Bricker Challenge 2005, Edition # 2½

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

1. With this Bricker Challenge, I come to you to test you with hard questions, but don’t get me wrong - Solomon never seduced me and converted me to Christianity, and I’m not even royalty.
And yet they still call you the Queen of Sheba…

2. Janie tells the story to Phoebe on the steps of the back porch.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston), Janie is the protagonist and Phoeby her confidante.

3. Phoebe didn’t know Travis shoots Old Yeller.
Her mother always turned off the movie before the end to protect her, in Friends.

4. If you found a Kasper Hauser, would you start to believe in alien abduction?
Although he showed up in Nürnberg as a pre-teen with mysterious origins, there is most likely a more mundane explanantion to this Enigma.

5. If you found a Maxwell Hauser, would you support him for president of the student body?
No, because Jon Cryer as bond trader Andrew Morenski, aka “high schooler” Max Hauser in “Hiding Out”, is a little too old for the job.

6. If they could only have used a DNA test, Dimmesdale’s appeal would have been very different.
Dimmesdale was the father of Hester Prynne’s child in The Scarlet Letter, but refused to admit it. In the long run, he might have been better off going public and taking his chances.

7. Do you trust Hank Reardon’s mettle?
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden is Founder of Rearden Steel and inventor of Rearden Metal, an alloy that is stronger and cheaper than steel. Only those evil anticapitalist government types would mistrust it!

8. Tell me about the night that was sans peur et sans reproche.
Sir Galahad was that knight.

9. The Association sang to us that everyone knows it’s Windy, but what about flying with Michael and John? Who did that?
Wendy Darling, with Peter Pan.

10. If your friend Crispis Atucks invites you to come protest with him, say you’ve got other plans.
Crispus Attucks was killed at the Boston Massacre, and is popularly held to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.

11. Hold the pickles and the lettuce, because, really, we’re fine with special orders.
Burger King, “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us”.

12. What’s the difference between a killer and an obliterator?
A killer is any postmark or cancellation mark which makes a stamp unuseable. An obliterator is a device specifically designed to cancel stamps. (Obliterators – or at least the marks they make – are a subset of killers.)[Thanks, Cliffy!]

13. Although the novel never explicitly identifies him, what literary character engages Oscar Gordon in a swordfight for the Egg of Wisdom?
Cyrano de Bergerac, but it’s the Egg of the Phoenix, in Heinlein’s Glory Road.

14. What was the name of that famous old Greek teacher who died from an overdose of wedlock?
Socrates, but it was hemlock.

15. The three types of columns: doorick, ironic, and - ?
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

16. Randolph and Mortimer were homeless bums until they got a sackful of money. Perhaps they can go back to making $1 bets.
They were the Duke Brothers whose $1 bets caused the Trading Places of Eddie Murphy’s and Dan Aykroyd’s characters, but they got their comeuppance in Florida OJ futures. They make a cameo appearance in the later Murphy vehicle Coming to America, in which they are the bums who pick up the bag of money that Murphy’s African prince drops.

17. It was Henry VI and Edward VI - why do flowers come into it?
The Wars of the Roses - Red (Henry VI of Lancaster) vs White (Edward IV, not VI, of York), after the badges of the two Houses.

18. Where might you be if you saw a magic show put on by illusionist Anthony Blake?
On the set of The Magician, starring Bill Bixby.

19. Nobody does that to Mrs. Russ Crane!
Not unless they want to run afoul of Kurtwood Smith’s gangster Lombino (aka Russ Crane) in Bill Murray’s Quick Change.

20. 197.14.24.3 and 197.14.24.7 are on the same network, but 197.14.24.10 is on a different network. What is the correct subnet mask for 197.14.24.5 ?
255.255.255.248

21. In Plato’s “Republic”, they keep blabbing about cave shadows - what’s up with that?
Plato’s cave allegory imagines prisoners chained since childhood in a cave, constrained so as to only look at one wall. There is a fire behind them, and when people walk between the fire and the prisoners’ backs, carrying various objects, the prisoners can only see the corresponding shadows on the wall that they face. Their entire world view is based on these shadows. If one prisoner is released to the outside world and “enlightened”, then returned to the cave, he’s going to have a hard time convincing his companions of his new-found world view.

