Rare Entries MSB6
Mark Brader
in rec.games.trivia:
> Mark,
>
> We've had a vote. This selfish holiday business has gone far enough.
> Time for MSB6.
Well, if you insist.
As usual, for each of the items below, 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 you
like before choosing an answer, but you are asked NOT to use mechanical
or computer assistance in making the actual choice; this is meant to be
a game of wits. The scoring is explained at the end. *NOTE* this time
that I have increased the penalty for a wrong answer.
REPLY *ONLY BY EMAIL* to m...@vex.net; DO NOT post to this or any
newsgroup. For my convenience please do not quote this message when
responding; mail only your answers, and these in plain text, not HTML
or something. (People who fail to comply will be chastised in the
results posting.) Your message should preferably consist of just the
10 answers, numbered 0 to 9, along with any explanations required,
and your name.
Entries must reach here by Saturday, April 1 (Toronto time, zone -5).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0. Name a country with two or more non-contiguous sections of seacoast
on the same continental mainland.
1. Name one of the seven deadly sins.
2. Name a noun that can refer either to a color (shade, hue, etc.) or to
a living thing.
3. Name a calendar month.
4. Name something that is present in every posting to Usenet.
5. Name a radioactive element (i.e. no stable isotopes) with an atomic
number less than 104.
6. Name a city that sometime during the 20th century was the capital of
an independent country, but now is not.
7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
hockey.
8. Name a liquid that usually is opaque and either gray or white.
9. Name a fictional detective who has appeared in at least 12 works
written in English.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 equiv-
alent. 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.
The penalty score for a wrong question will now be the median of
these three numbers:
- the number of entrants
- the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
- double the highest score on the question
For example, say I'd asked for a color on the current Canadian flag.
20 people say red, 1 says white, 2 say gules, and 4 say blue. After
looking up gules I decide it's the same color as red and should be
treated as a duplicate answer; then the 22 people who said either
red or gules get 22 points each. The one person who said white gets
a perfect score of 1 point. The four people who say blue are wrong,
and get a penalty score. The penalty score is the median of:
- number of entrants = 27
- sqrt(27) = 5.196+, rounded up = 6
- double the highest score = 22 x 2 = 44
or in this case, 27.
As moderator, I will be the sole judge of what answers are correct,
and whether two answers with the same meaning (like red and gules)
are to be considered the same. 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.
I may make a posting to consult on any judgement issue, or ask the
entrants for further information, before making a final decision.
No changes are allowed after submitting an entry, and no questions
will be clarified during the contest.
Good luck.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "To the vector go the spoils."
m...@vex.net | -- Norton Juster, "The Dot and the Line"
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Gareth Owen
> 7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
> hockey.
For a clarification on the rules:
Can I give multiple word answers that still count as `a noun'?
Will specific answers get lumped in with non-specific answers?
--
Gareth Owen
Pleidiol Wyf I'm Gwlad
ct
Gareth Owen <use...@gwowen.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) writes:
>
>> 7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
>> hockey.
Oh, 'UNusual'!! Thanks Gareth, I'd misread that - scratch one 'nuclear
explosion'. So now I'm going to have to do some research after all
(everything I know about Ice Hokey I learnt from watching "Due
South"...)
So what's with the double-negatives then Mark?
regards, ct
Gareth Owen
> In article <84d7ola...@orr.maths.keele.ac.uk>,
>
> Ice Hokey
Typo? Disparaging comment? Pretty funny anyway.
Besides, whilst `nuclear explosion' may be too far, from some of the play
they've had in the NHL recently `felonious assault' may not be an rare entry.
--
Gareth Owen
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get, One perfect rose.
ct
Gareth Owen <use...@gwowen.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>Typo? Disparaging comment?
Yes.
>Besides, whilst `nuclear explosion' may be too far, from some of the play
>they've had in the NHL recently `felonious assault' may not be an rare entry.
Hello? Gareth? STOP GIVING AWAY MY ANSWERS! (Scratch one 'assault')
regards, ct "30s effort down the drain"
brian tivol
Ok, I've been itching to do this. It's time for the Common Entires
contest!
When Mark publishes the results from Rare Entries MSB6, we'll see a
lot of entries that people thought would be unrepeated. Your goal is
to predict which of those entries were, in fact, the most popular.
For each of the questions, you will earn one point per Rare Entries
contestant who answered in a fashion that Mark thinks matched your
answer. (For example, say Mark asked for a color on the current
Canadian flag. 20 people say red, 1 says white, 2 say gules, and 4
say blue. After looking up gules, Mark decides it's the same color as
red and should be treated as a duplicate answer. Entrants in Common
Entries who said "red" will earn 22 points; those who said "white"
earn 1; those who said "gules" earn 2; those who said "orange" earn 0;
and those who said "blue" earn 4, despite the fact that "blue" is
incorrect.) Highest score wins.
As Mark says, "REPLY *ONLY BY EMAIL*" to ti...@mit.edu. Don't do to
me the things that Mark would chastise you for. This contest has the
same deadline as Mark's.
I won't be playing in this Rare Entries, in case anyone cares. I'll
post the results as a follow-up to the Rare Entries results post.
--brian
Peter Watkins (au)
"litotes" - like what Dinsdale used.
ct wrote:
>
> In article <84d7ola...@orr.maths.keele.ac.uk>,
> Gareth Owen <use...@gwowen.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> >m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) writes:
> >
> >> 7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
> >> hockey.
>
> Oh, 'UNusual'!! Thanks Gareth, I'd misread that - scratch one 'nuclear
> explosion'. So now I'm going to have to do some research after all
> (everything I know about Ice Hokey I learnt from watching "Due
> South"...)
>
> So what's with the double-negatives then Mark?
