Hmmm. .125 of a question wrong. 1/8 of a question wrong. Hmm, what question has eight parts, or the answer which was given was 7/8 correct. I’m thinking #2, #5, or #13. I’m going to crib |no’s latest set of answers, but change #2 to 24 knights instead of 32.
Enjoy,
Steven
Enjoy,
Steven
The one you’re getting partial credit for may be this one:[spoiler]32. A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
Depends on the branch into which he was commissioned. If he was commissioned into the Navy, he’s a Lt. Cmdr. If he was commissioned into the Marine Corps, he’s a Major.
I’d also argue that the correct number of Stratego spaces is 92, since the term “space” denotes emptiness, or the ability to be filled by your playing piece. For example, the area around the entire board is a square, but it isn’t a space. Hence, the lakes should not be counted as a space.[/spoiler]And for the record, you guys are incredible. I was patting myself on the back for getting a mere 18. Great quiz, Bricker.
I’m going to gracefully bow out of the rest of this - my poor brain is fried, and I have no time to devote to finding the correct answer today or tomorrow, and certainly someone will beat me.
Good challenge, Bricker, and good competition, the rest of you. 
(Brick, if you’re interested, I can give you the google terms I used for virtually all of my initial answers, in the hopes that it’ll make future challenges less-search-engine-able.)
I believe I’ve figured out Bricker hint. Check #44. Also, I’ve copied Ino’s answer on the circle’s area.
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.
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.
Who was the demon barber of Fleet Street?
Sweeney Todd.
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.
How many spaces are on a Stratego board?
92 – don’t forget the lakes which are not spaces because you are not permitted to land there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What are the odds of rolling a seven on the craps table exactly three times in a row?
5/1292.
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.
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.
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.
‘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; the so-called “hanging judge,” although it’s unclear if any of his death sentences were ever carried out), Moore (Alabama 10 Commandments), Dredd (Comic book law enforcer).
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.
What ‘Man of La Mancha’ character is chosen from amongst the prisoners to portray the doctor and niece’s fiancé?
The Duke
What word best describes how this Bricker Challenge is numbered?
octal.
Which heresy, condemned by Ignatius of Antioch, held that Christ was pure spirit and was possessed of only a phantom body?
Docetism.
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.
What’s the area of the circle that’s circumscribed around a square with sides of length 3(pi)?
(9/2) (pi^3) sq. units
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 – either Lovey or Eunice Wentworth; sources vary.
SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each letter is a unique digit. What’s the real equation?
9567 + 1085 = 10652.
What characteristic is shared by Julie Gianni, Natalie Cook, Mary Jensen Matthews, and Laura Garrity?
All played by Cameron Diaz.
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.
A man graduates from the Naval Academy, is commissioned, and promoted three grades. What’s his rank?
Either Major (if he was commissioned into the USMC) or Lt. Commander (if he was commissioned into the Navy proper).
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.
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.
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”. (From “Back to the Future”)
4872 is the sum of what two primes?
4831 and 41.
Richard Feynman’s first wife?
Arlene Greenbaum.
Neptune is to Poseidon as Cupid is to [?]
Eros.
Speaking of Greeks, what’s the letter that’s used to refer to the coefficient of friction?
mu.
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.
As everyone knows, the Moops invaded Spain.
The Moors invaded Spain in 711. Get it straight. (Unless you’re playing Trivial Pursuit on Seinfeld)
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 is the Eightfold Path.
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.
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.
What Anya and Xander song is more of a retro pastiche than a break-away pop hit?
I’ll never tell.
What author claims to know why the caged bird sings?
Maya Angelou.
–Cliffy
Good thing I’m not subtracting one for THIS wrong answer.
Cliffy - the win and the three-peat!
One thing I’ve noticed is my consistent inability to pick the questions that will prove the greatest stoppers. And it’s interesting that an early wrong answer, if it sounds about right, will survive multiple iterations.
So it was with #44, the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. The first answer correctly summarized three of the four, but inexplicably failed to finish the fourth sentence, leaving us with Three-And-A-Half Noble Truths. That answer survived in repetition down the line, and I thought last night that this may be the first Challenge in a while to end by time rather than with all questions answered.