22. Hey, at least “Be all you can be”, is a little better approach than what caused the 1807 Embargo Act.
The former is the slogan of the current (all-volunteer) US Army, whereas the latter was passed in response to impressment of Americans into the British Navy. The Act had the effect of cutting off the US from European trade, which hurt exports but made the US more self-sufficient wrt manufacturing. It also was one of the causes of the War of 1812.

23. Capital of the Incas, or a David Spade voice.
Spade’s character in The Emperor’s New Groove is Kuzco, whereas the Incan capital in Peru is usually spelled Cusco or Cuzco.

24. Evaluate sin[sup]-1/sup
It’s (2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3), or about 2.094

25. Susan Silverman’s fling with Russell Corrigan ended much worse than Meg Ryan’s fling with Russell Crowe.
In Robert B. Parker’s novel A Catskill Eagle, Spenser’s sometime squeeze Susan is in the clutches of Russell “Rusty” Costigan, the son of an evil arms dealer (she thinks she’s in love, but it’s very manipulative). When Spenser tries to save her, the arms dealer puts a contract on him, and the bodies pile up before Spenser gets Susan back (although why he’s want her is anyone’s guess). Ms Ryan and Mr Crowe had an affair while filming Proof of Life, and although it probably helped to end Ryan’s marriage to Dennis Quaid, nobody got whacked.

22

Wow. If they were slain, 'twere best they be slain quickly?

Antonius Block: 25, and a winner!

23

Woohoo!

I knew that as a West-Coaster, with Cliffy close to the goal as my evening was winding down, I had a one-shot / one-kill chance.

I just got out of bed to check e-mail, and am heading back thataways, so will give a breakdown of known / researched / stolen answers later today. Suffice to say for now, that your post #20:

gave me the spur to even enter this time around.

Proceeds to charity, Bricker, please – let’s discuss details later today. Cliffy, are any charitable causes particularly close to your heart at the moment?

[Now, back to bed.]

24

I had absolutely no clue on #25 and I had to go home, so I figured I’d take a flyer and hope maybe nobody got it. What were the other two I missed? Failing to explain “Be all you can be,” maybe?

–Cliffy

25

That was one – you needed to explain that “Be all you can be” was an ARMY slogan as opposed to a Navy one, but it was Navy impressment that led to the Embargo Act of 1807.

You also needed to correct the error about the War of the Roses: Edward IV, not Edward VI, was the top guy of York.

26

Congrats, Antonius Block!

I knew I wasn’t going to win, but since 8 right is about 8 better than I’ve ever thought I’d be able to do on one of these before, I figured I’d post anyways.

Bricker, after googling, I thought I had Sir Galahad wrong. Which one did you nick me on?

27

Same as Cliffy’s – Edward IV was at the head of the House of York.

28

Ah. Thanks.

29

Bricker, in the thrill of the chase I forgot to thank you for all of the hard work you put in each time you do one of these. Then, on top of that, to be generous enough to provide a reward… 'tis truly a noble thing.

Speaking of rewards, I just thought of a SDMB Charter Member who hasn’t posted in a few months and who seems to have gone to “Guest” status, which means that said dormant Doper presumably didn’t renew back in April. On the offchance that this is a financial consideration, I’d like to try to make e-mail contact and offer a “Bricker scholarship”. If I don’t hear back, or if their decision not to renew was other than financial, we can discuss charitable donation.

I’ll give a full autopsy of my responses later today, but I just want to say that one of the interesting aspects of the Bricker Challenge is the prcess of refinement of the Virtual Bricker Machine [I was going to call it Bricker Virtual Machine, but the initials might have been taken to be irreverent…] that I use to analyze previous answers and scores! I know that you no longer give half-marks, and I’ve concluded that you don’t require that the “anti-Google traps” (i.e. misspellings of names in the clues) be corrected in the answers, but I still end up confused sometimes. That’s what makes it so challenging!

30

I agree with that, Antonius. An answer that would be acceptable for Jeopardy, for instance, might not be accepted in the Bricker Challenge.

–Cliffy

31

This is incorrect: sin[sup]-1/sup=[symbol]p[/symbol]/3, not 2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3. The standard definition of sin[sup]-1[/sup] has a range that only goes from -[symbol]p[/symbol]/2 to +[symbol]p[/symbol]/2. The only number in that range whose sine is sqrt(3)/2 is [symbol]p[/symbol]/3.

