STANDINGS AND REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2014
The House had almost 100 players to witness the rise of a very competitive new team, Crusader Rabbit Redux (perhaps our most unusual team name yet). The Rabbits started slowly with a 4 on Round 1 but were competitive throughout the evening getting 2 of only three 9s of the entire night. They finished one point short of the Ministry at the end. As you will recall, the Ministry struggled in the October game but were victorious this month with a very respectable 50 points.
Thistle Rocks came in third with 47 and the Hotel gang and the Spuds tied for fourth with the Hotel winning the playoff. Cashew and the Space Cadets tied for 6th with the Cadets coming quite close to the correct time of the signal from the Asteroid to earth thus winning their playoff round. Only 4 points separated the next 8 teams so it was a fairly close competition overall.
Round 1 with numerous multiple choice questions came off as the most difficult of the night with an average of only 38%. In the future, there will be fewer of what I thought would be easier questions given the answer can be selected from the list. This sort of question enables some unusual queries to be asked that normally would be too obscure to be reasonable. Case in point, the most NHL goalie saves in a shutout which was question #1, was judged accurately (who knew the real number?) by 21 of the 28 teams. Good guessing. Question two about the left-side driving was not a multiple-choice question and was answered by only half the number as question #1. Some answers were the British Empire—with Japan on the map that answer would not fit. I suppose the camel dropping question seemed too gross to be the right answer as only 6 got it right including Trivia Now, the Spuds, the Rabbits, the Hotel staff, newcomers I’ll Ask the Questions and the Ministry. Eight teams correctly got it that it was a Canadian who invented kerosene including Thistle Rocks, The Black Hole, the Bulldogs, In Vino and The Deviners. Only 6 knew Charlie Rich for the last question including Marginalia, Ma What and Cashew. Most said Charlie Pride or Atkins (not the diet guy). The early leaders of the October event, 3 Old Guys got off to a bad start but they rallied back finishing with an 8 on the last round.
Round two was a bit better with 45% (a normal average is about 57%). Green Eggs and Ham scored a top score of 7. Sixteen groups for the most part mangled the spelling of McILHENNY but the Bulldogs were the only team to spell it absolutely correctly. There were other answers like The Tobasco Family, Callararos, O’Reilly’s, Sanchez, Hasbro, Lea and Perrins, Pappardevy (sp?) and Bourdain. I think the latter team watches CNN but it was clear there are many who “more or less” know the name. The For the Record team even knew it was Avery Island in Louisiana where it is produced. Bravo! The Secret Society, the Decibels, Green Eggs and The Trail Blazers also got this one right. The lack of facial hair on the Kings was done well with only 1 team suggesting it was a black King and a large number knowing it was the King of Hearts (the Suicide King) including the Blondes, Italian Raster and the Rock Stars from “Geology”. A great many knew Pete Seeger as a song writer but only three in the House knew how many tobacco layers there are in a hand-made cigar and these were In Vino the Dewey Decibels and Merry Trivia.
In Round 3, the teams averaged 63%, well up from the previous performances with Boom Down getting a near-perfect 9. Every team but one knew Quebec’s top position in maple syrup production. Too easy. Most teams (19) knew that triskaidekaphobia meant fear of the number 13 but there were some imaginative alternatives posed such as fear of being kidnapped, fear of tricycles, trinkets, dancing (maybe my dancing) and goats. Goats! There is no credible word I could find for this fear condition although some people are indeed quite frightened of this animal. All but one team knew that the “Mc” or “Mac” meant “son of”. Quite a few knew Superman’s original name including the Secret Society and the Hacks and almost all knew that “The Black-eyed Peas” recorded that brilliant set of lyrics to “I’ve Got a Feeling”. The Hotel gang, Boom Down and For the Record were the only ones who knew the composition of the drink called a “Zombie” and many suggested “Long Island Tea” which in fact is a drink made of vodka, gin, tequila and rum. Wow!
