LearnedLeague 91 — match week 4 recap
LearnedLeague 91 — match week 4 recap
Back to a five-day week for LL, and — spoiler — it’s not going to go well for me.
Back to a five-day week for LL, and — spoiler — it’s not going to go well for me.
Matchday thirteen
Q1. LIFESTYLE — The association of doves with peace originates with the biblical story of the Great Flood, during which a dove — released by Noah after the rains stopped — returned holding what in its beak (a sign of life indicating that the waters had receded)? OLIVE LEAF/BRANCH
A straightforward one to start with, and a 94 per cent leaguewide get rate. My opponent and I both score 1 here.
Q2. SCIENCE — Of the actual historical people after whom elements of the periodic table are named, two are women. One is Marie Curie, while the other was a Viennese-born Swedish physicist who was a co-discoverer of nuclear fission in 1938. What is her name, commemorated in element 109? LISE MEITNER
And then no idea here. I miss for 3 and my opponent, who looked strong in science, misses for 1. Turns out element 109 was not named Meitnerium until after I’d left school, so it wasn’t on the periodic table of my A-Level chemistry years. I hope I won’t forget this, but I can’t be annoyed at myself for missing it. From the easy previous question to a 15 per cent leaguewide get rate here.
Q3. CURR EVENTS — The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is known as COP26 (as it is the 26th “Conference of the Parties” to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), convened on October 31, 2021, in what city? GLASGOW
Another easy one for the Brits, I am awarded 1 for this and my opponent gets it right for a well-placed 0, which puts us on 2(2)-1(2) at half-way.
Q4. GEOGRAPHY — While all three claims are debatable, what mountain — a volcano that last erupted in 1707 — is widely credited as the world’s most visited mountain (credible given its proximity to a major world city), as the world’s most climbed (possible as no experience is necessary during the summer months), and also as the world’s most photographed (a fact that would not be its only association with photography)? MT. FUJI
This took me a while, and like many players I first alit at Mt Vesuvius, but finally after a few minutes the association of Fuji with Tokyo made itself clear. Interesting half clue in “Fuji”/”photography” too. We both hit 2 here.
Q5. GAMES/SPORT — Most races which are categorized as TT races (for “Tourist Trophy”), including the original Isle of Man TT which first took place in 1907 and the Dutch TT which is normally held each June, are races using what conveyance? MOTORCYCLE
Again, relatively straightforward for the Brits, the Manx TT is a motorcycle race, but only 28 per cent of players get this, and my opponent is not one of them, missing a 3. I score a 0, though, presumably based on my declared location. We’re at 4(4)-3(3) with one to go.
Q6. AMER HIST — “Africa for Africans at home and abroad” was the slogan of an organization founded by what Jamaican in 1914, whose efforts in the US starting in 1916 focused on repatriation of Black people to a new African republic established from former German colonies? MARCUS GARVEY
Kicking myself for this. Couldn’t think of a Jamaican statesman for the right time period, and ended up with Norman Manley, who was roughly the right age but wrong politically. My opponent does score this, for 2, and I miss a 2, so I go down 4(4)-5(4).
Matchday fourteen
Q1. FILM — In an enduringly popular 1994 film adaptation, the character played by Morgan Freeman was an Irishman in Stephen King’s original story. What name is used for that character in both the movie and novella? RED
I’m playing people higher than me in the league this week but this was a poor performance on my part. On this question I couldn’t pin the character’s name at all. Of course it’s Red, but I ended up with “Bird” which is not the name of a Shawshank character at all, though does sort-of describe one of the inmates. I miss for 2 but at least I score my strong-on-film a 0.
Q2. WORLD HIST — The ancient cities of Argos, Sparta, and Megalopolis were located on what Greek peninsula, connected to the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth? PELOPONNESUS/PELOPONNESE
Another kicker, after question one. I’ve been here, and I studied it at school, and it just didn’t come to me. I settled on “Aegean” like a lot of players, but my opponent hits for 2 and I miss my 3.
