REPORT FOR MARCH 2017
To approximately quote Snoopy…it was indeed a dark (windy) and stormy night yet there were only 8 fewer in the House than in January and 28 teams showed up! This is great. Round 1 was by far the easiest of the evening with a 69% showing. For perspective, the time honoured average for the whole evening runs from ~55 – 58% with numbers rarely above 60% although the House record was set in October with 66.5%.
Ten teams knew (or guessed?) that the Marquis de Sade was in prison for 32 years including newcomers, “The Bee Team”. Quite a few were seduced by the “40” theme on this one. Half the House knew “Meadow” as the name of Tony Soprano’s daughter. It was to me, amazing that all but 4 teams knew Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator”. Good going! A dozen got Tchaikovsky for question two. All but two knew John Lennon and all but one used the “40” theme to get the coincidence of the F and C temperature scales. Fifteen Monopoly players were evident in identifying the Reading Railroad as occupying the #5 spot on the board.
Round two scored 50% and the rest of the evening averaged just that number. Half the teams knew about Sudbury being where the very large underground lab is located. That was impressive. Several suggested Montreal- maybe because we have had those sink holes on Sherbrooke recently. Again, to my surprise, all but six teams knew that David Bowie’s real last name was Jones.
Round three scored a more standard 57% for all teams although only 7 teams knew (for all the fuss about St. Patrick’s Day) that March 17th was not the day he drove the snakes out of Ireland but rather the date of his passing. The successful teams were the ultimate winners in a playoff (We Know Stuff), the group that tied them (Cheap Dates) along with Thistle Rocks, Trivia Trail Blazers, newcomers The Bee Team, Space Cadets, and 42. The arithmetic capacities of the House were evident in the question about the birth year of Dr. James Naismith as only 4 teams missed it. I know that the time it took for this question was lengthy, but as it connected to McGill and the interview was recently discovered, it was worth the time. Only the In Vino team and Cheap Date knew that ZIF sockets were associated with computers. Most all teams selected prosthetic limbs. All but one team knew about the Broadway musical, “Hamilton”. I formulated that question several months ago when the play was just getting started but now is super-famous. Five teams got the bogus Aesop’s Fables titles and they were Cheap Dates, Green Eggs, Daughters of EDB, Crusader Rabbit Redux and Cashew. Also only five teams got it that Elvis’ top showing in the top 100 all time hits was only at #96. I was surprised to find this out. The teams were Eli’s Angels, Boom Down, the Spuds, Four Horsemen and 42.
Round 4 showed a 49% level and I was surprised that all but 5 teams knew what the SWAT acronym meant. Further, these five teams were all fairly close to the right answer. Quite a few teams got the oxymoron question but the Ministry suggested “Goldbricker”. Hmmmm. NO team knew the name of the Swiss Cheese holes- many names were suggested including vents, pockets, trous, void, cost savings (good one), apertures, lacunae, divots, air bubbles, zilches, bubbles, vacuoles, corpuscles and grok (?). The answer is “eyes”. Only Boom Down got the time frame for the boomerang in the air (105 seconds). Many knew that Karl Marx spent a long time in England and EVERY team knew B.T.O. for the music question.
The fifth round dipped a bit with a score with 47%. Ten teams knew the odd, rectangular pupil of the goat and many other animals were accused of this including the emu, porcupine, mole, donkey, sloth (a long wait to see this eye), ostrich, owl (c’mon), baboon, sheep and possum. Twelve teams knew where the demise of the “Bricklin” car took place (New Brunswick). NO team knew the names of the raspberry varieties. The musical background of the House is high as most knew who “Fats” Waller was. At the end of this round, Cheap Dates were first, Cashew and Boom Down were tied for second, We Know Stuff was third, Ministry was fourth and Space Cadets were in fifth place.
Round 6 scored a more average 57%. Many knew about Harry Potter lore getting Severus Snape. There were at least 7 fans of “Clue” including the Blondies, Double Pair, Trivia Trailblazers, the Otto Maass team, Thistle Rocks, Eli’s Angles and In Vino. Quite a few teams knew what beta-blockers were about including Trivia Now, Cashew, I’ll Ask the Questions, Diviners, 42, Double Pair of Docs (that makes sense that they knew) and the Hotel squad. The Glenn Miller band was well-recognized via his instrument, the slide trombone (only For the Record got this “official” name-the others just said trombone which was correct of course). The main alternative answer was the clarinet where people were likely thinking of Benny Goodman.
The last round revealed the lowest single round score that I remember and it was 41%. Only two teams took the simplest answer to the question as to why the two sons were set adrift in the reign of Clovis II as it was the mother. My other strong alternative of being left-handed gathered almost everyone else as the best “distractor”. Quite a few got the population of Greenland. Some golf sense was shown by 7 teams getting the longest competitive drive so far as 515 yards and these include the Hotelers (I did not know they played), Cheap Dates and the Trivia Menches. Most got the music question as the “Stampeders”. There were numerous ties for the 7 prizes with a playoff for first place between We Know Stuff vs. Cheap Date which gives We Know Stuff 4 straight wins this season – or said more accurately, three wins and a tie.
As usual, I wish to thank Kim Stephenson for handling the money and Steven, Julia and Cordelia for scorekeeping. Needless to say thanks also go to the service personnel of the Faculty Club and especially our Manager, Nicolas Zrihen who assured me that there would be good attendance on that stormy night. Also I want to acknowledge University Advancement for other gifts along with the Office for Science and Society from the Chemistry Department and again for Kim Stephenson who successfully badgers a host of book companies for donations.
STANDINGS FOR THE MARCH CONTEST
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OVERALL RESULTS TO DATE