I did think that the Stratego question would cause a bump or two, and I did think the presence of pi^3 in an answer would be confusing, since that natural tendency in area is to look for square units. But when so many people had pi^2, I started doubting myself.
I began giving full credit for the Moops being corrected to the Moors about halfway through, although I started out dinging those answers that didn’t also include awareness that George Costanza insisted the Trivial Pursuit answer of Moops was correct in the “Bubble Boy” episode, because I realized that I hadn’t given the slightest Seinfeld clue in the question.
To address Aguecheek’s comments in re Stratego spaces: spaces on a game board are generally considered to be usable play spaces. Otherwise, the giant square in Monopoly could be a “space,” as could the “Just Visiting” line for Jail as distinguished from the “holding area”. But when asked how many spaces there are on a Monopoly board, Jail is counted as one, and the center “square” not at all.
As always, I’d be interested in what you knew, what you Googled, and what you…er… borrowed.
Thanks to all for your time.
(lno, it’s an L, it’s an L, not an I!)
Yeah, I wasn’t putting much faith in that one at all, but it was obvious that at least one question had to be changed, and like lno, my brain was pretty well fried at that point. It seemed like there was consensus regarding all the answers except two (craps odds and circle radii). Of those two, I knew I’d have to wait for someone else to post first (and thereby get the win), so I had to try something.
Of course, I didn’t even think of the Buddhism question. I c&p’d that answer straight from a Buddhist website. Silly little buggers obviously aren’t all that up on their faith if they only follow 3 3/4 of their Four Noble Truths.
Congrats to Cliffy for the threepeat. I’ll post my googling system soon, as I’ve got a call right now.
Yessss!
I swiped a lot this time – after I saw that the challenge had been posted I leisurely started working on it. A little bit later I checked to see if any progress had been made and found that it was already almost over!
Knew (though might have needed to confirm): 1 (I knew the date and would have figured out the rest), 3, 12, 14, 15, 35, 40, 43 (including the Seinfeld reference), 46, 47.
Googled: 5, 11 (although I only had part of the answer before ino supplied the rest), 23, 24, 26, 30, 32 (with the assist from Age Quod Agis, 33, 41, 44 (then failed to realize what was missing from the version of the answer I copied until Mtgman pointed out that there was a hint in the amount of partial credit announced), and 45.
Swiped: 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 16, 20, 21, 25, 27, 34, 36, 37, 42 and 50. As to 42 – eek!
Figured out #13 and I was certain I’d gotten #25 correct, but I clearly don’t know how to deal with exponents anymore. Mr. Bender would be so disappointed.
As the above indicates, I won this challenge despite not knowing any of the damn answers, so Mtgman, Age Quod Agis and anybody else shouldn’t avoid the challenge just because you only know a handful of the answers – persistence counts! (As does just waiting until lno posts his answers and then stealing them.)
–Cliffy
:smack:
I must admit that if I were a player, I’d strategize this differently. I would NOT be the first one out of the chute with answers.
Looking back, the pattern has been that one or more people post a few answers - things they know off the top - and then someone posts a nearly complete set. Then the mad race begins, with others copying that set and adding their own refinements. While I’m intrigued with the idea of deliberately answering early with two or three incorrect answers, seeing as how they tend to take on a life on their own, I think I’d rather wait in the background … because that early, nearly compete poster is almost never the final winner.
I suspect that it’s the joy of answering more than the joy of winning under the artificial contest rules that drives this phenomenon. I’d like to test this theory someday with a $500 Bricekr Challenge, but my wife would kill me.
#1 - Knew, googled “Patty Hearst” to confirm date.
#2 - Shamelessly lifted from lno
#3 - Knew
#4 - Shamelessly lifted from lno
#5 - Googled “Stratego Board spaces,” saw a site mention 10x10 and two lakes, so I used that for a while, and then tried to make it much more confused than needs to be later on.
#6 - Googled “Gable, Lombard, eggs”
#7 - Googled “Atari” and “Go.” I knew Go involves black and white stones, and Atari sounds (obviously) Japanese, so I checked to see what would happen with the two terms together. Got a lot of Japanese sites at first, so I added “stones” to the mix.