>
> regards, ct
--
To reply, remove XYZ from address.
Rich Grise
Cheers!
Rich
Mark Brader
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
hockey.
8. Name a liquid that usually is opaque and either gray or white.
9. Name a fictional detective who has appeared in at least 12 works
written in English.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 equiv-
alent. 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.
The penalty score for a wrong question will now be the median of
these three numbers:
- the number of entrants
- the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
- double the highest score on the question
For example, say I'd asked for a color on the current Canadian flag.
20 people say red, 1 says white, 2 say gules, and 4 say blue. After
Mark Brader
| ... for each of the items below, your objective is to give a response
| that (1) is correct, and (2) will be duplicated by as FEW other people
Contest MSB6 is now complete. From a field of no less than 51 entrants,
the winner is first-time entrant DAVE SHUKAN. Second place goes to
WEI-HWA HUANG, and third place to ERLAND SOMMARSKOG. Congratulations!
Their slates of answers, abbreviated here, were as follows (you should
of course be reading this in a monospaced font for proper alignment).
DAVE SHUKAN WEI-HWA HUANG ERLAND SOMMARSKOG
0. Israel Morocco Nicaragua
1. Envy Covetousness Covetousness
2. Chamois Periwinkle Lilac
3. Tammuz Rajab June
4. Fourth ":" Bits "110" Empty line after header
5. Polonium Mendelevium Americium
6. Aden Chongqing Almaty
7. Wash-Out Motion Cross-Checking
8. Calcimine Barium drink Bailey's
9. The Continental Op Chief Brown Margaret Daykin
And since the field was a large one, here are the three next best:
ALEC HORGAN BEATE BIETZ JACOB MANDELSON
0. Germany France [wrong answer]
1. [wrong answer] Lust Covetousness
2. Brown Olive Mignonette
3. Shahrewar August Ab
4. "b" "Date:" "-"
5. Astatine Einsteinium Mendelevium
6. Kaunas Istanbul Podgorica
7. Substitution Goal Victory
8. Correction fluid Mother's milk Dandelion sap
9. Tobias Gregson Georgina Kirrin Anna Lee
| For my convenience please do not quote this message when responding;
| mail only your answers, and these in plain text, not HTML or something.
| (People who fail to comply will be chastised in the results posting.)
The following entrants (listed in random order) quoted the questions
and/or responded in HTML: Andy Harbach, Roy Thearle, Marilyn Cole,
Dan Tilque, Paul Egan, Erland Sommarskog, and S. Venkatraghavan.
They are hereby chastised.
And an extra chastisement to Gareth Owen, who *posted to the newsgroup*
a request for clarification, even though followups were directed to
email *and* I'd said that no clarifications would be given, and to Rich
Grise, who cheerfully posted an *answer* to one of the questions.
This was ignored.
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 num-
| ber 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 worst score otherwise achieved on the question, plus 1. ...
| The scores on the different questions are *multiplied* to produce a
| final score.
Here now is the complete scoring table. As usual, I show email addresses
only for people whose message or header did not include a first and last
name and where they did not provide another name to use.
Note that a new formula was used for the wrong-answer penalty; see the
questions posting.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1. 168 Dave Shukan 4 7 1 1 1 3 2 1 1 1
2. 300 Wei-Hwa Huang 1 10 3 2 1 5 1 1 1 1
3. 400 Erland Sommarskog 1 10 1 5 2 2 2 1 1 1
4. 550 Alec Horgan 5 WR 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1
5. 576 Beate Bietz 4 3 2 4 1 3 1 2 1 1
6. 1000 Jacob Mandelson WR 10 1 2 1 5 1 1 1 1
7. 1400 Keith Steiger 4 10 1 1 1 5 7 1 1 1
8. 1728 Matthew Davis 3 6 1 4 1 1 3 4 1 2
9. 2880 turn...@xserver.sjc.ox.ac.uk WR 6 1 1 1 3 2 WR 1 1
10. 3072 Laury Chizlett 4 4 1 1 1 3 2 4 1 WR
11. 4200 Pete Fuller WR 7 1 1 5 3 4 1 1 1
12. 6600 Rob Parker 5 11 1 5 1 2 3 2 1 2
13. 8505 Asher Walkover 5 3 1 3 1 3 7 1 3 3
14. 8800 Jim Waters 5 11 1 1 1 5 4 1 1 WR
15. 9240 Jens Brix Christiansen 5 11 2 1 7 3 4 1 1 1
=15. 9240 David Brain 5 11 1 2 1 3 7 4 1 1
17. 9600 Brian Dunphy 4 6 1 5 1 5 16 1 1 1
18. 10560 Al Axelband 1 11 WR 5 1 3 1 4 2 1
19. 11520 David T. Blackston 1 10 WR 3 1 3 1 4 4 1
20. 12544 Eytan Zweig 4 7 4 2 7 2 4 1 1 1
21. 14000 Bruce Bowler 1 10 1 1 WR 5 7 1 1 1
22. 15120 Jan O'Leary 3 7 1 1 6 2 3 1 WR 2
23. 16000 Spurs...@aol.com WR 8 1 5 1 2 1 2 5 2
24. 17280 Uwe Reitenbach 5 6 3 1 1 3 16 1 2 2
25. 18432 Sean Keane 3 8 1 3 2 4 WR 1 1 1
26. 20480 Mark-Jason Dominus 4 8 1 2 2 2 4 1 WR 2
27. 20736 D.J. Schreffler 3 4 3 1 1 3 16 4 1 3
28. 23040 Patrick A. O'Donnell 4 8 1 1 5 3 4 1 4 3