Q3. THEATRE — “Now and Forever” was the tagline for what musical, which, with 21 years in London and 18 on Broadway, did seem to run forever, figuratively speaking? CATS
I can’t decide whether this was a kicker. I didn’t recognise the tag and haven’t seen the musical, and also couldn’t work out whether “forever” was some sort of extra clue. But I probably should have got to it. I went with “Love Never Dies”, Lloyd-Webber’s dreary sequel to Phantom — cruelly caricatured as “Paint Never Dries” when it came out — and missed a 2, while my opponent scored a 1, leaving us at 0(0)-3(3) at half time. This was the first matchday on which I had three questions for which I felt I could or should have done better with more thinking.
Q4. LITERATURE — What publishing partnership, formed in 1857 between an established lithographer and his firm’s bookkeeper, promoted its lithographs for many years as “Colored Engravings for the People”? CURRIER & IVES
But then we get to a “definitely would never have got this”. I went with Conde Nast as the name of a publishing house (of what I thought was about the right time, but was actually founded fifty years later). We both miss here — me for 1 and my oppo for 2.
Q5. LIFESTYLE — The Hegira, which marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar, was Muhammad’s secret migration in 622 from Mecca to escape persecution and live among the people of Yathrib, which is today better known as what? MEDINA
I finally score a point on question five. There’s been a very lively message board discussion about whether this question was well written, but I think it was clear. It was obviously — to me — asking for a place, and having started in Yemen, led astray by the letter Y, I finally decided this must refer to the migration to Medina, and Medina must have had an earlier name, which of course turned out to be true. But while my opponent misses a 3, I only score a 0. So we’re 0(1)-3(3) and I can’t win because only the 1s are in play.
Q6. ART — Thousands of figures created in the third century BCE and discovered near the Chinese city of Xi’an were sculpted in what medium, which is included in the name by which the collection is regularly known? TERRA COTTA
I knew this one straight off, as did 80 per cent of players, but I only score a 1, and the fact that my opponent misses is scant consolation as I slide to another loss, 1(2)-3(3).
Matchday fifteen
Q1. GAMES/SPORT — Name the German who won Wimbledon Singles championships in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996, with the first of those a part of a historic “Golden Slam” (all four Grand Slams plus Olympic gold). STEFFI GRAF
Like many players, my mind went to Boris Becker (the most common wrong answer) but something nagging at the back of my mind led me to the brilliant Steffi Graf, and I pick up 2 here, and my opponent misses the 3.
Q2. WORLD HIST — At least 60 pharaohs of ancient Egypt’s 18th to 20th dynasties, beginning with Thutmose I and famously including Tutankhamun, were buried in tombs in a narrow gorge in western Thebes known (quite accurately, in fact) as the ______ of the _____. (Fill in both blanks.) VALLEY, KINGS
Like 74 per cent of players, we both score here, though for 0 each. I thought this would be even better known, to be honest.
Q3. MATH — What unit of measurement of angles is equal to approximately 57.296 degrees? Exactly π/2 of this unit equals a right angle. RADIANS
Having not forgotten my A Level maths, this was an easy get, which scored me 2 and my opponent missed a 2, which left us at 4(3)-0(1) half-way in.
Q4. THEATRE — In the original 1955 Broadway run of the musical Damn Yankees, Gwen Verdon played what character, the devil’s assistant who gets whatever she wants? LOLA
I had no idea here (apparently the phrase “what Lola wants, Lola gets” is an American cultural trope) and having submitted my answers and got this wrong at 7.55am, I opened the New York Times crossword app at 8.05am to find the following clue. Note to self: always do the crossword first. I miss a 3 but my opponent at least has the good grace to miss, for 1.