So sin[sup]-1/sup = sin[sup]-1/sup = [symbol]p[/symbol]/3.

Sorry to mention this after Bricker already declared a winner, but I wasn’t expecting Bricker to give Antonius that one…

32

1. With this Bricker Challenge, I come to you to test you with hard questions, but don’t get me wrong - Solomon never seduced me and converted me to Christianity, and I’m not even royalty.
And yet they still call you the Queen of Sheba…

2. Janie tells the story to Phoebe on the steps of the back porch.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston), Janie is the protagonist and Phoeby her confidante.

3. Phoebe didn’t know Travis shoots Old Yeller.
Her mother always turned off the movie before the end to protect her.

4. If you found a Kasper Hauser, would you start to believe in alien abduction?
Although he showed up in Nürnberg as a pre-teen with mysterious origins, there is most likely a more mundane explanantion to this Enigma.

5. If you found a Maxwell Hauser, would you support him for president of the student body?
No, because Jon Cryer as bond trader Andrew Morenski, aka “high schooler” Max Hauser in “Hiding Out”, is a little too old for the job.

6. If they could only have used a DNA test, Dimmesdale’s appeal would have been very different.
Dimmesdale was the father of Hester Prynne’s child in The Scarlet Letter.

7. Do you trust Hank Reardon’s mettle?
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Reardon’s company invents an alloy that is stronger and cheaper than steel. Only those evil anticapitalist government types would mistrust it!

8. Tell me about the night that was sans peur et sans reproche.
Sir Galahad was that knight.

9. The Association sang to us that everyone knows it’s Windy, but what about flying with Michael and John? Who did that?
Wendy Darling, with Peter Pan.

10. If your friend Crispis Atucks invites you to come protest with him, say you’ve got other plans.
Crispus Attucks was killed at the Boston Massacre, and is popularly held to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.

11. Hold the pickles and the lettuce, because, really, we’re fine with special orders.
Burger King, “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us”.

12. What’s the difference between a killer and an obliterator?
A killer is any postmark or cancellation mark which makes a stamp unuseable. An obliterator is a device specifically designed to cancel stamps. (Obliterators – or at least the marks they make – are a subset of killers.)[Thanks, Cliffy!]

13. Although the novel never explicitly identifies him, what literary character engages Oscar Gordon in a swordfight for the Egg of Wisdom?
Cyrano de Bergerac, but it’s the Egg of the Phoenix, in Heinlein’s Glory Road.

14. What was the name of that famous old Greek teacher who died from an overdose of wedlock?
Socrates, but it was hemlock.

15. The three types of columns: doorick, ironic, and - ?
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

16. Randolph and Mortimer were homeless bums until they got a sackful of money. Perhaps they can go back to making $1 bets.
They were the Duke Brothers whose $1 bets caused the Trading Places of Eddie Murphy’s and Dan Aykroyd’s characters, but they got their comeuppance in Florida OJ futures. They make a cameo appearance in the later Murphy vehicle Coming to America, in which they are the bums who pick up the bag of money that Murphy’s African prince drops.

17. It was Henry VI and Edward VI - why do flowers come into it?
The Wars of the Roses - Red (Henry VI of Lancaster) vs White (Edward IV, not VI, of York), after the badges of the two Houses.

18. Where might you be if you saw a magic show put on by illusionist Anthony Blake?
On the set of The Magician, starring Bill Bixby.

19. Nobody does that to Mrs. Russ Crane!
Not unless they want to run afoul of Kurtwood Smith’s gangster Lombino (aka Russ Crane) in Bill Murray’s Quick Change.

20. 197.14.24.3 and 197.14.24.7 are on the same network, but 197.14.24.10 is on a different network. What is the correct subnet mask for 197.14.24.5 ?
255.255.255.248

21. In Plato’s “Republic”, they keep blabbing about cave shadows - what’s up with that?
Plato’s cave allegory imagines prisoners chained since childhood in a cave, constrained so as to only look at one wall. There is a fire behind them, and when people walk between the fire and the prisoners’ backs, carrying various objects, the prisoners can only see the corresponding shadows on the wall that they face. Their entire world view is based on these shadows. If one prisoner is released to the outside world and “enlightened”, then returned to the cave, he’s going to have a hard time convincing his companions of his new-found world view.

