Prepare yourself for two all-new November quizzes

Ah, November! The crisp, cool air and shorter days announce the steady march of Fall. It's now football season, the start of the holiday season... a great time for hearty meals, some cider or ale at a pub quiz, and, if one of the first Google Images you find when entering the word "cider" is to be be believed, a good ol' fashioned... cider press birching?!

Yikes. Sometimes the ability of the internet to connect one with all of humanity's interests isn't quite the absolute positive you'd expect.


Tuesday, November 13, 9:15pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave.
(near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: SUPERSTITIONS

Wednesday, November 14, 9pm
Dirty Frank's
13th & Pine Sts.
Subject Round: PHOTOGRAPHY

Sofa Kingdom barely misses Top 10 All-Time List in a high-scoring affair at Dirty Frank's

The second team to win after a drought this week were Philadelphia quiz bullies Sofa Kingdom, who barely missed the Top Ten All-Time List. Pending my research on an Unreasonably Difficult round baseball question I might have to bump their score up 1 point for posterity, but this would still leave them one measly point short of Group V's #10 position. UPDATE: Yep, Frank Thomas missed the World Series too. I'm adding a point to Sofa Kingdom's score.

There were a lot of new faces I'd like to see back. One team called the bar after the game was over and your bouncer Captain informed me that a complaint was lodged about my Fort Ticonderoga question. That certainly hasn't happened before! The complaint was that the general whose name I wanted was merely a colonel at the time of the capture. Hey, I didn't say anything about anyone's rank at the time. For example when anyone asks the question "What general graduated at the top of his class at West Point in such-and-such year?" we obviously mean that this person was a successful cadet who later became a general. In any event, how many commanding American officers captured that fort in 1775..? (I'm not revealing the answer as it's a component of the Secret Theme round, questions below.) Hopefully this hasn't tainted anyone's view of the quiz and people shall return.

Everyone did very well and I don't think it's because the questions were unusually easy. Kudos to the whole darn room, I think 73 is the "highest lowest" score at Frank's ever.

Beautiful Gold: Sofa Kingdom 174 (revised)
So-So Silver: Einstein Disguised as Robin Hood 166
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Group W 151

Also-rans:

Relentless 107
Kenya 102
The Southpaws 100
It's! People! 73

Kisses for More Kittens finally triumphs at Ray's

Hooray! Ray's regulars Kisses for (More) Kittens won for the first time in a couple of months, ending frustration that was beginning to become self-parody. All teams had strong showings.

Isn't it amazing that the team was wearing the same clothing as last week, posed in the same positions as last week and brought their prizes from last week back to the bar? Uncanny.

Beautiful Gold: Kisses for More Kittens 142
So-So Silver: 2 Kitties Need a Home 133
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Cosine of One 94

Can you figure out this week's Secret Themes?

Each group of 10 otherwise unrelated questions has a theme running through their answers. Can you answer the questions and figure out the theme? Answers will be posted in a few days.

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

1) What British marching song, written in 1914, came to the attention of Americans via a 1957 film which won several Academy Awards?
2) What's usually the translation of the preposition "by" in French? It's the word you would use in French to denote, for example, the author of a book.
3) In 1994, bassist Kristen Pfaff overdosed shorty after the release of a successful album by her rock band. Name the band.
4) What Peruvian folk tune was recorded by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970?
5) In German-speaking countries, this suit of playing cards is called "Acorns." What do we call it?
6) How many planets are in between our sun and our solar system's asteroid belt?
7) What British author wrote "The Quiet American" and "Our Man in Havana"?
8) What 1991 movie starred Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts?
9) As best as geologists can determine, Earth's core is comprised of 80-100% of what element?
10) What line of fruit-flavored carbonated beverages was introduced by PepsiCo in 1984 and has been phased out 2003-2007?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?

