Bricker Challenge 2003 - Edition #9

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Yes, lets. :slight_smile:

22

I’ll note at this point that I (and Bricker, I assume) thought Ino was making a joke with the Cameron Diaz thing and that we all understood that she was the actress. BTW, she’s exactly one year older than I am – wish her a happy 31st birthday on August 30th.

–Cliffy

23

Please see question #22 for the answer. :slight_smile:

I am taking a second look at question 25, which asks for the area of a particular circle.

Score updates to follow.

24

Aguecheek: 38
Cliffy: 39
lno: 38

25

FWIW, my solution to #25 is as follows:

  1. One side of the square is of length 3pi.
  2. A right triangle with two sides of length x has a hypotenuse of length x(sqrt(2)).
  3. The hypotenuse of the square is thus 3pi(sqrt(2)).
  4. As the circle is circumscribed about the square, the hypotenuse of the square is the diameter of the circle.
  5. The area of a circle is pi r^2.
  6. Halving the diameter obtained above gives us a radius of (3pi(sqrt(2)))/2.
  7. Plugging that into step 5 gives us an area of pi(3pi(sqrt(2))/2)^2.

There’s likely a cleaner solution involving getting the radius knowing the circle has a chord of 3pi for an angle of 90 degrees at the center etc etc etc, but I’m almost a decade out of high school, and I figure that despite the crudity of my solution, it is still accurate. :slight_smile:

26

Ah, I thought you meant title numbering, not question numbering. I don’t usually pay attention to the question numbering because since I don’t look up stuff I don’t really have a prayer of answering them all anyway. I just answer the ones I know and skip the others(like a real bar trivia game would). A side effect of this is that the question numbers get deleted and the sequence is all over the place anyway.

Oh well, 14/40 off the top of my head would probably put me in a decent position in most bar trivia contests.

Enjoy,
Steven

27

Yeah, I’m going to have to ask you to simply your expression, lno, since I see at least two appearances of pi in there. You may well be right, but the unspoken rule about mathematical questions is that you have to give the expression in its simplest form.

28

Fixed the Cameron Diaz thing:

–Cliffy **
[/QUOTE]

29

Gah, gotta rush to a meeting! Hope it’s fixed.

  1. My claim to fame is that I was opening a checking account in the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco on the morning of the day taxes were due in the year in which the President resigned. What did I see?
    Patty Hearst and the SLA. She was a bit of a dunce.

  2. What’s the maximum number of knights may be placed on a chessboard such that no two of them threaten each other?
    8^2/2, or 32.

  3. Who was the demon barber of Fleet Street?
    Sweeney Todd.

  4. The USS Nimitz travels through time to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. What should we call the movie?
    The Final Countdown, but I think it’s too late for you to make it.

  5. How many spaces are on a Stratego board?
    92 – don’t forget the lakes

  6. Gable and Lombard sold eggs?
    Indeed they did. Trying to make their farm self-sufficient, Lombard attempted to sell her chicken’s eggs as ‘King’s Eggs,’ featuring a picture of eggs wearing little crowns. Unfortunately, the scheme failed.

  7. Sure, Atari was a great video game company, but what does that have to do with black and white stones?
    Atari is also a term for the board game ‘Go,’ which means the state of having only one liberty left.

  8. You can be better than you are; certainly you don’t want to be a fish, given that a fish can’t write his name or read, and, although slippery, still gets caught.
    But if that sort of life is what you wish – you may grow up to be a fish.

  9. My buddy is an officer in his Masonic Lodge. He’s a junior or senior- something, but I don’t remember exactly what. Jog my memory?
    Actually, this is going to depend on what Masonic Lodge your buddy’s in. In 41 Grand Lodges, he’s a Junior/Senior Grand Warden/Deacon/Steward. In 8 Grand Lodges, he’s either a Grand Senior/Junior Warden/Deacon/Steward. In Missouri, Wardens are Senior/Junior Grand, and Deacons/Stewards are Grand Senior/Junior.

  10. Name the opera that tells of the young woman headed for a French convent who decides instead to abscond with a poor student, and then abandons him for a wealthy, if somewhat elderly (and aptly named) benefactor. Bad choice, as she wavers when the young suitor reappears and earns the wrath of her older lover, who ends up banishing her to a prison in Lousiana.
    Manon Lescaut, the Puccini opera.

