Curiosity in the world: rec.games.trivia - 9 new messages in 2 topics

rec.games.trivia
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia?hl=en

rec.games.trivia@googlegroups.com

Today's topics:

* QFTCI11 Game 7 Rounds 7-8: Britglish, sports autobios - 6 messages, 5
authors
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia/t/2cfc0cdf755bbf9e?hl=en
* *Results* of Rare Entries Contest MSB72 - 3 messages, 3 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia/t/e1c0881c0d67dba9?hl=en

==============================================================================
TOPIC: QFTCI11 Game 7 Rounds 7-8: Britglish, sports autobios
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia/t/2cfc0cdf755bbf9e?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 6 ==
Date: Sat, Sep 17 2011 5:47 pm
From: Stan Brown

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:58:14 -0500, Mark Brader wrote:
> Mark Brader:
> > > 6. The next two questions are about coins in the old British
> > > money, when a pound was divided into shillings and (old)
> > > pence. In shillings or pence, as applicable, what was the
> > > coin nicknamed a "tanner" worth?
>
> Stan Brown:
> > Ten pence? But I see the correct answer is six pence.
>
> What, you couldn't wait until after posting to find out what the
> correct answers were? Are you trying to disqualify yourself?
>

I was trying to be honest. I couldn't wait, but since my original
answer was wrong I would not expect credit for that question. I
know we operate on the honor system, so I didn't want to take credit
for an answer that did not come out of my own knowledge.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

== 2 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 6:22 am
From: "Rob Parker"

> * Game 7, Round 7 - British English, or Separated by a Common Language
>
> 1. In recent decades British English has copied the North
> American usage for names of large numbers, but what was the
> traditional British name for the number we call one trillion?

one billion

> 2. This British term for a rude, aggressive, and possibly
> violent young man was apparently derived from the word "boy".
> What is it?

yob

> 4. We would refer to a 4-lane road as having one outside lane
> and one inside lane in each direction. What is the similar
> British term for what we call the "outside lane"?

left lane

roundabouts

> 6. The next two questions are about coins in the old British
> money, when a pound was divided into shillings and (old)
> pence. In shillings or pence, as applicable, what was the
> coin nicknamed a "tanner" worth?

six pence

> 7. In shillings or pence, what was the coin nicknamed a "bob"
> worth?

twelve pence

carriage

> 9. We call it zucchini. They sometimes do too, but what else
> do they call it?

courgette

> 10. We call it arugula. What do they call it?

rocket

> * Game 7, Round 8 - Sports Autobiographies
>
> 1. "The Sixteenth Round" (1991), boxing.

Muhammed Ali (?)

> 7. "Every Second Counts" (2004), cycling.

Lance Armstrong (?)

> 8. "A View From Above" (1991), basketball.

Magic Johnson; Michael Jordan

> 9. "Bad as I Wanna Be" (1997), basketball.

Dennis Rodman

> 10. "My Side" (2004), soccer.

David Beckham

Rob

== 3 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 4:06 pm
From: Calvin

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:20:10 +1000, Mark Brader <msb@vex.net> wrote:

One billion

> 2. This British term for a rude, aggressive, and possibly
> violent young man was apparently derived from the word "boy".
> What is it?

Bovver Boy?

> 3. A(n) <answer 2> who comes to the attention of the law may be
> issued a court order, similar to being put on probation, even
> if his behavior is not criminal in itself. These orders have
> therefore been controversial and they may be abolished soon.
> But meanwhile, they are known by a 4-letter acronym: what
> is it?

ASBO

> 4. We would refer to a 4-lane road as having one outside lane
> and one inside lane in each direction. What is the similar
> British term for what we call the "outside lane"?

Slip Lane?

Roundabout

I came across this term in a novel the other day and haven't yet had a
chance to look it up, dammit.
2 shillings, 1 shilling and sixpence

> 7. In shillings or pence, what was the coin nicknamed a "bob"
> worth?

1 shilling

Carriage

> 9. We call it zucchini. They sometimes do too, but what else
> do they call it?

Corgette or something like that

> 10. We call it arugula. What do they call it?

Never heard of it

> * Game 7, Round 8 - Sports Autobiographies
>
> 1. "The Sixteenth Round" (1991), boxing.

Ali, Foreman

> 2. "Days of Grace" (1994), tennis.

