LearnedLeague 91 — match week 1 recap

I started playing in LearnedLeague a few months ago — it’s a league of 20–30,000 trivia players, and contests take place four times a year…

Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash

I started playing in LearnedLeague a few months ago — it’s a league of 20–30,000 trivia players, and contests take place four times a year for 25 days each. Several players already do daily recaps, and taking those as my cue, I was thinking about doing the same. But I don’t want to log into Twitter, so I’m doing them weekly, and on Medium instead. Playing by LL rules, I won’t post them until all the questions for the week have been publicly marked, to avoid giving hints.

LL is different from most quizzes in that what Americans call “defense” is very important. In addition to answering the six questions posed each game day, you must assign each question a defensive score. That score is what your opponent scores if they get the question right. And if you get it right, you get the defensive points assigned to you for that question by your opponent. The scores are 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 and 0.

There is a culture of “recapping” on Twitter where players run through the previous day’s questions in public. I think this is a great idea: as with prediction tournaments, there is value in publicly or privately thinking one’s answers through. And as Annie Duke says, there is value in re-evaluating the matches you win as much as you do the matches you lose. She was talking about poker, but I think the same principle holds. I’m trying to stay off Twitter, though, so I’m going to do them here, and do them weekly. I don’t really expect anybody to read these — not all the thousands of words, certainly.

Matchday one

Q1. TELEVISION — What TV sitcom’s 1963 episode titled “Family Scrapbook”, during which the central characters reminisce as the title character prepares to enter Mayfield High while his older brother gets ready for State College, is widely credited as the first primetime sitcom episode explicitly presented as a series finale? LEAVE IT TO BEAVER

I was never going to get this. I had heard of LITB before, but I think I’d assumed it was a cartoon about an actual beaver, rather than being about a small child with that nickname. I think I left this blank, being unable to think of a sitcom that fitted all the criteria (a named character in the title, aged about 11–13). I assigned it 3 on the basis that my opponent was weak on television questions (it doesn’t tell you the category when you’re answering, but it does afterwards, as shown above). He did the same to me and both of us got zero for it (you don’t see your opponent’s answers, just the scores assigned).

Q2. LITERATURE — According to a recorded poem from 1970 by Gil Scott-Heron, what “will not be brought to you by Xerox in four parts without commercial interruptions”, “will not make you look five pounds thinner”, “will not go better with Coke”, and “will not fight germs that may cause bad breath” (among many other things)? THE REVOLUTION

GSH was popular when I was in my teens and at university so this was an easy one. My opponent’s ratings suggested he was middling on music, so I dropped in a 2 here. So did he and we both hit our marks.

Q3. FILM — “FR Remove Cart” and “MF Feed A4” are among the error codes displayed on older HP LaserJet printers, but the best known and most notorious was what other code, which was central to an iconic scene in the 1999 movie Office Space? PC LOAD LETTER

Irritating. I watched Office Space again a few months ago, but I couldn’t remember the code. I put “PAPER JAM” but pretty much knowing it wasn’t correct. Turns out the answer was a bit of an Americanism, given that we don’t use Letter paper over here in the UK. But fair enough, given that it’s an American film, and an American quiz league. I scored it 1 and my opponent 2, but we both missed.

At the halfway stage were 2(1)-2(1) — that is to say, we each have two points, and each from one correct answer.

Q4.WORLD HIST — The name of what European city did not become a common feminine name until it was given to, and popularized by, a woman who first came into prominence during the Crimean War in the 1850s. What is that given name, #12 for baby girls in England in 2020 per the UK’s Office for National Statistics? FLORENCE

I was surprised how few people got this (leaguewide % correct was 50) but then it’s an American quiz and Florence Nightingale was a British nurse, so maybe she’s better known here than elsewhere. It took me a while to get to the answer, thinking around European cities, failing to think critically about how many women became famous during the Crimean War. Then it clicked. I happily scooped up the 1 my opponent assigned. I assumed it was easier so I’d assigned this 0, but my opponent missed.