  11. What are the odds of rolling a seven on the craps table exactly three times in a row?
    5/1292.

  12. Just after I emerged from my skinny-dipping in the ocean, my friend remarked that I was ‘doing a botta shelley.’ What is he talking about?
    Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

  13. My friend Russell and I decided to join the Army after realizing that we were in the middle of dead-end lives. My girlfriend had left me after I let her dry-cleaning get run over, and I was fired from my cab-driving job. The Army was good for me, even though I had to help my platoon complete its training after our DI got blown up by an errant mortar. Our first assignment in Italy led to use borrowing an Army vehicle and having to rescue our platoon in Czechoslovakia, and I ended up on the cover of Newsweek. Who am I?
    Bill Murray playing John Winger in Stripes (1981).

  14. There’s a new girl in town, with a fresh, freckled face. What sort of famous chili would she likely be serving at the diner?
    Why, Mel’s Famous Chili, of course.

  15. ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ But I’m having trouble keeping them all straight - Judge Reinhold, Judge Judy, Judge Roy Bean, Judge Roy Moore, Judge Dredd. What’s with all those judges?
    Reinhold (Actor, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Judy (Annoying TV Judge), Bean (Law West of the Pecos), Moore (Alabama 10 Commandments), Dredd (Comic book law enforcer).

  16. Let’s see- I’ve docked the grey, green, and red balls. I’ve navigated my way through the sewer. I’ve herded the neurons from one synapse to the other, and I’ve shuffled the music movements into correct order. When do you suppose I’ll get my brain out of Rathbone?
    That’d be the Lost Mind of Dr Brain. The poor guy had his brain swapped with that of his labrat named Rathbone.

  17. What ‘Man of La Mancha’ character is chosen from amongst the prisoners to portray the doctor and niece’s fiancé?
    Duque.

  18. What word best describes how this Bricker Challenge is numbered?
    Base eight, or octal.

  19. Which heresy, condemned by Ignatius of Antioch, held that Christ was pure spirit and was possessed of only a phantom body?
    Docetism.

  20. They are all smart, but without Henry, the waiter, it’s unlikely that any of the mysteries they consider would actually be solved.
    The Black Widowers.

  21. What’s the area of the circle that’s circumscribed around a square with sides of length 3(pi)?

  1. One side of the square is of length 3pi.
  2. A right triangle with two sides of length x has a hypotenuse of length x(sqrt(2)).
  3. The hypotenuse of the square is thus 3pi(sqrt(2)).
  4. As the circle is circumscribed about the square, the hypotenuse of the square is the diameter of the circle.
  5. The area of a circle is pi r^2.
  6. Halving the diameter obtained above gives us a radius of (3pi(sqrt(2)))/2.
  7. Plugging that into step 5 gives us an area of pi(3pi(sqrt(2))/2)^2, or 139.5 square units.

And, pi * [(3/2)(2^.5)pi]^2 = (9/2) (pi^3).

(9/2) (pi^3).

  1. What’s Mrs. Howell’s maiden name - the one she reverted to after the radio announced that she and Thurston were never actually married?
    Wentworth.

  2. SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each letter is a unique digit. What’s the real equation?
    9567 + 1085 = 10652.

  3. What characteristic is shared by Julie Gianni, Natalie Cook, Mary Jensen Matthews, and Laura Garrity?
    They’ve all performed with Cameron Diaz.

  4. What are all these ‘DLL’ files on my computer for?
    Dynamically Linked Libraries, which are a library of routines loaded and linked into applications at runtime.

  5. A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
    O-4, Lieutenant Commander.

  6. What sorts of things are prohibited by the rule of ‘shatnes’ in traditional Jewish tradition?
    Mixing, such as wool and linen, different species of cattle, or planting seeds. Everything must be kept separate.

  7. Discuss the best possible hands in hi-lo poker.
    Ace, two, three, four, six for the low hand, and ace high royal flush for the high hand.

  8. It’s a good thing Chuck got a call from his cousin Marvin, letting him hear the ‘new sound’ that Marty was playing on stage.
    Chuck Berry played “Johnny B Goode”.