Borg, Ashe

> 3. "Fire on Ice" (1991), hockey.

Gtetzky, Orr
Tempted to answer "Torvill and Dean" :-)

> 4. "All My Octobers" (1994), baseball.

Reggie Jackson

> 5. "I Had a Hammer" (2007), baseball.

Sosa, McGwire

> 6. "Hitman" (2008), wrestling.

The Rock, Hulk Hogan

> 7. "Every Second Counts" (2004), cycling.

Lance Armstrong, Lemond

> 8. "A View From Above" (1991), basketball.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Jordan

> 9. "Bad as I Wanna Be" (1997), basketball.

Dennis Rodman

> 10. "My Side" (2004), soccer.

Mia Hamm

cheers,
calvin

== 4 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 4:06 pm
From: Calvin

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:20:10 +1000, Mark Brader <msb@vex.net> wrote:

> * Game 7, Round 8 - Sports Autobiographies
>
> This is the literature round.

Really?

cheers,
calvin

== 5 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 5:44 pm
From: Marc Dashevsky

In article <jIudnQu5eP9ngunTnZ2dnUVZ_qSdnZ2d@vex.net>, msb@vex.net says...
> * Game 7, Round 7 - British English, or Separated by a Common Language
>
> 1. In recent decades British English has copied the North
> American usage for names of large numbers, but what was the
> traditional British name for the number we call one trillion?
one billion

> 2. This British term for a rude, aggressive, and possibly
> violent young man was apparently derived from the word "boy".
> What is it?
>
> 3. A(n) <answer 2> who comes to the attention of the law may be
> issued a court order, similar to being put on probation, even
> if his behavior is not criminal in itself. These orders have
> therefore been controversial and they may be abolished soon.
> But meanwhile, they are known by a 4-letter acronym: what
> is it?
>
> 4. We would refer to a 4-lane road as having one outside lane
> and one inside lane in each direction. What is the similar
> British term for what we call the "outside lane"?
left lane

> 5. In Ontario we used to have "traffic circles"; in New
> England they call them "rotaries". The British term for such
> constructions is now used by some people in North America,
> who give it a more precise definition. What is this term?
>
> 6. The next two questions are about coins in the old British
> money, when a pound was divided into shillings and (old)
> pence. In shillings or pence, as applicable, what was the
> coin nicknamed a "tanner" worth?
ten pence

> 7. In shillings or pence, what was the coin nicknamed a "bob"
> worth?
one shilling

> 8. There are several words for the vehicles that train passengers
> ride in. "Coach" is known on both sides of the Atlantic,
> and today so is "car". But what other word was traditional
> British usage?
>
> 9. We call it zucchini. They sometimes do too, but what else
> do they call it?
>
> 10. We call it arugula. What do they call it?
rocket

> * Game 7, Round 8 - Sports Autobiographies
>
> This is the literature round. We did biographies once before
> this season, but this time it is also the sports round. Name the
> athletes who wrote (or, at least, are credited or co-credited for)
> the following autobiographies or memoirs. In each case we will
> give you the title and year of publication, as well as the sport
> that the athlete is best known for.
>
> 1. "The Sixteenth Round" (1991), boxing.
Mohammed Ali

> 2. "Days of Grace" (1994), tennis.
>
> 3. "Fire on Ice" (1991), hockey.
>
> 4. "All My Octobers" (1994), baseball.
Mickey Mantle

> 5. "I Had a Hammer" (2007), baseball.
Hank Aaron

> 6. "Hitman" (2008), wrestling.
>
> 7. "Every Second Counts" (2004), cycling.
Lance Armstrong

> 8. "A View From Above" (1991), basketball.
Wilt Chamberlain

> 9. "Bad as I Wanna Be" (1997), basketball.
Dennis Rodman

> 10. "My Side" (2004), soccer.

--
Go to http://MarcDashevsky.com to send me e-mail.

== 6 of 6 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 8:31 pm
From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader)

"Calvin":
> 2 shillings, 1 shilling and sixpence

For a moment I thought that was 3 answers!
--
Mark Brader "Metal urgy. The urge to use metals.
Toronto That was humans, all right."
msb@vex.net -- Terry Pratchett: Truckers

==============================================================================
TOPIC: *Results* of Rare Entries Contest MSB72
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia/t/e1c0881c0d67dba9?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 8:29 pm
From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader)

Once again, I wrote:
| As usual, for each of the items above, your objective is to give a
| response that (1) is correct, and (2) will be duplicated by as FEW
| other people as possible. Feel free to use any reference material...