22. Hey, at least “Be all you can be”, is a little better approach than what caused the 1807 Embargo Act.
The former is the slogan of the current (all-olunteer) US Army, whereas the latter was passed in response to impressment of Americans into the British Navy. The Act had the effect of cutting off the US from European trade, which hurt exports but made the US more self-sufficient wrt manufacturing. It also was one of the causes of the War of 1812.

23. Capital of the Incas, or a David Spade voice.
Spade’s character in The Emperor’s New Groove is Kuzco, whereas the Incan capital in Peru is usually spelled Cusco or Cuzco.

24. Evaluate sin[sup]-1/sup
According to Orbifold, it’s (2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3), or about 1.047!

**25. Susan Silverman’s fling with Russell Corrigan ended much worse than Meg Ryan’s fling with Russell Crowe.**In Robert B. Parker’s novel A Catskill Eagle, Spenser’s sometime squeeze Susan is in the clutches of Russell “Rusty” Costigan, the son of an evil arms dealer (she thinks she’s in love, but it’s very manipulative). When Spenser tries to save her, the arms dealer puts a contract on him, and the bodies pile up before Spenser gets Susan back (although why he’s want her is anyone’s guess). Ms Ryan and Mr Crowe had an affair while filming Proof of Life, and although it probably helped to end Ryan’s marriage to Dennis Quaid, nobody got whacked.

33

[Sorry, I hit Post rather than Preview just now]
1. With this Bricker Challenge, I come to you to test you with hard questions, but don’t get me wrong - Solomon never seduced me and converted me to Christianity, and I’m not even royalty.
And yet they still call you the Queen of Sheba…

2. Janie tells the story to Phoebe on the steps of the back porch.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston), Janie is the protagonist and Phoeby her confidante.

3. Phoebe didn’t know Travis shoots Old Yeller.
Her mother always turned off the movie before the end to protect her.

4. If you found a Kasper Hauser, would you start to believe in alien abduction?
Although he showed up in Nürnberg as a pre-teen with mysterious origins, there is most likely a more mundane explanantion to this Enigma.

5. If you found a Maxwell Hauser, would you support him for president of the student body?
No, because Jon Cryer as bond trader Andrew Morenski, aka “high schooler” Max Hauser in “Hiding Out”, is a little too old for the job.

6. If they could only have used a DNA test, Dimmesdale’s appeal would have been very different.
Dimmesdale was the father of Hester Prynne’s child in The Scarlet Letter.

7. Do you trust Hank Reardon’s mettle?
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Reardon’s company invents an alloy that is stronger and cheaper than steel. Only those evil anticapitalist government types would mistrust it!

8. Tell me about the night that was sans peur et sans reproche.
Sir Galahad was that knight.

9. The Association sang to us that everyone knows it’s Windy, but what about flying with Michael and John? Who did that?
Wendy Darling, with Peter Pan.

10. If your friend Crispis Atucks invites you to come protest with him, say you’ve got other plans.
Crispus Attucks was killed at the Boston Massacre, and is popularly held to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.

11. Hold the pickles and the lettuce, because, really, we’re fine with special orders.
Burger King, “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us”.

12. What’s the difference between a killer and an obliterator?
A killer is any postmark or cancellation mark which makes a stamp unuseable. An obliterator is a device specifically designed to cancel stamps. (Obliterators – or at least the marks they make – are a subset of killers.)[Thanks, Cliffy!]

13. Although the novel never explicitly identifies him, what literary character engages Oscar Gordon in a swordfight for the Egg of Wisdom?
Cyrano de Bergerac, but it’s the Egg of the Phoenix, in Heinlein’s Glory Road.

14. What was the name of that famous old Greek teacher who died from an overdose of wedlock?
Socrates, but it was hemlock.

15. The three types of columns: doorick, ironic, and - ?
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

16. Randolph and Mortimer were homeless bums until they got a sackful of money. Perhaps they can go back to making $1 bets.
They were the Duke Brothers whose $1 bets caused the Trading Places of Eddie Murphy’s and Dan Aykroyd’s characters, but they got their comeuppance in Florida OJ futures. They make a cameo appearance in the later Murphy vehicle Coming to America, in which they are the bums who pick up the bag of money that Murphy’s African prince drops.

17. It was Henry VI and Edward VI - why do flowers come into it?
The Wars of the Roses - Red (Henry VI of Lancaster) vs White (Edward IV, not VI, of York), after the badges of the two Houses.

