Three ties in a row. That’s nothing to celebrate, really, but this latest tie was 2(2)-2(3), so I’m pleased that I defended perfectly and that my opponent did not.
1. What 1940 animated film was the first commercial film to be exhibited with stereophonic sound (i.e. in stereo)?
A Disney movie, obviously, but which one? I said Dumbo for no particular reason… and then thought — oh, wait a minute! It’s got to be Fantasia! A movie where the music is nearly as important as the animation! Suddenly this became a gimme.
2. A machine called the Thanatron, and a subsequent similarly applied device called the Mercitron, were both used for what purpose?
Thanatron rang a bell, and Mercitron did not, but it was the contrived name of the latter device that gave it to me: Either this thing teaches you how to say “thank you” in French, or it shows you mercy in some way. How might a machine show mercy? After some thought, it made sense that this thing would painlessly kill a suffering patient. I said “euthenasia,” and this was correct.
3. Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories. With that opening sentence, Sue Fondrie of Appleton, Wisconsin, in 2011 won a literary contest named after what English novelist and politician?
I know about this contest — it’s a “bad writing” contest inspired by the classic opening line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” But I have no idea who originally wrote that line. Apparently it was Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Shyeah, right.
4. The 19th c. English painters and writers John Everett Millais, Frederic George Stephens, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Michael Rossetti were all members of a group which named itself after what other painter?
I guessed Manet just so as not to leave this blank. Should have said Raphael.
5. What is the current name of the sub-Saharan nation in West Africa which was known in its pre-colonial era, and from its 1960 independence until 1975, as Dahomey?
I was pretty pleased with my guess of Djibouti. Dahomey? Djibouti? Kinda sorta sounds the same if you squint your ears? (Do ears have a parallel to squinting?) Well, it was wrong. What I wanted was Benin.
6. HEAR Music, originally a small CD retailer, was purchased in 1999 by what corporation, where it is now that company’s record label and music brand?
A question I might have answered correctly on some other day, but the answer wasn’t coming to me when I needed it. I went with Amazon, fully aware this was going to be wrong. Starbucks. Oh, right! They sell music now. Darn.
I am fairly certain that my job in this season is to lose to everyone so that people can feel good about having a tough time in the D League. I have been hovering in demotion range this whole time but today I lost on defense which is inexcusable. My opponent apparently was smarter about 40′s films than I expected. Lost 3(3) to 4(3). Would have tied if I’d spent more time thinking about killing machines.
1. “What early cartoon bla bla bla MUSIC” was what this question was to me. Early cartoon implies Disney. Music implies Fantasia.
2. Did not spend enough time on this. From the roots I figured it was some death machine but I was thinking more ironic names for electric chairs so I said executions/killing people which was not accepted as a correct answer.
3. Read the Bulwer-Lytton winner lists for fun when I was a kid, this one was a gimme.
4. I guessed a painter that I can’t even remember for this one. Oh wait, I guessed Rabelais who isn’t even a painter. Embarrassing, but the R was correct.
5. I absolutely need to buckle down and learn more about Africa, though if past seasons are any trend the Commissioner will move on to other continents/nations to continually thwart me at geography. I suspect India may be next. They both have such interesting railway systems.
6. “What company has a music label/brand?” was this question and I have no idea how I pulled off Starbucks, though living in Seattle for 12 years may have helped.
Pretty much the same experience as Jessamyn. Got Fantasia, Bulwer-Lytton and Starbucks and went straight for Capital Punishment on the death machines. No shot at Benin or Raphael. The only difference is that Rundle Leader Ben Bass got a six pack so it was an easy to accept defeat.
1. Same path to the answer as our illustrious host — it has to be the one that focuses on music.
2. Thought of assisted suicide straight off and never looked back, though why they decided these inventions, especially “Thanatron”, needed to sound like something they’d have on board the Starship Enterprise, I’ll never know.
3. The hey? Gimme for me, and I’m surprised that more people didn’t know this name. It only got a 26% correct answer rate.
4. I too guessed an R, but in the absence of a name of a movement or club with another name of a painter in it coming to mind, I said Rembrandt.