Round 4 saw a dip in the average to 53% with only 4 teams who knew that Stephen King had the setting for ”Misery” and “The Shining” outside of Maine and these were Boom Down, In Vino, Cashew and the Rabbit clan. Seven teams knew that Montreal was the inaugural city for synchronized swimming including the Blonde crew, Space Cadets, Rock Stars, Positive Vibrations, Italian Rasta, Trivia Now and For the Record. The Spuds, Rabbits and Bulldogs (farm-like names) with 4 other groups knew that “Some pig” were the starting words of “Charlotte’s Web”. The national sport of Japan was split between baseball and sumo wrestling and almost all knew that Paul McCartney was the singer in the video.
The next round saw an increase in the overall scores to 61%. Many teams knew that James Naismith was the only losing University of Kansas basketball coach. Bravo! Quite a few also knew that Buddy Holly and the Crickets (not the Reindeers) recorded “Oh Boy” including Marginalia, The Hacks and The Blond Artefacts. A period piece. To my surprise, the top team of the night did not know the first email was sent as early as 1971. I guess that was when they were youngsters. Almost all knew that Harry Connick Jr. was the singer in the last song of the set. The Spuds and Bulldogs got the cartoon about the Flat Earth Society along with several others. One group suggested it was “Mensa” and another the “International Order of Fools”, IOOF).
In Round 6 (61%), all but one team knew about Spot the Dog and the Green Eggs group knew both the dog and the cat. It was interesting to see the dog-orientation of the teams. Not so many knew the poem by Byron with many possible authors but a few others including Marginalia, the Ministry, Trivial Trailblazers and the Blonde team knew the answer. Hockey experts on the top Ministry team did not know the 4-3 score oddity in the recent playoffs but the likely non-hockey group of the Artefacts got it. Ma What and the Rasta crew also knew this obscure fact. Michael Bublé was widely credited in performing the duet with Tony Bennett and almost all knew that Ginger Rogers was Fred Astaire’s dance partner in the video. Nearly all knew that blood is detected by luminol (too much CSI watching or too many taking the World of Chemistry course on Technology- NOT). Only two teams knew that copper was the 7.5% metal in sterling silver and the prize goes to the Spuds and Thistle Rocks.
The last round of the night scored 63% (overall 53% for the entire evening) with most teams scoring 6, 7, or 8 . The Crusader Rabbit Redux clan nailed a 9 and almost tied the Ministry in this final round. Question 1 was about where the term “horse sense” comes from and to do this type of question, it only seems reasonable to make it multiple choice style to see if I can come up with plausible distractors. Eighteen teams were seduced to try other choices outside of the established correct one that it was the shrewdness of horse traders. This included a success by 3 Old Guys, the Dewey Decibels and Positive Vibrations amongst others. “Who Was Who” for those famous who have died was scored very well by most teams. However, only two teams knew about the famous WW2 battle of Corregidor. A great many other battles were mentioned including Guadalcanal, Midway, Luzon and Wake Island although Bikini Atoll was an atomic test site after WW2. No credit. Most all teams knew about Snoopy’s recreation room as did most all knowing the beer question about stout. Not being stout- that can happen because of drinking stout. Finally, Zucchero was better known than I had thought although I am still hoping some dancing might spontaneously ensue one night. I am ready.
Overall after two rounds the Thistle Rocks team lead the pack and the dynamic duo of Cashew are a point up on the perennial favourite, The Ministry. The Hoteliers are 4th and the Spuds and Dewey Decibel round out the top six. There are 21 teams who have played both rounds and by the rules, all teams can deduct their lowest score. There are another 10 teams who have had one round and if they continue to play, will have a shot at challenging the others. There will be a new team planning to come for the January, 2015 contest. They are a strong group from Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) and they plan to start training immediately as they have strengths from the diverse fields of Physics and Educational Psychology.
Thank you all for coming and thanks to the scoring team of Julia, Susanne, Kayleigh, and Alexander for keeping the books as well as Kim Stephenson from our Bookstore for keeping track of the Centraide finances and contributing edits and questions.
Please register for the January 16th event as soon as possible.
STANDINGS FOR THE NOVEMBER CONTEST
Overall 53%
OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER TWO ROUNDS
|