18. Where might you be if you saw a magic show put on by illusionist Anthony Blake?
On the set of The Magician, starring Bill Bixby.

19. Nobody does that to Mrs. Russ Crane!
Not unless they want to run afoul of Kurtwood Smith’s gangster Lombino (aka Russ Crane) in Bill Murray’s Quick Change.

20. 197.14.24.3 and 197.14.24.7 are on the same network, but 197.14.24.10 is on a different network. What is the correct subnet mask for 197.14.24.5 ?
255.255.255.248

21. In Plato’s “Republic”, they keep blabbing about cave shadows - what’s up with that?
Plato’s cave allegory imagines prisoners chained since childhood in a cave, constrained so as to only look at one wall. There is a fire behind them, and when people walk between the fire and the prisoners’ backs, carrying various objects, the prisoners can only see the corresponding shadows on the wall that they face. Their entire world view is based on these shadows. If one prisoner is released to the outside world and “enlightened”, then returned to the cave, he’s going to have a hard time convincing his companions of his new-found world view.

22. Hey, at least “Be all you can be”, is a little better approach than what caused the 1807 Embargo Act.
The former is the slogan of the current (all-olunteer) US Army, whereas the latter was passed in response to impressment of Americans into the British Navy. The Act had the effect of cutting off the US from European trade, which hurt exports but made the US more self-sufficient wrt manufacturing. It also was one of the causes of the War of 1812.

23. Capital of the Incas, or a David Spade voice.
Spade’s character in The Emperor’s New Groove is Kuzco, whereas the Incan capital in Peru is usually spelled Cusco or Cuzco.

24. Evaluate sin-1(sin(2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3))
According to Orbifold, it’s ([symbol]p[/symbol]/3), or about 1.047!

**25. Susan Silverman’s fling with Russell Corrigan ended much worse than Meg Ryan’s fling with Russell Crowe.**In Robert B. Parker’s novel A Catskill Eagle, Spenser’s sometime squeeze Susan is in the clutches of Russell “Rusty” Costigan, the son of an evil arms dealer (she thinks she’s in love, but it’s very manipulative). When Spenser tries to save her, the arms dealer puts a contract on him, and the bodies pile up before Spenser gets Susan back (although why he’s want her is anyone’s guess). Ms Ryan and Mr Crowe had an affair while filming Proof of Life, and although it probably helped to end Ryan’s marriage to Dennis Quaid, nobody got whacked.

34

Okay, I got that out of the way!

I don’t have time right now to think about Orbifold’s point, although I think he might be right.

Still, I’ve already sent an e-mail to my Bricker SDMB Scholarship candidate, so I need this win!

By my thinking:
[ul]
[li]If it’s 2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3, then I won with post #21, case closed.[/li][li]If it’s [symbol]p[/symbol]/3, then I’ve just won with post #33[/li][li]If it’s something else entirely, then we have a loose ball, and the game’s afoot![/li][/ul]

I thought Question 24 seemed too easy (plus Bricker had already called it as correct, according to my Virtual Bricker Machine)!

35

And sometimes, a question is counted as correct in the BC even if it doesn’t seem to touch all of the bases. For instance, you were given full credit for Trading Spaces (sic!) in Q16, without mentioning Coming to America, which would seem to be necessary for the “Dukes as two bums picking up sackful of money” idea, which doesn’t occur in Trading Places. In Q13, did we need to correct Egg of Wisdom to Egg of the Phoenix? Those who didn’t still got full credit, yet Edward VI → IV was considered a necessary correction in Q17…

My Virtual Bricker Machine seems to have quite a quirky algorithm. One might almost say… human in nature, and fallible! :stuck_out_tongue: That’s why my strategy henceforth is to throw every reference imaginable into the pot, even if the result ends up as an essay!

36

That’s the wisest approach. When I write a question, I highlight the elements that must be answered for the question to be correct. It’s not consistent – for example, I didn’t require that someone explain that both a Bricker Challenge and the Queen of Sheba’s approach to Solomon were tests with hard questions.

Now to [symbol]p[/symbol]/3 vs. 2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3.

Originally, I was going to require [symbol]p[/symbol]/3. But after the first couple of people to attempt it answered 2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3, I thought I should try running it through a scientific calculator; I did, and it returned 2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3. I thought I could make a strong case that [symbol]p[/symbol]/3 was the only right answer, but, notwithstanding, if people were being led astray with every desktop tool, maybe it wasn’t fair.