  9. 4872 is the sum of what two primes?
    4831 and 41.

  10. Richard Feynman’s first wife?
    Arlene Greenbaum.

  11. Neptune is to Poseidon as Cupid is to [?]
    Eros.

  12. Speaking of Greeks, what’s the letter that’s used to refer to the coefficient of friction?
    mu.

  13. What does a prostitute mean when she advertises that she speaks Greek, Russian, and French?
    Greek is anal sex, Russian is tittie-fuckin’, and French is oral sex.

  14. As everyone knows, the Moops invaded Spain.
    The Moors invaded Spain in 711. Get it straight. (Unless you’re playing Trivial Pursuit on Seinfeld)

  15. What are the four noble truths?
    Life means suffering. The origin of suffering is attachment. The cessation of suffering is attainable. The path to the cessation of suffering.

  16. What’s the relationship of the answer to question 41 to cloning and the world of Pokemon?
    Mu is a gene involved in cloning, and Mewtwo is a Pokemon who was cloned from Mew.

  17. In one Simpsons episode, the Comic Book Guy describes a rare Mary Worth in which she advises a friend to commit suicide. I don’t get the joke.
    Mary Worth always gives kindly yet sensible advice. The joke is that it’s extremely unlikely for someone like Mary Worth to advise someone to kill themselves.

  18. What Anya and Xander song is more of a retro pastiche than a break-away pop hit?
    I’ll never tell.

  19. What author claims to know why the caged bird sings?
    Maya Angelou.

30

cliffy: no change, 39. (If I were giving partial credit, it’d be 39.875)

31

K, change to #25: answer is 18(pi squared) square units

#13 - 5/1292

See what happens now…

32

Actually, cancel that. #5 is 98. If you look at the board, it is 10x10. But the two lakes take up four spaces each but there are no dividing lines, which means that the eight spaces that would be taken up by the lakes are actually 2. 100-2=98.

Of course, one of the three I just corrected has to be correct. The question now is, which one?

I’ll make #13 1 in 216 again. Never mind what I said earlier.

33

#21 – I think this is it.

  1. My claim to fame is that I was opening a checking account in the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco on the morning of the day taxes were due in the year in which the President resigned. What did I see?
    Patty Hearst and the SLA. She was a bit of a dunce.

  2. What’s the maximum number of knights may be placed on a chessboard such that no two of them threaten each other?
    8^2/2, or 32.

  3. Who was the demon barber of Fleet Street?
    Sweeney Todd.

  4. The USS Nimitz travels through time to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. What should we call the movie?
    The Final Countdown, but I think it’s too late for you to make it.

  5. How many spaces are on a Stratego board?
    92 – don’t forget the lakes

  6. Gable and Lombard sold eggs?
    Indeed they did. Trying to make their farm self-sufficient, Lombard attempted to sell her chicken’s eggs as ‘King’s Eggs,’ featuring a picture of eggs wearing little crowns. Unfortunately, the scheme failed.

  7. Sure, Atari was a great video game company, but what does that have to do with black and white stones?
    Atari is also a term for the board game ‘Go,’ which means the state of having only one liberty left.

  8. You can be better than you are; certainly you don’t want to be a fish, given that a fish can’t write his name or read, and, although slippery, still gets caught.
    But if that sort of life is what you wish – you may grow up to be a fish.

  9. My buddy is an officer in his Masonic Lodge. He’s a junior or senior- something, but I don’t remember exactly what. Jog my memory?
    Actually, this is going to depend on what Masonic Lodge your buddy’s in. In 41 Grand Lodges, he’s a Junior/Senior Grand Warden/Deacon/Steward. In 8 Grand Lodges, he’s either a Grand Senior/Junior Warden/Deacon/Steward. In Missouri, Wardens are Senior/Junior Grand, and Deacons/Stewards are Grand Senior/Junior.

  10. Name the opera that tells of the young woman headed for a French convent who decides instead to abscond with a poor student, and then abandons him for a wealthy, if somewhat elderly (and aptly named) benefactor. Bad choice, as she wavers when the young suitor reappears and earns the wrath of her older lover, who ends up banishing her to a prison in Lousiana.
    Manon Lescaut, the Puccini opera.