#10 - Knew the song, forgot the name, so I checked IMDB for “Hudson Hawk” and checked the soundtrack listings.
#11 - Googled “Masonic Rank Structure,” got nothing. Googled “Masonic Rank Structure, junior, senior,” and got a whole load of references to London Grand Rank, which it seems, is currently being revised, so there were a lot of hits on that, pushing out any other references. To my disadvantage.
#12 - Googled “opera, convent, Louisiana.” Second hit was a synopsis of “Manon,” so I read it and took it.
#13 - Shamelessly lifted from lno
#14 - Knew it
#15 - Knew it, checked IMDB to check names.
#16 - Knew it - confirmed with coworker
#17 - Knew it
#20 - Googled “Rathbone” and “brain”
#21 - Googled “Man of La Mancha,” “prisoner,” “doctor,” and “fiance.” Didn’t find any quick answers through the play synopses I found except for the name Doctor Carrasco. Played with the above search terms. Eventually found out that there seems to be a play within a play within a play going on here, so I got really confused as to who was what. Found a reference to the prisoner prosecutor playing the Doctor, so I used that. Later took “Duque” from Cliffy or lno or someone else. Can’t quite remember who.
#22 - Coworker
#23 - Googled “Ignatius of Antioch,” “heresy” and “spirit.”
#24 - Googled “Henry,” “waiter,” and “mystery.” As soon as I saw “Black Widowers,” it seemed as if I might have read these stories a long time ago.
#25 - Shamelessly lifted from lno and Cliffy
#26 - Googled “Lovey Howell,” “maiden name.” First reference was a Straight Dope column.
#27 - Sat there and tried to figure it out and finally gave up and shamelessly lifted from lno. I did this one last.
#30 - Googled all the names at once, came up with a Cameron Diaz filmography.
#31 - Got what DLL stands for from a coworker, Googled “Dynamic Link Libraries,” and “definition.”
#32 - Googled “Naval Rank Structure”
#33 - Googled “shatnes” and “Judaism”
#34 - Googled “hi-lo poker hands,” only hits were a whole bunch of sites with “betting,” and “casino” and the like in the url. Not a good idea to check these types of sites at work. Therefore shamelessly lifted from lno
#35 - Knew it
#36 - Thought I knew it, forgot that 1 is not a prime number. When I saw different answers, googled “prime numbers,” found a site that listed them from 7,000 back and checked it.
#37 - Googled “Richard Feynman” and “first wife”
#40 - Knew it
#41 - Googled “greek letter” and “coefficient of friction.” Later changed my answer from a “cute” one to a straight one on the off chance that my answer was misconstrued and counting against me.
#42 - Knew Greek and French, got Russian from Mtgman
#43 - Knew “Moors,” had no clue it was related to Seinfeld.
#44 - Googled “four noble truths,” went to one of the resulting sites: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html, and used it.
#45 - Shamelessly lifted from lno, but from having previously read an overview of Pokemon, knew that Mew Two was a clone, so I changed it slightly.
#46 - Checked SNPP.com to see if there was more to the joke than I remembered. When I found there wasn’t, I realized you were just looking for Mary’s complete out-of-character actions.
#47 - Googled “Anya” and “Xander” and “hit.” Got a whole bunch of Buffy hits, so I asked the office Buffy fan.
#50 - Coworker.
Google is my mortal enemy on these things. It’s amazing how much information is out there.
I feel compelled to point out, regarding #13[sub]8[/sub], that 6[sup]4[/sup] = 1296, not 1292.
And I feel compelled to point out that the author who knows why the caged bird sings (number 50) should be Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” contains the line that Angelou used as the title of her novel.
:eek:
Enjoy(NOT LIKE THAT!),
Steven
HM.
Now that you mention it, the wording is a tad off, isn’t it? Howzabout we change that: “I obtained the meaning of ‘Russian,’ when applied to prositutes, from Mtgman in his previous post.”
Yeah, that works better.
First post I read the first time I open the boards this morning. It’s good to start with a laugh.
It’s gonna be a good day.
I would have accepted Dunbar, had anyone offered it. But Maya is an equally valid answer.