Wednesday, April 16, 2014

April 14, 2014 - Trials Pub

The Quiz, The Players, the Results

Standard Trials Pub Quiz
Lab Coat Guy, Music Guy, Book Guy.
We scored 15 out of 20. This was good enough for first place. It also marks that Music Guy is now at 5 wins in 5 appearances.

The Missed Questions
  1. What does Merrian-Webster define as 'the inability to feel anything in a particular part of your body because of cold, injury, etc.'
  2. What outfielder led the San Francisco Giants with 178 hits in the 2013 MLB season?
  3. 'Search & Destroy' appears on which 1973 album by The Stooges?
  4. Founded in 1907, what is California's oldest surviving amusement park?
  5. What pop star posts on Instagram using the handle 'badgalriri'?
The Right Answers
Our Wrong Answers (and some Excuses)
  1. neuralgia. Book guy was late, and Music Guy deferred the question to me. I immediately wrote down 'numbness', pending Book Guy's evaluation. Book Guy wasn't sure, and was looking for something with a 'neuro-' root. The only one that came to mind was 'neuralgia' (thanks to a notable Countdown Conundrum). Of course, the initial guess that I had was the right one. I'm not bitter, though.
  2. Angel Pagan. Sports is a hit and miss thing for me (not a pun). I like the game, but don't memorize a lot of the details. So this turned to "name a good hitter from the Giants". Maybe I should've remembered that he was injured from most of 2013...
  3. The Passenger. This defers to the Music Guy who, surprisingly, didn't know. At the last moment, this is the answer he wrote, even though this is a song title (maybe it was also an album title?). It just turns out that our collective knowledge of The Stooges is 1) Iggy Pop was in it. 2) Some of the songs are good.
  4. Knott's Berry Farm. My first reaction was that Knott's Berry Farm was more of a 30s thing. The only other California parks that were before Disneyland (1955) was the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, but we figured that we this local park would've made a lot of noise about their centennial if they had one in 2007. Either they have poor marketing, or we have poor memories, since no one recalled any news about the Boardwalk, so we went with another guess.
  5. Miley Cyrus. Again, first reaction was a blind guess on the 'ri' part for Rihanna, but I made no attempt to defend it, especially when Music Guy was more sure that it was Miley. He'll claim that it was totally a guess and he doesn't know anything about Miley Cyrus, but I am not sure I believe him.
My Favorite Right Answers
  1. Name the actor who starred as 'Dr. Who' in the 1965 feature film 'Dr. Who and the Daleks'
  2. Name the 1971 musical film featuring the songs 'Pure Imagination' and 'I Want It Now'?
  3. What Briton's full name is Henry Charles Albert David?
  1. Peter Cushing. I am actually not a fan of Doctor Who, not having watched the original parts, nor anything from David Tennant onward. But I did 100% know this, because one of my favorite sites, Rifftrax, makes fun of movies by adding jokes and commentary. Not too long ago, they did a full length riff on Dr. Who and the Daleks, so more of the details stick. (They also did a riff of Dr. Who: Invasion Earth 2150)
  2. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I drew a blank, until Music Guy filled in the blank. Once he did, we started to launch into the very sweet song that is worth a listen.
  3. Prince Harry. I'm a fan of a certain German game show, called Schlag den Raab. Last weekend, some of my friends did a 5-hour webcast of an amateur version of this same show, calling it Schlag den Brig. The games were absolutely inventive and fun. One of the rounds was a trivia round, with a question to name as many members of the family tree of Queen Elizabeth II (that is, her descendants and their spouses). One of the contestants gave his answer of "Henry or Harry", and that slight bit of pedantry stuck in my head and gave us one point.


Post your scores in the comments! Tell me how much smarter you are!
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April 7, 2014 - Trials Pub

The Quiz, The Players, the Results

Standard Trials Pub Quiz
Lab Coat Guy, Music Guy, Book Guy.
We scored 14 out of 20. This was a tie for first. We won the tie-breaker.

The Missed Questions
  1. In what country was the car manufacturer Audi founded?
  2. Name the John Carpenter directed 1980 film that was his second collaboration with Jamie Lee Curtis.
  3. What team won the National League East with 96 wins in 2013?
  4. What Shakespearean play opens with a scene of three queens seeking an audience with Theseus and Hippolyta?
  5. What is the current home stadium of the San Jose Earthquakes?
  6. Block, Horsetail, Cataract, and Punchbowl are all types of what natural occurance?
  7. (Tie Break) Sidney Crosby leads the NHL with 102 points. How many assists does he have (as of April 7)?
The Right Answers
Our Wrong Answers (and some Excuses)
  1. Sweden. Sweden was my first guess, but Game Guy was leaning towards Germany. We ruled out every other country, other than these two. (We were pretty sure there weren't any major car manufacturers from Denmark or Belgium). Ultimately, Game Guy held the pen, and we let him take a guess. Ah well.
  2. Halloween. We knew that Halloween was a Jamie Lee Curtis movie, we weren't sure if it was the first or second collaboration. To be fair, we did have a John Carpenter question last week, but didn't remember a lot of details. Ultimately, another wrong guess.
  3. Pittsburgh Pirates. I'm the sports representative, and I could narrow it down to the Pirates or the Braves. I had a vague sense that the Braves didn't even make the playoffs (they did), but I guess another 50/50 guess that didn't pay off.
  4. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Whenever it is a Shakespeare play, we usually guess As You Like It or Midsummer or Twelfth Night or something like that. However, last week, when everyone missed the questions on The Two Noble Kinsman, the quizmaster told us that it would be an answer on next week's quiz. I don't think we took the warning seriously.
  5. Spartan Stadium. Another sports question. (Yes, America does have a thing called Major League Soccer) I used to drive past this stadium, and I knew they were at that location. Apparently, they've moved to this other stadium since. Fun fact: they are partners with the Tottenham Hotspurs, or Tot'num
  6. lava flow. Music guy knew that 'Cataract' was a type of waterfall and we agreed. But we had no idea on the other terms, so the suggestion was withdrawn. And we tried to list other things that are sorta 'fluid'. Accordingly, our brainstorm was worth 0 points.
  7. (Tie Break) 60. In hockey, a player's "points" is the sum of their goals and assists. I knew Sidney Crosby is a prolific goal scorer, so estimated that he had more goals than assists, so I wrote down my best guess. Afterwards, I realized my error, but couldn't change it. Since the other team guessed "75", my two mistakes cancelled out, and we are winners. Hooray!
My Favorite Right Answers
  1. Tesla added an underbody shield made of what metal to help prevent battery fires in its cars?
  2. What 80s TV show's theme song was Joey Scarbury's hit 'Believe it or Not'?
  1. Titanium. Most of the car is probably carbon fiber, but the question wanted a lightweight metal. Our guess was either aluminum (or aluminium) or titanium. Aluminum would be the cheaper alternative, but then we reasoned that this is a Tesla and so the more expensive option is likelier. And it was.
  2. Greatest American Hero. An excuse to link to the catchy theme song.