Q5.BUS/ECON — Though it is currently owned by the American manufacturer Stanley Black & Decker, the Craftsman brand of tools was originally established by, and for many decades sold at, what retailer? SEARS

Another American-centric question (if I sound aggrieved, I’m not — as demonstrated by Florence, clearly non-Americans have advantages for some questions). I am not really aware of the Craftsman brand, and so I put Home Depot (as did six per cent of players). I don’t feel so bad about this one, or Q1, because I wasn’t ever going to have got them. Could I have dug out “PC LOAD LETTER” from a recess of the mind? Maybe, but even that is unlikely.

I assigned 2 to this and he 0 to me, but he scored here, so after five of six questions we’re 4(2)-3(2).

Q6.SCIENCE — “Houston, [REDACTED] Base here. The Eagle has landed.” What word is redacted from this quote from July 20, 1969, and is also the name of the “Sea” where the lunar module made its landing on that day? TRANQUILITY

This one came easily, just because for some reason the audio from the Apollo 11 landing is in my head, and the crackly “Tranquility Base here” from Neil Armstrong started playing as soon as I read the question. It may have done for my opponent too, because we both rated this 1, and we both scored, leaving me losing by a point: 5(3)-4(3).

Matchday two

Q1. POP MUSIC — Titles of different songs from the late 1970s by the Bee Gees, Leo Sayer, ABBA, and Andy Gibb all contain what word — an activity appropriate for the era (or really any era)? DANCING

There are questions that look tough on first read, and this was one of them. But then you go back in, break them down and the answer reveals itself. Dancing, of course, via Abba and the Bee Gees. My opponent was in the same “rookie” league as me last season, which means neither of us has much history on which to base a defense. I gave this a 1 and she missed it, having given me a 1 too. Phew.

Q2. MATH — The hexadecimal number 2A, when converted to decimal, becomes a number historically associated in baseball most closely with what player? JACKIE ROBINSON

As soon as I read the whole sentence I knew I wasn’t getting this one. I was able to convert the hex easily into 42, but then I was lost. I presume this is well known among baseball fans, and baseball is a big part of American culture, but I’d barely heard of Robinson before this and wouldn’t have said he was a baseball player, had I been asked. I put Yogi Berra, on the basis of “name a baseball player”. It turns out Chadwick Boseman starred as Robinson in a film called “42” which is what led a lot of players to the correct answer, but it was interesting to learn that of the $97.5m the film made at the box office, $95m was made in the USA, which made me feel less bad about never having heard of the film either. I gave my opponent a 3 on this and she scored me 1, and we both missed. I don’t mind missing questions like this — you live and learn, as they say, and there’s no point getting annoyed about something you couldn’t possibly have known.

Q3. FOOD/DRINK — Identify the cheese, the most popular of the Italian blue cheeses, which is among the earliest of all veined cheeses (having been introduced to the Po Valley in the 9th century) and is named after a village outside Milan. GORGONZOLA

The most popular of all the Italian blues is Gorgonzola so let’s go with that. We gave one another a 2, but my opponent missed, so we’re 3(2)-0(0) at the half, which means I can’t lose but I can tie.

Q4. SCIENCE — Herbaceous plants whose scientific name is trifolium (“trefoil”), referring to the most common (but not exclusive) appearance of their leaves, are best-known by what familiar name? CLOVER

Quite annoyed with myself here. Knew it was a shamrock/clover, but was so pleased with myself for knowing it that I failed to think it through and realise that “clover” is a much better answer than “shamrock” which is what I put. Again we gave one another a 2, and we both missed.

