I scored my second six-pack! Last time this happened, I sorta lucked into it — one of my answers was a random guess. This time around, I knew 5 of the 6 straightaway, made a perfectly reasonable deduction on the last, and that was that. A fine way to go, but it doesn’t make for much of a blog post. Let’s do one anyway!
1. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Bandersnatch, the Mock Turtle, and the Snark are fictional creatures popularized by the work of what author?
I’ve never been particularly absorbed by the works of Lewis Carroll, but his stuff is used in puzzles so frequently (Carroll being something of a puzzler himself) that of course I knew this straightaway.
2. The suffix -itis has come to mean inflammation; therefore, by definition, the medical condition hepatitis is the inflammation of what?
I immediately wrote down liver, and then thought, why do I think I know this? I couldn’t come up with a good reason, but I also couldn’t come up with a better answer, so I left it. Wisely, it turns out.
3. The First and Second Battle of the Marne, the Battle of Asiago, the Battle of Caporetto, and the Monastir Offensive were all operations during what war?
My guess — I mean, my perfectly reasonable deduction. Everything about this question shouted “World War One!” to me: The place names. The “Monastir Offensive.” Something about the word “offensive” in this context sounded very noble and important: You can almost see the generals frowning at the oversized tabletop map of Europe, pushing around armies with those long craps-table rakes. I didn’t question my instincts, I just went with it. Again, this was a good move.
4. In July, 2011, a tribunal review known formally as the Leveson inquiry was established by British Prime Minister David Cameron, and remains in effect today, for the purposes of investigating practices in what industry?
Gimmes from here on out. I didn’t actually know the name of the inquiry into England’s newspapers — brought about in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal — but what else could this have possibly been? By the way, how is it that Piers Morgan is not under arrest yet?
5. Give the full name (first and last) of the television character in this photograph.
We’ve fallen way behind on Mad Men — I think we petered out midway through season 3. But I’ve certainly watched enough to know this guy: Roger Sterling, impeccably played by John Slattery.
6. Candide, Trouble in Tahiti, and A Quiet Place are the three operas composed during the career of what eclectic American musical polymath?
This might have been trouble without that first title, but the first title was there, so instead this was the simplest opera question a person could hope for: Leonard Bernstein.
1: Gimme. Pretty sure I could’ve answered it with any one of those five characters given.
2: My thought process was identical to yours, Eric.
3: I immediately knew I was going to put World War I unless further examination yielded a clue hiding in one of the battle names. It didn’t, so I did.
4: Was worried that I was forgetting about some other current investigation, but no.
5: Somehow I pieced this out of my brain despite never having seen Mad Men.
6: I went through a bunch of names, but I stopped the wheel one too soon! I was getting ready to sigh and put down Sondheim when I thought of Bernstein, but then told myself that I was taking a wild guess either way, and I didn’t associate “eclectic … polymath” with Bernstein. Oops.
Perfect defense all around, but I snuck ahead, 6(5)-4(4). I was a little proud of myself for semi-deliberately scoring the questions 0-1-1-2-2-3, in that order, because I had a feeling their league-wide difficulty would be perfectly descending. And it was!
Over 80% got the hepatitis question right. I imagine it’s because “hepatitis of the liver” rings more familiar than, say, “…kidneys”.
I agree Eric, there wasn’t a lot to these questions. The first four were answered correctly by over 70%
1. Gimme. My very first LL Match had a question about Jabberwocky. I scored it 0 then and I’m continuing to score Lewis Carroll 0 now.
2. Gimme
3. World War 1 seemed like the safest guess and my opponent and I were obviously both guessing since we both assigned it 3 points and both guessed World War 1. If either of us had been certain of this answer we probably would have assigned it less than 3.
4. Gimme.
5. Like Ertchin I have not been watching Mad Men but was still able to come up with Roger Sterling. Given the number of easier questions out there it wasn’t difficult to assign a 2 here.
6. Went with Gershwin which was dumb because Porgy and Bess is an opera so the answer couldn’t be him.
Fortunately for me my opponent doesn’t watch Mad Men and only assigned me 2 for Leonard Bernstein so we ended up with a 7(5)-7(5) tie.
You guys! I got my first 6-pack ever! True, these questions were quite easy, but that’s not going to diminish my pride at this accomplishment.
1. Gimme, and a 0 here too.
2. I wasn’t positive that hepa- meant liver, but I knew this was a liver disease, so that’s good enough for me.
3. This was also my (educated) guess. I also thought that “Monastir Offensive” sounded early-20th century. That plus Italian place names = World War 1.
4. You wouldn’t know it from my Current Events score, but I do listen to NPR on the way home from work every day. My problem is that I tend to get the general gist of the stories, but without absorbing specific names of people and places. So I never could have named the Leveson Inquiry, but I knew this answer right away.
5. We don’t have cable, but Mad Men is one of the few cable shows we’ve made an effort to watch (the first four seasons anyway). So I knew this right away.
6. I saw Candide back in high school, and I wasn’t that crazy about it, but the Overture remains one of my favorite classical pieces. I actually answered Bernstein (aka “lay on earth, burn side”) in a nod to my favorite BWA ever.