29. 24000 Mary Kuhner 3 10 1 5 1 WR 1 2 4 2
30. 24576 Alan Morgan 2 8 4 1 2 4 16 1 1 3
31. 27648 Karen Hobbs 2 8 3 3 3 1 16 2 1 2
32. 28160 Roy Thearle WR WR 2 2 1 2 16 1 1 1
33. 28224 Heidi King 4 7 1 3 7 3 16 1 1 1
34. 33000 S. Venkatraghavan WR 11 2 5 1 3 2 1 5 1
35. 35840 Aaron Morris 1 7 1 2 4 WR 16 4 1 1
36. 43008 Dan Tilque 2 3 1 2 7 1 WR WR 2 1
37. 45056 Dion Lew 4 11 WR 4 1 4 1 1 4 2
38. 57600 Marilyn Cole 4 6 1 5 3 5 16 1 1 2
39. 71680 Ron Gangnon 4 4 2 4 2 5 7 4 2 1
40. 81920 Aakash Mehendale 2 8 4 1 WR 1 4 WR 1 1
41. 84480 mb...@american.hasharon.k12.il 2 11 4 1 4 2 4 1 WR 3
42. 320000 Brian Spollen 5 10 2 4 5 4 2 4 5 1
43. 346500 R.M. Mentock 5 11 2 5 2 3 7 1 5 3
44. 409600 Steve Homer 4 10 2 1 WR 1 16 4 1 2
45. 411600 Marc Dashevsky 4 7 1 5 7 5 7 4 1 3
46. 491520 Scott Miller 4 4 1 3 WR 2 16 1 1 WR
47. 518400 Andrew Hartley 5 6 3 1 20 1 16 2 3 3
48. 1351680 Andy Harbach 3 11 WR 4 5 2 16 4 1 2
49. 1419264 Matt Hudelson 1 11 WR 1 7 3 16 WR 2 3
50. 2457600 Matthew Newell 2 8 WR 1 WR 3 16 1 WR 1
Paul Egan 4 10 3 4 5 WR 16 WR 5 1
Because of the large field, I will split the table of answers given out
into a separate posting.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "No victor believes in chance."
m...@vex.net -- Nietzsche (trans. Kaufmann)
Mark Brader
listed in a separate posting. As usual, each list runs from most to least
popular, i.e. worst to best.
This time a few entrants tried giving some answers in non-English languages.
If you are asked to name a thing, any term for it is taken as equivalent,
so this tactic is futile. Only if you are asked for a *word* (and I don't
say it must be in English) may a change of language be helpful.
The rule about different levels of specificity got a heavy workout this
time. To repeat:
| It is ... 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.
For example, if you were asked for an animal, and one person said
"horse", another said "racehorse", and a third "Secretariat", these
answers (if otherwise unduplicated) would respectively score 3, 2,
and 1 points. I have rewritten the scoring program and these answers
would now be displayed as follows:
3 Horse
>>> 2 Racehorse
>>> >>> 1 Secretariat
So wherever you see ">>>" below, that's what it means.
| 0. Name a country with two or more non-contiguous sections of seacoast
| on the same continental mainland.
5 Canada
5 Germany
4 France
4 Honduras
4 Israel
4 Senegal
3 Mexico
3 Thailand
2 Colombia
2 North Korea
2 Russia
1 Costa Rica
1 Egypt
1 Morocco (seacoast interrupted by Spanish possessions)
1 Nicaragua
1 Panama
1 Spain
1 USA
WRONG:
1 Argentina (continental seacoast is contiguous)
1 England (no continental seacoast)
1 Greece (continental seacoast is contiguous)
1 Iran (lake coast is not seacoast)
1 Kazakhstan (lake coast is not seacoast)
1 Ukraine (continental seacoast is contiguous)
My dictionary (Random House Unabridged) defines seacoast as coastline
that is on "the sea", a phrase that refers only to oceanic water and
not to lakes that happen to have "Sea" in their name. Thus Iran and
Kazakhstan are wrong.
Correct answers that weren't used include Angola and Guatemala, plus
Turkey if one considers Europe and Asia to be the same "continental
mainland". I'm not aware of any others, but I haven't checked carefully.
| 1. Name one of the seven deadly sins.
11 Sloth
10 Covetousness [= Avarice; Greed]
8 Anger [= Wrath]
7 Envy
6 Pride [= Stolz]
4 Gluttony
3 Lust
WRONG:
1 Politics without principle (from Gandhi)
1 Workplace Sizzle (from "Seven Deadly Sins of Business")
There is only one list of sins generally known as *the* seven deadly sins,
though the names of some of the sins vary according to who is listing them.
Sloth and covetousness were big winners here; I liked the entrant who
picked sloth because it was his "favorite" sin. Almost all the votes
for pride and lust were submitted late in the entry period -- draw what
conclusion you will.
| 2. Name a noun that can refer either to a color (shade, hue, etc.) or to
| a living thing.
4 Red
3 Orange
3 Periwinkle
2 Chestnut
2 Olive
2 Russet
2 Tangerine
1 Apricot
1 Ash
1 Aubergine
1 Blond
1 Bone
1 Brown
1 Chamois
1 Coral
1 Daffodil
1 Damson
1 Dun
1 Flesh
1 Fuchsia
1 Goldenrod
1 Green
1 Lilac
1 Madder
1 Mignonette
1 Mulberry
1 Navaho
1 Orchid
1 Oyster
1 Roan
1 Sable
1 Salmon
1 Strawberry
1 Wheat
WRONG:
2 Brightness (neither a color nor a living thing)
1 Cerise (not a living thing in my dictionary)
1 Mother-of-Pearl (neither a color nor a living thing)
1 Tinge (neither a color nor a living thing)
1 Wombat (not a color in my dictionary)
The entrant who submitted "cerise" tried to reinterpret the question as
"either a noun that can refer to a color ... or one that can refer to a
living thing" -- not a valid reading.
