LearnedLeague 92 Match Day 8 Recap: Talkin' Trivia
Today's guest post is from Jonpaul. Can he Duke out a victory in Rundle A?
Hello! I'm Jonpaul Guinn, or in the badlands of LearnedLeague GuinnJP. I play in Rundle A Delta, but my A game is usually a solid B+. If you don't know me, I work full-time as the head of recruiting and training for Geeks Who Drink, after being on their editorial department for a few years. I'm also the Head of Trivia for Water Cooler Trivia. I also really like cats. Onward!
Match Day 8
1. In The Waste Land, what superlative does T. S. Eliot famously use to describe the month of April?
Pre-answer thought process: "The Waste Land" influenced a bunch of stuff, including the title of the Evelyn Waugh novel, "A Handful of Dust" and a pretentious song called "April is the Cruelest Month" by the pretentious band The Airborne Toxic Event (A band who took their own name from Don Delillo's "White Noise." The novel is a solid read. The band is mostly terrible.) The answer is "Cruellest." My opponent has a .901 in Literature and this is a bit T.S. Eli-mentary, but there's easier stuff to come so they're probably going to pick up a deuce on it.
Correct answer: Cruellest
How much of LL got it right? 47%
Points assigned to opponent: 2
Was opponent correct? Yes
Points assigned to me: 1
Was I correct? Yes
Current score: 1(1) - 2(1)
Post-answer thoughts: I once thought of a spring donut promotion called "April is the Cruller-est Month." It never took off because I don't have a donut store. Also, get to know this poem and "Prufrock" if you don't. They come up a bit in trivia and almost always in the same ways.
2. Luciano Pavarotti was not considered the "King of" a certain fruit-flavored drink brand (though it's a homophone), but rather of what particular operatic feat of strength for tenors, of which nine appear in only two minutes in the aria "Pour mon ame" from Donizetti's La Fille du régiment?
Pre-answer thought process: A few nights ago Geeks Who Drink ran a round where all the correct answers had a double "i." One of the answers was "Hawaiian Punch" but teams that couldn't pull it answered "Hii C." It's gotta be High C. Pavarotti is better than I thought if he can hit a Hawaiian Punch.
Correct answer: High C
How much of LL got it right? 54%
Points assigned to opponent: 1
Was opponent correct? Yes
Points assigned to me: 3
Was I correct? Yes
Current score: 4(2) - 3(2)
Post-answer thoughts: If I were friends with Luciano "King of High C" Pavarotti, that dude would get juice boxes all the time. I wonder if his friends ever called him "juice box." I just looked it up. "Juice Box" in Italian is "Confezzione di Succo." That's a good nickname.
3. In American parlance, the simple cocktail known as a "Boilermaker" contains two ingredients: whiskey, and what other?
Pre-answer thought process: My opponent has a .920 in Food and Drink. I used to bartend, and I'm a recovering alcoholic. This is a wash.
Correct answer: Beer
How much of LL got it right? 70%
Points assigned to opponent: 1
Was opponent correct? Yes
Points assigned to me: 2
Was I correct? Yes
Current score: 6(3) - 4(3)
Post-answer thoughts: I miss boilermakers. Dropping tea into coffee and slamming it just isn't the same.
4. What is the present name (or the standard three-letter abbreviation) of the political party of which every Mexican president was a member from the party's founding in 1929 through the end of the 20th century, and again from 2012-2018 with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto?
Pre-answer thought process: Who says you can't learn anything from watching season three of "Narcos: Mexico"? Also, I always chuckle at NPR when they drop the "PRI: Public Radio International."
"Claro que sí," I say to my car radio.
But, defense! My opponent has a .622 in World History and lives in Maryland. This seems like the spot to go all in. And, yes, Maryland plays into that defensive strategy.
Correct answer: INSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY / PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO INSTITUCIONAL / PRI
How much of LL got it right? 22%
Points assigned to opponent: 3
Was opponent correct? No
Points assigned to me: 1
Was I correct? Yes
Current score: 7(4) - 4(3)
Post-answer thoughts: At this point, I know that my reasoning for how I get to the answers isn't that fascinating. How do you know T.S. Eliot? Well, I've read it. Pavarotti? There was a juice clue, and I've read most of an opera encyclopedia so I kind of just knew it. Boilermaker? I'm a drunk, and I read a lot books about drinking, and I bartended. PRI? "Narcos" and like ten different books I've read about the cartels and late 20th-century Mexico, like Roberto Bolaño's "Savage Detectives" and "2666," and Don Winslow's "The Cartel." My process seems to be that I read a lot.
5. "Be seated. Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." So begins the famous opening monologue from what 1970 biopic?
Pre-answer thought process: My good friend, John McGreevy, once drunkenly yelled at a New Orleans chef named Rommel, "Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your menu!"
It's a very funny joke if you've seen the movie. And you should see it. George C. Scott is fantastic!
Now, let's check my opponent's...goddammit, .968?! WTF.
Correct answer: Patton
How much of LL got it right? 75%
Points assigned to opponent: 0
Was opponent correct? Yes
Points assigned to me: 0
Was I correct? Yes
Current score: 7(5) - 4(4)
Post-answer thoughts: It's mostly an anti-war movie. But when I was in the Army, I saw plenty of people try to emulate parts of the film without a shred of irony. Irony isn't popular in the military.
6. The 1981 song "Talkin Baseball" by Terry Cashman includes in its refrain "Willie, Mickey, and The Duke", referring to three players who starred as center fielders for the three New York City-based teams of the 1950s. The former two are Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle; what was the last name of the third?
Pre-answer thought process: Well, it's too late for Mordechai "Three-Finger" Brown. Really, I don't know so I'm just going to put "Gehrig" and get on with my life, even though I think Gehrig played first base for the Yankees and we've already got the Mick repping that team.
Also, is "Talkin' Baseball" about a sentient baseball? If not, it should be. Terry Cashman is an excellent name for a rent boy who only wears terry cloth shorts. This song is a complete let down for me.
Correct answer: Snider
How much of LL got it right? 32%
Points assigned to opponent: 2
Was opponent correct? Yes
Points assigned to me: 2
Was I correct? No
Final score: 7(5) - 6(5)
Post-answer thoughts: Gehrig did play first for the Yankees! Lose one for the Gipper. :(
Result: 7(5) - 6(5) Win over BurgessL
Current Standings in Rundle A, Delta: 5th of 28, with a record of 5-3-0
Overall thoughts: That was as close as I thought it would be. I expected either a loss or tie but was pleasantly surprised with the win. With a .550 in Classical Music and a .574 in Games/Sports, I can see why my opponent gambled the way they did. Defense can be tricky like that, to the point where one really has to fuse overall perceived difficulty and the other player's stats to decide. It's tricky, but I think working for two trivia companies helps me immensely in that regard.
Thanks for putting up with my glib asides, and thank you to Ben for letting me do this again. I'm a big fan of LearnedLessons and honored to do a guest spot. How's that for not being glib? What's up!
Fun guest spot, Jonpaul!
Hello from another Rundle A Delta-er! I hope there’s another baseball question for our matchup (and absolutely no opera).