It was a packed house with 30 teams and a record-setting 116 in the chairs in spite of the rainy weather. It was also quite a spirited crowd with newcomers from The Desautel Management School naming themselves the Desautel Dynamos – they are worthy of their name as they greatly contributed to the excellent spirit of the night. Also we welcomed a group of young entrepreneurs called Neverguess. This team started with 5/6 and but for an error in the card game Hearts, would have been a perfect 6/6 start.
The overall winner by 2 points in a somewhat confusing ending was We Know Stuff followed by a tie between Cheap Dates and Cashew. The Ministry came in a tight 4th with 48 and tied for 5th was the Hotel team and Metaquizzical. Tied for 7th spot with 40 were Four Horseman (Horsepersons), Idaho Spuds (soon to change their name to Ethelred, The Unready), There is No “I” in Team, Wasted Synapses and Who Knew. To show the competiveness of the night, there were 6 teams with 39 points. Contributing to the bluster of the evening was that we had only one (expert) scorekeeper, Ms. Meaghan Osborne.
As usual, the percentage of overall right answers was within the seemingly inevitable 55+/-2% with 53%. Round 1 was a low one with 42% correct. Nearly half the House got the title of the movie, The Heat, for the first question but the other answers were quite varied: Spy, The Fuzz, CIA, Special Ops, Partners in Crime, Miss Congeniality, Under Cover, Good Cop-Bad Cop, The Hustle, Intern, Spy Hard, Buddy Cops, Spies Like Us and Ride Along-? Most got King Zog and the game of Hearts question about the Queen of spades- 13 points against. Apparently there are many players of the online game Words with Friends as at least a majority of the teams answered correctly. Only 6/30 teams got it that there are both crocs and alligators in Florida. It is possible that “pet” owners introduced the crocs. Eight teams got the Breakfast at Tiffany’s AND Bobby Darin question although there was one suggestion that the singer was Gregory Peck!
Round 2 scored a decent 64% with 80% of teams knowing about Gonzo Journalism. Impressive. All but one team knew the sauce of crushed sesame seeds as Tahini. Also impressive. Most teams knew the strange Shatner film, Incubus, as well. Only two teams got sticky rice as the “glue” helping to combine the stones of the Great Wall of China together. These were Cupcakes and We Know Stuff. Almost everyone else said dung.
Round 3 showed a typical House score with 54%. Eight teams knew that the leather of cordovan comes from the horse. Eight teams know that there was a subway in Algeria and Egypt although Morocco got a number of votes. Nearly half the teams knew of “light” art of Thomas Kincaid and there were suggestions of George W. Bush , Gainsborough, Cezanne, Walt Disney (not a bad guess) and Adolf Hitler. To my surprise, EVERY team knew the Lebanon flag. Ten teams got Scott Joplin, his photo and The Maple Leaf Rag. That was not so easy a question.
Round 4 came in at 57% with about half the teams knowing the CP railway maker, Van Horne. Also, nearly half the teams knew about Baltimore winning the Grey Cup during that 90s experience of having the U.S. involved in our game. One team was overheard to say “What is the Grey Cup”. Maybe we should have more sports questions? Everyone got Curriculum Vitae so maybe more Latin questions? Well over half the teams got the Miter for the “hat” that high-level Catholics wear. One suggestion was Tin Foil Hat. There were numerous duet combinations suggested for the Barbra Streisand-Celine Dion music question (most got it right although one team suggested Celine Dion and Celine Dion). The incorrect votes involved Sarah MacLachlan and Sarah Brightman, Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocceli??, Diane Warwick and Madonna.
The 5th round was the lowest of the night with 41%. Exactly half the teams knew Julia Child’s interest in corn chips and peanut butter. What a combination! Only Cheap Dates got the use of plus and minus symbols in the 16th century. Most teams suggested MUCH earlier use including B.C. dates. Over half the teams said that the “owner” of whales washed up on British shores belonged to the Prince of W(h)ales. Most others said the Queen. All but two teams got the Ferris Bueller question and half got the great Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. That was good.
Round 6 was average with a 55% success score. Ninety percent was the score for the first elected President of Russia with Yeltsin being the answer. There were two votes for Gorbachev and one for Putin and none for Stalin. The youthful Elvis impersonator was well answered as Bruno Mars. Only Metaquizzical and Positive Vibrations got the location of the gigantic thumb statue as Paris; other answers were Singapore, Seoul, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Pretoria, Hong Kong, Beijing, Rome, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Berlin and Baghdad (when did they have time?) One-third of the teams knew the “Country” group of Florida Georgia Line. I noted that one team protested that this was not Country music—I tend to agree but that is their label for the big hit they had. That same team, The Ministry, delivered the exact right answer that there has been a zero recovery of the art theft in Boston. They were joined for a perfect 0 by The Blonde Artifacts and Metaquizzical. Several others got the point with 2 as we were in a +/-2 arrangement.
The last round scored the top of the night with 62% with Bram Stoker being correctly said to be Irish by about half. Every team but two got 3 of the 4 “C” categories for diamonds; the errors for the two were circumference and cleanliness. Seven teams knew the Cypress tree with most saying Mangrove. Only ExMachina got the exact age of Chubby Checker as being born in 1941; almost all suggested he was born in the early-mid 1930s. Even with the youthful picture I showed, he seems to be cataloged as a much older person.
At this early stage of the competition, the Cashew team is in first place by a point followed by We Know Stuff who are in a tie with the Ministry and they are followed by Cheap Dates a point lower. It is close!
All in all, a memorable night and I need to thank again the careful scoring of Meaghan Osborne. I also want to thank, as always, our Greeter-in-Chief, Kim Stephenson, who coordinates book and other prizes from our Bookstore. Finally, thanks to Nicolas Zrihen, Manager of the Club, who provides not only the service for snacks but three vouchers for prizes.
OUR REMAINING SCHEDULE IS:
- Wednesday January 8th 2020 (Round 3)
- Thursday March 19th 2020 (Round 4)
- Wednesday April 8th 2020 (Round 5)
- Thursday May 7th 2020 (Round 6)
Results for November
Overall Results
