Showdown Recap for 29 Aug 2017 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
BLZBUB has returned to his den with the rest of the Ragged Rascals. True to form, the BWW on Gibson in the hinterlands of this great nation has its environment set to ‘arctic’ to ward off the warm summer breezes of the desert. A group of twelve fellow triviots has assembled to welcome Him home.
Worn-up Round
1. A trite or stereotyped expression is known as a: CLICHÉ. 2. A TARDIS is a time machine in the science fiction world of: DR. WHO. 3. In which sport would you most likely see a haymaker: BOXING. 4. ‘Oh, Susanna’ is a famous 19th Century song written by: STEPHEN FOSTER. 5. Puget Sound is an inlet of the ___ and part of the Salish Sea. PACIFIC OCEAN. 6. Where would you most likely find an alien symbiote: IN A MARVEL COMIC. 7. At first a 4th Century Bishop, over the years he mutated into a ‘jolly, fat elf’: ST. NICK. 8. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it connected the cities of Albany and: BUFFALO. 9. Find the spice among the animals: GALANGAL. 10. This 1930 novel was penned by British writer W. Somerset Maugham: CAKES AND ALE.
The team blithely ran through the first nine, but came to a confused halt on WU #10.
Ground-down Round
1. The MaCavity Awards are given to ___ writers: MYSTERY. 2. The Battle of Lake Trasimene was a decisive victory for the forces of: HANNIBAL BARCA. 3. ‘A Drop in the Bucket’ is a phrase that traces its roots back to which literary work: THE BIBLE. 4. This planet’s largest moon is Triton: NEPTUNE. 5. James Cash Penny opened his first department store in ___ in 1902: WYOMING. 6. Which country is bordered by South Africa and Mozambique: SWAZILAND. 7. The ___ is the male voice that shares the same range of a female contralto: COUNTERTENOR. 8. By definition, someone described as rubescent would be: BLUSHING. 9. HPV is responsible for this undesirable growth: WART. 10. Incresingly popular, Nilgiri tea is grown here: SOUTHERN INDIA. 11. Born in New York City in 1922, Murray Kaufman went on to become a famous: DISK JOCKEY. 12. This term refers to a design feature in a system that mitigates damages: FAIL-SAFE.
The team did well on this round. However there were splits or third-clue saves on GD’s 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10.
Scatology Round
S1. A TRIP TO SPAIN v what is it? Order these in a café to get a variety of typical Spanish mini-snacks: TAPAS. {MEERA}
S2. MEDICINE v poetry Andropause is a controversial condition said to be caused by a drop in: TESTOSTERONE. {SCOOTR}
S3. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS v NASCAR drivers Drone reeds and chanters are parts of this musical instrument: BAGPIPE. {Greek chorus}
S4. Poetry v A TRIP TO SPAIN Segovia, about 40 miles northwest of Madrid, is famous for its: ROMAN AQUEDUCT. {BALDRC}
S5. Nascar drivers v MEDICINE The first successful artificial pacemaker implantation took place in this year: 1958. {split with 1968.}
S6. WHAT IS IT? v musical instruments What the heck is Hepatica? GENUS OF PLANTS. {JAX}
The team went 5 for 6 for the full 1000 points, and narrowed down the choices on S5 to the two best candidates.
Frightening Round
1. What is the name of Chris Riccobono’s fashionable label of men’s shirts: UNTUCKIT 2. The Grey Cup is both the Championship Game and Trophy awarded in: CANADIAN FOOTBALL. 3. Bill Clinton, Douglas MacArthur, and Johnny Cash were all born in this U.S. state: ARKANSAS. 4. The U.N. Security Council imposed severe sanctions on ___ earlier this month: NORTH KOREA. 5. In what year was the Island of Alcatraz first used as a Federal Prison: 1934. 6. When Phillip Mountbatten married the soon-to-be Queen Elizabeth II in 1947, he became the: DUKE OF EDINBURGH. 7. What indie rock band from Canada hit #1 this summer with their new album, ‘Everything Now’? ARCADE FIRE.
Yowsa! The team went perfect on this round, a hallmark event.
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. ‘Essay on the Origin of ___’ is a noted literary work by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Choices: Languages, Continents, Species, Worlds, Matrimony A: LANGUAGES. {BLZBUB influenced half the team to go with this, while the rest maintained their splits.}
P2. First discovered in 1856, mauveine was the first synthetic organic chemical: Choices: Antiseptic, Preservative, Bleaching Agent, Beverage, Dye A: DYE. {SCOOTR got this.}
P3. The Fortune was a ship that followed this famous ship a year after it left England: Choices: Mayflower, Lusitania, Mary Celeste, Titanic, Santa Maria A: MAYFLOWER. {SCOOTR conducted the Greek Chorus on this one.}
P4. An icon of French Romanticism, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ is a famous: Choices: Poem, Drama, Ballet, Painting, Novel A: PAINTING. {SCOOTR & DUFF in a dead heat.}
P5. This 17th Century figure became known as ‘The Father of Microscopic Anatomy’: Choices: Bix Biederbecke, Marcello Malpighi, Amedeo Avogadro, William Wright, Geronimo Gimenez A: MARCELLO MALPIGHI. {After a hilarious call for Bix Biederbecke, DUFF soon corrected himself to put us onto Malpighi.}
This round was a bit gut-wrenching, as few of the answers were “a lock” with the exception of P3 and P4.
FINAL TRAGEDY Topic: WORLD GEOGRAPHY
The Strait of Messina connects the Tyrrhenian Sea and the ___ Sea.
1. Ionian 2. Ligurian 3. Black 4. Palermo 5. Aegean
The order of the eliminations was 5, 4, 3, and 2, leaving #1, IONIAN, as the correct answer. This has to be the simplest Final Strategy question the team has EVER frakked up. There are no words for the self-loathing and butt-hurt feelings that followed this failure. The team went into this question with an opportunity to easily surpass 55,000 points for the game. It didn’t happen.
The top individual scores for the night were 19703, 19657, 19440, 19152, 18984, and 18903 points The team average score was 19,306 points. The team’s ranking was 109TH Place.
Congrats go to the winners, HOULIHANS of Westbury, NY with a creditable score of 60,039 points. Then came the hordes of Borgs and some other teams rarely seen in the Top Ten, rounded out by the decidedly non-Borg unit at the Tailgate in Minneapolis, MN.
A lot of the teams signed up for this Fall’s ‘Sandbagger Trophy’ struggled to make it into the Top 50. It would be nice it some of those responded by telling what questions knocked down their scores.
_________________ }}}--( (x) (x) )---> Oh my gawd, they killed Ken Z. You bastards!
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