The "living things" referred to varied from flowers to people.
| 3. Name a calendar month.
5 June
5 November [= Listopad]
4 August [= Aoūt]
>>> 1 August 1999
4 October
3 July
3 May [= Gogatsu]
2 Ab (Jewish calendar)
2 Cheshvan (Jewish calendar) [= Heshvan]
2 Frimaire (French Revolutionary calendar)
2 Rajab (Islamic calendar)
1 Boedromion (Athenian calendar)
1 Farvardin (Persian or Jalaali calendar)
1 February
1 Iyar (Jewish calendar)
1 January [= Jänner]
1 Jumada al-thani (Islamic calendar)
1 Kayab (Mayan calendar)
1 Lunasa (old Celtic calendar)
1 Mac (Mayan calendar)
1 Nabhas (old Hindu calendar)
1 Quecholli (Aztec calendar)
1 Ramadan (Islamic calendar)
1 Sha'ban (Islamic calendar)
1 Shahrewar (Zoroastrian calendar)
1 Sivan (Jewish calendar)
1 Tammuz (Jewish calendar)
1 Thermidor (French Revolutionary calendar)
1 Tishri (Jewish calendar)
1 Ululu (Babylonian calendar)
As noted above, month names in non-English languages were taken as
equivalent to the corresponding names in English. One entrant had
the clever idea of referring to a calendar month in a specific year.
A total of 12 different calendars were used, with quite a few more
entrants than I'd expected avoiding the months that most of us use.
In that, they did so so successfully that March, April, September,
and December went unchosen.
I particularly liked the way that only three people used the French
Revolutionary calendar, and two of them picked the same month.
| 4. Name something that is present in every posting to Usenet.
20 Character
>>> 7 ":"
>>> >>> 1 Fourth occurrence of ":"
>>> 6 Consonant
>>> >>> 1 "b"
>>> >>> 1 "h"
>>> >>> 1 "m"
>>> >>> 1 "S"
>>> >>> 1 "w"
>>> 2 " "
>>> 1 "!"
>>> 1 "-"
>>> 1 "e"
>>> 1 "o"
5 Date
4 Whitespace [= Blank space]
>>> 2 Empty line after header
3 Characters [= ASCII text]
>>> 1 Letters
2 Subject [= Topic]
1 "Date:"
1 "Path:"
1 Date line
1 Date-Time stamp
1 Expense ("present involvement-wise")
1 Headers
1 Message-ID
1 Newsgroup name
1 Path
1 Path line
1 Subject line
1 Three consecutive bits with the binary value "110"
WRONG:
3 NNTP-Posting-Host line (not required)
1 "posting" (found in words in the question)
1 Reply-To line (not required)
Entrants were expected to figure out that since the body of a message
can be null, the only things present in all postings are the 6 header
lines required by RFC 1036 -- the Date, From, Message-ID, Newsgroups,
Path, and Subject lines -- and the empty line between header and body.
People who tried things like "consonant" or "character" were killed,
under the general/specific rule, by the many people who named specific
consonants or other characters that must occur in the above header lines.
On the other hand, this rule did not apply to people who named things
that were *part* of, rather than a *specific instance* of, other things.
The part is not the same as the whole. The Path line consists of the
word "Path:" and a path, and hence the three separate entries above for
those things. Similarly for the parts of several other header lines.
(If a person just replied with a word like "Path" without quotation marks
or any other indication, I took them to be referring to the path rather
than the word "Path:".)
I accepted one offbeat answer: a person who suggested that a posting
"includes" expense, "involvement-wise".
| 5. Name a radioactive element (i.e. no stable isotopes) with an atomic
| number less than 104.
5 Astatine
5 Mendelevium [= Menderebiumu]
4 Neptunium
3 Einsteinium
3 Plutonium
3 Polonium
3 Promethium
3 Radon
3 Thorium
2 Americium
2 Berkelium
2 Fermium
2 Radium
2 Technetium
1 Actinium
1 Californium
1 Curium
1 Francium
1 Nobelium
1 Protactinium
WRONG:
1 Gadolinium (not radioactive)
1 Rubidium-40 (Rubidium is not radioactive and there is no Rb-40)
1 Xenon (not radioactive)
The cutoff at 104 was so that we wouldn't get into issues of what to call
the heavier elements. Probably the most obvious answer here is uranium
and nobody chose it; the only other possible answre not used was element
103, lawrencium.
| 6. Name a city that sometime during the 20th century was the capital of
| an independent country, but now is not.
16 Bonn
7 Rio de Janeiro
4 Ho Chi Minh City [= Saigon]
4 St. Petersburg [= Petrograd]
3 Melbourne (de facto)
2 Aden
2 Almaty [= Alma-Ata]
2 Karachi
1 Chongqing (Chungking)
1 East Berlin
1 Istanbul
1 Kaunas
1 Lagos
1 Lhasa
1 Podgorica
1 Quezon City
1 Rawalpindi
WRONG:
1 Belize City (not capital after independence)
1 Berlin (current capital)
Almost all of these are cases of countries that have moved their capital,
for one reason or another. I believe Ho Chi Minh City, Aden, East Berlin,
and Lhasa are the only ones on the list that are capitals of countries
that no longer exist independently. East Berlin, of course, no longer
exists at all, though Berlin is the capital of Germany now. And it seems
that at least 16 people know it!
Melbourne was a marginal call. The independence of "dominions" such as
Australia was not officially recognized until Britain passed the Statute
of Westminster in 1931, while Canberra had been officially designated as
the capital city in 1908. But the legislature didn't move there until
1927, and Britain was no longer exerting any power over its dominions
by then. So Melbourne was the de facto capital of a de facto independent
country, and that's good enough for me.
| 7. Give a noun that names an event that is not unusual in a game of ice
| hockey.
