REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2016

REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2016

There were a few teams missing (21 Questions, Diviners, I’ll Ask, Rabble, Replication Crisis, Rock Stars and the Menches; some called in to say they would be absent- thank you) from the usual 32 but almost 100 players welcomed Jeremy Clark who very generously funded all the food and drink for the House.  For those who weren’t present, he is a McGill graduate who has established a successful financial company in Calgary and has supported graduate fellowships at McGill for some years that are oriented to expose science graduate students to business practices.  His fellowships cover about 7 Departments at McGill.  THANK YOU JEREMY!

The overall winning team was a repeat from last month with We Know Stuff coming out on top with 54 points.

Round 1 was reasonably easy with a 68% score and the 42-ers topped the list with a 9.  Only the Ministry, 42, Cheap Dates, the Bulldogs, Aquavit and For the Record knew Trump’s middle name is John while almost all the other answers were James or Joseph and no one chose the name Jeremy.  Good.  Also, nobody selected Jackass in protest. 

Every team but one knew how the Bishop moves in chess and most reasoned that 1829 was about right for the inclusion of flush toilets in a hotel.  Also, most knew Socrates was the eldest of the Greek philosophers.  Most all got the homophone words and about half knew Fenway Park was where Neil Diamond’s song is regularly played during a break in the game. 

Round 2 showed a 60% average and to show what a strong group we have, I was sure that the “Mouse Trap” would be a difficult question but most got it as they did with the Akimbo posture and life being ….brutal and “short”.  However, the Scottish pattern of Paisley was only scored by Eli’s, the Positives, Interrobang, 42 and the Spuds.  It turns out there iis one team member of that team whose last name is Paisley.  Most said Argyle.  Many scored that Plexiglas was first invented at McGill but that may have been “guessed” by my flagrant advertising of chemistry here at home.  A few thought Julie Andrews was 86.  Shame!,  but one suggested 74.  In this round, the Boom Down team scored a perfect 10.

The third round scored 62% with the Spuds and the Hotel team getting the top score of 9.  Several perceived that the Ghost Army was composed of inflatable tanks and other sorcery including our benefactors the Calgary Carbon Taxers and Aquavit.  The most popular wrong answer was playing dead on the battlefield.  Only about a third of the House knew that a sloop has only one mast.  In the multiple choice questions I have to come up with alternative but plausible responses and 12 were incorrect in the origin of “brass tacks”.  About the same percentage did not know the huge price of the most expensive auctioned book.  The House was good with the Cyclops question although the Daughters team said  “Polyphemus” as did the Otto Maass group (they also said Cyclops) but one more point was given to the Daughters’ team as “Polyphemus” is a far fancier correct answer.  I believe that “corrections” after the fact have to be left as they were initially scored when the prizes were delivered due to excess complications of prize reversals but the point difference should be recorded for the final results.  This extra point brought the Daughters’ team to third place overall instead of the tie.  Finally, most got Turkey which was the site of the battle of Gallipoli.  It was also impressive that many knew that Marianne Faithful delivered the music in question 10.

Round 4 came in at 70%, a high rate of success and my favourite shoes were detected by only 9 teams:  42,  Aquavit, the Artifacts, We Know Stuff, For the Record, Trivia Trailblazers, the Spuds, Thistle Rocks and Eli’s Angels.   Most every team knew about the guard of Hell and Annie Oakley.  Only two teams were close to the number of freckles on Howdy Doody prior to 1959.  The year was the clue as that is the year that the U.S. advanced the number of states to more than 48.  Thistle Rocks and the Bulldogs said 49.  Very close.  About half the House knew Sinatra and Pavarotti as the odd duet singing “My Way”.

 The fifth round gave a score of a more normal 59%.  Here, Cashew made a perfect 10.  Most knew “Jaws” via the famous quote about the “great fish” but only 5 teams knew the 48^th state to enter the Union (Arizona) and they were Cashew, the Blondies, Green Eggs, We Know Stuff and our hosts, the Calgary Carbon Taxers.  Many knew that Christianity was dominant in South Korea.  The question about the widest river unfortunately has a variety of variables including the fact that the width of the Amazon can vary considerably depending on the flow and the St. Lawrence is indeed wide but it seems to depend on where the river turns into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  I think for simplicity’s sake we will go with the Wiki interpretation.  A fully-admitted amateur evaluation on Google Earth would suggest that the Amazon’s width is greater at what would be an arbitrarily chosen “mouth”.  Carly Simon’s song including “…a total eclipse of the sun..” focusing on Nova Scotia was well-identified by most in the House.  That surprised me although there was a lot of chatter and maybe I let the words out of the song.

The last two rounds showed only a 50% score.  Round 6 showed that most knew Dirty Harry’s last name as Callahan.  Every team knew the Red Bull drink- I was afraid of that indicated this dreadful product is very well-known.  The company even has a special car for ads on Campus at different times.  Bunk.  Every team knew ballet and mallet.  It appears that only the Bulldogs knew that Bwana Devil was first 3-D colour film (only by a few months over House of Wax).  Other suggestions of the first 3-D film included The Wizard of Oz, Godzilla, Ben Hur, Bambi, Fantasia, The Blob, The Thing, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Dial M for Murder, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Vertigo, Night of the Living Dead, Rear Window (shades of Jimmy Stewart) and one vote for “WTF?”.  Not so many chose our own Bryan Adams for the music answer.

As mentioned, the last round was also at 50% and it started well with all teams getting the “math” progression where the answer was 47.  All got the blood types but only about half knew about the first atomic bomb for India.  Many knew the odd word “queue” and there was one guess at leeii which doesn’t come up with much on Google.  There was a major error of mine in “being out of town” when the death of the King of Thailand was announced the week before so ALL teams but one will receive one more point thus upping the averages somewhat from the previously stated numbers.  The House was very noisy when the previous owner of that title, the Thailand King was announced as the “answer”.   Apologies but all ended well with no change in the standings.  Note that only 7 points separate #2 to #11.

Thanks as usual to our hard-working graders, Jocelyn, Steven and Cordelia and thanks also to the procurer of items associated with the Bookstore, Kim Stephenson, who also as you know, keeps the books on our annual ~$3K contribution to Centraide. Also I want to acknowledge University Advancement for other gifts along with the Office for Science and Society from the Chemistry Department.

THE STANDINGS FOR ROUND TWO OF SEASON 7 ARE PRESENTED BELOW

STANDINGS FOR THE NOVEMBER CONTEST

OVERALL RESULTS TO DATE