QuikSand
06-03-2004, 01:51 PM
I’m With Stupid # 71 – The Reckoning
Okay, there was much pain to go around this time. Some of the questions were hard, causing you some pain. One of the questions I intended to be hard wasn’t because of my sloppiness… causing me some pain. And the final results hinged on a close-call decision… potentially causing one of our also-ran finishers some pain. Ouch.
Here’s the rundown:
1. Name a great painter.
11 Leonardo da Vinci
9 Pablo Picasso
5 Vincent Van Gogh
4 Michelangelo
3 Claude Monet
1 Rembrandt
I thought his would be more of a three-part race, with Van Gogh getting a little more respect. I suppose that the recent eclipsing of Van Gogh’s record sale by a painting by Picasso had some effect… or perhaps I was just wrong to begin with. Leonardo, perhaps boosted by Dan Brown’s bestselling jaunt, locks up the top spot – but this question was not an “eliminator.”
2. Name a great sculptor.
28 Michelangelo
4 Auguste Rodin
Leonardo da Vinci
Now here’s an eliminator. I figured that Rodin would make it more interesting, but alas. I also contemplated asking for a specific sculpture – which might have actually generated a better smattering of answers (it almost couldn’t be any worse).
3. Name an opera.
8 Carmen
5 Phantom of the Opera
5 The Marriage of Figaro
3 Don Giovanni
3 The Barber of Seville
2 The Magic Flute
2 Madame Butterfly
Aida
La Traviata
Le Boheme
Swan Lake
Okay, gang. I won’t quibble with Carmen – it’s a fine piece of work. And nearly everything else on the list – okay, fine. I might argue that some of the single responses are even “better” than the top ones, but that’s not really the point. But Phantom? Ummm… I’m sorry, but that’s a crying shame. It’s a musical, people! Not an opera, a musical! Oh, dear.
Sorry, I try not to editorialize this way…
4. Name a work of classical music.
16 Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
7 Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
3 The 1812 Overture
2 Ride of the Valkyries
The Messiah
Fur Elise
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Eine Kleine Nachtmusic
Rhapsody in Blue
So, Ludwig wins the day, with a rare IWS 1-2 sweep. Fine. Interesting result, I thought – I didn’t see the landslide coming here, really. I think I would have responded with the 1812, but it turns out I wouldn’t have done too well on this edition had entered, anyway.
5. Name a great work of architecture.
9 Eiffel Tower
5 Pyramids
4 Parthenon
3 Empire State Building
3 Colisseum
2 Sydney Opera House
Sistine Chapel
Statue of Liberty
Golden Gate Bridge
Falling Water
Sphinx
Guggenheim Museum
Petronus Towers
Okay, a pretty nice spread here – I think pretty much every non-American submitted the Eiffel Tower, which I found interesting. Those of us looking stateside had to do some head-scratching. I thought the ESB would do better, and I actually (naively) expected that Frank Lloyd Wright’s much-ballyhooed “Falling Water” property would garner some attention here… but once again, the point is not to really answer the question, it’s to answer the way you think your friends here will. Alas. Nice answers, overall.
6. Name a museum not located in Paris.
16 Smithsonian
11 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
2 Guggenheim Museum, NY
Prado
Anne Frank house
Holocaust Museum
Museum of Modern Art, NY
Okay, I [I]meant[/u] art museum. I really did. When I got my responses from Mrs. Q, and saw that she put “Smithsonian” I essentially corrected her and told her it’s technically the “National Gallery of Art” – then she revealed that the question didn’t specify art. Oops.
However, I feel a bit better, since the results here suggest that had I included the word “art” we might have gotten just a load of “Met” answers, and this one would have been an unfortunate eliminator as well. So, maybe it’s better that I erred – though I tend to think that the big separation here was not really between people with the “right” and “wrong” answers, but rather those who stuck with the art theme (deliberately or otherwise) and those who didn’t.
And with that – we have our results.
First, the also-rans… or for you sports fans who are used to seeing the polls, here are the “others receiving votes.”