4 Faceoff
4 Icing
4 Intermission
2 Goal
2 Injury
2 Whistle
1 Catch
1 Check
1 Cheer
1 Cross-Checking
1 Deflection
1 End
1 Fisticuffs
1 Heartbeat
1 Heckling
1 Horn
1 Indication (by officials)
1 Inhalation
1 Interference
1 Jump
1 Kneeing
1 Loss
1 Motion
1 Passout
1 Penalty
1 Score
1 Skate
1 Stop
1 Strafzeit (German for penalty)
1 Substitution
1 Tie
1 Victory
1 Wash-Out (official's signal)
1 Wound
WRONG:
1 Basket (an impossible event would certainly be unusual)
1 Bodycheck (should be two words, adjective and noun)
1 National Anthem (two words, adjective and noun)
1 Sin-Bin (describes a place, not an event)
1 Slap shot (two words, adjective and noun)
I was bemused by the thread that sprang up over the meaning of the
perfectly ordinary phrase "not unusual". I meant, of course, just that.
A few people chose events that would not be unusual at any time, like
heartbeats -- perfectly legitimate.
| 8. Name a liquid that usually is opaque and either gray or white.
5 Milk of Magnesia [= Magnesium Hydroxide]
4 Mercury
3 Milk (taken to mean cow's milk)
>>> 1 Skim Milk
2 Elmer's Glue
2 Gray paint
>>> 1 Battleship paint
2 Soy milk
1 Ash's "blood" in the movie Alien
1 Bailey's
1 Barium drink
1 Buttermilk
1 Calcimine
1 Coconut milk
1 Correction fluid
1 Dandelion sap
1 Emulsion
1 Ewe's milk
1 Fish Saucery (British brand name)
1 Goat's milk
1 Heavy cream
1 Kaopectate
1 Lassi (Indian drink)
1 Melted toothpaste
1 Molten lead
1 Molten solder
1 Mother's milk (taken to mean human milk)
1 Paint
1 Single cream
1 Softsoap
1 Squirrel milk
1 Sunscreen lotion
1 Unset concrete
1 Wallpaper paste
1 Wet cement
1 White Paint
1 Yogurt
WRONG:
1 Cod liver oil (pale yellow)
1 Ouzo with water (clear)
1 Pus (yellowish)
1 Snake venom (clear or yellow)
There are a couple here where I had to take people's word for it. For
ouzo, the brand sold at my neighborhood liquor store is clear, and I'm
assuming that this is usual.
The most difficult to check was snake venom. This one sent me to the
library where I looked in several books; I found one picture showing
one drop of venom, and it was clear, which is what my guess would have
been in the first place. But a day or two later I happened across a
TV show which showed a snake's venom being milked -- and this snake's
venom was strongly yellow, like an egg's yolk. So it seems the color
varies by species -- perhaps there are still other species where it is
white or gray. But since the entrant did not respond to my request
for clarification, I have to reject this.
The other problematic one was the liquid metals, whose color I would
describe as "silver". My dictionary calls silver a metallic gray or
white, so I accepted these.
| 9. Name a fictional detective who has appeared in at least 12 works
| written in English.
3 Hercule Poirot (by Agatha Christie)
3 Nancy Drew (by Edward Stratemeyer)
3 Sherlock Holmes (by Arthur Conan Doyle)
2 Brother Cadfael (by Ellis Peters)
2 Encyclopedia Brown (by Donald Sobol)
2 Father Brown (by G.K. Chesterton)
2 Jane Marple (by Agatha Christie)
2 Lord Peter Wimsey (by Dorothy L. Sayers)
2 Trixie Belden (by Julie Campbell)
1 Albert Campion (by Margery Allingham)
1 Anna Lee (by Liza Cody)
1 Charlie Chan (by Earl Derr Biggers)
1 Chief Brown (from "Encyclopedia Brown" by Donald Sobol)
1 Claud Eustace Teal (from "The Saint" by Leslie Charteris)
1 Columbo (by Richard Levinson and William Link)
1 Fenton Hardy (from "the Hardy boys" by Edward Stratemeyer)
1 Georgina "George" Kirrin (from "The Famous Five" by Enid Blyton)
1 Hutch Hutchinson (from "Starsky & Hutch")
1 Jack (from "The Secret Seven" by Enid Blyton)
1 Jim Qwilleran (by Lilian Jackson Braun)
1 Kinsey Millhone (by Sue Grafton)
1 Lazlo Woodbine (by Robert Rankin)
1 Lestrade (from "Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle)
1 Lew Archer (by Ross Macdonald)
1 Lewis (from "Inspector Morse" by Colin Dexter)
1 Margaret Daykin (from "The Mystery of..." by Enid Blyton)
1 Mike Hammer (by Mickey Spillane)
1 Monsieur Pamplemousse (by Michael Bond)
1 Paul Drake (from "Perry Mason" by Erle Stanley Gardner)
1 Peter Pascoe (by Reginald Hill)
1 Roderick Alleyn (by Ngaio Marsh)
1 Steven Lyne (from unsold stories by the entrant)
1 The Continental Op (by Dashiell Hammett)
1 Tobias Gregson (from "Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle)
1 Travis McGee (by John D. MacDonald)
1 Weild (from "Dalziel and Pascoe" by Reginald Hill)
WRONG:
1 Detective from Highlights children's magazine (not named)
1 Dixon Hill (from "Star Trek: TNG" - not in 12 works)
1 Dr. Watson (from "Sherlock Holmes" - not a detective)
In the above list, "from" may mean "from the series referred to as",
and "by" may mean "created by". Tobias Gregson was Lestrade's rival
at Scotland Yard, in the Sherlock Holmes stories; I was unable to confirm
the number of stories that he appeared in, but since they have often been
adapted for various media and the adaptations would count as separate
works, I was willing to accept that there are probably at least 12.
