Showdown Recap for 7 Nov 2017 at BWW Gibson in ABQ
Good things tend to happen for people who have gotten past their performance anxiety. Such was to be the case for tonight’s game. Now relieved of the pressure to win a head-to-head matchup with another location full of Mensa candidates, the Ragged Rascals were able to play this week’s game with a BLZBUB-may-care spirit. A few of our regulars were out on personal excuses, but we managed to cobble together 11 blithe spirits to man 17 boxes.
Worn-up Round
1. The majority of the western coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula belongs to: NORWAY. 2. Something described as contrived is: PLANNED. 3. Yurts, gers, and tipis are examples of ___ homes. MOBILE. {It was hilarious to hear about six of the team members shout “Mongolian” before the choices appeared. Yeah, lots of tipis in Mongolia, which were no doubt exchanged for yurts on the Great Plains.} 4. What type of beverage is tafia? RUM. {“Obscure” would have been a more realistic choice.} 5. The Munich Pact was signed on September 30 in the year: 1938. 6. The Yukon River flows through British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and: ALASKA. 7. What constellation is known as ‘The Hunter’? ORION. 8. SNUBA is a form of: SURFACE-SUPPLIED DIVING. 9. Which historic region was located on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea? LIVONIA. 10. Here’s a nice bit of trivia for you! Humuhumunukunukukuaoua’a is the state fish of: HAWAII. {New Mexico’s state fish is a Gila Monster.}
The team fumbled around for its glasses on WU4, but did a creditable job on the other nine queries.
Ground-down Round
1. Ransom E. Olds was the first auto manufacturer to use this process: STATIONARY ASSEMBLY LINE. 2. In the Arabic world, what is a madrasa? EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION. 3. In Alex Haley’s ‘Roots,’ Kunta Kinte is renamed ___ when first enslaved: TOBY 4. Which word comes from a French word meaning ‘rung of a ladder’? ECHELON. 5. In what year did Edward Jenner successfully use his smallpox vaccine? 1796. 6. A catkin is a ___ cluster. FLOWER. 7. Kunqu, Hakka, and Pingju are three: TYPES OF CHINESE OPERAS. {The sight of this as the final answer generated a lot of caterwauling at the table. Rather like opera.} 8. Fred Ebb teamed up with ___ to do lots of good stuff in the 20TH Century. JOHN KANDER 9. An interlocutory is something you would most likely encounter in a: COURTROOM. 10. ‘The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle’ is a novel by ___ that was discovered last year. WALT WHITMAN. 11. Synth-pop music is considered a subgenre of what type of music: NEW WAVE, 12. Slave-owning states that did *not* joine the Confederacy included Delaware, Kentucky,: MARYLAND AND MISSOURI.
The team got nine of the 12 without undue difficulty. The problematic questions were GD’s 6, 7, and 8. Those required third-clue saves.
Scatology Round
S1. GENERAL SCIENCE v writers In science, deposition is the opposite of: SUBLIMATION. {This is a rather weak antonym in BLZBUB’s opinion. A better choice would have been ‘erosion,’ perhaps.}
S2. Chinese food v CLASSICAL MUSIC Gustav Holst is an English composer who wrote an orchestral suite entitled ‘The ___.’ PLANETS. {Greek chorus.}
S3. Darts v VOLCANOES The legendary volcano Diamond Head in on this Hawaiian Island: OAHU. {CHILL}
S4. Classical music v GENERAL SCIENCE The theory of Hilbert Spaces belongs to this discipline: MATHEMATICS. {SCOOTR was way faster than BLZBUB on this one.}
S5. VOLCANOES v Chinese food Paricutin is a famous volcano found in: MEXICO. {SCOOTR and CROEM.}
S6. Writers v DARTS When playing darts, each player usually starts with ___ points. 501. {CHILL}
This round went amazingly well. CHILL requests that someone supply the S3 altergory choice for DARTS.
Frightening Round
1. Chantilly, after which Chantilly Lace is named, is located here: FRANCE. {Prompting a bunch of old farts at the table to start singing a certain Big Bopper song.} 2. What A-list star heads the cast of the new movie ‘Suburbicon’? MATT DAMON. 3. Benedict Arnold was one of the leaders that captured the fort in 1775: TICONDEROGA. 4. ‘The Earth’s Name is Juan’ is just one of many poems by: PABLO NERUDA. 5. In 2010, Mark Mezvinsky married this Presidential daughter: CHELSEA CLINTON. 6. The Nika is the Russian equivalent of this prize: OSCAR. 7. In the medical acronym MRI, the ‘M’ stands for: MAGNETIC.
The team got all of these correct, but there was some hesitancy on L4. A few people went with alternate choices, but it didn’t hurt the team scores.
Py-Ram-It Round
P1. Which acclaimed novel is set in a prison cell? Choices: Kiss of the Spider Woman; Fahrenheit 451; A Confederacy of Dunces; The Handmaiden’s Tale; Steppenwolf {none of which were pre-speculations} A: KISS OF A SPIDER WOMAN
P2. The three main types of joints are synovial, cartilaginous, and: Choices: Cratate, Lapsarian, Innoate, Alluvial, Fibrous A: FIBROUS. {WALACE made a nice call here.}
P3. In Spain, the year 1492 saw the first voyage of Columbus along with the: Choices: Edict of Nantes; Marriage of Bloody Mary; Expulsion of the Jews; Founding of Jamestown; Armada Expedition A: EXPULSION OF THE JEWS
P4. In linguistics, pejoration is the process by which a word becomes more: Choices: Meaningless, Obscure, Ambiguous, Disparaging, Familiar A: DISPARAGING. {BRICKY noodled this one out quickly.}
P5. Otospermophilus Variegatus is the scientific name of the: Choices: Purple Martin, Rock Squirrel, Monarch Butterfly, Dromedary Camel, Gray Whale A: ROCK SQUIRREL {The Rascals played a safety here, splitting their answers. Borg collectives who successfully typed in the first word were instantly rewarded with a picture of the little scamp, according to BLZBUB’s secret informant.}
FINAL TRAGEDY Topic: GREEK MYTHOLOGY
In Greek mythology, Arges, Brontes, and Steropes are three
1. Gorgons 2. Satyrs 3. Cyclops 4. Nymphs 5. Witches
The order of the eliminations was 5, 1, 2, and 4, leaving #3, CYCLOPS as the correct answer. DUFF made a quick call on this answer and breathed a probable sigh of relief when the Gorgons were eliminated. The team scored major points on this question as a result.
The top individual scores for the night were 58305, 56412, 55077, 53929, 53535, and 53329 points
The team’s average score for this game was 55,097 points.
The Ragged Rascals’ systemwide ranking was FOURTH Place. But let the record show that after deducting the Borg team scores from the rankings, the Ragged Rascals finished SECOND for this game. As BLZBUB commented earlier, without the pressure of a tournament placement at stake the team played much better. Had the Rascals actually advanced to the Semifinals last week, they would have advanced into the Finals with this score. C’est la vie.
Congratulations to The Fellowship on another Showdown victory. Their 61,316 points was a spare 23 points higher than the Rascal’s crosstown Borg Collective rivals. It appears to BLZBUB’s jaundiced eye that four of the Top Ten finishers for this game were Borg collectives, RASPBERRIES to them.
_________________ }}}--( (x) (x) )---> Oh my gawd, they killed Ken Z. You bastards!
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