37

Your calculator’s wrong, or at the very least it’s using a non-standard definition of sin[sup]-1/sup.

(shrugs) Not that it matters much. I’m not trying to begrudge Antonius a well-earned victory (I think my score would have been about 6), I’m just nitpicking the math.

38

I’ve just e-mailed Bricker with the username of the “lapsed Doper” whom I nominate for the Bricker Challenge SDMB Scholarship for the next year. The nominee is looking forward to returning to full Doper status!

Here’s the autopsy on my answers:

Background:
I’d done two previous Bricker Challenges (I think they were each 50 questions?), and found them very addicting. Did a lot of “heavy lifting” (i.e. added lots of new correct answers, getting up to ~48/50) in both; pipped at the post once, won once. Added up the amount of time taken, and decided not to participate again. I’m weak on older US TV (I’ve never seen a single episode of Gilligan’s Island or Green Acres, for instance!). It’s enjoyable, since I’m just plain interested in the kind of questions that are asked, so enjoy doing the research (with some exceptions). Ignorance is fought, and that’s a worthy goal.

Current Challenge:
Saw this thread early on (with few answers submitted), decided to give it a pass just for the time involved. Later on, checked back and saw that Cliffy had been awarded 22 out of 25. Now this was tempting, especially since I’m a Left-Coaster and it was getting late! Glanced at his answers, saw a few places where he might have erred, figured I could crank the whole thing out in about 30 minutes, and then of course I was hooked. If it hadn’t been for previous responses, especially Cliffy’s which was my “Rosetta Stone” into the mind of Bricker, I wouldn’t have even started this time.

Breakdown:
In the following, VBM refers to my Virtual Bricker Machine, which tries to parse Bricker’s feedback to earlier submissions to determine which responses have already been allowed as correct. If I’d known how far my model was from the real Bricker, I might not have started! :stuck_out_tongue:

1. Queen of Sheba-type stuff.
Knew it.

2. Janie tells the story to Phoebe on the steps of the back porch.
I’d read Their Eyes Were Watching God, so knew it, but Googled it to check and to get the author’s name.

3. Phoebe didn’t know Travis shoots Old Yeller.
I’ve never seen Old Yeller! I’m aware of the sad part, however. I must have seen that epsiode of Friends.

4. Kasper Hauser, alien abduction?
I saw The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, (I’m a Herzog fan), but Wikipedia’d it to get that it was Nürnberg.

5. Maxwell Hauser, president of the student body?
Didn’t know it. Stole from previous posters, IMDB’d to check and get background to be sure that previous posters hadn’t missed anything.

6. Dimmesdale, DNA test.
Knew this.

7. Do you trust Hank Reardon’s mettle?
Thought this might be Atlas Shrugged, previous posters confirmed this, Wikipedia’d it to get details

8. The night that was sans peur et sans reproche.
Knew this.

9. The Association, Windy, flying with Michael and John?
Knew this.

10. Crispis Atucks protest.
Knew Crispus Attucks was killed at the Boston Massacre, Wikipedia’d to check his “first death” status (apparently there’s some question).

11. Pickles, lettuce, special orders.
Didn’t know this (although obviously knew it was US Fast Food); previous posters had offered BK and McD’s but I figured the rhyme was the key, and Googled to check.

12. What’s the difference between a killer and an obliterator?
I had no idea. To be honest, my philately-interest module must have been in the shop, because I wasn’t even interested (and that’s the only question for which that’s true— sorry, philatelists!). So, I stole it from Cliffy word for word, with attribution. If you’d but known, Cliffy, you could have booby-trapped it for me by making a deliberate mistake here and letting me get to 24 correct, then swept in for the win!

13. Non-explicitly- identified lit. char., Oscar Gordon, swordfight, Egg
Did not know this. Stole, and Googled. My VBM told me that this was one of Cliffy’s three errors, since he didn’t correct the Egg’s name.

14. Greek teacher who died from an overdose of wedlock?
Knew it. My cat knew it :stuck_out_tongue: . Not surprised that Siddhartha Vicious thought it was a trick!

15. The three types of columns: doorick, ironic, and - ?
Knew it. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Once upon a time, I even knew the differences!

