REPORT FOR MAY 2019
Our ninth season came to a conclusion with the usually dominant We Know Stuff team on a monthly basis, winning the overall first prize with 297 points- an average of nearly 50 per session. The Cheap Dates team took second and the ever-competitive Cashew came in third. Close behind them was the Crusader Rabbit team followed by The Ministry of Truth. In sixth place was Hotel de Ville and in seventh were the Blonde Artifacts. We had over 90 in the House, with most teams having a full complement of 4 players. Up until this May event, we cleared $2997 for Centraide.
Round 1 delivered a 58% score with all but one team identifying “The Graduate”. Only six teams got two of the three Oscar-winning (Best Picture) movies with many getting tripped up by “Field of Dreams” and “Raging Bull” which were nominated but did not win Best Picture. Only 5 teams got that Einstein was voted “Person of the Century” with numerous votes for Churchill, Hitler, the Computer and Mother Theresa. Nine teams got the two-faced flag of Paraguay. All but one team knew the exact year of the sinking of the Titanic and only one team did not know that section of Canadian history that Halifax was where unidentified persons of that tragedy were eventually buried. Ten teams thought the “Superman” music was from “ET” while 8 teams got it correct with several other answers of “Paint Your Wagon”, Star Trek” and “Finding Nemo”. At the end of this round, 6 teams scored an 8 and were tied for first place.
Round 2 scored 53% with only three teams who knew the first name of Andrew Wyeth’s son, Jamie and these were the Blond Artifacts (art, amongst other talents are among their strengths), Idaho Spuds and Crusader Rabbit. All but three teams knew about collagen and most teams knew that Roger Ebert won a Pulitzer Prize. All but two teams knew that Henry Ford was the first to promote the 40-hour workweek. More teams thought that Levi-Strauss was the oldest clothier in the US and this was a good choice (1853) but the Brooks Brothers won the question with a start in 1818 with 8 teams getting it right. Every team got Shania Twain for the music question.
For some reason, the questions in Round 3 were more difficult than normal with only 36% getting correct answers. Only two teams scored a lowly 6 (for the high score) for this round (Hotel de Ville and Space Cadets). Ten teams knew Ikebana as the Japanese flower arrangement name. Only 4 teams knew the name of the first Anglo-Saxon king of England as Egbert and these were Don’t Think Twice, The Four Horsemen, Boom Down and The Idaho Spuds. Some interesting choices were offered including Clothilde, Harold, Alfred, Richard, Ethelred, with Alfred being the most popular. Fourteen teams knew that Israel portrayed Einstein on its currency with Austria being the second-best wrong answer. Ten teams knew that Albert Speer was the main architect for Hitler. Only 7 teams got Bill Monroe for the bluegrass singer with most liking Earl Scruggs – good name. The leading team at this stage was Cheap Dates with Hotel de Ville and Make Trivia Great Again tied for second.
Round 4 was also on the low side with a 44% score. Only three teams knew the location of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame as Calgary. Many said either Winnipeg or Hamilton. Most knew the history of the Canadian flag as the Red Ensign. Good stuff. Seventeen teams got the 5-cent price of the White Castle “slider”. One team said $2?? All but 6 teams knew that Ken Kesey was the author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Also good stuff. Most got that Berlin in 1936 had the first televised presentation of the Olympics but only 4 teams knew about Madame Tussaud’s early start in 1777 and these were Who Knew, Crusader Rabbit, The Cheap Dates and the Mighty Ministry. Eight teams knew the Hues Corporation (some spelled Hughes but of course were given credit) as the group that performed “Rock the Boat”.
Round 5 was the best of the night at 69% with two teams scoring a perfect 10 (Who Knew and the Crusader Rabbit Redux squad). About half knew that James Audubon was born before 1800. Nearly half the teams knew Beatrix Potter’s character who used a shovel (Mr. McGregor). All teams knew about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics and where the World Cup started in 1930. Seven teams knew that South Africa gave up their nuclear capability; most said it was France. Not many were fooled about the unusual political background of Gerald Ford being born with a different name than we normally know and not being elected to either of the high offices that he eventually held. Only one team failed to identify U2 for the music question. At this point in the evening, Make Trivia Great Again was in the lead with Crusader Rabbit in second-place.
The 6th round scored a standard 52% with Salvador Dali getting all but two right answers. I failed to notice that his name was very small but readable on the $100 dollar bill. Only three teams knew the “author” of the Big Bang as Sir Fred Hoyle. Most knew Edgar Allan Poe as the originator of the modern day mystery story. All but four teams knew that the giraffe has high blood pressure although there were two votes for the iguana- they look so mean it might have been a good guess. Nearly half the teams knew about the Antarctic Expedition of Earnest Shackleton. How he and ALL of his men returned from this nightmare is one of the greatest-ever stories. Kenneth Branagh stars in a very compelling portrayal of Shackleton in a DVD series. The music question was answered correctly by guess who?- yes, We Know Stuff and it was not easy (The Paris Sisters). Other answers were –The--Painter Sisters, Andrew Sisters, Pointer Sisters, McGuire Sisters, Barry Sisters, Ronnettes Sisters, Lennon Sisters, Soul Sisters, Paige Sisters, Shannon Sisters, Staple Sisters, Wilson Sisters and finally Weird Sisters. Nice try.
The last round scored a 57% average for an overall, and typical 53% score. Over half got Bryan Cranston as the pitchman for Preparation H with Christopher Reeves coming in second. He did look a bit like Reeves. Seven teams knew the strange-looking animal the Aye Aye with Flying Jib, Tarsier, Flying Squirrel and Poop Deck being strange efforts considering that the question posed that the name of the animal was a common naval phrase. The Poop Deck animal? Maybe for where the animal deposited waste. The Michael Chrichton question was well-answered. The calorie question about the content of carbs, fats and proteins was not well answered (only 7 got it). The House is in need of our World of Chemistry Food course given now online (with mid-term exams and the final exams in rooms) to 1,636 students this past semester at McGill and 66 at Mt. Allison, also online from McGill. Finally, all teams got the approximate age of Cher (73 this month).
Overall for the evening, We Know Stuff won with The Crusaders second and Cheap Dates and Make Trivia Great Again tied for third requiring a playoff. The results are listed below. I want to thank our Manager, Nicolas Zrihen for the generous vouchers. Also, our financial and bookstore representation, Kim Stephenson and of course our excellent graders, Julia, Mercedes and Meaghan deserve credit. Note that 20 teams came to all of the sessions while 3 only missed one; 8 other teams participated.
I plan on seeing you all sometime in early October for our 10th season. I have all the questions prepared but will fine-tune them over the summer.