There were 25 entrants this time, and the winner is PETER SMYTH.
Congratulations! Dan Tilque took second place and Garmt de Vries-
Uiterweerd finished third.

These are their slates of answers (some abbreviated). As always, you
should be reading this in a monospaced font for proper tabular alignment.

PETER SMYTH DAN TILQUE G. DE VRIES-UITERWEERD
[0] Fernando Pessoa St. David's Day Jules Verne
[1] Deimos Phobos Phobos
[2] German Albanian Serbian
[3] Great Britain UKoGB&NI Britain
[4] Yn Ob An
[5] Ton/in² Millipascal Microtorr
[6] T. Roosevelt F. Roosevelt Grant
[7] Albania Rif Republic Greece
[8] Amstrad comp. game Radio Text-based game
[9] 36 4 6

| Please do not quote the questions back to me, and do send only
| plain text in ASCII or ISO 8859-1: no HTML, attachments, Micros--t
| character sets, etc., and no Unicode, please. (Entrants who fail
| to comply will be publicly chastised in the results posting.)

Tony Wright, the entrant using 334152@gmail.com, Jonathan Dushoff,
Erland Sommarskog, and Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd are all chastised!
You naughty people! Naughty, naughty!

To review the scoring:

| Low score wins; a perfect score is 1.
|
| If your answer on a category is correct, then your score is the number
| of people who gave that answer or an answer I consider equivalent. If
| wrong, or if you skip the question, you get a high score as a penalty.
| The scores on the different questions are *multiplied* to produce a
| final score. ... It is also possible that I may consider one answer
| to be a more specific variant of another: in that case it will be
| scored as if they are different, but the other, less specific variant
| will be scored as if they are the same.

See the questions posting for the penalty score formula.

Here is the complete table of scores.

RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9

1. 960 Peter Smyth 1 8 2 2 2 1 5 3 1 1
2. 2856 Dan Tilque 1 17 2 3 1 1 7 1 2 2
3. 7072 Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd 1 17 1 8 2 1 13 1 2 1
4. 7488 Duncan Booth 1 8 6 1 2 1 13 1 6 1
5. 11900 Lieven Marchand 1 17 1 5 1 2 7 1 5 2
6. 21420 Ted Schuerzinger 1 17 6 3 1 2 7 1 1 5
7. 29952 Dan Unger 1 8 2 3 3 2 13 1 4 2
8. 35700 Erland Sommarskog 1 17 1 5 1 2 7 6 5 1
9. 38400 Duke Lefty 1 8 2 8 1 1 5 6 2 5
10. 44200 Alan Curry 1 17 5 2 2 2 13 1 1 5
11. 57600 Haran Pilpel 1 8 2 5 2 4 5 6 3 1
12. 64512 Jonathan Dushoff 1 8 6 8 1 1 7 WR 2 1
13. 70720 John Gerson 1 17 5 8 1 4 13 1 2 1
14. 106080 Stephen Perry WR 17 5 8 1 1 13 1 2 1
15. 146880 Bruce Bowler 3 17 1 3 1 4 5 WR 4 1
16. 159120 Joshua Kreitzer 1 17 5 8 1 1 13 6 3 1
Tony Wright 1 17 WR 5 1 4 13 2 3 1
Nick Selwyn 2 8 6 3 2 2 7 2 4 5
Ruzica Obradovic 2 17 5 8 1 2 5 6 4 1
Martin DeMello 1 17 6 5 3 2 13 1 2 5
Don Del Grande 3 17 2 3 2 2 13 WR 2 2
Phil Carmody 1 17 WR 8 2 1 13 WR 2 1
Kevin Stone 1 17 1 WR 3 WR 13 3 2 2
334152@gmail.com 1 8 WR WR 1 2 13 3 10 1
Mike Jones 3 17 6 WR 1 1 7 6 6 2

Scores of 250,000 or worse are not shown.

And here is the complete list of answers given. Each list shows correct
answers in the order worst to best (most to least popular). The
notation ">>>" means that "more specific variant" scoring was used.

| 0. Name something or someone that Google has commemorated
| with a "Google Doodle" or "Google Holiday Logo" in 2011.
| (See rule 4.4.)