And I played perfect D to cap it off! 9(6) – 4(4) win
1. I have read both of the Alice books several times. Gimme.
2. I did know that hepa- meant liver.
3. Marne says WW1 for me. I was really hoping I was remembering this correctly.
4. The time period made me guess “news”. I got credit for it, thankfully. I don’t know if I’ve heard the name of the committee before this.
5. I was pretty sure this was Mad Men, which is not a show that I watch. Guessed Don Draper despite knowing it was wrong.
6. Guessed John Adams. Would never have come up with Bernstein.
Lost 5(4)-7(5).
1. Way too easy. Maybe ask for Carroll’s given name or use a lesser-known character like a Boojum,
2. The whole “itis = inflammation” wasn’t critical. Mostly it was “hepatitis = disease of what organ?”
3. Those Marnes were the key for me – not sure I would have known it w/o them.
4. I’d never heard of the inquiry by name, but the answer seemed clear.
5. I’ve only ever seen part of one episode of Mad Men, but it was enough.
6. Candide was what did it for me too.
Congrats, Eric! I think I remember saying after your last six-pack that another would happen before you expected it to. Glad to see that was true.
Of the 26 folks in the Champ Rundle, a grand total of 5 questions were missed – one each by five different players.I was fortunate to have played the only one who missed Bernstein, and it was where I’d put my 3 too. The 9(6)-6(5) win put me in 2nd place, one point behind leader InglebritsonC, but several MPD behind. Mathematically, I’m still in this, but it would take a loss by the leader (highly unlikely) or two ties by the leader and two wins by me (more likely but not much chance of that anyway). We’ll see. It’s been an interesting season for sure!
Congrats!
So close here, but only managed 5 (which was enough for a comfortable victory):
1) gimme of all gimmes
2) I knew this from “hepatic” other things, but was pretty sure hepatitis was liver-related anyhow. And on House if anyone has anything wrong with their liver they turn yellow, and isn’t that a hepatitis thing?
3) blahblah MARNE blahbalh WAR = WWI
4) almost said “medicine” for no good reason, then thought about it more. Hm, only a year old? Probably the same thing that’s going on still with Murdoch, then, and viola.
5) I’ve never seen it. I dredged up “Don Draper”, though I was pretty sure that was the other guy.
6) I know Trouble in Tahiti, but Candide was the giveaway.
Another Win, 4(4) – 3(3). I am in 2nd place in my rundle, but 11th in TCA and based on CAA I have been blessed with the weakest schedule in my rundle…I may actually get promoted if I don’t crash horribly over the next 2 days. I’m not Worthy!!!
1) Enough Alice in Wonderland references that I just had to assure myself this was Lewis Carroll and not get mixed up with Frank Baum, good for 1 pt.
2) I think I should have watched enough House to be sure of this but I do tend to glaze over during the Medical discussions (And there’s the Lupus/AutoImmune/”You’re an Ass” drinking game), so I had to rely on my brain to narrow this to Liver and Kidneys, and fortunately I made the right choice for 1 pt..
3) Went with Second World war…should have known the Marne was first.
4) Was pretty sure this was the NEWS OF THE WORLD inquiry and stumbled onto an article in my regular daily readings making direct reference to the Leveson Inquiry (Not cheating if you don’t go looking for it, right?) I put down Media which had me worried that Thorsten would consider it too general, but I got it right for 2 points – I correctly scored it 0.
5) Apparently Mad Men is popular in Switzerland as my opponent was able to get the name for two points, I knew he was the Sterling in Sterling Cooper, Roger took another minute (All that for zero)
6) Went with Gershwin. my opponent and I both whiffed on this one.
yes, marne was the big gimme, but caporetto is also notable; it provided the backdrop for hemingway’s a farewell to arms. (i’d never heard of the other battles.)
67% leaguewide today, which i’m pretty sure makes it literally the easiest. questions. ever. (or at least since i started playing.)
Eric,
The easy set comes right after you declare that you will be leaving Learned League. Conicidence??? “Thorsten” wants you to stay!!!
I am sad to see you go as well. Been looking forward to joining you in a Rundle. I’ve tried to break into the promotion group, but looks like I’ll fall a couple points short. By the way, I think I play your brother today. I thought he’d be “KingMaker” in me promoting, but 3 ties this week killed my chances.
Now your absense might induce a ‘field promotion’. Bittersweet.
1. I assigned this the zero before I read any of the other 5 questions.
2. My life science colleagues would be pleased to hear I got this.
3. I don’t know why I associated “Marne” with WWI, but I did. Guess I paid more attention in history class than I thought.
4. I said “journalism” which was also deemed close enough to correct.
5. Aargh. My partner has taken up watching Mad Men in the past few months, and he’s gotten me into it, but too many of the other characters have been doing more interesting things, and I didn’t catch his first name. Paul Sterling has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
6. My classical music gap strikes again. I was never going to pick Bernstein’s name.
With this fourth non-win in a row, I’ve dropped well into the D-zone. Climbing back out isn’t completely impossible, but a few someones are going to have to screw up mightily for it to happen.