5. I remembered the answer to this primarily because it’s one of the mistakes in “Yakko’s World” from Animaniacs. Both Benin and Dahomey appear in the lyrics. (I may forgive some of you for not knowing Bulwer-Lytton, but if you don’t know what song I’m talking about, I may not.)
6. I thought I had an advantage with this one — HEAR Music used to have shops set up inside larger Chapters stores in Canada, including the one where I worked (you know, back when they sold books). So I guessed that the sister company in the States swallowed them up: Barnes & Noble. Oh, right. There was also a Starbucks in the store….
This was the day that I faced the rookie who’s been forfeiting all the time, but he showed up for my game, which makes me feel better, really. A 7(4)-3(2) victory kept me steady and holding in 6th place.
1) If I remember right, there’s even a sequence early in the film with an animated sound wave jumping back and forth, no?
2) agree with Dart: my first thought on “Thanatron” was that it sounded like a death ray. The roots made me think of euthanasia but for some reason I balked at entering it. I put “extermination” and am kind of glad they didn’t accept it.
3) know af the contest, and knee I wouldn’t come up with the name.
4) thought of “Raphaelites” for no good reason, and couldn’t come up with another person-based group name, so Raphael it was.
5) said Burkino Faso.
6) might’ve come up with this another day, but not yesterday.
All the days I’ve lost with four correct answers had me unprepared for winning this one with only two. I got 0 for Fantasia and 2 for Raphael, but that was enough to beat my opponent’s 1 on euthanasia.
1. No other reasonable guess came to mind.
2. Hemmed and hawed over this one, nearly answered “killing” in an attempt to straddle, finally decided to commit and said “assisted suicide” then thought I got it wrong at it was some kind of machine for vets when I saw euthanasia. (I blame a David Sedaris story). But googling told me I was right and kevorkian did have some kind of machine.
3. I knew that one well. The original sentence goes on for about 200 more words and three subordinate clauses after “stormy night,” btw — if it was just snoopy’s preamble that wouldn’t be so bad.
4. That one art survey course I took in college and got a C in has already saved my bacon more than once in this game. Although I might have groked it from the Rosetti/Shakespeare/Ophelia/Poetry connection.
5. And again, that one course I took on Francophone Africa and its Benin-born professor has also saved my bacon more than once in this game. Mostly because he shamed us into memorizing a map of the continent. I no longer have it memorized but name still float up in my brain’s magic eight ball. (Though I felt very shaky about this answer. But I had no better guess and Benin kept tugging at my mind).
6. First thought was wal-mart, then felt rather clever when changed it to Napster, as i think they were trying to go legit for a while around this time. Starbucks was guessable, though.
1 — 1940 felt to me a little early for Fantasia, but there was nothing else that even came close to a good answer, so Fantasia it was.
2 — I knew the name Thanotron (was it in that movie about 2 years ago where Pacino played Kevorkian?), so this was straightforward. I’d forgotten, or never knew, about Mercitron. Curiously, perhaps, I spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to phrase my answer. Suicide? Assisted suicide? Physician-assisted suicide? Euthanasia (which seems a bit imprecise to me, since that does not necessarily take into account that it is at the request of the patient). Eventually settled on “Suicide (if need more specific, then assisted suicide),” which was good enough.
3 — Ouch and ouch. I had Lytton immediately, but … what was the other name?? For literally about an hour, I had voices in my head trying various combinations of things, trying to get it right. I went from Buckwiler to Buckhalter to Bullwiler to Fullwiler, and eventually stopped there. For about 15 minutes each, I though each of those was correct. Ah well. I wonder whether Bullwiler-Lytton would have gotten the points (and, if so, I wonder whether I would have felt bad about that). We’ll never know.
4 — I did not spend much time on this, knowing that time was not likely to help. I said Rembrandt, because why not (though as I was submitting, I realized that naming your group after Rembrandt might sound a bit ironic — “Hey, look at us, we’re a bunch of Rembrandts over here!”). I hadn’t considered that the group might be an -ite group — if I had, that would have increased the chances of me getting to Raphaelites, though not by much.
5 — Yeah, right. I would not have gotten this question right had it been multiple choice and all four answers were Benin.