Dirty Frank's:

1) What American general was famous for capturing Fort Ticonderoga in 1775?
2) What comic book character has a girlfriend named Gloria Glad?
3) Name the American city: 22nd largest in population, has the nickname Cream City, founded in 1818 by a Frenchman named Solomon Juneau. Note that the answer is not Juneau.
4) What NHL franchise is in the Western Conference/Pacific Division and joined the league in 1991?
5) What quarterback was selected 2nd overall in the 1985 NFL draft and won the Maxwell Club's Bert Bell Award for outstanding professional football player in 1990?
6) The 1896 Yukon Gold Rush is also known by another name; what?
7) In what 1991 movie did John Goodman play an American slob who inherits a British royal title?
8) What sociologist is famous in part for publishing The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905?
9) Who was famously executed on May 30, 1431?
10) What British band had 5 Top 40 singles in the US 1981-1990, the best selling being 1987's "When Smokey Sings", which went up to #5?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?

Second round goes general 50/50!

It seems from quiz regulars' comments that the Before/After round has pretty much played itself out. You speak and I listen; from here on in the second round of each game will be a general 50/50.

This means that some weeks the second round will still be Before/After, but others it might be Marx Brothers/Three Stooges or Asia/Africa or Canadian/Deceased. Any way you look at it you'll have a 50% shot at getting each one correct even with a pure guess. Each will still be worth 2 points. I'm going to use the remainder of my answer sheets which have "Before/After" printed on them before running off new ones, but hopefully this will be only mildly confusing, and for the teams who weren't likely to do well in any event.

Essential obscure music video, #3

Our third trip down False Memory Lane. About once/week I'm going to post a few music videos you've never seen nor heard but should. And you? You'll watch and enjoy.

Yma Sumac - "Tumpa" from Secret of the Incas



This is a scene from the 1954 musical/adventure film from which Spielberg cribbed an awful lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark (to the point I'm surprised no one sued). The movie seems to be a pastiche of footage shot on site and on sound stages; the link to a scene of Sumac clearly entirely singing at the site I had here originally appears broken right now, so I've linked to this startling track (she's credited with an extraordinary 4 1/2 -5 octave vocal range). What's especially cool for me in this is that I've been to Machu Picchu and stood very precisely where this was filmed. In fact, here's a couple of photos I took at the site a few years ago:

















Reesa & the Rooters - "Vix Bidet Party"

This was a Philadelphia New Wave band circa 1980. You can read and see more about the band here. How great is this?! I'm proud to hail from the city that brought you both the cheesesteak and Reesa & the Rooters.


Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - "Sure 'nuff 'n' Yes I Do"

This piece from 1967 provides further proof that the promotional video was born long before MTV.

Answers to last week's Halloween Secret Themes

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

Both bars had a Halloween-themed Secret Theme. At Ray's it was Alice Cooper. Incidentally all of the song and album references below are from the American Top 40 pop charts, all of which I consider fair game as quiz questions and references.



1) In what wretched 2005 flick, featuring Jennifer Tilly and Tim Curry, did Jon Lovitz provide the voice of a dog? Bailey's Billion$ / Billion Dollar Babies
2) What Top 20 song for Don McLean in 1972 is widely and incorrectly believed to be titled "Starry, Starry Night"? "Vincent"/ Alice Cooper's real name is Vincent Furnier.
3) What word for a class of sporty convertibles was originally used for a type of horse-drawn carriage, itself derived from the fact that it looks like a certain type of creature from an aerial view? Spider / The original name of the band Alice Cooper was The Spiders.
4) This number is both Peyton Manning's jersey and the number of chapters in James Joyce's Ulysses. Name it. 18 / "I'm Eighteen"
5) In the Archie comic books, what's the name of the blonde who vies for Archie's attention? I gave two points for the first name and three for the surname. Betty Cooper... whose mother's name in the comic was Alice Cooper.
6) In what 1999 movie did Reese Witherspoon portray Tracy Flick? Election / "Elected"
7) Nebraska is the only state in the union which is limited to one execution method by law. Which one? Electric chair / The electric chair was one of Cooper's shocking (!) stage props.
8) What 1960s-70s cartoon character, created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott of Rocky & Bullwinkle fame, fought crime with a lion sidekick named Fred? Super Chicken / The "chicken incident"

9) What's the subtitle of 2002's Star Wars: Episode II? Attack of the Clones / "Clones"
10) Whose first solo album, released 1968, was titled Lumpy Gravy? Frank Zappa / Zappa's label was the first to record and promote the act.