  11. What are the odds of rolling a seven on the craps table exactly three times in a row?
    5/1292.

  12. Just after I emerged from my skinny-dipping in the ocean, my friend remarked that I was ‘doing a botta shelley.’ What is he talking about?
    Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

  13. My friend Russell and I decided to join the Army after realizing that we were in the middle of dead-end lives. My girlfriend had left me after I let her dry-cleaning get run over, and I was fired from my cab-driving job. The Army was good for me, even though I had to help my platoon complete its training after our DI got blown up by an errant mortar. Our first assignment in Italy led to use borrowing an Army vehicle and having to rescue our platoon in Czechoslovakia, and I ended up on the cover of Newsweek. Who am I?
    Bill Murray playing John Winger in Stripes (1981).

  14. There’s a new girl in town, with a fresh, freckled face. What sort of famous chili would she likely be serving at the diner?
    Why, Mel’s Famous Chili, of course.

  15. ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ But I’m having trouble keeping them all straight - Judge Reinhold, Judge Judy, Judge Roy Bean, Judge Roy Moore, Judge Dredd. What’s with all those judges?
    Reinhold (Actor, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Judy (Annoying TV Judge), Bean (Law West of the Pecos), Moore (Alabama 10 Commandments), Dredd (Comic book law enforcer).

  16. Let’s see- I’ve docked the grey, green, and red balls. I’ve navigated my way through the sewer. I’ve herded the neurons from one synapse to the other, and I’ve shuffled the music movements into correct order. When do you suppose I’ll get my brain out of Rathbone?
    That’d be the Lost Mind of Dr Brain. The poor guy had his brain swapped with that of his labrat named Rathbone.

  17. What ‘Man of La Mancha’ character is chosen from amongst the prisoners to portray the doctor and niece’s fiancé?
    The Duke

  18. What word best describes how this Bricker Challenge is numbered?
    Base eight, or octal.

  19. Which heresy, condemned by Ignatius of Antioch, held that Christ was pure spirit and was possessed of only a phantom body?
    Docetism.

  20. They are all smart, but without Henry, the waiter, it’s unlikely that any of the mysteries they consider would actually be solved.
    The Black Widowers.

  21. What’s the area of the circle that’s circumscribed around a square with sides of length 3(pi)?
    18(pi squared) square units

  22. What’s Mrs. Howell’s maiden name - the one she reverted to after the radio announced that she and Thurston were never actually married?
    Wentworth.

  23. SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each letter is a unique digit. What’s the real equation?
    9567 + 1085 = 10652.

  24. What characteristic is shared by Julie Gianni, Natalie Cook, Mary Jensen Matthews, and Laura Garrity?
    All played by Cameron Diaz.

  25. What are all these ‘DLL’ files on my computer for?
    Dynamically Linked Libraries, which are a library of routines loaded and linked into applications at runtime.

  26. A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
    O-4, Lieutenant Commander.

  27. What sorts of things are prohibited by the rule of ‘shatnes’ in traditional Jewish tradition?
    Mixing, such as wool and linen, different species of cattle, or planting seeds. Everything must be kept separate.

  28. Discuss the best possible hands in hi-lo poker.
    Ace, two, three, four, six for the low hand, and ace high royal flush for the high hand.

  29. It’s a good thing Chuck got a call from his cousin Marvin, letting him hear the ‘new sound’ that Marty was playing on stage.
    Chuck Berry played “Johnny B Goode”.

  30. 4872 is the sum of what two primes?
    4831 and 41.

  31. Richard Feynman’s first wife?
    Arlene Greenbaum.

  32. Neptune is to Poseidon as Cupid is to [?]
    Eros.

  33. Speaking of Greeks, what’s the letter that’s used to refer to the coefficient of friction?
    mu.

  34. What does a prostitute mean when she advertises that she speaks Greek, Russian, and French?
    Greek is anal sex, Russian is tittie-fuckin’, and French is oral sex.

  35. As everyone knows, the Moops invaded Spain.
    The Moors invaded Spain in 711. Get it straight. (Unless you’re playing Trivial Pursuit on Seinfeld)

  36. What are the four noble truths?
    Life means suffering. The origin of suffering is attachment. The cessation of suffering is attainable. The path to the cessation of suffering.

