STANDINGS AND REPORT FOR APRIL 2015

STANDINGS AND REPORT FOR APRIL 2015
The House had more players than in March with 110 with 29 teams and the overall scores moved back up to a more normal 56% level.   In fact, each round was between 51% and 60% so we are back on track.  The only “seeming” flaw was a misspelled last name of one of THE Canadian sports icons.  MyBad.  It was correct in the question but missed in the answer.  I could not hear exactly what the ruckus was about until Doug Sweet showed me a ZED in hand signals.  Oooops, sorry Wayne.

I thought the first question about which Monkees’ mother invented liquid paper would be a tough one but---20/29 teams got it right.  Go figure- there is a lot of “knowledge” out there.  Most teams knew it was the Montreal Curling Club as the oldest on the continent.  I was properly informed by Thistle Rocks Captain, Rob Williams, that it is the Royal Curling Club as he gets stoned at that establishment in downtown Montreal. Only two teams did not know the term (Stand or Flamboyance) for a group of Flamingoes.  Twelve teams knew the non-American who has won one of the big four golf tournaments.  Sorry team 42, Phil Mickelson is the ultimate U.S. citizen.  Only four teams knew what a Screever is and they were MaWhats, The Ministry, Positive Vibrations and the Idaho Spuds.  Six teams knew the 38th parallel for the North/South line in Korea and they were The Hacks, Secret Society, Boom Down, For the Record, Crusaders Rabbit and Cheap Dates.  I was very impressed that many knew the Capybara as the largest rodent.  The music question (Joan Baez) was answered by the musical experts on team 42 along with a long string of other teams including Cheap Dates, the Crusaders, For the Record, Secret Society, the Blonde team in the corner,  Diviners,  Marginalia, the Black Hole, the Hotel squad, Rabble Rousers, Positive Vibrations and the MaWhats.

In Round 2, most knew the song relating to the U.S. Civil War and about half knew that Saratoga Springs, N.Y. was the birth of the potato chip.  The smaller planets seem to spin slower than one might have imagined with Venus taking 243 earth days while Jupiter is the fastest and this was noted by the Spuds, Double Pair-a-Docs and Cheap Dates.  The Double Docs also knew what the Secretary Bird is along with the eventual night’s winners, Thistle Rocks and the Rock Stars and Positive Vibrations.  Half the teams knew what a Gimlet drink is made from and seven teams thought the ocarina was a percussion instrument, one a keyboard and one put the brass section but 18 got it right as a woodwind instrument.  Eight teams (Crusaders, MaWhats?, Hotel de Ville, For the Record, Cheap Dates, Boom Down, the Blondies and Green Eggs) knew about the Don River but there were numerous “stabs” including Ben, Vick, Sam, Tom, Mac, Dick, Pete, Rob, Dan (almost), Alex and two Clydes- not so bad the last one.  Musical experts from 42 got Billie Holiday as did 22 others while 6 teams said Ella Fitzgerald.  Pretty good company.

Only three teams knew Donald Duck’s middle name of Fauntleroy and these were the Crusaders, Secret Society and Thistle Rocks.  The Ministry dangled “David” perhaps thinking I would be self-serving but it was indeed Fauntleroy.  Lyonnaise contains onions as the major ingredient and while potatoes were allowed most said mustard and the Bulldogs, Hacks, For the Record, Cheap Dates, Thistle Rocks and the Crusaders said onions.  All but four teams knew about Mr. Bean’s car.  The four said Citroen, Fiat, Hillman and Go-Gomobile (what?).  Apparently this one is a three-wheeler.  Only seven teams knew the origin of the word “doctor” including the Otto Maass team who generously supplied my dancing partner for the evening.  She was an excellent TA for me in organic chemistry so if she was not too embarrassed, I hope she will be present for our last night on May 14.  Be sure to register.  Many knew that Cain was the first born along with Fat Man as the name of the other atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945.  A fair number got two of Trudeau’s middle names but only 7 put Joseph as his real first name and these were the Spuds, the Ministry, Thistle Rocks, Rabble Rousers, Diviners, I’ll Ask the Questions, and the Hacks.  Sadly, the Hotel team had one member saying Joseph but was talked out of it and the team stuck with Pierre.  It should be noted that Thistle Rocks got the only 10/10 of the night in this Round and it was one of the lower overall Rounds of the night (53%).  Congratulations.