Dirty Frank's:

The theme was BOO! Every answer contains a "boo."

1) What colloquial phrase in American English, meaning "everything," is comprised of two alliterative words which were themselves slang when the the term was coined, likely in the 1880s? Kit and caboodle
2) What 2005 British comedy movie tells the story of a failing shoe factory in a declining town? Kinky Boots
3) What American comedienne writes a liberal column on Arianna Huffington's website? Elayne Boosler
4) What type of variable, used in computer science and formal logic, is also known as the "logical datatype"? Its values are either 0 or 1, interpreted as true and false. Boolean
5) What 1997 film, nominated for 3 Oscars, was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson? Boogie Nights
6) What fruit-flavored alcoholic beverage, produced by E & J Gallo, is packaged for sale as either a wine or a malt beverage depending upon which state it's sold in? Boone's Farm
7) Since 1969 this prestigious literary prize has been awarded annually to novelists writing in English who are citizens of either the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Name it. Man Booker Prize
8) Who was the primary catcher on the 1980 World Series Philadelphia Phillies team? Bob Boone
9) Who had a hit in 1963 with "Yakity Sax", known best as the background music for Benny Hill? Boots Randolph
10) What genre of music, described as a Latinized r'n'b, was hugely popular with Puerto Ricans in both Puerto Rico itself and in New York in the 1960s and early '70s? Songs you likely know include "Watermelon Man" and "El Watusi." Boogaloo

Two all-new quizzes to start your November!

After the fully-themed Halloween games I'm returning to only having the themed Subject rounds and, of course, the Secret Theme rounds. Also of note, I'm strongly considering making the the Before/After round a more general 50/50. Stay tuned...

Tuesday, November 6, 9:15pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave.
(near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: ISLANDS

Wednesday, November 7, 9pm
Dirty Frank's
13th & Pine Sts.
Subject Round: CULTS

What's up with RadicalSpark?

There's been a lot of buzz in the computer geek blogosphere lately about RadicalSpark, a local venture that's rumored to have a "very cool" web application/sales tool in the pipe, which would likely have neat practical applications for other purposes. Someone always seems to know someone who's developing this application, which according to what they have on the web at the moment releases in January '08. Anyone know exactly what's going on here?

I've signed up to the email update list on that page, you might like to do the same. Otherwise, anyone have the proverbial skinny?

Group W rises from last place after three rounds, wins Halloween quiz at Dirty Frank's by six points

After a shaky start which had them in last place after the Speed round, Group W (at left) had perfect Subject and Secret Theme rounds which propelled them to victory. Lil' Roy Screamed had the best Unreasonably Difficult round, but fell one correct answer short of tying. Of note in the wider quiz world, local legends Sofa Kingdom led after three but ended up in third place for the second consecutive week. Team Awesome left for a Halloween party, which is a shame as they were tied for the lead with a perfect 10 in the Easy round when they took off.

All of the rounds in this week's quiz were Halloween-themed, which was more a pain to write than I expected when I announced that.

Beautiful Gold: Group W 159
So-So Silver: Lil' Roy Screamed 153
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Sofa Kingdom 124

Also-rans:

The Frogurt Is Also Cursed 106
The Loooo-oosers 61
League of Nations! 48
Team Awesome* 10

* team quit

Tongue for Pooches wins the Halloween-themed quiz at Ray's Happy Birthday Bar

Tongue for Pooches, a one-man team from the Chuzzlewit group which won three straight coming in to this week, topped the hapless Kisses for Kittens 87-75. K4K's full name this time around was Kisses for Kittens & Puppies & Babies & Unicorns & Centaurs, which is funny but couldn't help snap their losing streak.

As Tongue is a Chuzzlewitter I have to count that as a fourth consecutive victory. Anyone out there want to take these guys on? Low turnout allowed liberal distribution of my Halloween-themed prizes to a small room, as you can see in the photo of K4K below. It's like Christmas morning! Only it was evening... and in the back room of a bar. Maybe that was your Christmas morning growing up; if so we're all sorry to hear it.