Post your scores in the comments! Tell me how much smarter you are!
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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March 31, 2014 - Trials Pub

The Quiz, The Players, the Results

Standard Trials Pub Quiz
Lab Coat Guy, Game Guy, Beer Guy.
We scored 11 out of 20. One team scored 12, and two tied with 13.

The Missed Questions
  1. What play based on 'The Knight's Tale' in Chaucer's 'The Cantebury Tales' is attributed to Shakespeare and John Fletcher?
  2. In which country were the 1994 Winter Olympics held?
  3. What actor plays a game of chess against Death in Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece 'The Seventh Seal'?
  4. Tashkent is the capital city of what country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union?
  5. Name the 1999 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp.
  6. What sauropod dinosaur was first described based on fossils found in the Grand River Canyon as 'the largest known dinosaur' in 1903?
  7. Name the Oakland A's veteran center fielder who stars most games.
  8. What John Carpenter film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2006?
  9. Who wrote 'Just So Stories for Little Children', published in 1902?
  10. (Tie Break) Miguel Cabrera had the highest batting average in the 2013 Major League Baseball season. Michael Cuddyer came in second. What was his batting average?
The Right Answers
Our Wrong Answers (and some Excuses)
  1. Twelfth Knight. I think we'd have a chance if Book Guy was in for this week. Unfortunately, it's left to three people who only know the really common plays. We figured that it was probably a mistaken identity play, and/or a comedy, so we flipped between As You Like It, and our actual answer. They key fact is probably the dual attribution thing that I haven't seen before.
  2. I am proud of this one. I was pretty sure that the 1994 Winter Olympics were in Lillehammer. I remember this from when I was in high school, and late-night host David Letterman sending his mother to do live reports from Lillehammer all during that time. We even worked out every summer and winter Olympics from 1988 to 2014. And then we wrote Lillehammer because we didn't read that the question asked for the country.
  3. Börk B. Börkman. We passed on this question repeatedly, having little chance of getting the right answer. We even tried the gambit of 'Name any Swedish actor' from that time, and drew a blank. In this case, just make up something. And talk about the Swedish Chef from Muppets Most Wanted
  4. Turkmenistan. There is a map of Europe in the pub, and the rules openly state that consulting it is allowed. Unfortunately, Tashkent is outside the boundaries of the map. It was a toss-up between Uzbekistan and our answer, and we guessed wrong.
  5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Yes. Another week of a Johnny Depp / Tim Burton question. I even looked up a list of films they've done together while writing the last blog entry. But I didn't have the years off hand, so I took a guess again.
  6. Ultrasaurus. I remember this from a book that I read as a kid, as many kids do, because I like dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the history is more complicated, and the bones that were called an Ultrasauros (note the spelling) was actually part of two difference species, including the Brachiosaurus. (Also note that the Grand River is now called the Colorado River, but the Grand Canyon and the Grand River Canyon are two different things)
  7. [Yoenis] Cespedes. Even our baseball guy does not followed the Oakland A's, so we had to take an educated guess. And it was not correct. And sadly, he is no longer wearing the afro.
  8. The Thing. We read the question correctly to note that 2006 was the year it was selected for preservation, not the year it came out. So we thought about his most well-known movie. Alas, Beer Guy actually mentioned "Wait, he didn't do Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street, right?" Apparently, he had an inkling that it was a horror film franchise, but didn't think of another.
  9. L. Frank Baum. This was an attempt to name a contemporary author who wrote something for children. Although, after we learned the answer, Game Guy did mention that reading Rudyard Kipling now is a little be uncomfortable, concerning some of Kipling's views towards minorities. I tend to agree with my friends view. Some of the poems do not suit me today.
  10. (Tie Break) .328 We weren't in the tie break, coming in fourth. But we were in a previous tie-break about Cabrera's batting average, so we played for fun. We were actually closer than both teams, so that's some comfort.
My Favorite Right Answers
  1. What name is available on mini-license plate souvenirs in Itchy & Scratchy Land much to the chagrin of Bart on TV's 'The Simpsons'?
  2. Who co-wrote and produced Iggy Pop's late-70s albums 'The Idiot' and 'Lust for Life'?
  1. Bort. My son is also named Bort.
  2. Davie Bowie. Look! We finally got a music question correct! Without our music guy! (This was a very educated guess, since Bowie did a whole lot of things during that era).


Post your scores in the comments! Tell me how much smarter you are!
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