VPI97 931,392
Alf 776,160
RPI-fan 705,600
DukeRulesMAB 630,784
cartman 516,096
TredWel 465,696
Desnudo 349,272
Barkeep49 348,480
Mrs. Albionmoonlight 295,680
mordheim 258,048
Nol 236,544
Solecismic 107,520
gstelmack 91,476
albionmoonlight 77,616
Kwhit 64,512
wademoore 42,240
henry296 27,720
TurnerONU22 21,504
Rdo 21,120
faltasticflyingfroggies 19,008
Dutch 16,128
ntndeacon 12,096
Stevew 9,856
finkenst 4,480
General Mike 2,464
Cuervo72 840
MIJB#19 45
Thanks for playing. Sorry, Matthijs.
On the honorable mention list are some entrants who broke the elusive one million point barrier here:
kingfc22 1,576,960
Wolfpack 1,270,080
ahbrady 1,146,880
Well done, lads.
A special note of congratulations to Wolfpack, who gets my personal prize of the highest score with all six answers being factually correct
Now, we have two identical entries, which arrived literally moments apart. Coincidence? You be the judge. Actually, the two were not quite identical – I had to make a judgment about one answer, but ultimately decided that a person submitting the name of one of the great pyramids deserved to be lumped in with the rest of the people who named them generically. So, these two ended up in a tie for second place.
TheLionKing 1,971,200
TazFTW 1,971,200
And that leaves us with our champion. The funny thing is – as I was first tabulating the scores, it appeared that my favorable ruling on the “pyramid question” from above would cost this entry the top spot. However, I got one more late entry, and when I entered that one it added some points to this score – giving us one honorable and rightful champion – as it should be.
I present to you, your new king…
Glengoyne
Glengoyne 1,995,840
This wasn’t a perfect score, in fact he only got three of the “top” answers (which has to be a first for the IWS contest, I’d think) – but Glengoyne’s responses were always among the top of those submitted, and that’s what keeps you in the hunt in this game, as we know. Congratulations!
Okay, there was much pain to go around this time. Some of the questions were hard, causing you some pain. One of the questions I intended to be hard wasn’t because of my sloppiness… causing me some pain. And the final results hinged on a close-call decision… potentially causing one of our also-ran finishers some pain. Ouch.
Here’s the rundown:
1. Name a great painter.
11 Leonardo da Vinci
9 Pablo Picasso
5 Vincent Van Gogh
4 Michelangelo
3 Claude Monet
1 Rembrandt
I thought his would be more of a three-part race, with Van Gogh getting a little more respect. I suppose that the recent eclipsing of Van Gogh’s record sale by a painting by Picasso had some effect… or perhaps I was just wrong to begin with. Leonardo, perhaps boosted by Dan Brown’s bestselling jaunt, locks up the top spot – but this question was not an “eliminator.”
2. Name a great sculptor.
28 Michelangelo
4 Auguste Rodin
Leonardo da Vinci
Now here’s an eliminator. I figured that Rodin would make it more interesting, but alas. I also contemplated asking for a specific sculpture – which might have actually generated a better smattering of answers (it almost couldn’t be any worse).
3. Name an opera.
8 Carmen
5 Phantom of the Opera
5 The Marriage of Figaro
3 Don Giovanni
3 The Barber of Seville
2 The Magic Flute
2 Madame Butterfly
Aida
La Traviata
Le Boheme
Swan Lake
Okay, gang. I won’t quibble with Carmen – it’s a fine piece of work. And nearly everything else on the list – okay, fine. I might argue that some of the single responses are even “better” than the top ones, but that’s not really the point. But Phantom? Ummm… I’m sorry, but that’s a crying shame. It’s a musical, people! Not an opera, a musical! Oh, dear.