Q5. GEOGRAPHY — Sixteenth-century Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator is remembered today for his namesake cylindrical projection of the Earth’s surface (with its major distortion at the polar regions), but he also coined what titanic neologism used commonly today for a collection of maps? ATLAS

I can’t say I knew this one outright, but it seemed fairly clear from “a collection of maps” that the answer was atlas, and the clue on the word “titanic” sealed the deal. My opponent scored me 0 and I scored her 1, so we’re 3(3)-1(1) going into Q6.

Q6. AMER HIST — Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton were the seven towns that famously hosted large crowds (reportedly upwards of 18,000 in Galesburg) that gathered to watch what duo? STEPHEN DOUGLAS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Another of those hard-to-gets for non-Americans. It would be fascinating to break down the “get rate” (which you can see in aggregate by clicking “Q6” above) by country or continent. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Stephen Douglas before today. It seemed clear that we’re talking pre-20th century, probably 19th century, but beyond that I was lost. I went, absurdly, with Lewis and Clark, just for the sake of putting an answer down. My opponent scored me 3 for this and I gave her 0, but we both missed, anyway, leaving me with a narrow 3(3)-1(1) win. Onward.

Matchday three

Q1. WORLD HIST — Following the outbreak of the “Troubles” in the late 1960s, the Irish Republican Army split into two wings: the “Official” IRA, and what other, which staged numerous assassinations and bombings in Britain and Northern Ireland over the subsequent three decades? PROVISIONAL

Here’s one reason why I don’t get annoyed about America-centric questions. This was an easy point for someone who grew up in London in the 1980s, where the Provisional IRA was a constant low-level threat. My LL profile shows where I live, and so my opponent scored me a 1 for this, I assume as a result of reading that. I scored him 3, and he missed.

Q2. LIFESTYLE — The American Book Award-winning The Testing of Luther Albright was the debut novel from 2005 of an author who, according to Bloomberg, is the 23rd-wealthiest individual in the world in 2021. What is her name? MACKENZIE SCOTT

I had heard of the book, but couldn’t place the author. The most common wrong answer was Oprah, which is a reasonable shout. I didn’t think of her but would have discounted her on the basis that she didn’t write a book with that name. The obvious “rich woman author” is Rowling, but 2005 obviously was well past her debut. I left this blank, we scored one another 2, and we both missed. I don’t know whether I could have pulled this knowledge out of my brain, but maybe.

Q3. SCIENCE — Reindeer is a familiar term in North America — thanks in no small part to a certain red-nosed fellow — but the species (Rangifer tarandus) is more often referred to in Canada and the US by what other common name? CARIBOU

I was confident the answer to this was “elk” and before today would have thought a caribou was some sort of bison. Another live-and-learn for me. I scored this 1 and my opponent gave me his other 2, but we both missed. So we’re 1(1)-0(0) at the half.

Q4. POP MUSIC — In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine named a 1998 song by what artist as the greatest debut single of all time — a song which, it could easily be argued, is also the most successful single of all time whose title begins with an ellipsis? Note, name the artist. BRITNEY SPEARS

Interesting question, which took me a while to get to, but it suddenly clicked while I was thinking about who made their debut in 1998, then of course I realise it’s Britney. My opponent inexplicably scored me a 3 for this (I think my pop music get rate is lower than it should be, so maybe slightly misleading for my opponents) and I scored him 1.

Q5. LITERATURE — Among the many notable elements in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is its internal rhyme, which starts in its first line. The 16-syllable line fittingly begins “Once upon” and rhymes what two words? DREARY, WEARY

Annoyed with myself for this one. Somehow failed to read the question properly and answered “never more” (along with several people, according to the LL discussion boards). I would probably have got to the correct answer in the end, and should have thought harder about it. I was given a 1 and scored my opponent 0 (he looks strong on literature), so we’re 4(2)-0(1) with one to go, and the win is in the bag.