Round 4 showed that it was tempting to select Sir Walter’s finger being in his wife’s bag but it was actually his head according to numerous records.  For the Record, Otto Maass, Thistle Rocks, Boom Down and Marginalia selected the head.  Apologies for missing question #3 but it got sorted out later.  Every Round is carefully examined but maybe I made this one up too long ago and thought the lineup was more accurate was than it was.  I was actually accused of having “lots of typos” in the game.  Well, missing Gretzky and spelling gardener two different wrong ways in one question deserves a critique.  I strive to improve but as I said to the two accusers, only two typos in 2000 questions?  Well, maybe there have been a couple of others.  I think.  Quite a few knew that Marilyn Monroe sang to JFK in Madison Square Garden in New York.  Also, quite a few knew that ~65% of undergraduates in the country are in Ontario and Quebec.  Team 42 seemed to be very pleased at getting this right as they have been the most enthusiastic squad I have noticed however, the O-Trivia Newton John team takes the cake in April for laughing non-stop, it seemed, during the whole evening.  The questions weren’t that funny so I think they should let us in on their conversations.  I had to walk over to them and suggest that they loosen up and try to have fun.  Six teams knew the Latin word for pebble (math term was asked) which is calculus and this was missed by the musical and math experts on team 42.  Odd.  Maybe Even as it was from that team I received my spelling critique(s).  The Geo-oriented teams of the Rock Stars and Spuds knew the floating rock as did Green Eggs and a few others.  Every team knew the artist Botticelli.  Every one.  Excellent.  Finally, a surprising number knew that Bob Dylan was an accomplished artist.  The Round had a 58% average.

Astoundingly, all but three teams knew the Kalashnikov rifle as the lead-off question in Round 5 – and most spelled it correctly!  Many knew about tripe including The Black Hole, the Bulldogs and Cee Jay.  This crowd seems either to have a lot of money or a lot of ambition, as 21/29 knew the symbol of the bull for the Lamborghini car.  Impressive.  Most knew the T-bone steak and the Porterhouse were labeled as the same cut.  Some less than half knew the birth name of Jerry Lewis.  Less than half picked Wayne Gretzky as the person who said ”You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”; many said Michael Jordan.  A groan went up as a great many picked Europe as having the most people per square kilometers.  In fact, only three teams got it right as Asia and they were Marginalia, Rabble Rousers and Diviners.  Five teams said only one of the presidents on Mount Rushmore had facial hair, one said three and the rest got it right at 2 (Lincoln, T. Roosevelt).  Six teams got it that the U of T had the first electron microscope in Canada and they were I’ll Ask the Questions, Double Docs, Positive Vibrations, the Spuds, MaWhat? and Cheap Dates.  Many loyalists said McGill and McMaster and Queen’s got a vote each.  Everybody got Lady Gaga for the music question.

For Round 6, almost all got it that Niagara Falls is retreating.  Most got the Mobius strip, which was impressive.  Quite a few got three “DW” words as well including the Rock Stars and our Trivia Trio, O’Trivia Newton John, Trivia Trailblazers and Trivia Now.  Another fairly easy question was the vegetable/fruit that is only bought fresh and For the Record, Green Eggs and the Hacks got it right as lettuce.  There are shoe aficionados who knew the shoemaker’s model of the foot as a “last” and some of these were 42, the Bulldogs, the Hotel team, Marginalia and the Blonde Artifacts.  Over half the teams knew the name of the baseball team on the Simpson’s – the Isotopes.  Pretty good.  Or, maybe pretty bad.  I was able to divert half the teams with the distractors for the origin of “Cut to the Chase”.  Most got Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart but the 42 squad suggested Nat King Cole as the male singer.  I have CDs of Nat.  Will lend.  This was the best round of the evening at 60%.

The first question of the last Round asked the name of the B-29 plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki and only 5 teams got it as Bockscar and they were Cheap Dates, Secret Society, Blonde Artifacts, In Vino Veritas and For the Record.  In Vino also got the fingerprint animal as the Koala along with For the Record, The Black Hole and Otto Maass.  Many knew that the leaves of rhubarb contained the most oxalic acid including Cee Jay and the Bulldogs.  The Dogs also got Thermopylae as the success of the Spartans along with a surprising number of others.  Very impressive.  Maybe they all saw the movie “300”.  Many got the May Fly again including our Trivia Trio, Trivia Now, Trivia Trailblazers and O’Trivia Newton John (great name).  The origin of the red dot in the 7-Up label was about equally distributed amongst the two distractors and the reality that it is a relatively new “logo”.  Of the possible 58 correct answers for the last two questions for the 29 teams, 27 got B.F. Skinner as a psychology guru and all got Blondie for the music question.

Our Manager (Nicolas Zrihen) informed me that more beer was consumed than in the past and more food was eaten.  If you have specific snack cravings, let me know and we will see about providing them.
Some summary statistics:  14 teams have played all 5 rounds and 8 more have done 4.  This means that 22 teams are in the running for the big prize as we do deduct the lowest score of the season.
Thank you all for coming and thanks to the scoring team of Julia, Angela and Alexander for keeping the books as well as Kim Stephenson from our Bookstore for sorting the cash for the Centraide finances and contributing book prizes,edits and questions.  Also thanks to the team at University Advancement for other prizes.
Please register for the MAY  14 th event as soon as possible.
STANDINGS FOR THE APRIL CONTEST