Sorry, I try not to editorialize this way…
4. Name a work of classical music.
16 Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
7 Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
3 The 1812 Overture
2 Ride of the Valkyries
The Messiah
Fur Elise
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Eine Kleine Nachtmusic
Rhapsody in Blue
So, Ludwig wins the day, with a rare IWS 1-2 sweep. Fine. Interesting result, I thought – I didn’t see the landslide coming here, really. I think I would have responded with the 1812, but it turns out I wouldn’t have done too well on this edition had entered, anyway.
5. Name a great work of architecture.
9 Eiffel Tower
5 Pyramids
4 Parthenon
3 Empire State Building
3 Colisseum
2 Sydney Opera House
Sistine Chapel
Statue of Liberty
Golden Gate Bridge
Falling Water
Sphinx
Guggenheim Museum
Petronus Towers
Okay, a pretty nice spread here – I think pretty much every non-American submitted the Eiffel Tower, which I found interesting. Those of us looking stateside had to do some head-scratching. I thought the ESB would do better, and I actually (naively) expected that Frank Lloyd Wright’s much-ballyhooed “Falling Water” property would garner some attention here… but once again, the point is not to really answer the question, it’s to answer the way you think your friends here will. Alas. Nice answers, overall.
6. Name a museum not located in Paris.
16 Smithsonian
11 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
2 Guggenheim Museum, NY
Prado
Anne Frank house
Holocaust Museum
Museum of Modern Art, NY
Okay, I [I]meant[/u] art museum. I really did. When I got my responses from Mrs. Q, and saw that she put “Smithsonian” I essentially corrected her and told her it’s technically the “National Gallery of Art” – then she revealed that the question didn’t specify art. Oops.
However, I feel a bit better, since the results here suggest that had I included the word “art” we might have gotten just a load of “Met” answers, and this one would have been an unfortunate eliminator as well. So, maybe it’s better that I erred – though I tend to think that the big separation here was not really between people with the “right” and “wrong” answers, but rather those who stuck with the art theme (deliberately or otherwise) and those who didn’t.
And with that – we have our results.
First, the also-rans… or for you sports fans who are used to seeing the polls, here are the “others receiving votes.”
VPI97 931,392
Alf 776,160
RPI-fan 705,600
DukeRulesMAB 630,784
cartman 516,096
TredWel 465,696
Desnudo 349,272
Barkeep49 348,480
Mrs. Albionmoonlight 295,680
mordheim 258,048
Nol 236,544
Solecismic 107,520
gstelmack 91,476
albionmoonlight 77,616
Kwhit 64,512
wademoore 42,240
henry296 27,720
TurnerONU22 21,504
Rdo 21,120
faltasticflyingfroggies 19,008
Dutch 16,128
ntndeacon 12,096
Stevew 9,856
finkenst 4,480
General Mike 2,464
Cuervo72 840
MIJB#19 45
Thanks for playing. Sorry, Matthijs.
On the honorable mention list are some entrants who broke the elusive one million point barrier here:
kingfc22 1,576,960
Wolfpack 1,270,080
ahbrady 1,146,880
Well done, lads.
A special note of congratulations to Wolfpack, who gets my personal prize of the highest score with all six answers being factually correct
Now, we have two identical entries, which arrived literally moments apart. Coincidence? You be the judge. Actually, the two were not quite identical – I had to make a judgment about one answer, but ultimately decided that a person submitting the name of one of the great pyramids deserved to be lumped in with the rest of the people who named them generically. So, these two ended up in a tie for second place.
TheLionKing 1,971,200
TazFTW 1,971,200
And that leaves us with our champion. The funny thing is – as I was first tabulating the scores, it appeared that my favorable ruling on the “pyramid question” from above would cost this entry the top spot. However, I got one more late entry, and when I entered that one it added some points to this score – giving us one honorable and rightful champion – as it should be.
I present to you, your new king…
Glengoyne
Glengoyne 1,995,840
This wasn’t a perfect score, in fact he only got three of the “top” answers (which has to be a first for the IWS contest, I’d think) – but Glengoyne’s responses were always among the top of those submitted, and that’s what keeps you in the hunt in this game, as we know. Congratulations!