Q6. GAMES/SPORT — To have more points than your opponent(s) once numbers 15 through 20 and the bullseye have been “closed out” is the object of a darts game known by many names, but probably most commonly by one it shares with what orthopteran? CRICKET

I don’t believe this darts game is known as cricket outside America, but the clues were all there and so I was happy to type in “cricket”. I think I first came across it in the 1980s or 1990s on a computer when I came across a game on a disk, called cricket.exe. I excitedly ran it, only to find that it was not about cricket, but darts. Still, that knowledge helped me here. My opponent used his 0 here and I was left with my 2. We both got it, so we end on 4(3)-2(2).

Matchday four

Q1. ART — While he was an accomplished painter, what 17th-century Neapolitan is also widely regarded as the inventor of Baroque sculpture, with numerous monumental works in Rome and the Vatican that include the design of St. Peter’s Square? GIOVANNI LORENZO BERNINI

It’s Bernini, of course it’s Bernini. Did I get it? Of course not. I had the image in my head of Bernini’s veiled woman, who turned out, when I Googled it later, to be by Strazza, 200 years after Bernini. For the question I thought for a bit and put down Giacometti, who was a sculptor but was 1) Swiss and 2) born in 1901. My opponent seems weak in art, relatively, so I give him the two as does he for me, and we both miss.

Q2. TELEVISION — A popular puppet show from the early days of television starred singer and comedian Fran Allison interacting with various puppets, two of whom were most prominent. Give the name of either of these two characters. KUKLA, OLLIE

We both miss this as well. Despite some of the above reflections, it’s fairly rare for me not to have heard of an answer at all. I may not be able to tell you anything about Jackie Robinson, or Craftsman tools, but at least the names have some familiarity. Here? Nothing. I couldn’t think of a worthwhile answer and had a vague idea about “Amos and Andy” being a thing so I went with Amos. Turns out that was a radio sitcom about two black men, voiced — obviously, for the time — by two white men 😬. Anyway, my opponent gave me his 3 for this and I returned a 1 for him, and we both missed.

Q3. BUS/ECON — George and William Penrose began a business in 1783 producing flint glass in what city on the southeastern coast of Ireland, starting an association of the city with fine glass and crystal which endures to this day? WATERFORD

This one we both get, though. Him for 3, on the basis that he was (probably) an American and unlikely to know much Irish stuff, and me for 1, perhaps on the basis of my relative proximity to Ireland. I think I underestimated how well Waterford crystal is known, since 57 per cent of players got this right. I’m losing 1(1)-3(1) at the half.

Q4. CLASS MUSIC — Baku-born Russian maestro Mstislav Rostropovich is considered by many to be the 20th century’s greatest virtuoso at what instrument? CELLO

Like several players (from the chat forum) I decided that Yo Yo Ma was the century’s greatest cellist, and I couldn’t think of a good alternative so I went with violin, as did 24 per cent of players (and only 27 per cent got it right). I knew Rostropovich’s name but couldn’t place him. My oppo gave me the 0 here in any case, and I scored him 2, and we both missed.

Q5. FILM — A 1963 spy novel by John Le Carré (and its 1965 film adaptation starring Richard Burton) popularized a phrase describing a spy who seeks to abandon the tricks and dangers of the profession as one who wants to “come in from the” what? COLD

This one I knew straight away, and was rewarded with a 1 from my opponent. I gave him the 0 and he got it right, so with one question to go he leads 3(2)-2(2).

Q6. SCIENCE — Sternutation is the medical term for a convulsive reflex closely associated, by name, with what secondary Disney character? SNEEZY

I should have thought harder here. I also couldn’t think of any secondary Disney characters, and of course the Dwarves are the hat to pick from. I also failed to read the question properly and missed the “by name” bit, so I picked Donald Duck in a vague attempt at a guess. I think I did know sternutation, somewhere in my brain, so I should have made more of an attempt to retrieve it. My opponent scored me 2 for this, as well, which would have snatched a draw (or a tie as the Americans call it). Instead he takes it for 1, and we end up 4(3)-2(2).