The team won copies of the games 13 Dead End Drive (which appears to be Clue meets Mousetrap) and the mystery game/puzzle To Kill a... Mother-in-Law. Without knowing the first thing about the game, I already suspect the son-in-law.

Tongue won a copy of two vintage B horror movies on DVD, Atom Age Vampire and Revolt of the Zombies.

Day of the Dead

Many people are aware that the Catholic church's marking of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on the first two days of November melded with traditional indigenous beliefs in the Americas to produce the Day of the Dead holiday. The best known of these celebrations within the US is the Mexican version, with its festive dancing skeletons and sugar skulls

Less well known in these parts is the Guatemalan kite flying festival, meant to connect the living with the spitits of the dead, held most notably in Santiago Sacatepequez, a town in the Sacatepequez district near popular tourist destination Antigua. I've been in the area a few times but never during the fest, thus I direct you to this site to see some cool photos of the event. Guatemalans also eat a dish called fiambre this day, which is only eaten today. I suppose this high overhead/low return policy of serving the dish once/year is why we never see fiambre restaurants...

I have been to Mexico shortly before the Day of the Dead celebration, which appears to be mixing in aspects of traditional American Halloween, and can therefore share these photos of awesome pastry and icing creations I took in Mexico City a few years ago. Enjoy.

Halloween costume '70s flashback

I don't know who this guy is, but he appears to be dressed for Halloween as Warren Beatty in Shampoo. Who the hell does that in this day and age?!







I think the Annie Hall woman is a looker. How'd this guy end up with her? It defies logic.

Can you figure out this week's Secret Themes?

Each group of 10 otherwise unrelated questions has a theme running through their answers. Can you answer the questions and figure out the theme? Answers will be posted in a few days. This week both Secret Themes were Halloween-related, although the component answers to each round were not. I accidently used the round I thought would've been better for the Ray's teams at Frank's and vice versa. Oops...

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

1) In what wretched 2005 flick, featuring Jennifer Tilly and Tim Curry, did Jon Lovitz provide the voice of a dog?
2) What Top 20 song for Don McLean in 1972 is widely and incorrectly believed to be titled "Starry, Starry Night"?
3) What word for a class of sporty convertibles was originally used for a type of horse-drawn carriage, itself derived from the fact that it looks like a certain type of creature from an aerial view?
4) This number is both Peyton Manning's jersey and the number of chapters James Joyce's Ulysses. Name it.
5) In the Archie comic books, what's the name of the blonde who vies for Archie's attention? I gave two points for the first name and two for the surname.
6) In what 1999 movie did Reese Witherspoon portray Tracy Flick?
7) Nebraska is the only state in the union which is limited to one execution method by law. Which one?
8) What 1960s-70s cartoon character, created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott of Rocky & Bullwinkle fame, fought crime with a lion sidekick named Fred?
9) What's the subtitle of 2002's Star Wars: Episode II?
10) Whose first solo album, released 1968, was titled Lumpy Gravy?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?

Dirty Frank's:

1) What colloquial phrase in American English, meaning "everything," is comprised of two alliterative words which were themselves slang when the the term was coined, likely in the 1880s?
2) What 2005 British comedy movie tells the story of a failing shoe factory in a declining town?
3) What American comedienne writes a liberal column on Arianna Huffington's website?
4) What type of variable, used in computer science and formal logic, is also known as the "logical datatype"? Its values are either 0 or 1, interpreted as true and false.
5) What 1997 film, nominated for 3 Oscars, was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson?
6) What fruit-flavored alcoholic beverage, produced by E & J Gallo, is packaged for sale as either a wine or a malt beverage depending upon which state it's sold in?
7) Since 1969 this prestigious literary prize has been awarded annually to novelists writing in English who are citizens of either the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Name it.
8) Who was the primary catcher on the 1980 World Series Philadelphia Phillies team?
9) Who had a hit in 1963 with "Yakity Sax", known best as the background music for Benny Hill?
10) What genre of music, described as a Latinized r'n'b, was hugely popular with Puerto Ricans in both Puerto Rico itself and in New York in the 1960s and early '70s? Songs you likely know include "Watermelon Man" and "El Watusi."

... and what theme links the 10 answers?