  37. What’s the relationship of the answer to question 41 to cloning and the world of Pokemon?
    Mu is a gene involved in cloning, and Mewtwo is a Pokemon who was cloned from Mew.

  38. In one Simpsons episode, the Comic Book Guy describes a rare Mary Worth in which she advises a friend to commit suicide. I don’t get the joke.
    Mary Worth always gives kindly yet sensible advice. The joke is that it’s extremely unlikely for someone like Mary Worth to advise someone to kill themselves.

  39. What Anya and Xander song is more of a retro pastiche than a break-away pop hit?
    I’ll never tell.

  40. What author claims to know why the caged bird sings?
    Maya Angelou.

–Cliffy

34

Actually, cancel that. #5 is 94. If you look at the board, it is 10x10. But the two lakes take up four spaces each but there are no dividing lines, which means that there are actually two bigger spaces. 100-8+2=94. Even though the pieces can’t move onto the lakes doesn’t mean that the spaces aren’t still there.

Of course, one of the three I just corrected has to be already correct. The question now is, which one?

I’ll make #13 1 in 216 again. Never mind what I said earlier.

35

Ack. Take the second post, not the first. I hadn’t quite worked it out in my mind before I started posting that.

36

Ok, here’s my current list, shamelessly stolen from Cliffy who stole from who stole from who stole from …

Please note: my only different from the esteemed Cliff is #25.

  1. My claim to fame is that I was opening a checking account in the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco on the morning of the day taxes were due in the year in which the President resigned. What did I see?
    Patty Hearst and the SLA. She was a bit of a dunce.

  2. What’s the maximum number of knights may be placed on a chessboard such that no two of them threaten each other?
    8^2/2, or 32.

  3. Who was the demon barber of Fleet Street?
    Sweeney Todd.

  4. The USS Nimitz travels through time to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. What should we call the movie?
    The Final Countdown, but I think it’s too late for you to make it.

  5. How many spaces are on a Stratego board?
    92 – don’t forget the lakes

  6. Gable and Lombard sold eggs?
    Indeed they did. Trying to make their farm self-sufficient, Lombard attempted to sell her chicken’s eggs as ‘King’s Eggs,’ featuring a picture of eggs wearing little crowns. Unfortunately, the scheme failed.

  7. Sure, Atari was a great video game company, but what does that have to do with black and white stones?
    Atari is also a term for the board game ‘Go,’ which means the state of having only one liberty left.

  8. You can be better than you are; certainly you don’t want to be a fish, given that a fish can’t write his name or read, and, although slippery, still gets caught.
    But if that sort of life is what you wish – you may grow up to be a fish.

  9. My buddy is an officer in his Masonic Lodge. He’s a junior or senior- something, but I don’t remember exactly what. Jog my memory?
    Actually, this is going to depend on what Masonic Lodge your buddy’s in. In 41 Grand Lodges, he’s a Junior/Senior Grand Warden/Deacon/Steward. In 8 Grand Lodges, he’s either a Grand Senior/Junior Warden/Deacon/Steward. In Missouri, Wardens are Senior/Junior Grand, and Deacons/Stewards are Grand Senior/Junior.

  10. Name the opera that tells of the young woman headed for a French convent who decides instead to abscond with a poor student, and then abandons him for a wealthy, if somewhat elderly (and aptly named) benefactor. Bad choice, as she wavers when the young suitor reappears and earns the wrath of her older lover, who ends up banishing her to a prison in Lousiana.
    Manon Lescaut, the Puccini opera.

  11. What are the odds of rolling a seven on the craps table exactly three times in a row?
    5/1292.

  12. Just after I emerged from my skinny-dipping in the ocean, my friend remarked that I was ‘doing a botta shelley.’ What is he talking about?
    Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

  13. My friend Russell and I decided to join the Army after realizing that we were in the middle of dead-end lives. My girlfriend had left me after I let her dry-cleaning get run over, and I was fired from my cab-driving job. The Army was good for me, even though I had to help my platoon complete its training after our DI got blown up by an errant mortar. Our first assignment in Italy led to use borrowing an Army vehicle and having to rescue our platoon in Czechoslovakia, and I ended up on the cover of Newsweek. Who am I?
    Bill Murray playing John Winger in Stripes (1981).

