REPORT FOR MAY, 2016

REPORT FOR MAY, 2016

OOOOOPS!!  With all the plans to quickly determine the year’s winners, I made math errors and the announced #2 and #3 winners were incorrectly assigned.  Mea Culpa.  The correct list is shown below and due to the glitch, all four teams will be accorded their just desserts (pun intended).  Alex and I were trying to get the data out too rapidly and I subtracted the wrong values from the grand total.  Nonetheless, it was a close battle and it appears all had fun.  The displaced #2 and #3 teams were gracious to give back their prize but we refused this offer.  I told our Manager, Nicolas Zrihen that I would take care of the difference but he is a generous man and insisted on absorbing this amount for the Club.  We are all in his debt for a classy gesture and great ability in managing the Club.

Here is the corrected final tally (with the lowest score dropped) and congratulations to Cashew who missed a key member for the contest:

Cashew           253
Cheap Date    247
Thistle Rocks  245
Boom Down   244
Ministry          242
Blondies          241
Hotel de Ville 239

The full score card is shown at the end of the Report.

There were 104 persons in the House so attendance was pretty much on target although 3 teams, normally present, did not make it.  The last event of the year usually has a slightly smaller number of competitors and it seems that last month’s unusually high scores were more or less back to a bit above the expected 56% with a net 62% overall score.

Round 1 started well (61%) with all but four teams knowing that Minestrone was an Italian soup.  I was pleased that 9 teams know that Linus Pauling won two Nobel unshared prizes; he was a chemist after all.  The Otto Maass team was correct here or they would have heard from me later.  Almost every team knew that a female fox was a Vixen.  Impressive.   Every team was shut out on the most prolific classical composer; no one said Telleman.  Most said Bach.

Round 2 gave a strong showing with 69% and I was very surprised to see that all but 4 teams knew the technical term for nose-picking and I wager that that term never showed up on Seinfeld- Jerry said “NO PICK” several times when he was seen from an adjacent car.  The wrong answers were all centered on the nose however- smelling and blowing.  Sling shots, Frisbees and pea-shooters dominated the wrong answers for the Duncan invention of the Yo-Yo.  Pair-a-Docs, 42, I’ll Ask the Questions, Green Eggs, In Vino, Boom Down, Crusaders, We Know Stuff, Thistle Rocks, Cheap Dates, the Blondies, Gordie Brown and overall winner Cashew knew about the Yo-Yo.  All but one team knew Jodie Foster’s character as an FBI agent and as expected, most knew the music of Fantasia.

Round 3 delivered a 60% success rate with a great many knowing that Harrison Ford was/is a carpenter.  I have to give tougher questions.  To this point, most knew that Alice used a Flamingo to play croquet in “Alice in Wonderland”.  The question about what is the fear when one “has” aibohphobia was challenging as only Trivia Now, Boom Down and For the Record were up to the task.  There were many interesting answers including fear of garlic, robots, flying, being alone, plucking, shouting, ghosts, owls, high heels, birds, ants, the dark, dogs, hospitals, super markets, rain and pain and artificial intelligence and….doing poorly at Trivia.  Wonderful.  Only four teams knew the top Grey Cup winning franchise as Toronto and these were Trivia Now, I’ll Ask the Questions, the Ministry and newcomers We Know Stuff.   Most solved the two Canadian singers although Diana Krall was mentioned twice for Paul Anka.  Hmmmm.

The fourth Round was the toughest of the night with only a 51% average.  Aquavit and the Ministry got the only scores of 8 in this hard round.  One question that gave interesting answers was what metal was dominant in the present-day Olympic medals.  Trivia Now knew as did In Vino, The MaWha’s and Aquavit.  Nickel was the most popular wrong choice.  Most knew Manitoba was the next Province in the fold and a good number chose “Gone with the Wind” as the financially adjusted top money movie. While the last question was a complicated one to ask, many chose correctly getting three of the four of Jerry-Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash and/or Carl Perkins.  The Gordies got Carl to my surprise as he is not as well-known as the other three.  Wrong choices included Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, Hank Williams, the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly.

Round five scored the highest of the night at 70%.  A fair number knew that Babe Ruth’s real first name was George although some said Herman, which was his middle name.  Other guesses were Clarence---Clarence for the Babe?  Aloyshius (sic) and the team will not be revealed, Eldred and Salvatore.  Salvatore is one for the books.  Many knew “Bird” as Charlie Parker.  More than I would have guessed knew “pips” as the dimples on dice and dominoes including the Ministry, the Blonds, Thistle Rocks, Cheap Dates, Trivia Now, the Gordies, For the Record, the Otto Maass team, Cashew, We Know Stuff, Crusaders, Rabble Rousers and Space Cadets.   The novelty song “Purple People Eaters” (clearly a period piece) had clues enough for a 50s answer and quite a few did just that including the somewhat senior Hotel squad.  They were suffering with a missing key member but did pretty well as usual. 

The sixth Round showed the night’s average at 61%.  Many knew Gauguin and a similar number seem to have flown into Sarnia as they knew the airport was named after one of our astronauts.  Most knew “PB” as Personal Best although Pharmaceutical Ban was an interesting alternative and an after the game discussion suggested that peanut butter might have been a training food.  Potato flour was well answered, as was the MGM filming.  Several knew Judy Garland’s signature voice but most confused the male singer (Manilow) with Tony Bennett and I am sure Mr. B. would have been concerned at that conclusion.  The Otto Maass squad suggested Brad Paisley as I have used him twice before so a default answer was not unexpected.  But seriously wrong as to genre.

The last Round scored the average at 60% and only 8 teams knew that 1945 was the quick start of the U.N. and almost all knew -40 degrees was where the C and F temperature scales coincide.   Eight teams knew that a “nibble” was what 4 bits was although the highly ranked Thistle Rocks team insisted that 50 cents was an acceptable answer.  Maybe OK as a nice tip for a coffee but not this time.   Sadly, the ugly mullet was well identified and the last question “Starship” for the group was muddled a bit with Jefferson and Airplane but many knew Gracie Slick’s band.

Thanks as usual to our hard-working graders, Julia, Angela and Alex (soon off the medical school) as well as our procurer of items associated with the Bookstore, Kim Stephenson who also as you know, keeps the books on our annual ~$3K contribution to Centraide.  This year the amount was ~$3,300 in total.  Also I want to acknowledge University Advancement for other gifts along with the Office for Science and Society from the Chemistry Department.

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To repeat, there seemed to be a common accord concerning the format for next year for contributing to Centraide by the procedure of each player on a team paying $40 at the start of the season in October for which a tax receipt will be given.  If about 30 teams all do this, we would accumulate almost $5,000 which would be a huge increase from our usual net ~$3,000.   With this tax receipt, the net donation per event stays about the same as now and the Government “pays”.  Further, it would only be necessary to check in at the desk in the lounge to say which team you represent and save time as well as getting an automatic registration for your team for the year so it would not be necessary to call in.  There can be no refunds in this scheme but another advantage is that substitute players qualify as team members without the need to register.  Certainly teams can continue to register under the present mode.

A reminder of this idea will be given in the early Fall. 

STANDINGS FOR THE MAY CONTEST