Thanks for playing, and stay tuned for MSB7 later this month -- as well
as Brian Tivol's results for his "common rare entries" contest based on
this one!
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "More importantly, Mark is just plain wrong."
m...@vex.net -- John Hollingsworth
Erland Sommarskog
>Correct answers that weren't used include Angola and Guatemala, plus
>Turkey if one considers Europe and Asia to be the same "continental
>mainland". I'm not aware of any others, but I haven't checked carefully.
There are a few more. Obvious ones are Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
More hidden, but completely undisputable are Croatia and Lithuania.
A case which may be questionable is The Netherlands. (Is the waters
that goes into Antwerpen river or sea?) And even more disputable case
is Malaysia. (The coastline is interrupted by the causeway to
Singapore.)
Neither I have checked all cases. I have to confess being completely
baffed by Israel, and thought that Mark had missed in judgement, but
I did check the map before I cried faul.
--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, som...@algonet.se
This is an incomplete mess.
octripper
Erland Sommarskog wrote:
> Neither I have checked all cases. I have to confess being completely
> baffed by Israel, and thought that Mark had missed in judgement, but
> I did check the map before I cried faul.
Hell, I *live* there, and never even thought of it!
--
riverman
.........................
I think, therefore I thwim;
Carpe ropum.
rbp #2
Mark-Jason Dominus
>| 8. Name a liquid that usually is opaque and either gray or white.
>
How come it isn't
2 Paint
>>> 1 White Paint
??
> WRONG:
> 1 Ouzo with water (clear)
I have heard that when you mix water with ouzo, the mixture becomes
cloudy white, although I have not seen it myself.
Mark Brader
> There are a few more. Obvious ones are Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
Thailand was used.
> More hidden, but completely undisputable are Croatia and Lithuania.
Interesting. They're not 100% clear in my atlas (which dates from
before the independence of either), but I see what he means.
> A case which may be questionable is The Netherlands. (Is the waters
> that goes into Antwerpen river or sea?)
I'm glad I didn't have to rule on that.
> And even more disputable case is Malaysia. (The coastline is interrupted
> by the causeway to Singapore.)
I would not have accepted that.
> Neither I have checked all cases. I have to confess being completely
> baffed by Israel, and thought that Mark had missed in judgement, but
> I did check the map before I cried faul.
Israel has a port on the Gulf of Aqaba.
--
Mark Brader | "It doesn't have to actually *be* special, but you have
Toronto | to make people think it is, and sometimes the easiest way
m...@vex.net | to do that is to make it special." -- Peter Reiher
Mark Brader
> How come it isn't
>
> 2 Paint
> >>> 1 White Paint
> ??
My mistake. Actually it should be
# 4 Paint
# >>> 2 Gray paint
# >>> >>> 1 Battleship paint
# >>> 1 White paint
> > WRONG:
> > 1 Ouzo with water (clear)
>
> I have heard that when you mix water with ouzo, the mixture becomes
> cloudy white, although I have not seen it myself.
So I was informed by the entrant, but only after the results were posted.
My apologies for not having heard of this. This change would move
mb...@american.hasharon.k12.il from the bottom to the top half of the
field. Since neither correction affects the leading finishers, I won't
post a complete rescoring.
--
Mark Brader | "But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, econ-
Toronto | omists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of
m...@vex.net | Europe is extinguished for ever." --Edmund Burke, 1792
the Fines
Mark-Jason Dominus wrote:
>
> ??
>
> > WRONG:
> > 1 Ouzo with water (clear)
>
> I have heard that when you mix water with ouzo, the mixture becomes
> cloudy white, although I have not seen it myself.
It does: I've seen it dozens and dozens of times. It tastes good, too. Try
just dropping an ice cube into Ouzo and watch the clear liquid develop little
white tails as the ice melts....
brian tivol
> Thanks for playing, and stay tuned for MSB7 later this month -- as
> well as Brian Tivol's results for his "common rare entries" contest
> based on this one!
Yup. For those who didn't see the post, the game was to see which
answers in MSB6 would be the most popular, given that the contestants
in MSB6 were trying to have the least popular answers.
Only six folks played the game, and I suppose I'm thankful since I
underestimated the amount of work it would take. Sadly, most of the
work dealt with interpreting answers to number 4.
Congratulations to Wei-Hwa Huang, who scored big with "Character" for
number 4.
Contestant T 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
----------------- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
1. Wei-Hwa Huang 53 1 4 4 0 20 1 16 1 3 3
2. Erland Sommarskog 36 4 10 3 5 0 3 1 4 3 3
3. Matthew Davis 31 1 3 3 0 1 2 16 1 1 3
4. Bixente 27 3 6 0 4 1 0 7 2 3 1
David Brain 27 1 3 3 0 1 2 7 4 3 3
6. ct 26 1 8 3 3 0 3 2 2 1 3
Here are the individual answers. I particularly liked "navy" as a
color and a living thing, but I have no idea if that would have been
accepted in MSB6.