  14. There’s a new girl in town, with a fresh, freckled face. What sort of famous chili would she likely be serving at the diner?
    Why, Mel’s Famous Chili, of course.

  15. ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ But I’m having trouble keeping them all straight - Judge Reinhold, Judge Judy, Judge Roy Bean, Judge Roy Moore, Judge Dredd. What’s with all those judges?
    Reinhold (Actor, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Judy (Annoying TV Judge), Bean (Law West of the Pecos), Moore (Alabama 10 Commandments), Dredd (Comic book law enforcer).

  16. Let’s see- I’ve docked the grey, green, and red balls. I’ve navigated my way through the sewer. I’ve herded the neurons from one synapse to the other, and I’ve shuffled the music movements into correct order. When do you suppose I’ll get my brain out of Rathbone?
    That’d be the Lost Mind of Dr Brain. The poor guy had his brain swapped with that of his labrat named Rathbone.

  17. What ‘Man of La Mancha’ character is chosen from amongst the prisoners to portray the doctor and niece’s fiancé?
    The Duke

  18. What word best describes how this Bricker Challenge is numbered?
    Base eight, or octal.

  19. Which heresy, condemned by Ignatius of Antioch, held that Christ was pure spirit and was possessed of only a phantom body?
    Docetism.

  20. They are all smart, but without Henry, the waiter, it’s unlikely that any of the mysteries they consider would actually be solved.
    The Black Widowers.

  21. What’s the area of the circle that’s circumscribed around a square with sides of length 3(pi)?
    (9/2) (pi^3).

  22. What’s Mrs. Howell’s maiden name - the one she reverted to after the radio announced that she and Thurston were never actually married?
    Wentworth.

  23. SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each letter is a unique digit. What’s the real equation?
    9567 + 1085 = 10652.

  24. What characteristic is shared by Julie Gianni, Natalie Cook, Mary Jensen Matthews, and Laura Garrity?
    All played by Cameron Diaz.

  25. What are all these ‘DLL’ files on my computer for?
    Dynamically Linked Libraries, which are a library of routines loaded and linked into applications at runtime.

  26. A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
    O-4, Lieutenant Commander.

  27. What sorts of things are prohibited by the rule of ‘shatnes’ in traditional Jewish tradition?
    Mixing, such as wool and linen, different species of cattle, or planting seeds. Everything must be kept separate.

  28. Discuss the best possible hands in hi-lo poker.
    Ace, two, three, four, six for the low hand, and ace high royal flush for the high hand.

  29. It’s a good thing Chuck got a call from his cousin Marvin, letting him hear the ‘new sound’ that Marty was playing on stage.
    Chuck Berry played “Johnny B Goode”.

  30. 4872 is the sum of what two primes?
    4831 and 41.

  31. Richard Feynman’s first wife?
    Arlene Greenbaum.

  32. Neptune is to Poseidon as Cupid is to [?]
    Eros.

  33. Speaking of Greeks, what’s the letter that’s used to refer to the coefficient of friction?
    mu.

  34. What does a prostitute mean when she advertises that she speaks Greek, Russian, and French?
    Greek is anal sex, Russian is tittie-fuckin’, and French is oral sex.

  35. As everyone knows, the Moops invaded Spain.
    The Moors invaded Spain in 711. Get it straight. (Unless you’re playing Trivial Pursuit on Seinfeld)

  36. What are the four noble truths?
    Life means suffering. The origin of suffering is attachment. The cessation of suffering is attainable. The path to the cessation of suffering.

  37. What’s the relationship of the answer to question 41 to cloning and the world of Pokemon?
    Mu is a gene involved in cloning, and Mewtwo is a Pokemon who was cloned from Mew.

  38. In one Simpsons episode, the Comic Book Guy describes a rare Mary Worth in which she advises a friend to commit suicide. I don’t get the joke.
    Mary Worth always gives kindly yet sensible advice. The joke is that it’s extremely unlikely for someone like Mary Worth to advise someone to kill themselves.

