with a team score of 50,026 points. The team was hoping that this game was as difficult for the other top teams as it was for us. Our ranking of SIXTH PLACE confirmed this wish.
It looks certain that the top two teams were Borg collectives. Kudos go out to Tailgate in Minneapolis @ 52049, Halftime Sports in Gig Harbor @ 51835, and our friends at The Fellowship @ 50940 for their fine work tonight.
_________________ }}}--( (x) (x) )---> Oh my gawd, they killed Ken Z. You bastards!
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