3 Gregor Mendel (2011-07-20)
2 Evliya Çelebi (2011-03-25, Turkey)
1 Bolivia Independence Day (2011-08-06, Bolivia)
1 Children's Day (2011-04-04, China etc.)
1 Dame Nellie Melba (2011-05-19, Australia)
1 Day of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment & Culture
(2011-05-24, Bulgaria)
1 Dia Dos Namorados (2011-06-12, Brazil)
1 Fernando Pessoa (2011-06-13, Portugal)
1 Festival of Kites (2011-01-14, India)
1 Harry Houdini (2011-03-24)
1 Joaquin Sorolla (2011-02-27, Spain etc.)
1 Jules Verne (2011-02-08)
1 Mid-Autumn Festival (2011-09-12, China etc.)
1 Peruvian Elections (2011-04-10)
1 Republic Day (2011-06-02, Italy)
1 Richard Scarry (2011-06-05, USA)
1 Russia Day (2011-06-12, Russia)
1 St. David's Day (2011-03-01 UK)
1 Tarsila do Amaral (2011-09-01, Brazil)
1 The first World's Fair (2011-05-01)
1 Xu Beihong (2011-07-19, China etc.)
WRONG:
1 Vincent Van Gogh (2005-03-30)

I thought it might be interesting to see if any entrants collided
on this question, given that there are quite a large number of
possible correct answers -- and, as you see above, a few of them did.
Of course, you were more likely to collide if you didn't think of
trying logos not used in your own country.

I decided that answers like "Gregor Mendel's birthday" should be
counted as "Gregor Mendel", because the birthday or anniversary is
more a matter of when the honor is scheduled than of what's really
being offered.

The question was designed so that additional answers would arise
and become correct during the contest period, giving an incentive
for entrants to delay their entry and then choose those answers --
unless they were afraid others would use the same strategy and choose
the same ones. In fact only two entrants chose answers that became
correct during the contest period, and they did each score a 1,
but so did most of the others.

Currently there are 172 possible correct answers shown on the
three pages:

http://www.google.com/logos/logos11-1.html
http://www.google.com/logos/logos11-2.html
http://www.google.com/logos/index.html

(presumably the third one will become logos11-3.html at the end
of the month.)

By the way, Google themselves have used the term "Google Doodle"
inconsistently. Sometimes it specifically means the kind of logo
that "evolves" from one day to the next, as during the Olympics;
other times it's just used the same way as "Google Holiday Logo".
I meant the question to be understood inclusively.

| 1. Name a moon (natural satellite) of Mars.

17 Phobos
8 Deimos

At one point early in the contest the score was 7-0 for Phobos.
Showing Deimos as _ for the sake of visual clarity, the complete
sequence in order of submission was:

P P P P P P P _ _ _ P P _ P _ _ P P P P P _ P P _

| 2. Name a language whose English name obviously refers to
| a specific country now existing, and which is the primary
| language used in a different country. *NOTE*: For this and
| the following question, the usual rule 4.1.1 does *not* apply,
| so that "country" is not limited to independent countries
| but may be used with any sensible meaning. (However, the
| two countries must not share any part of their territory.)

6 Portuguese (Brazil)
5 Greek (Cyprus)
2 Albanian (Kosovo)
2 German (Austria)
2 Spanish (Mexico)
1 English (USA)
1 French (Monaco)
1 Italian (San Marino)
1 Malay (Brunei)
1 Serbian (Montenegro)
WRONG:
1 Arabic (name does not obviously refer to specific country)
1 Croatian (primary language only in Croatia)
1 Tuvaluan (primary language only in Tuvalu)

Portuguese and Greek, eh? Hmm.

http://www.ethnologue.com was the source I relied on for most decisions
about what are distinct languages and which ones are primarily used
in what countries.

The most difficult case was Malay, which the site describes as a
"macrolanguage", which basically means that it's termed a single
language but there are reasons to disagree with that; in addition,
the name may refer more to the Malay people in general than to
Malaysia, but then -- unlike the case of Saudi Arabia -- Malaysia
is where most of the Malay people are. On both points I decided to
err in favor of accepting the answer.