  39. What Anya and Xander song is more of a retro pastiche than a break-away pop hit?
    I’ll never tell.

  40. What author claims to know why the caged bird sings?
    Maya Angelou.

37

Grrr. What a good thing I said that if I screwed up interim totals it was your hard luck.

Cliffy should have been given 38 (or 38.875 if partial credit were offered, which it’s not)
lno has 39 (or 39.875) as of 8-20 5:02 PM
Aguecheek has me lost, so I’ll ask for a repost, if you don’t mind

38

Answers shamelessly stolen from lno, with the exception of the bold:

  1. My claim to fame is that I was opening a checking account in the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco on the morning of the day taxes were due in the year in which the President resigned. What did I see?
    Patty Hearst and the SLA. She was a bit of a dunce.

  2. What’s the maximum number of knights may be placed on a chessboard such that no two of them threaten each other?
    8^2/2, or 32.

  3. Who was the demon barber of Fleet Street?
    Sweeney Todd.

  4. The USS Nimitz travels through time to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. What should we call the movie?
    The Final Countdown, but I think it’s too late for you to make it.

  5. How many spaces are on a Stratego board?
    92 – don’t forget the lakes

  6. Gable and Lombard sold eggs?
    Indeed they did. Trying to make their farm self-sufficient, Lombard attempted to sell her chicken’s eggs as ‘King’s Eggs,’ featuring a picture of eggs wearing little crowns. Unfortunately, the scheme failed.

  7. Sure, Atari was a great video game company, but what does that have to do with black and white stones?
    Atari is also a term for the board game ‘Go,’ which means the state of having only one liberty left.

  8. You can be better than you are; certainly you don’t want to be a fish, given that a fish can’t write his name or read, and, although slippery, still gets caught.
    But if that sort of life is what you wish – you may grow up to be a fish.

  9. My buddy is an officer in his Masonic Lodge. He’s a junior or senior- something, but I don’t remember exactly what. Jog my memory?
    Actually, this is going to depend on what Masonic Lodge your buddy’s in. In 41 Grand Lodges, he’s a Junior/Senior Grand Warden/Deacon/Steward. In 8 Grand Lodges, he’s either a Grand Senior/Junior Warden/Deacon/Steward. In Missouri, Wardens are Senior/Junior Grand, and Deacons/Stewards are Grand Senior/Junior.

  10. Name the opera that tells of the young woman headed for a French convent who decides instead to abscond with a poor student, and then abandons him for a wealthy, if somewhat elderly (and aptly named) benefactor. Bad choice, as she wavers when the young suitor reappears and earns the wrath of her older lover, who ends up banishing her to a prison in Lousiana.
    Manon Lescaut, the Puccini opera.

  11. What are the odds of rolling a seven on the craps table exactly three times in a row?
    5/1292.

  12. Just after I emerged from my skinny-dipping in the ocean, my friend remarked that I was ‘doing a botta shelley.’ What is he talking about?
    Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

  13. My friend Russell and I decided to join the Army after realizing that we were in the middle of dead-end lives. My girlfriend had left me after I let her dry-cleaning get run over, and I was fired from my cab-driving job. The Army was good for me, even though I had to help my platoon complete its training after our DI got blown up by an errant mortar. Our first assignment in Italy led to use borrowing an Army vehicle and having to rescue our platoon in Czechoslovakia, and I ended up on the cover of Newsweek. Who am I?
    Bill Murray playing John Winger in Stripes (1981).

  14. There’s a new girl in town, with a fresh, freckled face. What sort of famous chili would she likely be serving at the diner?
    Why, Mel’s Famous Chili, of course.

  15. ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ But I’m having trouble keeping them all straight - Judge Reinhold, Judge Judy, Judge Roy Bean, Judge Roy Moore, Judge Dredd. What’s with all those judges?
    Reinhold (Actor, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Judy (Annoying TV Judge), Bean (Law West of the Pecos), Moore (Alabama 10 Commandments), Dredd (Comic book law enforcer).

  16. Let’s see- I’ve docked the grey, green, and red balls. I’ve navigated my way through the sewer. I’ve herded the neurons from one synapse to the other, and I’ve shuffled the music movements into correct order. When do you suppose I’ll get my brain out of Rathbone?
    That’d be the Lost Mind of Dr Brain. The poor guy had his brain swapped with that of his labrat named Rathbone.

