I'm With Stupid #96 Results
 

Well, I didn't quite get to 40 like I wanted, but considering how hard some of these "stupid" questions were, I suppose I should be pleased. :)

And to the questions...

1. GEOGRAPHY: Name a former British colony/protectorate other than North American countries.

I was certain that Canada and the U.S. would run away with this one, thus excluding North American countries (not that that stopped one of you ;) ).

I felt it would be Australia, and they were in contention, but I suppose I underestimated India, which may have gotten a tragic push from being associated with the tsunami disaster.

I was very surprised Ireland didn't get any votes, until I realized that my own terminology (colony/protectorate) would likely turn people's attention away from a land so close.

India, as it turns out, was pretty close to an eliminator, although Australia was high enough to keep you in the game.

India (22)
Australia (10)
Canada (1)
Hong Kong (1)
South Africa (1)

2. ENTERTAINMENT: Carrying over from ML's IWS, name a movie in which Jim Carrey got Oscar buzz.

I thought this might be a competitive one, and I was right. I did think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would win, since it is the movie currently getting Carrey some buzz, but I loved seeing one of my personal faves in The Truman Show edge it out.

Although I wasn't surprised it did poorly, I did think the Majestic would get more votes, as I have gotten the impression in the past that it was a bit of a minor cult fave for some of you here. Gotta love the Ace Ventura votes.

Either of the top two kept you in, and you weren't really out with Man on the Moon either. So good question, all in all.

The Truman Show (13)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (12)
Man on the Moon (6)
The Majestic (2)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (2)

3. HISTORY: Name an American president from the latter half of the 19th century--besides Lincoln.

I have always struggled to come up with many Presidents from this period in history, so I wasn't surprised it was a toughie for others, too. In the end, though, Grant was probably an easier choice, as he was also a renowned general in the Civil War.

Cleveland looked like he would make a short run late, but Grant just buried him.

As usual, a difficult question like this gave us some rather off-target choices, including Kennedy (1961-63), Jefferson (1803-10), Jackson (1829-36), Washington (1793-96) and, yes, even the guy inaugurated on Thursday. :D

Ulysses S. Grant (22)
Grover Cleveland (5)
George W. Bush (1)
Andrew Jackson (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Andrew Johnson (1)
John F. Kennedy (1)
John McKinley (1)
Teddy Roosevelt (1)
George Washington (1)

4. ARTS & LITERATURE: Name a living Pulitzer Prize winning novelist.

I think this was the question that really kept people from participating. And I'll be honest--I don't follow the Pultizer Prize awards, so I was completely unsure how this one would go.

It's logical to think the most recent winner would get some votes, so Edward P. Jones' showing was no surprise. The fact that Toni Morrison also did well tells me that those of you who do follow this sort of stuff must love stories about pre-Civil War slavery. :)

John Updike was the other guy at the top with Jones, which is also not surprising, considering he is the only living two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction writing.

It was hard to get eliminated in this question as long as you got one of the top three, although even some entries with solo shots on this one still made the top ten. There was a lot of variety to this one (and not all alive, fiction writers or even Pulitzer prize winners ;) ).

Edward P. Jones (8)
John Updike (8)
Toni Morrison (5)
Phillp Roth (2)
Anne Applebaum (1)
Richard Ford (1)
Daniel Golden (1)
Steven Hahn (1)
Ernest Hemingway (1)
David Kennedy (1)
Stephen King (1)
Harper Lee (1)
Gary Paulsen (1)
E. Annie Proulx (1)
Richard Russo (1)
Leon Uris (1)

5. SCIENCE: Name a world-reknowned scientist, besides Einstein or Newton.

I thought this one would have a lot of variety as well, and wasn't sure which way it would go. In the end, though, I wasn't surprised at Hawking's run to the top. In fact, Hawking was a bit of an eliminator.

Altogether, I thought it was a pretty impressive group of answers. Little surprised Darwin didn't end up higher, especially given recent discussions on evolution, or Da Vinci, thanks to his "code".

Hawking (14)
Galileo (6)
Franklin (4)
Pasteur (3)
Darwin (2)
Bell (1)
Da Vinci (1)
Edison (1)
Fermi (1)
Jefferson (1)
Tesla (1)

6. SPORTS & LEISURE: Name a kicker from a 2005 NFL playoff team, other than Doug Brien.

An easy one! :)

I felt that Brien made it necessary for me to exclude him after his poor showing against Pittsburgh last weekend. It turns out I probably should have singled out the guy who won two Super Bowls for the Pats, as Vinatieri ran away with it. It was, unfortunately, the big time eliminator answer, so if you didn't get Vinny, too bad.