I'm not sure, without checking, how many correct answers there might
be that weren't given.

| 3. Give a name (formal or informal, but not a nickname or
| abbreviation) that is regularly used in English to identify
| a present-day country whose largest city (metropolitan area)
| is London. Again, rule 4.1.1 does not apply.
|
| For example, if I had said "New York" instead of "London",
| correct answers would include "United States" and "America",
| but not "Stateside" or "USA".

8 Britain
5 England
3 United Kingdom
3 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2 Great Britain
1 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
WRONG:
1 Blighty (nickname)
1 British Isles (not a country)
1 Her Majesty's United Kingdom (name and description)

That was fun. I love the way one entrant scored a 1 by including
the word "the".

| 4. Name a word that is a preposition and is 2 letters long.
| Both letters must occur in the English alphabet.

3 By
2 An (German)
2 En (Spanish)
2 Of
2 Yn (Welsh)
1 Ad (Latin)
1 At
1 Au (|Xam) (+)
1 Di (Italian)
1 In
1 Iz (Croatian)
1 Li (Kurdish) (+)
1 Ob (Latin)
1 Od (Czech)
1 Pa (Albanian)
1 Su (Italian)
1 Te (Dutch)
1 Um (German)
1 Zu (German)

This is another one with lots and lots of currect answers, and yet
people found ways to collide. English words that are correct
answers and weren't given include "as", "on", "to", and "up".

In two cases (marked +), entrants named words of at best dubious
correctness in the languages they cited, but which were correct
in other languages. For that matter, "an" was cited as German,
but is also correct in English, as in "miles an hour".

| 5. Name a unit of pressure. You must be able, if asked, to cite
| 3 unrelated web pages where this unit of pressure is actually
| used (rather than defined -- for example, they might be giving
| a measurement, estimate, specification, or forecast).

4 Torr (133.32237)
2 Atmosphere (101,325)
2 Millibar (100)
2 Millimeter of water (9.80665)
2 Pascal (1)
2 Pound per square inch (6,894.757)
1 Bar (100,000)
1 Centimeter of water (98.0665)
1 Copper unit of pressure (no single definition)
1 Gigapascal (1,000,000,000)
1 Hectopascal (100)
1 Kilopascal (1,000)
1 Micrometer of mercury (.13332239)
1 Microtorr (.00013332237)
1 Millipascal (.001)
1 Ton per square inch (13,789,515 or 15,444,256)
WRONG:
1 Kip (unit of force)

Yea, torr!

The parenthesized numbers show the value of each unit in pascals;
most of the ones that aren't powers of 10 are approximate.

Of the two entrants who named the millimeter of water, one gave
it with "gauge" and the other with "column", but the unit is the
same in either case.

The copper unit of pressure is used in connection with firearms, and
refers to a test involving crushing a piece of copper. I could only
find rather vague descriptions on the Web as to exactly how it works,
but the exact value of the unit apparently depends on the specific
configuration of the test device.

| 6. Name a person who was President of the US and made at least
| some attempt to run for an additional term of office that
| would not have been allowed if the 22nd Amendment had been
| part of the Constitution from the outset. In effect this
| means he was president for 6 years or more and made at least
| some attempt to run for an additional 4-year term.

13 Ulysses Grant (1880)
7 Franklin Roosevelt (1940)
5 Theodore Roosevelt (1912)

Franklin Roosevelt, of course, was the only one to actually obtain a
third term, and a fourth too. Neither Grant nor Theodore Roosevelt
was able to obtain his party's renomination for another term;
Roosevelt ran anyway, starting his own party, and lost. Since Grant
wasn't actually a candidate by the time of the relevant election,
I wasn't surprised that he was the most popular answer, especially
among the later entrants. Using the first initial of each names,
this time the answers given in order of submission were:

F T F U U F U F T U U U T U T F U U T F F U U U U

As far as I know, there are no other correct answers among presidents
before Franklin Roosevelt, but there is one later one. Roosevelt's
successor, Harry Truman, was the last president eligible to try.
He didn't overtly campaign for renomination in 1952, but he did
allow his name to be placed on the New Hampshire Democratic primary
ballot, and I would have accepted him on that basis. (Truman was
beaten in New Hampshire by Estes Kefauver, and *then* announced
his non-candidacy. In the end, of course, Adlai Stevenson won the
Democratic nomination and lost the election to Eisenhower.)

| 7. Name a country existing in 1926, that in 1906 either did not
| exist or was smaller in area (not counting dependencies).
| That is, between those two years it was either created,
| re-created, or enlarged. This time rule 4.1.1 *does* apply,
| both in regard to what is a country and to whether two
| countries existing at different times are the same country.