0. 3 said USA for 1 point
0. 1 said France for 4 points
0. 1 said Mexico for 3 points
0. 1 said Panama for 1 point
1. 2 said Lust for 3 points
1. 1 said Avarice for 10 points
1. 1 said Anger for 8 points
1. 1 said Pride for 6 points
1. 1 said Gluttony for 4 points
2. 4 said Orange for 3 points
2. 1 said Red for 4 points
2. 1 said Navy for 0 points
3. 2 said March for 0 points
3. 1 said November for 5 points
3. 1 said October for 4 points
3. 1 said July for 3 points
3. 1 said April for 0 points
4. 2 said Headers for 1 point
4. 1 said ASCII character for 20 points
4. 1 said Path line for 1 point
4. 1 said From line for 0 points
4. 1 said Newsgroups header for 0 points
5. 1 said Einsteinium for 3 points
5. 1 said Plutonium for 3 points
5. 1 said Radium for 2 points
5. 1 said Technetium for 2 points
5. 1 said Californium for 1 point
5. 1 said Uranium for 0 points
6. 2 said Bonn for 16 points
6. 2 said Rio de Janeiro for 7 points
6. 1 said Karachi for 2 points
6. 1 said Istanbul for 1 point
7. 2 said Face-off for 4 points
7. 2 said Goal for 2 points
7. 1 said Check for 1 point
7. 1 said Substitution for 1 point
8. 4 said Milk for 3 points
8. 1 said Correction fluid for 1 point
8. 1 said White paint for 1 point
9. 4 said Hercule Poirot for 3 points
9. 1 said Sherlock Holmes for 3 points
9. 1 said Lestrade for 1 point
I figured I'd list the number of people who guessed each answer in
case someone was running a twice-removed contest.
--brian
Dan Tilque
I was the one who gave this answer. I dispute this ruling on these
grounds:
1. The question did not call for a single word noun.
2. I checked three dictionaries and none of them listed "slap" as an
adjective.
3. Two of them listed "slap shot" as a noun. (The other was a British
dictionary which didn't have the term.)
I suppose I should have included this in my list of answers, but this
is my first time replying to Mark's contest. Chalk one up to
experience, I guess.
--
Dan Tilque
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mark Brader
> > 1 Slap shot (two words, adjective and noun)
> I was the one who gave this answer. I dispute this ruling on these
> grounds:
>
> 1. The question did not call for a single word noun.
True. On the other hand, multi-word nouns are rare enough that the
definition of "noun" in my Random House Unabridged doesn't allow for
them; it refers to a noun as *a* word.
> 2. I checked three dictionaries and none of them listed "slap" as an
> adjective.
Not necessary. Nouns can be used as adjectives pretty freely in English,
as in "atom bomb proliferation treaty meeting hiatus". Given the
existence of other expressions like "backhand shot" and "wrist shot",
it seems clear to me that it's correct to analyze the "slap shot" as
consisting of an adjective and noun.
> 3. Two of them listed "slap shot" as a noun. (The other was a British
> dictionary which didn't have the term.)
I'm surprised. My RHU does not list the term in any spelling, supporting
my ruling.
--
Mark Brader | "... there is no such word as 'impossible' in
Toronto | my dictionary. In fact, everything between
m...@vex.net | 'herring' and 'marmalade' appears to be missing."
| -- Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams)
Eytan Zweig
"Mark Brader" <m...@vex.net> wrote in message
news:8c95s9$1664$1...@news.tht.net...
>
> > > 1 Slap shot (two words, adjective and noun)
>
> > I was the one who gave this answer. I dispute this ruling on these
> > grounds:
> >
> > 1. The question did not call for a single word noun.
>
> True. On the other hand, multi-word nouns are rare enough that the
> definition of "noun" in my Random House Unabridged doesn't allow for
> them; it refers to a noun as *a* word.
>
> > 2. I checked three dictionaries and none of them listed "slap" as an
> > adjective.
>
> Not necessary. Nouns can be used as adjectives pretty freely in English,
> as in "atom bomb proliferation treaty meeting hiatus". Given the
> existence of other expressions like "backhand shot" and "wrist shot",
> it seems clear to me that it's correct to analyze the "slap shot" as
> consisting of an adjective and noun.
>
Actually, at least according to the distributional system of English grammar
I got tought in my linguistic classes, nouns can NOT be used as adjectives
in the English language very easily; they can, however, quite easily be
brought to fill the same function as an adjective, i.e. modifying another
noun. While doing so they still retain the status of noun, which can be
easily proven by seeing that they can still modified by adjectives and other
nouns, but not by adverbs. Examples:
Adjective+Noun - Blue bomb
Adverb+Adjective+Noun - Slightly blue bomb
Noun+Noun- Atom Bomb
Noun+Noun+Noun- Hydrogen Atom Bomb
However, neither of the following constructs work:
*Adverb+Noun+Noun- Slightly Atom Bomb
*Noun+Adjective+Noun-Hydrogen Blue Bomb
The phrase "Slap shot", thus, can be classified as 2 nouns, but not as
adjective+noun. However, I personally would classify it as a single phrasal
noun (a noun composed of multiple words), since when added together the
phrase gets a definite meaning that is beyond the sum of its components, and
the fact that if you'd use the phrase in a sentence you'd use it as if it
were a single noun - you'd never break it up by placing another word in
between the two, for instance.
Eytan
Erland Sommarskog
>Not necessary. Nouns can be used as adjectives pretty freely in English,
>as in "atom bomb proliferation treaty meeting hiatus". Given the
>existence of other expressions like "backhand shot" and "wrist shot",
>it seems clear to me that it's correct to analyze the "slap shot" as
>consisting of an adjective and noun.
I'm only a layman in linguistics, so you would need to jump over to
sci.lang for some expert advise. But being a native speaker of a
language closely related to English, I'd say that "slap shot" is a
compound of two nouns, not a noun and an adjective. Then it is an
artefact of the different ortographic rules in English and Swedish
that a compound like this is always one word in Swedish, but may
be one or two words (= "letters delimited by space") in English.
Nevertheless I would tend to agree with Mark's ruling here. He did
say "noun" and didn't say "nouns". And while linguists would not
accept the ortographic definition of a word from a written language,
I would suggest that this is the best definition to use in this
company.
