REPORT FOR OCT 2019
Our tenth season started with about 10 fewer players than normal but the House displayed the usual noise/enthusiasm. The scores per round varied quite a bit but the almost always final, integrated score of 55-56% eventually obtained. Out of 24 teams, 17 knew that Wellington, N. Z. was the southernmost national capital. Not so many (7) knew that Liberia and Myanmar still do not use the metric system. Harrison Ford was correctly identified as being in both American Graffiti and Star Wars by 22 teams. The Moby Dick dedication was identified by half the House as Nathanial Hawthorne- impressive. I was frankly surprised that 17/24 teams listen to more “modern” music with Lil’ Nas-X being correctly identified. Round 1 had a 59% success rate and there was a 4-way tie for second with Who Knew, Van Buren Boys, Cheap Dates, and the British Bulldogs; Cashew made a 9 to take an early lead.
Round 2 dipped to a 45% level with Canadian Ryan Gosling retrieving 22 correct answers- one blank and unfortunately, the Hotel-de-Ville team changed their answer to Ryan Reynolds. This was a great choice but he was born in B.C. (who knew?). For the question on “Frick and Frack”, only Who Knew, Metaquizzicals and Space Cadets got it that it was associated with ice-skating. Only two teams got Sir CharlesTupper as having the shortest term as Prime Minister- poor Kim Campbell received almost all the other votes and she had only the third shortest tenure. All but two teams got the Acadian flag to identify it as a New Brunswick location in the picture (along side of the New Brunswick flag). They do fly the Acadian flag in Nova Scotia according to the Cashew team. ONLY the youthful Otto Maass team got the age of Willie Nelson within 2 years –he is 86. At this stage, The Van Buren Boys were in the lead with 15/20.
The third round scored a relatively low 41% and the question about the quote, attributed to Jackie Kennedy was not answered by any team- a rare event! Eleanor Roosevelt was the most popular answer. The House was 67% correct about the buttercup flower having 5 petals. Fewer than half knew the age (within 2 years) of Dr. Martin Luther King’s when he was assassinated; he was only 39. Interestingly, two-thirds of the teams knew that in Cleopatra’s reign that brothers and sisters of the hierarchy often married. Almost all teams knew the group “Simply Red”. The leader after this round was Metaquizzical. Cheap Dates and the Van Buren Boys were tied a point behind with 20 and The Idaho Spuds were fourth with 19 and Cashew was fifth with 18.
The fourth round was a little better with a 47% score but still below the normal average for a night (56%). Fifteen teams picked up on the interesting cartoon depicting the close US presidential race with the Republican’s “mascot”, the elephant beating the Democrats (Bush vs. Gore). Only 6 teams knew that the longest-serving country’s female leader was Iceland and they were the Hotel squad, Boom Down, Simple Minds, Broken Record, the Four Horsepersons, and The Blond Artifacts. Only the Space Cadets got a difficult question as to the “loss” of a US atomic bomb in 1950 over British Columbia. They had the year within 3 and the place. Almost all the teams suggested either Manitoba or Saskatchewan. I admit the question was tough but an interesting one. Five teams got the right range (within 5 hours) for Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing and they were Hop-Skip-Jump (a temporary name change from Crusader Rabbit), Blond Artifacts, We Know Stuff and the Idaho Spuds. On a positive note, every team knew about Cyndi Lauper’s song but two teams spelled Cyndi with a “y”; correct spelling was a requirement of the question. Cheap Dates and Metaquizzical had the lead at this point in the evening.
In round 5, The Ministry roared back with a 10/10 to tie for first place with Cheap Dates and Metaquizzical (the eventual winners). Most identified the Lion Fish with one team suggesting Chinese Carp. Does NOT sound like it would be tasty which is also the case with the Lion Fish. Almost every team knew Capri was the location of the Blue Grotto. Impressive. Six teams knew what a “snood” is (hair net) with interesting other answers such as beard net, beard bag, follicle cap, blue bonnet, beard catcher, sanitary net, bouffant cap, hair catcher, hair bonnet, bonnet, sanitary cap, fish net and finally epinette. No lack of imagination here. Eleven teams knew the “Amadeus” theme although one group suggested “Rosemary’s Baby” -yuk. The score for the round was a strong 60%.
The wake-up of the House continued in round 6 with a 61% score. Most teams knew about New Zealand’s declaration to remove rats, stoats, and possums. The cooking technique of sous vide was also known by a majority of teams. “Jurassic Park” was very well-known as all got the mosquito in amber as the source of DNA which apparently permitted the cloning of a dinosaur for the movie story. This specific situation of collecting DNA has been strongly challenged in the real literature but it was a great story. Fake News. Six teams knew the University of Connecticut twice won both the women’s and men’s NCAA basketball championship in the same year. Duke received a similar number of votes. Finally, the music question was answered correctly by all of the teams as Janis Joplin. This was great. At this point Cashew, the Spuds and the Ministry were tied for first with 40 with Metaquizzical in second place. Cheap Dates was 4th with 37, the Van Buren Boys tied for 6th with the Hotel de Ville team.
The last round was a breeze with what I think may be an all-time 10-year record of 75%! Most teams got most of the questions correctly. The penguin names were correctly chosen by every team. The large leg bone (tibia) was known by all except for three incorrect answers where one used “fibia” one with “femer” and one with “shin”. Music is a strong suit of the House as all but one team knew the “Chicago Transit Authority”. What was interesting about this round was that Metaquizzical needed a 10/10 to win and they did it! Cashew was second for the night with 48 and The Idaho Spuds and the Ministry came in tied for third with 47; Cheap Dates, Hotel de Ville, The Van Buren Boys were tied for 5th with We Know Stuff. There were complicated play-off “rounds” to determine the final order.
As is usual, I want to thank our excellent scorekeepers, Julia, Meaghan and Mercedes. Also, thanks also go to our manager for the 3 vouchers and to Kim Stephenson for keeping the financial score/some prizes
Results for October
