The Hyperion Chronicles

We continue from yesterday, when I gave you all the Trivia Questions.

Before we begin with the answers, I wanted to tell you about our team name. (I was waiting because I wanted to do a comic on it first, but instead I read Wikipedia articles about brachistochrone and Theodor Adorno.)

Our team (Koz, Achmed and I) was called "Pirate Metallurgists (ORRRRRRRRE!)" I was going to call us "Spry like a Slinky" (or Sly like a Sprinky) or "Afrotastic!" because right before Trivia I saw HAIRSPRAY, but went with the pirate one instead. The name is based on a conversation I had with my brother Achmed on (I swear I am not making this up), Norwegian blackened death metal. Come to think of it, THAT would make a great team name.

When I explained to the Trivia Girl the name she agreed to read it with the "ORRRRRRE!" like a pirate would. However, when she did people kept correcting her with "No, it's ARRRRRRRRR!"

People are idiots.

Okay. If you'd like to try the Questions without the Answers try Yesterday's Post. We got one song to figure out each answer, so give yourself four minutes a crack. Or just read the correct answers and pretend you would have gotten it.

Movie Bonus

If you can guess this movie, you get 5 points.

Answer: SUPERSIZE ME I haven't seen the movie, partly because I'm always suspicious of filmmakers who have such an obvious agenda, but mostly because I love McDonalds and I would be hurt if I heard their name slandered.

Regular questions. Give yourself the points in parenthesis if you get it right. We got all answers right unless indicated.

1 (10 Points) Besides hosting Mr. Roger's neighborhood, what profession did Fred Rogers do?
Answer: Presbyterian Minister. Who didn't know this? My brother Achmed, who guessed Assassin

2 (9 points) What classic rock band's 4^th Album had no title, instead featuring four symbols?
Answer: Led Zeppelin. Koz didn't know this, which makes me seriously question his Rock Cred.

3 (8) What city is home to the NFL's Hall of Fame?
Answer: Canton, Ohio. This led to a discussion of the Major Sports' Halls of Fame. We got them right, but basketball was a tough one.

4 (7) Which member of the Tannen family with Marty and Doc square off with in 1885?
Answer: Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Honestly, who watched part 3 more than twice? How am I supposed to know that? (We got it wrong.)

5 (6) What country makes up the western portion of Hispaniola?
Answer: Haiti. We discussed quite a bit on whether it was Haiti or The Dominican Republic. Here's a mnemonic: H is the first letter, just as Haiti is first looking West to East.

6 (6) What actor was cast as wayward nephew C.J. after John Ritter's death on 8 Simple Rules?
Answer: David Spade. I've only seen this show once, but it had Spade and James Garner, so I took a guess as to who was the wayward nephew.

7 (7) What 19^th Century declaration is considered the defining moment of US Foreign Policy?
Answer: The Monroe Doctrine of 1823. I don't see how anyone who took American History would ever forget this.

8 (8) Who is known as "Coochie Coochie"?
Answer: Charo. I didn't know this, but Koz did. Can someone tell me what she is famous for?

9 (9) What state has the longest serving Republican Senator?
Answer: Alaska (Ted Stevens). I have been ignoring the news lately, but I heard he was accused of killing clowns or fighting dogs or raping lacrosse players or something.

10 (10) What movie stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Tony Shaloub?
Answer: Galaxy Quest. A surprisingly decent film to catch ten minutes of every now and then on TBS

Halfway Point: At this point, we had 69 points, which put us second behind someone with 71. Most teams were in the 40s, so if you are there, good job.

11 (10) What is the biggest county in America?
Answer: Los Angeles County. This one upset me for some time. We were trying to decide between Orange County and New York County, and I just forgot L.A. What is so stupid is that I know how big it is, and yet I just fell I love with talking about how Orange County encompassed Anaheim, Cypress and Irvine and ignored that L.A. has everything else! (Here is a link of the biggest counties in America. I would get six of those right if I was lucky.)

12 (9) What 1977 College World Series MVP went straight to the Atlanta Braves?
Answer: Bob Horner. Koz guessed this, but once he said it I realized I had read about it in one of those books of athletes' bios that kids get at the reading faire at school twice a year. I LOVED those things. I wish they still had them. (Well, I guess they still do, but now you have to buy ten more books in the next two years.)