Jens Brix Christiansen
>
> Erland Sommarskog writes:
> > More hidden, but completely undisputable are Croatia and Lithuania.
>
> Interesting. They're not 100% clear in my atlas (which dates from
> before the independence of either), but I see what he means.
I considered using Croatia, but I was not willing to risk having to
spend time justifying my choice in e-mail - even though such
correspondence has been fun in earlier contests.
> > A case which may be questionable is The Netherlands. (Is the waters
> > that goes into Antwerpen river or sea?)
>
> I'm glad I didn't have to rule on that.
I had Belgium on my short list based on the same feature, but then I
worried about Mark's dilemma and played it safe. One useful criterion
in many parts of the world is to consider the sea to go up as far as the
high tide does. It happens not to work well where I live because we
have a tidal node here ...
Gareth Owen
> And an extra chastisement to Gareth Owen, who *posted to the newsgroup* a
> request for clarification, even though followups were directed to email
> *and* I'd said that no clarifications would be given,
Since you said you wouldn't give the clarification, the only place I could ask
for clarification (since the rules are exceedingly unclear) is on the
newsgroup, from people who may have experience of their interpretation.
The copy sent to you was a courtesy to respect your followup.
--
Gareth Owen
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Erland Sommarskog
>Mark Brader wrote:
>> Erland Sommarskog writes:
>
>> > More hidden, but completely undisputable are Croatia and Lithuania.
>>
>> Interesting. They're not 100% clear in my atlas (which dates from
>> before the independence of either), but I see what he means.
>
>I considered using Croatia, but I was not willing to risk having to
>spend time justifying my choice in e-mail - even though such
>correspondence has been fun in earlier contests.
I wouldn't shuddered from neither Croatia nor Lithuania. Croatia,
because if you have followed the news about the Balkan wars,
you quite well that Bosnia has an eye on the sea. Another issue
if of course that you nevertheless don't see no border controls
there, but hopefully they will come up now, with the demise of
Tudjman's regime. And in case of Lithuania: I've been to the place.
My option for Nicaragua was the idea that Americans would shudder
from using the nearby Central America of tactical reasons. I was
completely wrong on that point, but I was lucky to pick the country
that no one else took, nevertheless.
--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, som...@algonet.se
Erland Sommarskog
>Almost all of these are cases of countries that have moved their capital,
>for one reason or another. I believe Ho Chi Minh City, Aden, East Berlin,
>and Lhasa are the only ones on the list that are capitals of countries
>that no longer exist independently. East Berlin, of course, no longer
>exists at all, though Berlin is the capital of Germany now. And it seems
>that at least 16 people know it!
I was trying to find out if there were any cities that qualified, but
which were not mentioned at all. I came to think of one case of
which I'm not completely certain of, one case which would have been
devilish (but I think Mark would have disapproved), and one that I
would have picked if I had thought about and not rushed away
immediately with Almaty.
Now, since this is rec.games.trivia can you mention these? The
two first ones are in Europe, the last one in Asia. Not that I
believe these three are the only options.
Dan Tilque
som...@algonet.se (Erland Sommarskog) wrote:
> Mark Brader (m...@vex.net) writes:
> >Almost all of these are cases of countries that have moved their
capital,
> >for one reason or another. I believe Ho Chi Minh City, Aden, East
Berlin,
> >and Lhasa are the only ones on the list that are capitals of
countries
> >that no longer exist independently. East Berlin, of course, no longer
> >exists at all, though Berlin is the capital of Germany now. And it
seems
> >that at least 16 people know it!
>
> which were not mentioned at all. I came to think of one case of
> which I'm not completely certain of, one case which would have been
> devilish (but I think Mark would have disapproved), and one that I
> would have picked if I had thought about and not rushed away
> immediately with Almaty.
My first choice was an African city, Bloemfontein, but it's
questionable on at least two grounds. Firstly, from what I can tell,
the Orange Free State, while technically still a nation until 1902, in
reality ceased to exist in 1900. Secondly, it is the judicial capital
of South Africa. So I changed my answer to what turned out to be a
wrong answer anyway.
I'm curious as to how Mark would rule on Bloemfontein.
Mark Brader
> I was trying to find out if there were any cities that qualified [as
> former national capitals], but which were not mentioned at all.
Gangtok, Kyzyl, St. John's, and Vichy come to mind as possibilities.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "The only proven use of antimatter is the production
m...@vex.net | of Nobel Prizes in physics." -- Henry Spencer
ct
Oh, that was /you/ was it? And what was wrong with Almaty, may I ask?
regards, ct
Erland Sommarskog
What was wrong with answering Almaty in this context was that I
was not alone with that answer.
What was wrong with Almaty as a capital you will have to ask President
Nazarbayev.
ObTrivia: What was the original name of Almaty?
Dan Tilque
m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
> Erland Sommarskog:
> > I was trying to find out if there were any cities that qualified [as
> > former national capitals], but which were not mentioned at all.
>
> Gangtok, Kyzyl, St. John's, and Vichy come to mind as possibilities.
A couple more would be Nanjing (Nanking) and Chongqing (Chungking).
Mark Brader
> A couple more would be Nanjing (Nanking) and Chongqing (Chungking).
Actually, one of those was mentioned.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "No flames were used in the creation of
m...@vex.net | this message." -- Ray Depew
Erland Sommarskog
>ObTrivia: What was the original name of Almaty?
Vernyi. Later renamed to Alma Ata, which after independence became
Almaty for some reason. ("Alma Ata" is, as far as I understand,
Kazakh, it's certainly not Russian anyway, meaning "apple father".)
--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, som...@algonet.se