Q5. SCIENCE — American chemist Stephanie Kwolek developed the first liquid crystal polymer fiber, leading to the development of poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, which has a myriad of applications (e.g., tires, cables, helmet, ballistic body armor). This polymer is better known by what brand name owned by DuPont (Kwolek’s employer for 40+ years)? KEVLAR
I went through various artificial fibres, from Rayon to Nylon to Teflon, and then I re-read the question and noticed the references to armour and protection, which made the answer fairly clear. I pick up 1, and my opponent scores 2, which leaves us at 5(4)-2(2) with one to go.
Q6. GEOGRAPHY — Africa’s third-largest lake by area (after Victoria and Tanganyika) covers 20% of its namesake country. What is the name that the lake and country share? MALAWI
I am not familiar with Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa, it turns out) so I ended up at Lake Chad, which was foolish because Chad is 1) huge and 2) more or less Saharan. Fortunately my opponent misses too, both of us for 1, and so we end the day with our scores unchanged and my first win since matchday nine, when I was fifth, and as a result I raise my league position from 16 yesterday to the slightly less precarious 11 today.
Matchday sixteen
Q1. LITERATURE — Of Athenian dramatist Sophocles’s 123 plays, only seven remain intact, including three relating to Oedipus and his children: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and what third, named after and centered on Oedipus and Jocasta’s daughter? ANTIGONE
The eternal question: might I have got this? I’m not a player who stews over questions all day. I prefer to get in and out quickly, and it’s rare that I find a question that causes me to rethink that strategy. I went with “Oedipus the Father”. I’ve seen the first play — in a remarkable Ralph Fiennes performance — but I’ve never seen Antigone, so this was a miss for 2, but also a miss for my opponent for a well-placed 3.
Q2. POP MUSIC — 1950’s “Rollin’ Stone” was the first single on the Chicago-based Chess record label by what artist, who was born McKinley Morganfield in (or around) 1915 and raised near Clarksdale, MS? MUDDY WATERS
An insta-get for me, with Muddy Waters’s real name imprinted in my mind, and we both score 1.
Q3. FILM — According to on-screen text that opens the film, what 1999 movie is based on found footage shot five years prior by three student documentary filmmakers? THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
We both score here too, me for 1 and my opponent for 2. A quick question in my mind over whether this was Cloverfield, which actually came much later, but otherwise no real question. It’s 2(2)-3(2) at half-time.
Q4. AMER HIST — The policy with respect to Latin America during the early Franklin D. Roosevelt administration had what popular name, which today may be more associated with State Farm Insurance, but in the 1930s reflected America’s intended hands-off approach and military withdrawal from the region? GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
The State Farm clue is no help to me here (though I suspect it was to the Americans, with this question having a 79 per cent leaguewide get rate), so I end up with the definitely-wrong-but-it’s-an-answer “Isolation”. I’ve never even heard of the “good neighbo(u)r policy”. But my opponent has, for 1, and I miss a 3, which I was never going to hit.
Q5. CURR EVENTS — A border crisis and humanitarian crisis erupted in the summer of 2021 as tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, attempted to enter the European Union from what country, in an orchestrated act by that country in retaliation for the EU’s economic sanctions against it? BELARUS
A quick riffle here through various countries just to make sure, and a quick mental check to make sure Hungary was definitely in the EU, but otherwise this is definitely Belarus, and we both score our 0 here.
Q6. TELEVISION — Leland McKenzie, Douglas Brackman, Ann Kelsey, Arnie Becker, and Stuart Markowitz were among the large cast of characters on what acclaimed ensemble drama, which aired Thursday nights at 10:00 pm (ET) on NBC from 1986 to 1994? L.A. LAW
I’m 4–2 down with my 2 to score, and had I hit it, I’d have tied the match, because my opponent missed for 2. The correct answer even flashed through my mind, and I regret not listening to my mind in this case. But Thirtysomething (which I suspect might be a sitcom, I’ve never seen it) had settled in my mind already, probably because the “large cast” in the clue and “thirty” in the title were chatting to each other. The lesson here is to listen to the signals in my mind, I guess. So we end on 2(3)-4(4) and I slip back to 12th place with one day to go this week.