6 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Serbia gained Bosnia,
Croatia, Herzegovina, etc. from AHE, 1919) [= Yugoslavia]
3 Albania (independence from AHE, 1912)
2 Denmark (gained North Schleswig from Germany, 1920)
1 Afghanistan (independence from BE, 1919)
1 Belgium (gained Eupen-Malmédy area from Germany, 1919)
1 Czechoslovakia (independence from AHE, 1919)
1 Finland (independence from Russia, 1917)
1 Greece (gained part of Thrace from Bulgaria, 1913)
1 Irish Free State (independence from UK, 1919)
1 Lithuania (independence from Germany, 1919)
1 Rif Republic (independence from Spanish Morocco, 1921)
1 Romania (gained Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transylvania etc.,
1918-20)
1 Union of South Africa (independence from BE, 1920)
WRONG:
1 Austria (same country as AHE)
1 Republic of China (same country as previous China)
1 Turkey (same country as Ottoman Empire)
1 United States

I'm abbreviating the Austro-Hungarian, British, and Ottoman Empires
to their respective initials here and in the table above. Dates of
independence are generally dates when it was declared; in all cases
there was de facto independence by 1926 (although for the Rif it
ended the same year).

Big collision on the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes here.

I had to make a few close decisions on this one. Rule 4.1.1 says:

> Countries existing at different historical times are normally
> considered the same country if they have the same capital city.

On this basis Yugoslavia, which did not exist by that name in 1926,
is the same country as the KoSC&S, which did; and it's also the
same as the pre-WW1 country of Serbia. That ruling only benefited
the entrants who named Yugoslavia; but on the same basis, Austria
is the same country as the pre-war AHE, and the China's conversion
to a republic did not start a new country.

But note that the rule says "if", not "if and only if", and for that
matter it also says "normally", meaning that judgement is allowed.
I felt that Turkey was the successor to the OE at least as much as
Austria was to the AHE, even though it did not have the same capital,
so the scoring was more consistent if I treated those as equivalent
also. So that's what I did, and this decision is final.

Of course Austria/AHE, China, and Turkey/OE could still have been
correct answers if they gained territory over the 20-year period,
as Serbia/KoSC&S/Yugoslavia did. But Austria and Turkey were (and
are) much smaller than the respective empires, and as far as I can
call China did not gain any territory either.

As for the US, its territories were not dependencies, so the promotion
of some of them to states during the period did not imply any gain
in area.

| 8. Name a medium in which a version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide
| to the Galaxy" (written originally by Douglas Adams) has been
| produced and commercially distributed.

10 Paper
>>> 5 Book
>>> 2 Embossed Braille book [= Braille]
>>> 1 Paperback book
>>> 4 Comic book
6 Computer game [= PC game]
>>> 2 Text-based adventure game
>>> 1 5¼-inch floppy disk
>>> 1 Amstrad CPC computer game
3 LP album [= Vinyl record]
2 Audio cassette
2 Audio CD
2 Radio

This one clearly required general/specific scoring, so that's
how I did it -- unfortunately for the one entrant who "paper".

Note how the original radio series was one of the least popular
answers, while the TV and movie versions were not mentioned at all.

| 9. In some sports completing a specific task scores, all at once,
| a certain number of points that is given specifically in the
| rules of the sport. Give such a number that occurs in the
| scoring of some sport. *NOTE*: You must also name the sport,
| but it will *not* be taken as part of the answer.
|
| For example, if darts was considered a sport, then you might
| answer "25 (darts)", in reference to the score for hitting
| the outer ring of the bullseye; but this would be counted
| equivalently to a correct answer of 25 in conjunction with
| any other sport. But even if duplicate bridge was considered
| a sport, the 22 matchpoints that you might score (in North
| American scoring) by beating the pairs at 22 other tables
| would still not make "22 (duplicate bridge)" a correct answer,
| because the 22 is merely a count of pairs beaten, and not a
| number specified in the rules.
|
| For purposes of this question "sport" does not include
| competitions based only on mental skill and/or dexterity with
| the hands and arms, such as card games, pool games, or darts.