13 (8) What prehistoric comic book character lived in the land of Moo?
Answer: Alley Oop. Okay, so I actually said this, and then talked myself out of it. How could you name a cave man after a basketball player, I thought. Of course, if I were not dumber than a Tulane alumni I might have realized that maybe the basketball play was named after the cave man, but then again, that's pretty counter-intuitive. (Turns out the phrase came from the French term "allez-oup," meaning, "let's go!") Anyway, we put down "Oog," which apparently means nothing, and after we got it wrong I went up and used my power of BS to convince her that Alley Oop was also known as Oog. She bought it, and I don't feel bad because she screwed up a question coming up.

14 (7) What is the capitol of Argentina?
Answer: Buenos Aires. I (incorrectly) thought there was one more giant city in Argentina, but as none of us could think of it, we didn't worry about whether Buenos Aires was wrong. (I think what I was actually remembering was that less famous Sao Paolo is much larger than Rio De Janeiro, and neither one is the capitol.)

15 (6) What movie is this quote from? "I've seen THE EXORCIST about 167 times and it keeps getting funnier every time I see it!"
Answer: Beetlejuice. We missed this, and it is COMPLETELY my mother's fault. My brother and I were banned from seeing Beetlejuice, much to our anger, and we have still never seen it. Mother, if you're reading: I hope you're happy!

16 (6) What toy manufacturer recently recalled many of their products because of fears of lead contamination?
Answer: Mattel's Fisher Price. With my news boycott I hadn't heard this either, but Koz had, and confidently told us it was Hasbro. Did I mention that Koz sucks?

17 (7) What 1991 Garth Brooks album went quadruple platinum?
Answer: Ropin' the Wind. Okay, this is an example of how I know WAAAAAAY too much for my own good sometimes. We knew this answer cold. I knew when Garth Brooks's first album ("Garth Brooks") came out (1989), when his second one came out ("No Fences," 1990), and when Ropin' came out too. The problem is that the Trivia girl said that the total sales were Quadruple Platinum, and I knew that was off. I mean, in the US alone No Fences sold 16 million and Ropin' sold 14 million. The point is, I knew the 4 million number was wrong, and it messed me up so I talked myself out of the right answer. I do this quite a bit. Another thing I do is when I have it down to 2 answers I often talk myself out of the one I really think it is. I know it sounds stupid but here I am, two and a half days later, and I'm still upset I got this wrong.

18 (8) What was the "show within a show" on The Dick Van Dyke Show?
Answer: The Alan Brady Show. Dick Van Dyke is one of the four best sitcoms ever made; like I'm not going to nail that.

19 (9) What racetrack is known as "The Brickyard"?
Answer: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

20 (10) What term describes, "cold-blooded vertebrates covered by scales or horny plates and breathes with their lungs"?
Answer: Reptile. Originally we had "lizard," but she said we were too specific.

Okay, so Pirate Metallurgists (ORRRRRRRRE!) didn't do so hot in the second half, but by the end we were in first place going into the Bonus. We had 120, although really we should have only had 112. How many do you have? The way the Bonus works is that you can gamble as many points as you'd like, but you have to gamble at least one. Second place was 4 points behind us, so we gambled seven fewer than we had, based on the presumption that they would bet it all.

(Right now some of you are struggling with that math, but it's simple. If team 1 has 115 and Team 2 has 120, Team 2 does not just bet 115 but rather 111, based on the idea that if Team 1 doubles to 130 (115x2), then Team 2 can beat that buy wagering 111, or twice the difference between the two teams, minus one. I know that sounds complicated, but I cannot tell you how many times I have seen teams in the lead screw it up. Why does it matter? Well, often everyone bets everything, and the team that bets just one point wins, so having even a few points left over can make a big difference. Oh, and by the way: no matter how hard the category, I have never bet anything but the maximum that I could in order to beat every other team I could. I guess I'd rather bet on me to get it right and miss the question than get the question right and miss out because of my betting strategy. By the way, I'd have crushed Ken Jennings. Ask anyone who's ever played Jeopardy or Trivia with me. I'm a cold-blooded monster.)

So here is the Final question, in the Category of "World Statistics."

What is the most populous country in each of the following regions: Africa, The Middle East, South America and The Caribbean?

We had two songs to ponder this, so take 8 minutes or so and then check the Comments for the answer, and let me know how many points you got!