16. R+M, homeless bums, sackful of money, back to making $1 bets.
Knew it. My VBM told me that this was one of Cliffy’s errors, because you have to include the second movie to get the “bums pick up the bag of money” idea. My VBM is – apparently – broken!

17. It was Henry VI and Edward VI - why do flowers come into it?
Knew it (UK born and raised). My VBM told me that “Edward VI” was a deliberate mistake on the level of “Crispis Atucks”, so Cliffy’s answer was deemed OK. Stupid VBM! :smack: Threw in the VI-> IV change anyway.

18. Magic show put on by illusionist Anthony Blake?
Didn’t know it – never saw the show. Previous responders seemed to get it scored OK. Didn’t even bother IMDB’ing.

19. Nobody does that to Mrs. Russ Crane!
Didn’t know it. Googled, IMDB’d.

20. [Subnet masks]
Figured it out, saw other people had the same, VBM told me it checked out.

21. [Plato, cave shadows]
I knew this, but Wikipedia’d it because I wanted to be sure of the details. I’m glad I know this again!

22. “Be all you can be”, > what caused the 1807 Embargo Act.
Knew it. My VBM told me that Cliffy’s answer was deemed OK without the [“Be All You Can Be” = Army], but threw it in anyway. Can’t hurt, right? (Phew!)

23. Capital of the Incas, or a David Spade voice.
I knew the Incan capital was Cuzco. Never saw the David Spade movie, but know who he is so IMDB’d him and recognized the movie name.

24. Evaluate sin-1(sin(2[symbol]p[/symbol]/3))
Looked at it. Seemed simple, almost too simple, Watson! However, the VBM showed that it had passed muster, so went ahead. Looking at it properly, I agree with Orbifold 100%. If he’d put his answer with the other 24 answers in a single post, he’d have the glory now, not me. But he didn’t! Bwahahahah!

25. Susan Silverman + Russell Corrigan << Meg Ryan+ Russell Crowe.
Knew the Ryan/Crowe scandal, IMDB’d the movie to check. Recognized Susan Silverman’s name, hence Spenser, thought Cliffy might have it but a few minutes on a Spenser fan site got me to Costigan’s real name, and the correct book fell out complete with plot.

39

It interests me greatly to learn the thought processes that go into solving these Challenges - for a couple of reasons. That was a great post, Antonious Block - thanks!

I’m especially interested in the gamesmanship of holding back an answer or deliberately placing an error in your own answers. From a strategy standpoint, that seems like an obvious play, but I think a lot of folks that answer these questions do it in a collaborative mode, not a competitive one – in other words, they answer what they know, not in the hopes of winning, but in helping someone else get over the top. I’ve theorized that this might change if the prize were REALLY BIG, but thus far Mrs. Bricker has vetoed a REALLY BIG prize.

If anyone cares to answer, though, strictly in the hypothetical: if the contest were 50 questions, and the prize $250, would it change the way you play? If the prize were $1000, would THAT change things?

40

I don’t think a really big prize would change the way I play (except I played this one differently), but it would change the way others play, making them hold back their answers. Since I typically swipe about a third of my answers from others, I think the really big prize would make it more difficult for me, and everyone else.

I also think that it would be a less interesting game. First because of the above-mentioned close-to-vestness, there’d be less ebb and flow to the thread. Part of the excitement is doing half an hour of research, refreshing the thread, and then finding that [bMetacom** is 10 point ahead of you.

Also it would just be less fun to play – serious money would mean serious effort, and serious hard feelings when someone won on the back of 22 of your answers. Whereas neither I nor, as far as I can tell, anyone else really cares that much to lose a $25 game well played in a manner like I lost this one to Antonius. The prize is nice, but it’s not as nice as the satisfaction of winning, but both of those are less important than the thrill of the chase.

I haven’t played many of the challenges for a while – I decided to take a break after my threepeat, and also I don’t read MPSIMS every day, so I’ve missed one or two. I have posted junk once or twice in the past, and it didn’t get picked up very much. This time I was totally at a loss on #25 and I had to go home, so I made up an answer which I knew was wrong but hoped someone might fall for, assuming if I had any hope, I wouldn’t have any chance to return to the game until the next morning.

In hindsight, I should have put the made up answers in ones I knew, but by that point I was just hoping that no one would ever get #25.

–Cliffy