Matchday five

Q1. WORLD HIST — What city, founded in its present location in 1519 by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez, was originally located on its country’s south coast, and was the site of a disputed event that triggered a war in 1898? HAVANA, CUBA

We’re obviously in central America, and probably on an island. I couldn’t work out which island, though, until a dim bit of memory retrieved itself and reminded me that didn’t the Spanish-American war start in 1898 and didn’t it take place (partly) in Cuba? Let’s go with Havana, then. Turns out I was right, though I only got 1 for it — my stats suggest I’m strong-ish in Geography and World History and my opponent had clearly taken note. I was — for the first time this season — playing someone in the UK, and I gave them 2, which they missed.

Q2. GAMES/SPORT — “Players may choose from 1 to 10 numbers between 1 and 80, in hopes that some or all will be randomly selected by the centralized computer.” This is a quote from the Rhode Island Lottery for what game, which is also popular in casinos (especially to the casinos themselves, given the game’s huge house edge)? KENO

I didn’t think I’d get this — and I didn’t. A lot of people seem to have chosen Roulette, which suggests they are playing on very strange roulette wheels, or hadn’t read the question fully. It’s clearly some sort of electronic lottery game, but those aren’t popular in British casinos, so I was lost. I went with “pinochle” on the basis of remembering Top Cat being into pinochle but it turns out that’s a card game. Oh well. We gave one another 2 and both missed.

Q3. LITERATURE — Various versions of a certain African American spiritual include lines such as “Gonna lay down my sword and shield”, “Gonna put on my golden shoes”, and “Gonna meet my dear old mother”. What line, sung three times, follows each of these preceding lines, is a common title of the spiritual, and is the location where these activities will take place? DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE

An easy one for me, whether that’s through going to church as a kid, or church schools, or something else. The chorus started playing in my head as soon as I got to the first lyric. I seriously overestimated how many people would know this and should have made it a 3 for my opponent, instead of a 1. They missed, and I scored my 2. We’re 3(2)-0(0) at the half but both 3s are still in play so it’s anyone’s game.

Q4. LIFESTYLE — What type of dog, whose three breeds are “Standard”, “Miniature”, and “Giant”, has a German name which colloquially means “mustache” — rather appropriate, given the dog’s distinctive facial appearance? SCHNAUZER

I know very little about dogs, but “miniature schnauzer” suggested itself here, and turned out to be correct. I scored 0 for it, though, and though my opponent got it as well, I managed to score them 1.

Q5. GEOGRAPHY — Of the fifteen current sovereign states that were republics of the Soviet Union, identify the one whose national flag has three equal horizontal stripes of white, blue, and red (from top to bottom). RUSSIA

Immediately the Russian flag sprang to mind, having seen it a lot during the 2018 football World Cup, but I wasn’t sure it was right. I ran through a few others, and couldn’t think of a better answer so just went with it. I’m not sure why I scored my opponent 3 for this, which they got (I got 1 for it). Their statistics suggest a weakness in Geography but I should have scored it lower nonetheless. We’re tied 4(4)-4(2) with one to go.

Q6. ART — Five-year-old Margarita, the daughter of King Phillip IV of Spain, is surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting as they visit the atelier of the Spanish Court painter Diego Velázquez. This is the scene for a complex, influential, and variously interpreted painting from 1656 with what name (which translates to “The Maids-of-Honor”)? LAS MENINAS

And I’ve got no hope now. My opponent’s strength in Art meant a 0 for them, which was prudent because they got it. It would have been a 3 for me, but I’ve never heard of the painting. I spent a little while trying to deduce it from the translated title given, to no avail. I leave this blank and the match ends tied at 4(4)-4(3). I wouldn’t have ever got the two questions I missed (at my current level of knowledge, I mean) but my defense lets me down again — that’s something I need to work on.

And that’s the week, which I finish in 16th place (out of a league of 32). Not bad, but I shouldn’t have made some of those mistakes. Roll on next week.