I had been expecting a variety of answers, with more Vanderjagt responses, given his incessant need to stick his foot in his mouth, and Kaeding, who missed his own big kick against the Jets the previous week.

Incidentally, in 26 Vinatieri's, I probably got nearly that many different spellings. Fortunately, it was fairly obvious who everyone meant. :)

Vinatieri (26)
Vanderjagt (4)
Kaeding (2)
Akers (2)
Feely (1)

THE STANDINGS

The pack:


and the bronze medal goes to...


...followed by the silver medal...


...and THE WINNER OF IWS #96 IS...


Congratulations, Raven Hawk!!!

What a difference one little answer can be, eh? Desnudo picked Eternal Sunshine over the Truman Show in the key category two, and that left him just outside looking in on Raven Hawek and a perfect score. Ouch, so close!

Thanks again to everyone for particpating, and I hope you all enjoyed your Trivia Pursuit IWS.

CR

Gratz Raven Hawk. This was a tough one, for sure!

But Da Vinci a scientist? I don't think so.

Bah, who the hell is Edward P. Jones? For sure I thought Hemingway would be the man. Only one I didn't ace.

Hemingway is dead, man.

I thought I had a shot at winning, but the pres question (I went with Grover Cleveland) blew me back to my best ever position by far of 6th place. So I'm quite chuffed at the moment. :)

Ugh, that one was aweful entry I placed there... Thomas Jefferson (as a wrong answer) and whomever the Pulitzer Prize winner I mentioned pulled me from the top, big time.

UGH. Going through the answers I thought it was finally my time to win one of these things. Damn the Truman Show and John Updike, damn them to hell!

And grats Raven :D

I suck at this.

I think this set of questions might have been the best yet at capturing the essence of the IWS concept. I was really stumped on geography -- just couldn't find a reason to break a tie in my mind between Australia and India, decided to go with the English-sopeaking one, and missed. As for the Pulitzer, I though Updike was the most prominent name (or maybe Morrison) but decided Stupid would google for the most recent winner. I blew the Carrey question, but it again had me thinking along all the right lines. I can't explain why Grant came to my mind so immediately, but I *knew* it was a winner right away. It's an IWS thing, it's hard to explain.

Good questions, Chief Rum, and well done, Raven Hawk!

My victory killed by literature.

It figures. :)

I wasn't with stupid, but I did feel stupid.

Ulysses Grant? Ugh! Why did that name not come to mind???? Aaaargh. Oh well, it didn't even show up in the list I 'googled'.

Pulitzer Prize winners always kill me...and a Carrey movie worthy of an Oscar?

I got locked into India right away by thinking of the movie "A Passage to India" which my mom loved to watch...a lot.

Anyway, another brutal IWS...good job Raven Hawk!

Bah!! I'll never win.

Good set of questions or not, this non-USA based guy, had to roll a D14 on questions 3 and 4, after seeing little help from Google and misreading question 3 altogether. (No, I'm not bitter, I've had my reasonable share of IWS wins.)

I wish I had read the 1st question more closely, since I had the top pick for each of the other 5 :confused:

Damn scientist knocked me out of contention... :mad:

one point or a thousand, it's the same in the end. Congratulations Raven Hawk. And eat my shorts to all those not stupid enough to vote for Eternal Sunshine.

It's official: I can't play this game worth a shit. ;)

Yeah, I guess I missed that part about a living winner. Even dead though, I'll take Hemmingway over Jones any day.

Who is "Hawking" ?

Stephen Hawking. The guy in the chair who has to have an electric voice speak for him, and who's IQ is 250+.

CR

Impossible, any test qualifying as reliable IQ test has 150 as the maximum score. :p

Holy crap! I just realized that I won this thing! Woot! I'll get #97 up tonight.

I always thought 150 was the cut-off for genius level IQ, not the highest achievable.

Ok and what did he do to be mentionned in this scientist poll ?

He's worked on a lot of stuff, but he's most widely known for showing that the theory of relativity implied the big bang and for writing A Brief History of Time, one of the most popular books on science ever written.