  17. What ‘Man of La Mancha’ character is chosen from amongst the prisoners to portray the doctor and niece’s fiancé?
    The Duke

  18. What word best describes how this Bricker Challenge is numbered?
    Base eight, or octal.

  19. Which heresy, condemned by Ignatius of Antioch, held that Christ was pure spirit and was possessed of only a phantom body?
    Docetism.

  20. They are all smart, but without Henry, the waiter, it’s unlikely that any of the mysteries they consider would actually be solved.
    The Black Widowers.

  21. What’s the area of the circle that’s circumscribed around a square with sides of length 3(pi)?
    (9/2) (pi^3).

  22. What’s Mrs. Howell’s maiden name - the one she reverted to after the radio announced that she and Thurston were never actually married?
    Wentworth.

  23. SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each letter is a unique digit. What’s the real equation?
    9567 + 1085 = 10652.

  24. What characteristic is shared by Julie Gianni, Natalie Cook, Mary Jensen Matthews, and Laura Garrity?
    All played by Cameron Diaz.

  25. What are all these ‘DLL’ files on my computer for?
    Dynamically Linked Libraries, which are a library of routines loaded and linked into applications at runtime.

  26. A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
    O-4, Lieutenant Commander.

  27. What sorts of things are prohibited by the rule of ‘shatnes’ in traditional Jewish tradition?
    Mixing, such as wool and linen, different species of cattle, or planting seeds. Everything must be kept separate.

  28. Discuss the best possible hands in hi-lo poker.
    Ace, two, three, four, six for the low hand, and ace high royal flush for the high hand.

  29. It’s a good thing Chuck got a call from his cousin Marvin, letting him hear the ‘new sound’ that Marty was playing on stage.
    In Back to the Future, Chuck got the call from Marvin, to hear what Marty was playing, so he stole Johnny B. Goode

  30. 4872 is the sum of what two primes?
    4831 and 41.

  31. Richard Feynman’s first wife?
    Arlene Greenbaum.

  32. Neptune is to Poseidon as Cupid is to [?]
    Eros.

  33. Speaking of Greeks, what’s the letter that’s used to refer to the coefficient of friction?
    mu.

  34. What does a prostitute mean when she advertises that she speaks Greek, Russian, and French?
    Greek is anal sex, Russian is tittie-fuckin’, and French is oral sex.

  35. As everyone knows, the Moops invaded Spain.
    The Moors invaded Spain in 711. Get it straight. (Unless you’re playing Trivial Pursuit on Seinfeld)

  36. What are the four noble truths?
    Life means suffering. The origin of suffering is attachment. The cessation of suffering is attainable. The path to the cessation of suffering.

  37. What’s the relationship of the answer to question 41 to cloning and the world of Pokemon?
    Mu is a gene involved in cloning, and Mewtwo is a Pokemon who was cloned from Mew.

  38. In one Simpsons episode, the Comic Book Guy describes a rare Mary Worth in which she advises a friend to commit suicide. I don’t get the joke.
    Mary Worth always gives kindly yet sensible advice. The joke is that it’s extremely unlikely for someone like Mary Worth to advise someone to kill themselves.

  39. What Anya and Xander song is more of a retro pastiche than a break-away pop hit?
    I’ll never tell.

  40. What author claims to know why the caged bird sings?
    Maya Angelou.

39

Stole Johnny B. Goode from no one, to be exact - Marty presumably learned it from Chuck, and then Chuck learned it from Marty. So no one wrote it, due to a loop in the space-time continuum.

40

That’s okay; I kinda got all twisted around myself.

I’m snookering Cliffy’s:

#25: 18(pi squared) square units

And just 'cause I’m well behind the pack when trying to figure out the problems involved in circle radii and craps odds, instead I’m changing:

#5: 94. If you look at the board, it is 10x10. But the two lakes take up four spaces each but there are no dividing lines, which means that there are actually two bigger spaces. 100-8+2=94. Even though the pieces can’t move onto the lakes doesn’t mean that the spaces aren’t still there.