One ray of light, though, is that I played my first (I think) perfect defense, having allocated the 0, 1, 1 and 2 to the four questions my opponent answered correctly. Sadly my opponent played an even better defense, with me hitting my 0, 1 and 1.
Matchday seventeen
Q1. SCIENCE — What was the last name of the Scottish botanist who introduced the popular Pseudotsuga menziesii into cultivation in 1827, and thus after whom the tree is commonly named (or mis-named, as it is actually a conifer in the pine family)? DOUGLAS
A common theme in my write-ups has been a kind of generalised acceptance, where I was never going to get the answer to a particular question, because that knowledge has never come anywhere close to me. But this was the opposite, a kicker in the sense that I kicked myself once I saw the answer. I think I must have misread the clue and assumed the question was much harder than it turned out to be, which was why I scored my opponent 3 — which they missed — and while I could have done with the 2 here, it didn’t end up a big deal.
I posted on the LL message board thread for this question that it reminded me of one of my favourite pieces of writing, a lament upon the death of Douglas Adams, by Richard Dawkins.
The sun is shining, life must go on, seize the day and all those cliches.
We shall plant a tree this very day: a Douglas Fir, tall, upright, evergreen. It is the wrong time of year, but we’ll give it our best shot.
Off to the arboretum.
Q2. GEOGRAPHY — The House of Hashim (a.k.a. Hashemites) is the ruling royal family of what country (as reflected in the country’s full official name)? JORDAN
This one was more straightforward. I was tumbling around the Middle East for a while and settled upon Lebanon, before the voice in my head shouting “Lebanon isn’t a monarchy, you fool” got too loud to ignore. But from there it was a short mental hop to the phrase “The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” for the correct answer. One each here for my opponent and me.
Q3. POP MUSIC — Name the country artist who released the 1987 album Always and Forever, which spent 40 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country album chart and saw four of its songs (including “Forever and Ever, Amen”) reach #1 on the Country Singles chart. RANDY TRAVIS
I like country music and have spent time in Nashville, but 1980s mainstream country pop isn’t really my thing and so I didn’t really have a clue here. I went with Bonnie Raitt, who’s really more blues than country. Could have picked up a 3 for the right answer, but I wasn’t ever going to get to Randy Travis, an artist I’ve never consciously heard. My opponent missed too, for 1, so we end the half on 1(1)-1(1).
Q4. BUS/ECON — American businesswoman Marissa Mayer, who was an executive at Google for many years (where she was employee #20), served as president and CEO of what other company from July 2012 until its acquisition by Verizon in 2017? YAHOO!
Some slight hesitation here, trying to remember whether Mayer was ever CEO of AOL, but in the end I plumped for the right answer, for 1, and my opponent got it right for 0.
Q5. WORLD HIST — What was the name of the building, made of prefabricated glass and iron, that was constructed in Hyde Park, London, to accommodate the Great Exhibition of 1851? It was the birthplace (after its move to South London) and namesake of a still-extant English Premiership side. CRYSTAL PALACE
An insta-get for most British people, I imagine, and my 2 for the opponent was well placed (they missed), and their 0 for me was also well placed. It’s 2(3)-1(2) with one to go, and each of us has a 2 in play.
Q6. LITERATURE — A best-selling series of young adult mysteries by British author Holly Jackson begins with the 2019 novel (and is collectively known as) A Good Girl’s Guide to what? MURDER
This was a guess for me, but it seemed a decent guess to go for murder. For younger readers that’d be too dark a word to put in the title of book, but I re-checked the clue to make sure I’d correctly read “young adult” and decided that murder was exactly the sort of title you’d find here. My opponent and I both hit our 2-pointers, and we end up 4(4)-3(3).
That final-day win brings me back up to 11th place in the league (out of 32). It’s still very closely bunched in the middle, so no safety yet, though.