6 — A nice question, and one that was guessable (because I guessed it). Started with Amazon, but I then thought their own label would be more prominent, and it seems too early for them to have gone there. Flirted with AOL and Napster, but kept coming back to “a small CD retailer.” Who would have wanted the ability for physical CDs around that time, when the future was going to be downloads? Somehow, Starbuck flew into my head and grabbed hold — sure, they sell CDs, and even probably put out some of their own music (indie artists around holiday time?). So, an educated good guess.
Perfect D by my opponent, and my opponent getting the hardest (by stats — Benin) question right, left me with a 2(2)-3(2) loss. I can’t really complain about a loss when I only get 3 correct — I’ll reserve that for days when I get 4 or more correct (I *can’t* lose then, right?)
1. Thought I remembered that Snow White was 1940. Oops.
2. guessed it from the roots (thanat- and mercy).
3. Went between Burke and Walpole. I knew what the question was talking about, and would never have remembered Bulwer Lytton.
4. Recognized Rosetti as a member of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
5. I guessed something random. I barely remember that Benin is a country- geography is not my strong suit.
6. Guessed Disney.
Another tie, 2(2)-2(2).
1. Wasn’t aware that it was the first stereo film, but animated and 1940 brought Fantasia to mind and it seemed so right that I just stayed there.
2. Thanatos and mercy here as well, plus a niggling little something in my head which connected it with Kevorkian. The “good doctor” was from Royal Oak, MI which is where I grew up.
3. I own a paperback book with Bullwer-Lytton entries. They’re so much fun. It really takes an excellent and creative writer to write such fiendishly bad opening sentences.
4. Also recognised Rossetti as a Pre-Raphaelite. Actually, no one in the Champ Rundle missed this one, which surprised me a little.
5. Ah, stamp collecting. Back in high school (a million years ago) I had several stamps from Dahomey which got displayed nicely on the pages marked “Dahomey/Benin”.
6. I’m not a regular at Starbucks, and this one took a bit, but eventually I happened upon the Starbucks concept and never let go of it.
I managed to grab a 9(6)-9(6) tie again, and retained third place in my Rundle at 7-1-7. Today I’m up against the brilliant co-NPLer PliskaG. Should be a good match.
1. Thought Dumbo was 1940 (off by one year), didn’t twig to the musical road to correctness.
2. I thought it was probably euthanasia, but possibly capital punishment. Since the only thing that separates those jobs are one’s intentions, I straddled and submitted “ending human life,” which was accepted.
3. Knew it.
4. Drew a total blank.
5. I memorized all the African capitals a decade ago (as part of memorizing all the world capitals), knowledge that pretty much outlines my African geographical expertise and that was not useful here. Good question, though.
6. Gimme.
Another close loss: 4(3)-6(4) this time.
Surprised that more people didn’t know Benin. Only surprised because it was such a gimme for me, and I am not good at geography. I guess Dahomey has been in enough crossword clues that it’s in my brain for good. Defensive tip if you’re playing me: I know lots of facts about every 3-, 4-, and 5-letter proper noun.
Interestingly, my opponent and I defended each other identically – can’t remember that happening before, but statistically, it must have.
Of course, that’s only helpful if you know for a fact that that the answer is a 3-, 4-, or 5-letter proper noun.
So very close to getting my first six-pack on this set! And it wasn’t like I was expecting it–the only one I knew cold was Bulwer-Lytton, and even there I was worried I was getting some syllables mixed up. Reasoned out Fantasia and Starbucks, Benin felt like a complete guess but was probably buried in my brain, and I somehow got from the Italian-sounding names of a couple of those painters to “Raphaelites”, which sounded too good not to guess.
But argh, those -trons! If I had spent another minute pondering, I might’ve gotten to euthanasia, but I stopped at “sleep”.
Okay, griping over. I am very happy to get a 9(5)-2(1) win. (My opponent only got euthanasia right, interestingly enough.)
Since you’re in the field: Can you name the Newberry Award winner and all-time classic which begins with “It was a dark and stormy night”?
I had to look it up: A Wrinkle in Time. Been many years since I’ve read that one…