5 5 (rugby union) (freestyle wrestling)
2 -10 (shuffleboard) (tennis)
2 2 (basketball) (rugby)
2 4 (cricket)
1 0 (freestyle wrestling)
1 10 (tennis)
1 11 (MotoGP racing)
1 12 (Formula 1 racing)
1 15 (tennis)
1 18 (Formula 1 racing)
1 25 (Formula 1 racing)
1 3 (American football)
1 36 (NASCAR racing)
1 39 (NASCAR racing)
1 40 (tennis)
1 6 (cricket)
1 7 (judo)
1 9 (pre-season Australian football)

On this one I decided I was willing to trust that the entrants
knew what they were talking about, and accepted all answers given
as correct rather than researching the rules of all those sports.

The entrant who said 0 cited a rule saying that "no points"
would be scored in a certain situation.

Nobody tried 1. In sports like baseball it might be disqualified on
the same grounds as 22 in the bridge example, but it's still a correct
answer in sports where you can score (say) 1, 2, or 3 points for
different specific actions -- such as basketball or Canadian football.

The most popular answer was 5. If the sport had been counted as part
of the answer, "5 -- rugby union" would have been the most popular
answer, given 4 times.

Other than 1, the only number from 0 to 12 that wasn't given was 8.
This is not a correct answer in any sport that I know the scoring for,
but that's all I can say about it.

To reduce the number of correct answers, I probably should
additionally have excluded tennis-style scoring, where "40" is
basically a fancy way of saying "3", and also car racing scoring,
where a number that's basically a count like the 22 in the bridge
example is looked up in a table. But (1) I didn't think of those
cases, and (2) the question was more than long enough as it was.

And that's MSB72 done. Thank you all for playing. Once again the
number of entrants has barely made it into the viable range, so
I guess I will continue this contest series sometime.

--
Mark Brader, Toronto This is a signature antibody. Please
msb@vex.net remove any viruses from your signature.

My text in this article is in the public domain.

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Sun, Sep 18 2011 10:19 pm
From: Dan Tilque

Mark Brader wrote:
>
> There were 25 entrants this time, and the winner is PETER SMYTH.

Congratulations, Peter

>
>
> | 3. Give a name (formal or informal, but not a nickname or
> | abbreviation) that is regularly used in English to identify
> | a present-day country whose largest city (metropolitan area)
> | is London. Again, rule 4.1.1 does not apply.
> |
> | For example, if I had said "New York" instead of "London",
> | correct answers would include "United States" and "America",
> | but not "Stateside" or "USA".
>
> 8 Britain
> 5 England
> 3 United Kingdom
> 3 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
> 2 Great Britain
> 1 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
> WRONG:
> 1 Blighty (nickname)
> 1 British Isles (not a country)
> 1 Her Majesty's United Kingdom (name and description)
>
> That was fun. I love the way one entrant scored a 1 by including
> the word "the".

I did wonder whether Albion would have been a valid answer. But not
enough to risk getting a WR on it. It seems like it would be more of a
nickname than an informal name. The line between informal and nickname
is mighty thin.

Thanks for conducting the contest, Mark.

--
Dan Tilque

Keeping Pluto dead has taken a lot of work.
-- Mike Brown "How I killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming"

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Sep 19 2011 12:29 am
From: Phil Carmody

msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) writes:

Oh, nose! Both my WR's are WR, so no self-supporting rant possible.
Hmmm, maybe there's some leverage in this direction:

> | 8. Name a medium in which a version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide
> | to the Galaxy" (written originally by Douglas Adams) has been
> | produced and commercially distributed.
>
> 10 Paper
> >>> 5 Book
> >>> 2 Embossed Braille book [= Braille]
> >>> 1 Paperback book
> >>> 4 Comic book
> 6 Computer game [= PC game]

Is the computer game actually a version of THGTTG as written by
Adams, or is it merely based on THGTTG?

> And that's MSB72 done. Thank you all for playing. Once again the
> number of entrants has barely made it into the viable range, so
> I guess I will continue this contest series sometime.

Thanks for running it, Mark!

Phil
--
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
-- Napoleon

==============================================================================

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "rec.games.trivia"
group.

To post to this group, visit http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia?hl=en

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rec.games.trivia+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

To change the way you get mail from this group, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trivia/subscribe?hl=en

To report abuse, send email explaining the problem to abuse@googlegroups.com

==============================================================================
Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/?hl=en